The Blackmail Bride

Chapter 39

T-T - sad me.

Morning

The blaring of the phone registered in the back of my mind.

It wasn't the fact that that wasn't my ringtone— the sound was followed by a masculine groan near my ear. The bed bounced lightly with the movement from beside me.

My eyes flung open to an unfamiliar dove gray ceiling. The soft sheets were comfortable, the pillows bouncy—but these weren't mine. And that strong cologne that enveloped the place—

"It's Jace. Why are you calling so early?"

My automatic reaction was to spring up into a seating position. An arm automatically wrapped around me to still me. My eyes squinted, while sweeping the immediate background before turning to the person beside me.

Jace was already sitting up on bed. His lazy morning expression trained on me. He shook his head slightly, asking me to quietly let him take the call.

"Yeah, I hear you. Let me just move to another room. Wait a second." Jace removed his arm from around me and peeled the blankets off his lower half.

He glanced down at me and murmured, "Go back to sleep."

My sense of sight automatically followed his movements.

He was getting out of his side of the bed, a phone in his ear. My brain took note of the fact that Jace's bronze locks at the back of his head were tangled from sleep. His back was covered by a lose white shirt and he was wearing pajama bottoms. He was already standing to his full height, his bare feet quickly padding to the door and away from me.

Dumbly, I stared at the empty door for a while. It was such a strange sight that my mind took time to process what my eyes were seeing.

And realized. We were just sleeping in the same bed.

The automatic reaction was to pull the sheets up to my chest. And as if checking for modesty, I pulled it back to look at the clothes I already knew I wore.

I didn't remember coming to bed. I owned this sleeping robe I was wearing—sigh of relief— on top of my dress from yesterday's reception. Where'd he get this? I touched my hair then, realizing it was loosely falling around my shoulders. There were no more pins left in the black strands. The flower gone.

The idea that Jace had to remove them one by one somewhat embarrassed me. Thankfully, he didn't touch my clothes. My hands went to my face next, remembering how I didn't remove my makeup last night. The grimy feeling on my skin forced me to get out of the bed too.

I glanced back to check the bed. It could've comfortably fit four people at the same time but judging from the dents we made, the two of us slept very close together in the middle.

I looked around then, noting that aside from the bed and double nightstands and lamps, the room was practically bare. A door for the closet, a door for the bath. French doors for the balcony where an outdoor table with two chairs were bathing in the sun... and the door that Jace just came out of. We could add the thick curtains touching the reddish-brown wood flooring and that was it.

What an odd person.

If I raised my voice enough, the sound would bounce around in the bare space.

But first my face. I opened the first door and a well-organized dressing room greeted me. Hanging men's clothes, and a full wall of drawers. A sitting area in the middle and more than a few branded womens' suitcases piled in the corner... and a full wall of my own clothes hanging neatly. My shoes and bags covered the backmost wall in a colorful display behind protective glass covers. I walked in deeper to the room, opened a random drawer under my hung clothes, finding some of my more casual cotton shirts folded neatly inside.