TRISTIAN'S POVAs I stared at Kayla share my ice cream, I knew that the time was right. I had put it off for so long, I had tried to wait for the so-called right time. There was no other right time. It was now or never.As she licked the ice cream off my cone, I stared at her beautiful face and her tongue. Goosebumps filled my flesh as I imagined what that tongue could do to me, as I imagined what that face could do to me. The power she had over me was immense, and I wanted it to be more than just immense. I wanted it to be intense too, with our bodies next to each other.First of all, I knew that in order to get Kayla alone, I needed to get rid of Liam. I smiled at him, watching him play games on one of the company's free laptops. He smiled at me in return and I moved closer, joining him in playing the game till we were both tired.“Mini me.”I smiled at him, and he smiled in return, eyes lighting up. His respect for me had seemed to increase a notch when he saw the outfit I had been
CIARA'S POVI stared at them from my car, watching them get cozy as they leaned on the railing of the verandah. I couldn't hear what was being said, but I knew I was losing the battle, I was losing my man, and my world was falling apart. I retrieved a cigarette from the pack on the dashboard of my car, then sighed.My barbershop business was suffering. I had chosen to follow Tristian Ravenford, to obsess over him even though it wasn't healthy, and I knew that despite the fact that he wasn't ever going to look at me the same way ever again, I was still pushing it. I was still doing what I did because I loved him and I wanted him to love me too. I wanted him to look at him in the same way that I looked at him. I lit the cigarette, my mind wandering to Kayla's son, who was alone in the house with a babysitter. This could be my chance to hurt them, to tell them that there were people who didn't approve of their relationship, who didn't approve of their being together. I took a drag of
KAYLA'S POVI was in the furniture market, trying to choose some chairs and tables for my client in the United kingdom. I wanted to make his house beautiful, I needed that five star review. If I wanted to go to the top, there was only one way to achieve it, by satisfying my clients.The talk of satisfaction made me recollect all that had occured after the dinner date last night. After dropping me, I had asked Tristian Ravenford if he wanted to come in, but to my utmost shock, he said no. He wanted to take things slow, were the exact words he had used, and it made me laugh time and time again. I understood him perfectly though. He didn't want to jeopardize our relationship, he had said it time and time again in the car till I had come to believe it. He wanted what was best for us, and had promised again and again that he wasn't going to screw up. I liked this version of Tristian Ravenford better. He knew that I was fragile, he knew the stakes in the relationship and he knew what was
CIARA'S POV“How did it go?”For the first time in months I was in my barbershop, attending to a client. It was in a state of disarray, no matter how well I trusted Lucas and Arianna, they hadn't done a good job of taking care of the shop because they knew there was no one to query them. The mirrors were dusty, the floors showed signs of not being mopped recently, and even some clippers were faulty. I had scolded them, raising my voice to make sure they knew the dexterity of their offense. How dare they leave the shop in tatters? It was clearer now, this was the reason there were no customers, not because I wasn't taking care of the place, it was simply because it wasn't clean.Adrian stood next to me, watching me do my work. He had come in a few minutes ago, and his face beared signs of worry. It made me wonder what had transpired between him and the interior designer lady.“Bad, very very bad. I don't think she believed me. She’s stronger than she actually looks, that one. She mig
ADRIAN'S POVAs soon as I got back home, I knew I was coming back to trouble. Natalie's car was in the garage, and I could hear her teaching Nancy something while the reduced sound of the television was humming in the background.I opened the door, then smiled as Nancy immediately abandoned what she had been doing to come and greet me. “Daddy!”She flew into my arms, her hair falling over her face. I wondered why Natalie kept it long and would've talked about cutting it, but what right did I have when she was the one doing the feeding and the clothing? Even the shelter belonged to her, and I didn't have a say in family matters any longer because I wasn't doing my job which was to provide.“How are you?”I asked her, giving her a cheerful smile. “I'm good, Dad, you? I like your haircut. Mummy says you stay in the house way too much, and that is why I didn't have any milk to use with my cereal after I came back from school. Hope you're going to buy another bottle of milk, Dad? I'll ne
CIARA'S POVFor the past week, I had watched Kayla Smith and her son. Not only did I know his school's closing hours, I knew practically everything that had to do with Kayla Smith's schedule. I was perfecting my plan, putting everything in place to make sure that on that D-day, no stone would be left unturned. We were going to execute our plans perfectly, and that was why I was watching her, I was rounding up my plans. Getting out of bed, I poured water on my face, then brushed my teeth. I sent a text message to Adrian, informing him about the abduction. Today was the day, and once he was in, there was no going back. I donned on a shirt and trousers, then slipped into my car. I spent about five minutes waiting for Adrian to arrive. He arrived, carrying a bag that contained the ski mask and other tools we were going to use to carry out our plans. Biding our time, we sipped beer together while time flew. I smoked a cigarette, then we exited the restaurant together. By the time it wa
KAYLA'S POVMy head was spinning, I was perspiring furiously and my heart was hammering in my chest. Images of Liam flashed across my mind time and time again, and for a moment, I wanted to fall out of exhaustion and fatigue. Why kidnap my son? Why not kidnap me instead? Why not torment me and let my son go free? The questions popped up in my mind, all of them without answers. They were like rhetorical questions, rhetorical questions that hurt me, that made me question my existence and how badly I had performed as a mother. “Ma'am, please calm down. I've just called the headmaster, he'll be here in a few minutes. Please, I'm pretty sure we can sort this out.”But I wasn't listening. All my mind could do was manufacture images of Liam suffering, images of him being tortured or worse, being beaten. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. Was it a prank?It wasn't a prank. It was happening before my eyes, my son was missing. By the time the headmaster emerged from the building in his shir
TRISTAN'S POVWhen I got Kayla's text, I was about to enter a meeting with a company that consisted of Europeans hustling for a good place to boost their business and build one of their branches. Ignoring the prospects and the potential that the meeting could provide, I stepped out of my office, my world seeming to come to a halt. Despite the fact that Liam wasn't confirmed to be my son yet, I treated him like my son. Hell, he was one of the reasons I had even stayed true to Kayla in the first place. He was the one that had me going there, his cheerfulness and his free spiritedness was just what I had always wanted.He was me ten years ago, he was the teenager I used to be. He was a lovely child, and when I heard the news, I wondered why anyone would do such a thing. What did one even want to achieve by kidnapping such a child? What wrong had he done? What had he done apart from bring more love and more cheerfulness to the world? As I plowed the roads, navigating my way to the poli