His Fire

Chapter 24

*Not edited*

Camellia was tired, she had not gotten much sleep the night before and had spent the whole day studying. Her course load wasn't a lot, she had already read all the books assigned to her which is why she took some extra challenge and decided to study graduate level business law and the cases. She felt the need to be more knowledgeable about corporate law after having decided that she will ultimately join the company one day. She had given a lot of thought in that, the expectations that David had of her, Logan Inc being owned privately had to be passed on to someone and since Ace was gone, she was the only heir. It was ironic how fate played her. Growing up, her sole goal was to earn a lot and be rich. Once her painting started selling and money was no longer scarce, she realized that being rich didn't mean much if she had no one to spend it on. Her dreams about giving her mother a luxurious life was shattered when she died. Now with Ace gone, despite swimming in money, she didn't know what to do with it. She had spent years ignoring the money, cursing it sometimes, she will do anything to switch all the wealth if it meant getting her mom, husband and baby back. Yesterday however she was grateful for being rich, she had felt good helping Caleb out. Had it not been for Neil, Camellia wouldn't have found out about her friend's problem.

She was furious at first, ready to punch Neil for daring to blackmail her, force her to marry him. But it was a blessing in disguise and she couldn't stay mad at him. She had spent the night thinking about him, her feelings when he was around, his feelings for her and how he had just proposed out of the blue. But was it really that unexpected? Not really. He had made his intentions clear from the beginning, albeit in his own twisted ways. Was it insane he would jump to a marriage proposal? Totally but Neil was right, it was pointless trying to deny the attraction and pull between them. She felt it and was trying her hardest to deny it. Everytime she was on the point of letting go, this immense feeling of guilt enveloped her.
It was as if she was chained by the past. Margaret had told her that she was the one who had decided to stay there and unless she breaks free herself, no one could help her.

She sighed. She could feel a headache on the way as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. Something was not right. There was light from inside. She tried her door and it was unlocked. It was foolish to open and go inside, without anything to protect her from the intruder but she walked in anyway. Her heart was beating faster than usual and her senses were super active, ready to jump fight anyone who would attack her. She had expected something horrible but when the smell of chocolate cookies engulfed her, she was utterly confused. Her oven hadn't been used that much, her baking skills were below average, Meera could burn water if she tried and Margaret would rather bake in her own kitchen and bring her the goodies. Did her neighbor need the oven and broke into her house to use it? She had seen their faces before but had never interacted with them. She made her way slowly in the kitchen, grabbing one of her mother's flower vase. Cookies or not, there was an intruder in her house.

"Booh!"
"Aaaaahhhhh"
"Ow! Sh!t! Calm down woman and stop hitting me." Neil exclaimed. His spitfire had thrown a freaking vase at him, which gave him a cut and would not stop hitting him.

Once she heard his voice she calmed down and looked at him. There was confusion on her face for a second before she turned furious!

"Dammit Neil!! What the fu¢k are you doing in my house?"

"I'm baking of course." He said in a duh tone.

Camellia was exasperated. Neil dressed in his suit, minus tie and jacket wearing geeky glasses was standing in all his 6 feet something glory in her small kitchen with an oven mitt, he said he was baking? He looked so out of place that if Camellia wasn't angry would have laughed.

"You are bleeding." She said matter of factly.

"Yeah, I didn't know you would go all batshit crazy on me and throw that damn vase in my face."