All Chapters of His Sworn Enemy; His Deepest Desire : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Adam was standing out there in the centre of the entrance that led to the office, a gleaming white car behind him. He stood straighter as he saw me come out of the office, his face inscrutable even as he gave me a small nod, but that was not what made me stare slack-jawed.It was the sight of the little roses, trailing one by one from the door of the entrance all the way to the white car bedecked with a large bow.My heart broke and I just stood, staring. At the flowers, at Adam in his impossibly white suit and dark glasses, at the white car with the bow atop it, at the flowers…People were starting to come out of the office, pooling around me in a gentle crescent. The murmurs started first, then sighs and gasps and dramatic swooning fits by the ladies. I turned once to look at them, caught them staring and knew that they knew exactly who it was that had done all this. And then I turned forward again, face low and blushing furiously as their applause began.“Alright! That’s how you do

“I know about Adelstein.”Almost immediately, all the good-natured air around us disappeared, replaced instead by something cool, frosty even, and tenable. Like a mood on the verge of breaking. Tristan’s gaze was straight when he looked at me. He slowly brought his fork to his plate.“Do you?” He asked calmly.“I heard all about it from the other employees. Tristan, you didn’t even bother to let me know that people were pulling out because you’re gay.”I hissed the last word out so that it sounded like the compressed air coming out of a squeezed canister. I looked around, trying to be certain that no one had heard—that no one was watching. Tristan was being open in a place like this, but there was still the off-chance that there was some obnoxious person with a blatant disregard for privacy.I bent my head lower, my voice considerably silenced. “Tristan, I don’t like this Adelstein business.”Tristan’s tone was sharp. “It’s none of your business, William. Just leave it alone.”I was s

The next few days were a flurry of activity. Tristan was holed up even more in his office, but even so, I was seeing an awful lot of him, even more than anyone could have said for themselves.A buzz hit my phone. I smiled and bit my lips as I picked up my phone and spun my chair around to read it. I knew without even looking that it was going to be Tristan. I wasn’t wrong.STUCK. NEED HELP. MY OFFICE.I grinned foolishly. He had been sending all manner of nonsense texts to me the past few days, even via email and sometimes, when I chose to ignore them, he called or sent Alexa to come get me.She’d come frowning one other time and slammed her hand on my desk, her eyes burning.“I swear to God, William, if you don’t answer Tristan’s calls the next time…”“I’m working, Alexa,” I said innocently. “Mr. Richmond knows this.”“On God, William, I will wring your neck if you make Tristan make me come get you again. And it’s really peeving, the fact that I can’t tell you not to get pregnant.”I

All the air in my lungs left with the force of an explosion. Like Tristan’s finger had been a gun in my chest, imploding upon contact. His words repeated in my head with staggering force that almost swayed me.“Tristan?”“Seize William Bracknell and escort him off this property right now!” He yelled. His face was contorted in every shade of rage and he looked like he was fit to commit murder right now.I watched Adelstein stand, placing a gentle hand on Tristan’s shoulder as he pressed his face close to Tristan’s. Something crawled under my skin but the feeling was replaced with a fresh pain as security seized me by the arms and forcibly moved me towards the door.Only when they had dragged me to the elevator did I finally realize what was going on. My body fought this unlawful capture.“Let me go! I didn’t do anything. What the fuck is going on? What…?”I knew I should have signed up to take those gym lessons earlier, but a thought at the back of my mind told me that even if I had ta

I didn’t know how much time had passed but I was tired and sitting at the foot of the bed by the time that Caleb came back to the small white room.“Wakey wakey,” he said as he poked his head up from the opening in the floor. He looked at me and frowned. Then he sighed and came fully into the room. The door shut behind him with an almost metallic sound.“William, you poor baby.” He made to touch me, but I shoved his hands away, breathing fire from my flaring nostrils. He looked at me with something akin to pity, then looked at the tray still on the bed, the untouched bowl of soup there.“You’re not doing either of us any favors by not eating, William.”I continued staring at him.“You have to eat something sometime. You think I want to be looking at you all stick-thin and undesirable? You’ve got to eat something. At the very least. Maybe you don’t want soup. Maybe you can tell me what you want to eat.”He drew closer, eyes shining, “If I remember correctly, you’ve never said no to a f