Diamonds Dancing

Thirty Four

Rika laughed to herself, shaking her head at the night guard's intrusive questioning. She had returned to the manor a little over midnight and found Tony, the guard, a rather amusing man at the front door. He never missed the opportunity to ask her of her whereabouts every time she took off, even if he already knew where the residents were. After all, it was protocol to know.

'Nowhere.' She replied cheekily, to which the calming man snickered at.

'Must've been one heck of a night then." And boy, was he right.

Ignoring his blatant teasing, she bid her farewells and sluggishly climbed her exhausted body up the flight of stairs.

She was in the midsts of her nighttime routine in her en-suite bathroom, deep in thought as she patted her clean face with a towel.

Oh, God. The date. Where did she even begin?

For starters, Archie was a good guy. There was no doubt about that. He spoke to her politely, treated her to dinner around the city and made her laugh more than she had ever laughed in her entire existence.

It was almost like she had known him for years, the conversations were easy and relaxed.

Her cheeks radiated colour as she placed the towel on the rack and reached for her toothbrush.

She could still feel the feather of his kisses on her lips.

A Goodnight's kiss he had told her, would help him have a peaceful slumber if he could feel the way her soft lips felt.

'That's awful. If you're unable to sleep properly, you should try buying some sleep gummies. They help a lot.' She remembered saying in genuine concern.

His captivating eyes lifted slightly, rubbing a hand over his beard. 'Sleep gummies.' He repeated dryly.

She nodded, perplexed at his sour reaction.

A concealed chuckle emptied of his enticing lips. 'You're making it hard for me to be subtle right now.'

She gave him another unusual look. 'Subtle? Why would you need to be subtle about insomnia? You should take it seriously, it can affect your mental health in the long run.'

'Jesus, woman. I want to kiss you. It's as plain and simple as that. You gonna let me do that or will we have to do this coy shit over again?'

Realisation set in and, eventually, she offered him a bashful nod. 'Oh, I mean you could've just said that from the start...'

She blushed again. The kiss was something else, his aura was dark, but there was something about him that was so freeing.

He was the perfect gentleman.

Rika brushed her teeth for a few minutes before bending her head to spit.

That was the same moment the bathroom door ripped open.

Picking her head up abruptly, she felt his intimidating presence without needing to see him.

Crap, she had forgotten to lock her door again. She needed to stop doing that, she reminded herself.

"We need to talk, Johnson." His steps were steady, slow yet demanding. Much like him.

The slight croak to his words made her raise a brow. He helped himself into her room this late at night to simply talk?