I was still looking in his direction while I was waiting for his order. I didn’t dare go back until I had a real reason, especially because of my experiences with men. Everyone has fooled me, profited off my body, and pushed me aside when they were getting sick of me, always finding other women to play with. I mean, yes, some of them were one-night stands for me, too, but others broke my heart. And I’m not talking about Lucas or Blake, but the one that someone played with and didn’t leave him alive.
Hey! Do not blame m…
It’s your fault, Anora!
Besides, Marshall… had a different vibe. Mysterious, dangerous, but kind and smart.
I was so lost in my head that I got startled when Carina called my name, saying that the order was ready. That meant I needed to get closer to him, a thing that gave me chills and excited me at the same time.
I didn’t even see that there were two types of food until he invited me to eat beside him. He was subtle and gentle, like a first amazing date, which made me smile and laugh more than I had for some time back then.
As for the five years that we’ve been together… all of it was just perfect.
Or so it seemed.
I had enough money not to work, which helped me quit being a waitress. But I couldn’t stay at home all day. I was getting bored as hell, and even though Marshall supported me by letting me not work and read all day from the gorgeous home library I had, I couldn’t just profit off his kindness.
However, I don’t understand one thing: how could I have been so foolish to think he only had a marketing company and he was travelling for meetings? I indeed searched the company, and it was real. I thought not everything was made public, but I never realised it couldn’t be his main source of money. Ours even, because I was still profiting a bit from what he was offering me.
The silence around me brings my mind to the present when I am on the third floor. It is weird for a hotel where people are supposed to be in their rooms until the storm passes. This silence agitates me too much, especially after I discovered what he truly did. Not to mention the fact thatheowns this hotel.
I hope I won’t have to face Marshall now. I couldn’t resist such an interaction at the moment.
I end up on the ground floor where the reception is, and Raymond greets me with a friendly smile and asks if everything is all right.
I think I am too pale not to be asked such a question.
I am about to ask him where everybody is, but I change my mind. I shouldn’t trust anybody, the hotel staff in particular, so I decide to ask him how long thismagnificentstorm warning will last.
“Unfortunately, it got delayed by a day. We were to announce it this evening. We are very sorry if you had to be somewhere else, Miss Brown. We are at your disposal for any other information,” says the robot in front of me.
That is exactly how he seems when he is talking. Like a brainless puppet.
I thank him as politely as I can and go to the lift. I don’t feel like climbing the stairs, knowing I’ll have to resist one more day without finding out what the hell is up with Tamwine. I need to explore all of its corners, more than I’ve done in the past. Now I will be able to see all of its cracks with a different pair of eyes from the ones lost in the books that were waiting to write themselves.
I press the button to get me to my floor and wait for the doors to open. I get out of the lift and bump into a drenched Lucas, who probably got out to search for me, but I don’t understand why he is wet. I didn’t jump off the balcony.
Oh, poor dear Lucas was scared that something was to happen to me. I was, too, but not in this hotel, which feels like a facade. Same as Marshall, but he doesn’t seem so innocent anymore.
I walk by Lucas, and he just comes behind me. We both enter the apartment and go directly to the safe room. At least now I know why the space I usually spent my time in was supervised by video and audio, and Marshall’s room was not.
I know he loved to be in absolute control all the time, especially when we came here together, but this is too much, even for him. I think for a second to rip the camera and the microphones, but the fear for him gets the worst of me.
There are so many feelings inside me, and I can’t really keep up with all of them. I am going from one emotion to another in a fraction of a second.
If he lied to me with a thing of this magnitude, who knows if he ever cared about me?
I can feel Lucas coming closer to me, his lips almost touching my right ear, making me shiver from his soft breath.
“You really need to see this,” he whispers.
His voice gets lost mid-air when he turns and gets to the door that leads to the terrace. I follow him, wanting to do anything other than be a prisoner of my own mind. Even if it means staying close to him.
He opens the door, and I can feel the strong wind entering. He takes my hand and gets me out on the terrace until the very end of it. The cold water drops are furiously falling on our warmed-up bodies, but this doesn’t stop Lucas from getting me in the middle of them.
“Just look at the road to the park and tell me what you see.”
I squint my eyes, trying to resist the wind and see something other than the water drops that ended up on my eyelashes and blocked my vision. I instantly get hot when I notice the dry pavement.
