This felt like a test.
“Where is Mr.Kirkland?”I asked, my voice softer now, more uncertain.
Ennis barely blinked.“Finishing an international call.He’ll see you shortly.”
I nodded, pressing my hands together, forcing myself to breathe.
Then came the part that made my pulse spike.
“He asked that I show you to your room.”
My room?
I followed him up a sweeping staircase, the polished oak banisters gleaming in the flickering candlelight.The hallway stretched ahead, lined with doors I longed to peek behind, but Ennis kept walking until he stopped in front of beautiful double doors.He opened them to reveal a room that stole my breath.
A grand four-poster bed loomed at the center, its canopy draped in delicate fabric that whispered against the fire crackling softly in the hearth.A charcuterie board rested on a nearby desk, its precision unsettling.
Not indulgent.Intentional.
Prepared.
“You are to wait here,” Ennis said before disappearing down the hall.
I sank onto the bed, my hands trembling.What was happening?
Every moment in this house felt like a test.A game.A judgment still in progress.
I reached for a cracker, but my stomach was too twisted to eat.My nerves were unraveling.
Then—
The door creaked open behind me.
I turned.
Creed stood in the doorway, broad shoulders filling the space, his dark suit immaculate, his gaze piercing and unreadable.
He didn’t step inside.
He waited.
I rose, and the air shifted.
“Hello, Sir,” I whispered, my voice laced with fear, hope, and something I couldn’t name.
The word slipped out before I decided to let it.A mistake.I knew it the moment it left my mouth.
His jaw tightened.
“I didn’t give you permission to speak.”
The words settled over me, heavy and unmistakable.For a second, I considered saying nothing.Letting the silence stand between us.But my pulse was already racing, my instincts scrambling for footing.
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
His eyes flicked toward me for half a second, just long enough for something dark and unreadable to pass between us.
He stepped inside, closing the door softly behind him.
