An amazing fire that stoked something wild inside of me.
I still can’t believe we had sex!And it was fucking amazing.
Outside in the hallway, there’s no indication which door is the bathroom, and all the hallway doors are closed.
Fuck.
Moonlight streams in through the windows above, lighting up a path along the stairs and down the hallway.I wander back down to the first floor.I remember using the bathroom downstairs, and I’m fairly confident I remember which door it was.If I’m lucky, someone left the door open.
My footsteps are soft on the marble flooring.The material is cool beneath my feet, and as I approach the bathroom door, I’m relieved when I find it left open.
I slip inside, quietly shut the door, and take my time.Just thinking about last night with Luca, gets my adrenaline pumping all over again.How am I going to fall back asleep?
From inside the bathroom, I hear a whimper nearby.I can’t quite discern where the sound is coming from, but it’s close.
It sounds like a puppy begging to be let out of its cage.
Do the Riccis have a dog?
I hadn’t seen any signs of a dog, but maybe they don’t let it run through their home.The place is swanky, and with marble flooring, they could be worried about scratches to the marble?Does marble even scratch?
I finish up in the bathroom and pause in the hallway.There’s no sign of Nova’s or Luca’s parents.
I still don’t understand why they live together under the same roof.This place is big enough for several families, but why share a home?
And what’s with that bodyguard tonight who was by the back door?
None of it makes sense.
There’s more whimpering.
Whining.
It definitely sounds like a puppy, which makes me miss the family dog, Scarlet, so much.She’s an Australian Shepherd, the runt of the litter, at twenty-five pounds and fully grown.I begged Mom and Dad to let me bring her to college, but they’re right, there’s zero chance she’d be allowed in the dorms.And I definitely couldn’t smuggle her in.She’s too loud and whiny.
I quietly approach the closed door where the sound of the puppy is emanating.
Seeing as how big this place is, does their puppy have an entire room to herself?
I stand outside the mysterious door and press my ear to the door.The whimpering is definitely coming from inside.
Poor puppy, she probably has to be let out to use the potty.Hopefully, there will be a leash nearby.While the house does have a fenced-in yard, I don’t want to risk chasing the puppy through the yard to getherback inside, assuming it’s a girl.
I quietly turn the handle of the door beside the bathroom, praying it’s not someone’s bedroom and I’m about to embarrass myself.
Darkness floods through a set of stairs, and the whimpering grows more insistent.
A soft path of lights flickers along the stairs, making it so I don’t need to turn on the light switch as I descend the wooden staircase.
There’s a basement?
Of course, there’s a basement.This house has absolutely everything.
The staircase is a spiral of wooden stairs, and I quietly take each step, careful not to trip and fall.
The whimpering grows louder, more insistent on my approach as I near the final stairs and can see a soft overhead bulb illuminating the space.
I expect to see a crate with a puppy and maybe even a dog bed or some other sign of an animal, but instead, the cage is floor to ceiling, with metal bars.A prison cell.
