Desire And Danger 18+

Four

Something g about the house renovations has deterred our immediate lodgings, and so Camilla suggested a hotel. According to her, although we haven't met yet in person due to her busy schedule, the apartment will be ready by the end of tomorrow but I have the opportunity to visit beforehand the break of dawn shall I wish.

I found no reason to argue.

I put Isla to bed after dinner, which I barely ate. It's as if the moment I set foot in NYC, something flicked inside me, gnawing my confidence into a blast of sporadic nerves flapping inside me like little birds trying to fly for the first time. Every memory of my last visit here returns as I leap back through time, thinking of Adrian.

All the laughter, teasing, fancy shopping, simple dinner and candlelight, and sex, tons of sex from his private jet up to his penthouse, and then the tour to his fetish land. I fucking hate him for that! For glimpsing me at the utopia that hardly exists, and mostly for throwing me away as if I meant nothing to him.

Why? Just why did he send me back like that as if I'm a misplaced eBay parcel?

But before I sink deeper into the abysmal pain, heartache, and all sorts of displeasure he inflicted upon me the day I left this city, my phone rings from the nightstand placed between two beds. It's Jake calling from California and somehow I wish he'd be with us right now to help me pull through it all.

Wishful thinking aside, I pick up the call with a quiet hello.

"Already in New York?" he asks coolly but his voice projects worrisome curiosity.

A languid smile breaks on my face as I head back to the living area. I don't sit; I loiter around since the room isn't very spacious. It's cozy and homey, painted in dark colors rendering it devoid of gleam, yet I find it pleasing for a glum mood like mine. It has twin beds, a loveseat sofa, wing chairs, and a television set that's airing nothing at the moment.

"Yeah," I reply tiredly as I approach a small window with two outstretched curtains, "but we'll check the house... I mean the apartment, tomorrow. So far so good. How are you? Is everything going well with school?"

I lean my head sideways against the steel window pane, watching the midtown Manhattan cityscape through the set of tall buildings interlinked by the shimmering orange, yellow, blue, white, and so many colors of lights gathered in the darkness like a Christmas tree.

It's nine in the evening.

The sky is strangely midnight blue, so gorgeous, yet my heart is combusting—too many flames of hatred, vengeance, and an untold truth that I bury deep within me, which reminds me that I'm not a pristine woman everyone thinks I am, and neither an angel Adrian trusts he can just separate from evil out of his overweening concerns.

And maybe I'll let him see that. The day I hurt him the same way he hurt me not once but twice.

"I'm good. School is good," Jake replies as vaguely as he usually does, tearing my thoughts away.

I don't press much other than teasing him by asking, "Found a girl yet?"

"Huh?" It sounds like a hushed whisper from him, and laughter resonates from my chest.

I tear my head away from the pane, using my free hand to skittle fingers through my hair. "I mean, no romantic adventure yet? C'mon, Jake! Not even getting lost on campus and bumping into a cute girl so you can ask her for directions?" I keep pushing, imagining his frowned eyebrows and blushing hazel-green eyes that will dazzle some poor girls out there.

Oh, that I'm sure of! My brother is a catch but I doubt he knows so.

He snorts. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about! Where is Isla?"