“I’m sorry, Benny,” Archie apologized to his brother when the crowd shifted their attention away from them. “It was my fault for not holding your hand tightly enough that you got lost in the crowd.” Benny gazed at his brother and said casually, “It wasn’t your fault, Archie; it’s too crowded here. Besides, I wasn’t lost, and it was fun playing the drums, anyway!”Archie frowned for several seconds before nodding slowly. “I will hold your hand tightly next time,” he promised, “and never allow something like this to happen again.”Benny nodded vigorously as he squeezed his brother’s hand.Estella came over to join the fun. “Me too! I’ll hold both your hands!”The little girl clutched Benny’s hand as she spoke.Touched to see the three children walking hand in hand with similarly solemn expressions, Roxanne smiled gratefully. “Come, Benny,” she said gently. “Thank Mr. Farwell.”Benny appeared to be surprised by her words.“Mr. Farwell was the one who found you,” Roxanne said.The boy gl
Roxanne was about to bring the two boys up upon arriving back at the hotel when she felt a pair of resentful eyes on her back. Frowning, Roxanne glanced behind her and saw Estella hesitantly shuffling after her three paces behind.The child stopped in her tracks when she noticed her quarry had turned her head. Her little face was alight with anticipation.Not far away, Lucian pretended not to see them as he busied himself with pouring a gla*s of water from the bar.Roxanne walked toward the child. “Do you want to sleep with me, Essie?”The child nodded vigorously before asking cautiously, “Is that okay?”Roxanne’s heart softened at the child’s tentativeness. “Go ask your Daddy,” she said softly as she gazed at the man in the vicinity. “If he says yes, I’ll take you upstairs.”The child’s eyes brightened. She strode to Lucian’s side with her stubby legs, but the man ignored the child’s approach.Knowing that her father would agree, Estella tugged the hem of his shirt fearlessly. “Can
Lucian’s face fell slightly. “I’ll leave you to your work, Mr. Farwell. I’m just here for a drink. Don’t feel the need to entertain me.”Roxanne inclined her head at him before turning to head to the bar.The bar was filled with expensive wine, as they were in a presidential suite worthy of the name. Some bottles were even vintage.Roxanne did not know much about wine other than red wine was a sleeping aid. After perusing the selection, she opened a bottle at random.When Lucian heard the sound of a bottle opening, he turned around to glance at Roxanne’s back. Although he could not see which bottle she had opened, he reminded her, “Red wine will cause a ma*sive hangover. Don’t drink too much.”Roxanne grunted nonchalantly in response.The sound of Roxanne pouring herself wine was the only thing audible in the ensuing silence of the suite.Lucian’s attention was so focused on her that the contents of his email did not register to him.Roxanne quickly finished a gla*s of wine, but she
He had never once expected her to behave so intimately toward him ever since they met one another again.Although he was fully aware that he should keep a distance because she was only acting like that because she was drunk, he still wanted to keep her close.In fact, if it were not for the fear of disturbing her sleep, he would have hugged her tighter.This is ridiculous. Lucian could not believe he just caught himself wanting more.Over the years, he had never treated anyone that way, not until he met Roxanne.“Lucian…” the woman mumbled sadly in her sleep beside his ear.His arms tensed up when her voice called him back to reality. He wanted to tell her that he was right beside her.Feeling his embrace, Roxanne looked up at him in a stupor and murmured, “Why are you so cruel? Am I still not good enough for you? I love you so much, but you’ve never liked me the slightest bit.”Her words pierced his heart like a knife over and over again.It pained him beyond words when he thought of
“I know you didn’t mean it. I just need some time to recover from the shock,” Roxanne comforted Benny with a smile. The boy gazed at her doubtfully for some time. When he was finally convinced that she meant what she said, he nodded slowly, pursed his lips, and gave her a hug.“Let’s have breakfast. It’s getting late,” Roxanne said, caressing his head.All the children nodded, and the four of them went downstairs together.A five-person breakfast was ready on the table by the time they got down. It seemed that Lucian had taken the food in and laid them out on the dining table.He was scrolling his phone on the couch when they came down. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing a pair of lean and muscular forearms.When Roxanne saw that he was working, she held the children’s hands and asked them to walk silently, but the man still noticed them in the end.He looked up at Roxanne, and their gazes met. What had happened the previous night instantly came back to Roxanne’s mind.She hoped s
When Roxanne saw how persistent the girl was, she agreed to a game with the children. “I’m done!” Estella announced when she had found a hiding spot.Even after rounds of the same game with Archie and Benny, the girl still shouted out loud whenever she was done hiding.Roxanne could not help laughing at that.Right after Estella shouted, Roxanne heard Archie’s and Benny’s soft giggles from another corner.“I’m coming!” Roxanne exclaimed, shaking her head.Then she walked toward where Archie and Benny were.The boys were still feeling proud of themselves because they thought they had found a seemingly strategic place where no one could find them, but they were proven wrong.They even planned on changing their hiding place to make it more difficult for Roxanne to find them. But just as they were crawling out from where they were, they bumped into the woman.They looked up, only to see her smug smile. “Mommy, please give us another chance…” they mumbled, standing up in front of her.Rox
While Roxanne was bandaging him, she could sense Lucian’s gaze on her. However, Roxanne did not know what was on his mind.I wonder if he’s thinking about what happened last night…Roxanne could not help but recall the bottle of red wine that was almost finished the night before, and that made her feel perplexed. As such, the bandaging she did for Lucian was a little rough around the edges.“Are you done?” asked Lucian when he saw that she was not doing anything else.It was only then Roxanne returned to her senses and maintained a calm face. “It’s almost done.”Lucian took a look at the bandage on his hand, raised his brows, and said, “Ms. Jarvis, it seems that you are very selective when it comes to your medical skill, aren’t you?”Roxanne was startled by what he said. She followed his gaze and noticed that her bandaging was indeed horribly done.For a moment, Roxanne could not help but blush. She opened her mouth but did not know what to say.Thankfully, all Lucian did was teased
Roxanne was much more relaxed when she saw that Lucian’s preparations had been very thorough.The captain of the yacht chatted with them, “The weather is ideal for a trip out to the sea today.”Roxanne glanced at Lucian and saw no response from him, so she acknowledged politely.Seeing that she responded, the crew became more enthusiastic and started to introduce the activities that were available.Before they could arrive at the area for the dolphin sighting, the children’s attention was completely captured by the crew’s briefing. Excitement was written all over their small faces.Once in a while, Roxanne would respond as well.“I heard from Mr. Farwell that all of you are out here for the dolphin sighting. To be honest, that is not the most exciting thing to do in this area. I will highly recommend diving since the water in this area is well protected, and the views underwater are beautiful. If you have the chance, you should give it a try,” the crew strongly recommended.Roxanne st