“Artemis wished never to get married because she saw how her father, Zeus, screwed up her mother’s life.
She never wanted this for herself.
I should have followed the goddess’s life more closely.
Maybe then I wouldn’t have made such a fatal mistake.
By trusting someone I shouldn’t.”
Diana
Diana
“I want to renovate the entire second floor,” I announce, taking a sip of my green tea. I watch the color drain from Matilda’s face while Leon drops the napkins on the floor, blinking at me. “I’m fed up with all the gloomy and dark colors. It’s depressing.”
Not to mention, it feels like living in a mausoleum with all these portraits hanging on the walls, judging your every move.
Matilda clears her throat, grabs the teapot, and pours more tea into my mug, while Leon puts eggs on my plate. The softwind coming from the open terrace door promises a warm day. “What did Mr. Wright say about this?”
“He fully supports my idea,” I reply, unable to suppress the dreamy notes in my tone, which makes Leon smile even though he tries to hide it from Matilda. She’s about to have a heart attack from this information, by the looks of it. The woman doesn’t like any change. “And he gave me carte blanche too.”
Ever since he showed me his inheritance property, life has been straight out of a fairy tale, and sometimes I wonder if maybe I’m dreaming all of this up, and it’s part of my imagination.
However, no matter how much I pinch myself, my reality doesn’t change. It just becomes more vivid with each passing day.
Orion kept his word and decided to throw us a mini honeymoon, whisking me away to the Wrights’ private island and shutting us away from the outside world for the entire week. Not having to deal with my father was bliss, and somehow, our photos ended up on social media, proving to everyone once and for all that we were a true couple.
We attended Rush and Aileen’s engagement party, which was a whole event, and if I thought Rafael was intense, let’s just say his twin brother is on a whole other level.
Their sister, Lavender, was nice despite what happened to her in the past. She’s better than me because if Levi Scott did to me what he did to her during the engagement party…I’d crawl into a hole and wouldn’t go back to face the world.
The humiliation would have killed me.
For whatever reason, the guy seems to hate her, and the feeling is mutual because hateful sparks were flying between them, and everyone preferred to stay away so they wouldn’t get accidentally burned.
Besides that, Orion and I spent all our time together, immersing ourselves deeper into this newfound relationship, and I wanted to bask in it for as long as I could, as I knew the real world would interfere soon.
We came back yesterday, and he had to go to the office in the morning to handle some things—I guess a multibillion-dollar company doesn’t run itself—so I stayed alone, writing my book.
I’m not sure if anything will come from it, but as Orion said…I can always try to see what happens. At leastiforwhenI fail, I’d know I did everything I could.
I start thinking of ideas on how to change this mansion, because I had this vision about blond-haired little ones running around the garden. If we’re going to have kids, I wish for them to grow up in a warm and sunny house, not one haunted by the ghosts of our pasts.
Hence the renovation idea I mentioned to Orion, and a smile pulls at my lips, remembering that conversation.
My husband rests his cheek on my stomach, and I squeal when his beard tickles my skin, threading my fingers through his hair as we listen to the ocean hitting the rocks in the distance with seagulls chirping.
“Do you love your family home?” He tenses and turns his head until his chin presses into my belly button, studying me, so I elaborate. “If this is where you see us living…”
“I don’t care where we live as long as we live together,” he says, and as always, Orion makes my heart flip. “However, it’s the place my mother loved the most and all the folks working in there…I can’t abandon them.”
“I know. I think they consider you family, too. Trust me, they were your biggest champions when you acted like an ass.” He bites me then, and a laugh rumbles in my throat. “So, would you mind if I make some changes to the interior?”
He kisses my stomach and moves upward until his lips are inches away from mine, resting his arms on either side of my head and trapping me in his embrace. Our gazes clash, and once again, I’m mesmerized by the territorial look in his eyes that pops goose bumps all over me. “Everything that’s mine is yours. You can do whatever you want.”
Skimming my hands upward and circling them around his neck, I press myself closer to him and whisper, “Whatever I want?”
“Yes. Except leaving me.”
