Chapter 4

(Theia’s POV)

I was struggling to concentrate on the conversation with my friends. What with being strangely aware of the man sat a few tables away and the rapidly increasing headache that was starting to make me feel sick. 

The chapter I just wrote before coming out kept pushing itself to the forefront of my mind. I mean, it was like the chapter was becoming real or something. He was sitting there, and I was sitting here. I was trying to remember the details of the chapter and was resisting the urge to pull out my phone and find it on the cloud. And then I was internally laughing at myself. Oh yeah, Theia, that’s right. You think you are some heroine in a book. The very idea sounded absurd. It still didn’t stop the strange feeling that I was having. It was the strongest urge to turn and look at the stranger, and that I could feel him sitting there behind me. The effort not to turn around was making my headache so much worse.

“Hello,” Naya snapped her fingers in my face and I came back to the present, “Earth to Theia.” I smiled and shook the cobwebs from my head.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m just lost in my own thoughts. What were you saying?” I saw the girls exchange looks and cringed.

“Are the headaches back?” Harlow asked, placing her hand on my forehead. “You do seem a little warm.” I rolled my eyes and pushed her hand away with a smile.

“I’m fine,” I reassured, “it’s just this new story feels different,” and I explained the chapter I had just written to them. As I did, Naya kept glancing over to the man sitting at the table behind me.

“I mean, he is cute,” she said with a wink.

“Don’t look at him,” I said horrified, and she laughed and glanced behind me again.

“And he does keep looking our way,” Naya whispered, and I cringed at what this poor guy must be thinking. Harlow looked over and smiled before looking back at me. 

“Maybe we should introduce ourselves,” she said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, “You know, just to be sure,” she winked at me and I groaned. I was starting to feel sick and the tension in my neck was spreading into my back. 

Maybe if I looked, just a little peek, then it would be okay and I would feel better. I turned slowly and tried to be subtle and cover my weirdness with my hair. I looked directly at him and, oh god, he was looking right at me. Our eyes met dead on. I suddenly felt like I had been hit with some sort of electric shock. Even from here, it was like I could see the golden brown warmth of his eyes. That wasn’t even possible, but I could. And just for a second, I swear I saw him say something, but I couldn’t get what it was. 

I thought it was something like “hate.” Probably saying how he hated when people stared at him. He didn’t look happy at all. I dragged my eyes away from his and turned back to the girls. They were both chatting about Naya’s new male lead and his experienced tongue. I tried to join in the conversation, but I could have sworn that I could feel his eyes boring into the back of me. In addition, my headache was really getting worse and my eyes were blurring. I knew from that, that I had to get home. It could just be a headache, or I could be about to get another seizure.

“I’m sorry,” I said, cutting into the conversation. “I need to go home.” Both girls stopped and looked at me, concern and pity clear on their faces. 

“Oh Theia,” Harlow said, “Poor mite, do you want walking home?” I shook my head slightly and smiled, standing up.

“I am good,” I said. “I just need to rest.” The girls stood up, and I hugged each of them in turn. I was still very aware of the man watching me. My headache felt like it was getting so much worse and I had to close my eyes to try to focus them again. I grabbed my stuff, pulling my phone from the table and dropping it into my bag. With one last smile to the girls, I began heading for the door.

I was surprised to realise that the man had also stood up and was making his way to the door. I saw the corners of his mouth upturn as I glanced over at him. Was he choosing now to leave on purpose? Or was it just a coincidence? There was something else I was missing as I headed towards the door, something important. The man was at the door before me and opened the door before turning around. And then it hit me, the fall. In my story, she had that clichéd trip up over the chair leg. I felt my stomach drop as the man smiled at me. I looked down on instinct and saw the leg of the chair barely a second before my foot caught on it and I went flying straight towards the man. 

His movements were as quick as lightning as he caught me by my arms and stopped me from flying face first into the street. I felt a shiver run through me as his hand made contact with my arm and the one line that had hit me from my story flew into my mind again.

All that mattered was that she had to be his.

I felt tears prickle the edge of my eyes as I looked up in to his warm eyes and his beautiful and charming smile.

“Falling for me already? At least let me introduce myself first,” and he winked, he actually winked! I had no idea how this was happening and right now, I didn’t want to know. The headache was thundering in my skull and I was starting to see spots. I felt like I was going to vomit at any moment. I almost uttered the words as he did.

“My name is- “he started, but it was too much 

“NOOOO!” I screamed as I felt a sharp pain in my head and had less than a second to think that another seizure was imminent before my vision was swallowed in black and I lost my balance, falling to the floor. I was vaguely aware of hands on me again, catching me before I hit the hard surface of the ground. And I heard muffled screaming before my other senses followed my eyes into the black as well. 

***

I was laid in a large soft bed that wasn’t my own. The room was lined on one side with floor to ceiling windows and it was the middle of the night. There was a sliver of light around the door on the other side of the room, and I could hear muted voices on the other side. I climbed out of the bed and walked as quietly as I could around the room. I realised that I was only in underwear and looked around quickly for something, anything, to put on. I found a large white shirt on the floor and picked it up. I held it to my nose and immediately got the scent of old leather books and crackling fire. It felt weird. How could I smell something as distinctive as crackling fire and not just fire? However, it felt like home and I took a minute to enjoy the scent before pulling the shirt on and buttoning it up. It was big on me and hit me a couple of inches above my knees. 

I headed towards the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. I slowly turned the handle and opened the door. I don’t know what I expected on the other side, but it wasn’t a forest. I looked out of the door, confused at what seemed to be a pathway leading from the door into a thick lush green forest. It was still night, but I could hear different animal noises and could feel the wind blowing in the fresh woodland scent through the door. I looked behind me at the room and then shrugged. I was here, and the voices seemed to be coming from down the path. I stepped out into the forest, feeling the soft grass beneath my feet. I headed down the path way, the voices getting louder. By this point, I could tell that they were angry and they seemed to be arguing about responsibilities or something. 

The path to a sharp turn into a clearing. The clearing was drenched in moonlight and in the centre were two giant wolves. They seemed to be facing off against each other. The black furred wolf has his back to me, but I could see by his stance and raised fur that he was angry. I could see the sandy coloured wolf straight on and his stance was similar to the black wolf, but I could see his big sharp teeth were barred. The black wolf stopped growling, and I saw a shiver run through his body. He sniffed the air and turned to face me. His eyes were glowing a beautiful shade of pale gold. I felt like I should have been scared, but looking into his eyes, I felt safe. I heard a snarl and broke eye contact with the black wolf before I saw the sandy wolf suddenly lunge towards me. I screamed and tried to back off, but I knew it was too late. I raised my arms to attend to defend myself, but I was no match for the wolf. I readied myself for impact when- 

***

I shot up screaming, my body drenched in sweat and my heart racing. I tried to control my painful pants as I looked around. I realised I was in my bed at home. It was dark, although there was a lamp lit up in the corner and I could see the shadow of someone sitting in my chair. I felt disoriented, like I didn’t go to sleep here, so I wasn’t expecting to be here. Then it all came flooding back. The cafe and the man. And all that connected to my story. I had passed out in the cafe, so how the hell did I end up in my bed. 

My bedroom door flew open and Harlow came running in.

“Oh Theia,” she said, the relief clear in her tone, “we were so worried about you.” She handed me a glass of water and a couple of pills. I downed the pills with a gulp of water and put the glass on my bedside table. 

“What happened?” I asked, my voice feeling croaky. 

“You passed out,” she said with pity all over her face. 

“I remember that bit,” I scoffed. “How did I get here? How long have I been passed out?”

“Oh,” she said brightly with a smile, “You’ve been asleep a few hours now, I was starting to worry, and Dominic carried you here.” 

“Dominic?” I asked, I didn’t know a Dominic. 

“That would be me,” a low gravelly voice came from the chair where I had forgotten about the shadow sitting there. I saw the shadow move from the chair into the light. It was him! The man from the cafe. He was here, in my bedroom. I was suddenly invaded by the scent of leather and fire and my mind flashed back to my dream with the two wolves. I watched as the man walked closer to my bed, a charming smile on his face. Harlow smiled and moved out of the way for him. He sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand. My senses must have been knocked out by the seizure because I could have sworn that I felt a tingle between us. 

“I’m sorry if I frightened you at the cafe,” he said and I couldn’t help but to be caught by the warmth in his eyes. “I was only going to introduce myself.”

“Why?” I asked and Harlow tutted.

“Oh Theia,” she said, before turning towards the door, “Naya left earlier because she had a date, and I really need to get home to the kids.” 

“Wait, you’re leaving?” I exclaimed, pulling my hand away from Dominic’s. I saw what looked like a brief hurt look cross his eyes before he smiled again.

“Yes sweetie,” Harlow said, and the looked at Dominic, “But I think you are in good hands,” she then winked and walked out of the room, leaving me and Dominic alone.

I looked everywhere around the room, everywhere other than the man sitting on my bed. I already knew he was beautiful in the way that celebrities or gods were. His t-shirt did nothing to hide the obviously toned chest and his face looked like something out of the movies, with the chiselled jaw and the designer stubble. I didn’t need to look at him to know that, that already seemed to be burned into my memory.

“You gave me quite the scare,” he said, pulling me from my thoughts and I finally looked at him. 

“I’m sorry,” I shrugged “I have a condition.” I saw a look that I couldn’t quite decipher across his features before he smiled again. He went to say something when I heard a buzzing sound. Dominic looked down at his jeans pocket and swore under his breath.

“It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t have to stay. I’m probably just going to sleep, anyway. The seizures can take it out of me.” He fished his phone out of his pocket and groaned at whatever he read.

“I want to stay,” he said, looking back up at me, “But I know that they will keep calling if I don’t get back to my office.”

“Office?” I asked without thinking. Why did I even care? Once this man walked out of my apartment I would never see him again. 

“Yes, I erm… work at Rose Bower International,” he said and I laughed. “Are you sure?” I asked, “Because your tone doesn’t seem so sure.” He scratched at the back of his neck and winced.

“Erm, yeah, I am the boss,” he shrugged. Oh great, I thought. Not only is the man in my room supernaturally hot, he’s also the CEO of one of the most well known financial companies in the country. And then I internally groaned. Just like the male lead in my book.