CHAPTER SIX: AT THE FOUNTAIN

She felt sad to leave the woman and scared to be alone. Her joke had brought a kind of rapport between them, but she had to get this over and done with. She went inside and saw a room that looked so endless it was the size of her entire house. A polished wooden table sat in the middle, large cream-coloured sofas were around them, each with smaller tables beside them, and in one of those sofas sat a man.

He was so damn gorgeous.

He had a white dress shirt on, the first three buttons were undone, and a gold chain peeked out right above his chest. His sleeves were rolled up, a gold watch hanging on his hands, and part of his hair fell across his face. His eyes, grey, dark and cold, were fixed on hers.

He didn’t even look like a businessman, not to talk of owning one of the biggest construction companies around.

“Miss Alisa Grant?” he smiled, so thinly she could barely even call it a smile. “I have been waiting for you. Make yourself comfortable. I am Jayden Wells.”

Jayden motioned her to sit with his hand.

And Alisa wanted to faint. Jayden Wells was young, drop-dead gorgeous, and like a prince. His broad shoulders were relaxed on the arms of the seat he was on, and his jawline was so pronounced that she wondered what it would feel like to trace it with her fingers.

But all he wanted from her was a baby. She was here so that she would get money for her brother’s transplant.

“So let us get to business, Miss Grant.” He spoke up.

His eyes were locking with hers again, and she looked down. But she could not fail to observe how comfortable with himself he was. His arms were spread on the sofa, and he leaned back and observed her like a gentle predator sizing up its prey. Like the big black wolf she had seen in the woods.

Alisa was nervous here. She clenched her fists hard and stared at them.

Thoughts were racing through her mind. Did she want to pull through? What was she supposed to do? How would she even get the baby in her?

She found herself wishing she had told Stacy about it before coming here.

“Miss Grant?” Jayden’s voice pierced through her thoughts.

He had been speaking to her without her hearing a thing.

“Ye-ye-yes Sir?”

“You weren’t listening. Are you okay?” he asked, his eyebrow raised at her.

“I’m fine, Sir.”

“I understand our agreement can be thought-provoking, so you can take some time off for a walk if you wish. I have some other business to attend to.”

To Alisa, it sounded like a gentle way of telling her he had no time to waste. He was not as nice as he looked after all.

“I need that time, Sir.”

Jayden was up on his feet as soon as she finished speaking.

“I will see you in half an hour then.” And he walked out of the room.

The woman who had brought Alisa in came in again and led her out, and Alisa felt pretty humiliated. She did not expect to be so easily brushed to the side like a flea. It hurt her and her eyes stung.

And as she moved out of the room, she decided she did not like Jayden Wells very much. He was an arrogant brute.

The woman led the way while Alisa followed.

She needed to talk to Stacy as she always knew what to do.

Alisa took out her phone, hoping for some privacy so she could speak to Stacy, but her battery had gone flat. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place and it both hurt and annoyed her.

They went down the curved staircase and came back into the antique hallway again, and Alisa marvelled at the pure beauty of the place. Her home barely had a hallway.

“There is a fountain and a pool ma’am, beautiful place to be if I must say. Would you like to see it?” The woman asked as soon as they were in the main room. A few cleaners were cleaning the place.

“I sure do.”

“You might be tempted to swim in the pool.”

“I love to swim. It won’t be a bad idea.”

They both went outside the building and Alisa was surprised to see the sun already setting, a few stars visible in the coming darkness. The inside of the building was so well-lit that it was hard to remember that the sun was a source of light, and the path they walked on was just as bright.

They passed through a garden, and then a tall garden hedge that doubled as a fence and Alisa set her sights on one of the most beautiful fountains she had ever seen, and like everything here, it had a howling wolf statue sitting right on top, the water spewing from the wolf’s mouth on some rocks that were a replica of the ones that stood in the middle of Palm Springs City, and down into a large pool that was lit underneath.

“It looks so much like the original. The one in this town.” Alisa cried excitedly. This one may have been artificial, but it was wolf free at least, apart from the one that stood at the top of the fountain.

The woman simply laughed. She was already so used to it that it meant nothing to her anymore.

“Call out to me when you need me, ma’am. I will be close by.”

“Sure,” Alisa answered, her attention on the pool. She wasn’t even looking at the woman anymore.

It was almost magical. The wolf, the running water from the wolf’s mouth, the stones that looked just like the rocks, and the pool. A replica of her favourite place in all of Palm Springs City. She could live here forever—damn arrogant Jayden Wells and what he felt he was.

The woman left, and Alisa put her hand into the pool. It was warm, unlike the cool original, but it still excited her. It wouldn’t hurt to get in, would it?

But she had no swimsuit on, and all she had was a linen dress and no brassiere underneath. Getting wet would only change her dress into a see-through dress. She decided to simply walk on the edge of the pool and admire the water, taking in the ambience and letting it clear her mind.

The lights were drawing her attention, and she was suddenly curious to know what kind of lights they were. She bent over and peered into the water, but the rippling motion wasn’t helping her, it rather distorted her vision and had a kind of hypnotic effect on her. She shook her head and took another step forward.

She missed that step and fell into the water.

Her body was immersed deep inside, but she was a good swimmer, so she was already preparing to swim out, but she suddenly felt a strong grip pull her to itself. Her head popped out of the water and she coughed, her eyes tightly shut.

“Are you okay, Alisa?”

Alisa blinked her eyes open and found herself in the arms of the last person she expected to see.