Dancing with a stranger

Chapter|17 ✨

I didn't know where we were going at that moment but all I knew was it felt right. After a few hours passed we stopped at a small gas station in the middle of nowhere and Kian gave me a sweatshirt and some shorts that were too big for me. I changed out of my dress in the bathroom Little bathroom while he filled the tank up. After that, I was looking at myself in the mirror staring at my stomach thinking about all of this. Then my phone buzzed it popped up my father's name. I took out the SIM card and shattered the phone on the ground. Picking it up dropping it on top of the trash and walking out.

I grabbed a couple of snacks and a bottle of Gatorade for the road. The guy at the counter looked at me strangely because it was like one something in the morning and he saw me coming in wearing a huge ass wedding gown. Then I come back out in different clothes. "Is everything okay" he whispers to me. Yeah, everything is perfect I smile at him and take myself back to the car.

On the road again I decide to ask the question. "Where are we going"? "I'm taking you somewhere where they can't find you.

We pull up to a beautiful small house surrounded by trees on a lake. I was in awe. "This is one of many of my family's safe houses," he tells me. We get out of the car and he grabs a bag from the trunk. Then walks around and grabs my hand walking up the path of stepping stones. He had to put a pin in with the keypad.

It was a one-story house fully furnished and it looked like a step back in time.

Kians phone rang. He walked into the other room while I walked around looking at everything. Paintings were hanging on the wall. In one room, there was a fireplace with little figurines on the mantle. The couch was blue with a flower pattern. Something like a grandma would have.

Kian poked his head in and told me to follow him and took me to a bedroom with a double bed with a golden framed headboard and a flower pattern quilt. it looked so comfy. I just wanted to lay down and sleep for hours on end. I looked up at Kian and he just laughed and I saw Kian's bag on the chair in the corner. He walk over to grab some stuff and walked into the bathroom down the hall.

I stood in front of the large gold mirror in front of the bed brushing my hair out and decided to lie down. Laying down my mind started to wander and I stared at the ceiling thinking about what has my life come to.

I felt Kian lay down next to me wrapping his arm around me and pulling me closer. I rolled to my side and snuggled closer to him. Thinking this feels right. But I couldn't sleep so we just talked for hours until the sun arises. Getting to know each other better.

But I was still holding on to that little secret. That little secret that I was pregnant with his baby. The warmth of Kian's body next to mine is grounding, but the chaos of everything I've just left behind lingers like a fog in my mind. His hand is steady on my back, pulling me closer, and for a brief second, I forget about the world outside. I close my eyes, feeling the beat of his heart against my chest, and for a moment, it feels like this could be everything.

But the secret gnaws at me.

What am I doing? Is this real? Was it ever real?

I can feel the weight of my stomach tightening with anxiety, the question of whether I should tell him, if I should just come clean and let him know what I'm carrying inside me. But it's so complicated. His father is my father's enemy, and Steele... Steele's marriage is supposed to be the final thread that ties everything together. A peace treaty, my father would call it. A life of duty.

But then there's Kian.

His breath is slow and steady, and I can hear the quiet hum of the world outside the house, the rustling of trees, the water lapping gently at the shore. It's peaceful here, away from everything that's been suffocating me. But as much as I want to stay in this bubble, I know I can't ignore what's happening inside me, inside my body.

I turn to face him, his eyes still closed, a small smile playing at his lips like he's content, unaware of the storm in my head. I want to wake him up, to spill everything-everything I've been holding back, the guilt, the fear, the confusion. But I don't. Not yet.

Instead, I trace my fingers along the lines of his jaw, the rough stubble scratching against my fingertips, and lean in to kiss him softly, as if it could erase the uncertainty lingering in the air between us. When I pull away, I whisper, "I don't know what's next. But I know I can't go back."

He looks at me, his eyes open now, a quiet understanding passing between us. "You don't have to go back. Not if you don't want to."

But that's the thing. I don't know what I want. I'm torn between worlds-one with him, raw and unguarded, and the other with Steele, with my father's expectations, with the life I've spent years preparing for.

"I'm scared," I admit, my voice barely a whisper.

Kian doesn't say anything at first. Instead, he pulls me closer again, his fingers threading through my hair. "I know," he murmurs. "I'm scared too. But we'll figure it out."

We lie there for a while, the silence thick with everything unspoken. The morning light starts to creep through the curtains, casting a soft glow over the room. And for the first time in a long time, I allow myself to just be in the moment, to be with Kian, without the weight of the world pressing down on me.

But the truth is still there, buried deep inside me. And I know that sooner or later, it will come to the surface. But for now, all I can do is hold onto him and keep pretending that everything's okay.