𝐎𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞

Chapter Six

...........

The night was clear, so was the silence; Matthew walked to his living room with a drink in one hand and a phone on the other. He knew it was stupid of him to be thinking of a girl on the verge of womanhood the same way he thought of women he had sex with, except there was a slight difference on this one. He wanted her as much as he wanted to spend time talking with her. With others, it was clear cut business or an arrangement that had no emotional equation to it.

Taking a little long sip of his whiskey, Matthew thought, for a split second of breaking the promise he'd made her, he was curious about her, but as fast as he'd thought it, he squashed it; he would keep the promise because she trusted him.

Magic room.

He snorted as he remembered it. She was romantic, the kind that expects dates, flowers and chocolate. Matthew didn't do romance; he found it pretentious, time-wasting and absurd. He was a realist, yet he found himself wondering how she would react to white lilies, whether she preferred white or dark chocolate, or whether she would sit with him on Sunday to watch the sunset or take an evening walk beside him with her hand in his.

Shaking his head vigorously, Matthew decided to stop thinking of her, walk away before he became entangled in a relationship with a girl who'd expect more than a physical relationship. He would go to New York for the wedding and stay away for two weeks until he stopped this madness.

God! How had he come to want a mere slip of a girl the way he did. It was better to stick to models and call girls; they knew the game, understood the rules, but Imani was different. Her innocence shone through those beautiful doe eyes, yet he had glimpsed a side of her that spoke of hardship and misfortunes. He also knew she was hiding something; why else would she extract a promise not to have her investigated?

Early the following morning, Matthew boarded his private jet to attend his long time friend's wedding; Ele, his fiancée, had invited him. He had met her once by accident with Rom and Raph's wives when the guys called in a favour to go for them from a clothing store. He remembered them huddled together in one fitting room, afraid and trying not to breathe. That was a few months ago.

He had smiled and then laughed when he received the invitation, cream coloured card with a single small white rose drawn at the bottom corner. He knew it wasn't his idea, Bruno would never come up with something as feminine or as romantic as the card or the mushy words printed across, but it spoke of a man comfortable in his masculinity not to give a fuck about it, or maybe it came with loving a woman, to give her the freedom to do whatever the hell she wanted even though it made him come off as sappy.

Matthew signed, looking through the window of his jet, the blue sky beckoning him, reminding him that he'd left her behind and intended to stay away until he could spend at least one freaking hour without wondering where she was or what she was doing.

While he was running away, Imani was seated crossed-legged against the door with Jamie on her lap, watching rain and people running for cover.

"It's warm in here," Jamie laughed, cuddling closer to Imani, his face on her chest inside the warm brown blanket wrapped around them. Imani leaned over to kiss his head; he giggled, complaining about her constantly kissing him. "I'm not a baby anymore," he muttered, looking up into her face with a smile across his face.

"You'll always be my baby." his face brightened, and he moved closer to her even though there was no more space.

Imani ruffled his hair, then they both turned their faces outside to continue watching the rain in silence. She found solace in the sounds of the drops hitting the ground: the gloomy weather, a perfect representation of how she felt.