It was almost evening. I understood Carl was tired, but he had an entire day to rest. It was dinner time and I figured that he would need to eat something. Maybe we could catch up during dinner.I raised my hand to knock on his door when I seemed to hear some strange sound from behind it. Somehow it sounded like a female moaning followed by some low voice. What was going on with Carl? There couldn't be some other woman in his room, right? I must have misheard it. It must be just me imagining things....However, what Jenny told me as well as Ellis' warning invaded my thoughts and took over. Their words danced in my head like a haunting macabre echo. I knew I had to do something, or I'd be driven mad. "Carl?" I knocked on the door. The lock clicked and the door opened to reveal Carl's face. His hair was a little messy, but I figured that was just because he had laid down for a nap earlier."I was wondering whether you want to have dinner together?" He seemed normal.
I suddenly realized that it was a bad decision to come here tonight. I watched him continue to lean in, and my heart raced. For a moment, I panicked and didn't know what to do. I couldn't be unfaithful to Carl! I tried to shove him away by his chest, but he was too strong for me. However, he didn't kiss me. His lips were next to my ears, and his breaths were warm. "Now, you may ask your question," he said in his deep, low voice.I felt as if electricity ran down my spine. I was stunned for a moment. Ellis chuckled in my ear, stopped and pulled away from me with a playful expression, "Or did you just want to have another dance?""No, of course not." I shook my head, "Let's… let's talk about Carl." "Alright then, please take a seat," Ellis led me to the couch and poured himself a drink. "Why were you so negative about him?"He sat down next to me and replied, "Carl is... a womanizer. He often has more than one girlfriend at a time."My eyes widened. I gripped my
He stood there staring at me, eyes narrowed. I could smell a faint scent of alcohol. It wasn't too strong, and mixed with his cologne, it was actually…intoxicating."Mr. Peterson?" I gently called him. But he didn't answer, and shoved me away. "Mr. Peterson!"I stood by the door, and was stunned watching him find his way directly to my bed and collapsed on it.My eyes widened. Now what?Then I realized that I was in my pajamas. It was a lavender button down silk top, and a pair of matching silk bottoms with my initials hand-stitched into them–a gift from Bethany. I didn't want him to see me in my eveningwear, nor did I want him inebriated in my bed.He could have chosen to sit or lay anywhere. The Peterson vacation home had so many rooms, yet he chose mine to take over and claim.My guest room wasn't too far away from his. Did he think this was his room, somehow? Well, I meant, technically, every room in this mansion was his…I figured I should call for some help
Hearing Carl's name from Ellis' lips and tongue brought me back to reality and I realized this wasn't okay. This was wrong and against everything that I believed in. This wasn't faithful to Carl, despite what he might or might not have done to me. My parents would be disappointed at me, but even more so, I was disappointed in myself.Tears fell down my cheeks as I began to struggle beneath him, "Mr. Peterson… please stop!" I grabbed at any part of him to stop him from going further. I didn't want this. I couldn't want this. Ellis quickly came to his senses and moved away from me with a fast movement, sitting beside me on the bed and raising his hands in the air to show he was listening to me. "I'm sorry."His apology shot from his mouth like I had stung him. I stared at him and my brain was in a haze. How could this have happened?How could he have kissed me knowing I was his son's fiancee?! I grabbed the pillow from behind me and in anger, smacking him on the side
Carl's words made me freeze. "Carl, I didn't—"He pointed at me, "I love you, Olivia! I love you so much that I worked hard to give you a better future! I've worked hard to be a worthy fiance to you and your family, but you betrayed me!"He shouted and placed his hands on his hips, shaking his head and taking a deep breath.I swallowed hard and tried to keep my tears from falling. My eyes widened in panic, and I felt the need to grab my throat as my chest tightened. My stomach flipped and twisted and I felt filthy and immoral. "That's not," my voice came out small. "That's not what happened—"He swung around and glared at me. "Tell me what happened then?" he scoffed. "He didn't enter your room or you guys didn't kiss? Olivia, tell me the truth!" My lips opened and closed but I couldn't make out a word. How was I going to explain what had happened in reality to Carl after that accusation? I didn't know what to tell him.I realized that whatever I said would sound lik
**Ellis POVI hadn't been in the best mood the last couple of nights. At least, not since I had kissed Olivia. Damn, I couldn't get the way her soft lips felt on mine off my mind, or the way her body felt beneath my fingertips. The way she had given me the gift of her kiss and touch made me feel more spoiled than I had in a long time. Not to mention the memory of that night wouldn't stop haunting me, teasing me, and making me crave more.I needed to get my head on straight and the best remedy for trying to solve that was walking through my garden. I had paid good money to make it look as gorgeous as it did.The shouts and hushed whispers from nearby echoed in my ears and drew my interest. I had no f*cking clue who was meeting in secret in my garden to shoot sh*t, but clearly someone was.Turning a corner around a wall of roses, I found Carl and Bethany talking about something that seemed unimportant. Honestly, I had no f*cking interest in what Carl was doing. That was unt
**Olivia POVA few days after I had gotten back to New York, Jenny came over to visit me at my parents' house. I needed a friend after the vacation that I had, if I could even call it that. I had spent most of it upset or worried.We sat in the living room, going over a school project for one of our design courses. She was majoring in fashion, and I was majoring in business with the intention of going into jewelry design.She picked one of the colored pencils up to work on her design drawing for a gown, while I was working on an elaborate necklace. "So… how was your vacation? What did you do?""Carl invited me over to the Peterson's vacation home in Long Island." I wanted to ease her into the news of our break-up. I put the red pencil back to pick up a black one to shade a few diamonds."Oh? How was that? Did you have some good sex?" Jenny teased me, and I gasped.I shoved her in the arm, making her nearly mess up her sketch, "No, I didn't!""I'm picking on you, Olivia. I
My heart was pounding in my chest as I peered around the club and got lost in the ocean of greedy, lascivious faces. It was even more disorienting with the way that everyone was hiding behind a different mask, concealing their identity from me.I didn't know where I was, and I never thought my night would have ended like this. I swallowed hard and tried keeping my composure, flicking my hair and standing straight. I couldn't let them know that I was terrified. Suddenly, bursting from the crowd of rambling numbers came a high bid in the form of a creepy looking, overweight man in his fifties, wearing a suit that was ill-fit for his stature. "One hundred thousand!"I could tell that his lips were chapped from here and he fondled a cigar in between his fingers, licking the end of it in a salacious way. A shiver ran through me at the sight of him flirting with me through his cigar and drink.The crowd went silent and only a cough was heard to break it for a second. "One hundred