Dirty Little Secret // h.s

Chapter 3: "Good girl,"

Maria lets an inaudible gasp escape her lips. No. It can't be. She keeps repeating those words in her head, her eyes squeezed shut while trying to rationalize what the heck has just happened within the time span of maybe 10 seconds. She feels the hands remove themselves from her waist but soon feels them gripping her shoulders, twisting her body around to face the person. Her eyes are still squeezed shut and she is honestly afraid to open them and see what stands before her. This must be a dream, it has to be.

"Open those beautiful eyes, doll." His voice has suddenly become a few octaves deeper, and also raspier. Maria slowly opens her eyes, squinting them up at him. Her lips part in shock.

"H-how is this possible?" Her voice squeaks.

He smirks down at her.

"Baby, I'm a billionaire. Don't underestimate what I'm capable of."

Still confused, Maria furrows her eyebrows then speaks up.

"But how did you know that I'm the girl you were talking to online?"

He steps closer to Maria and she tilts her head up to look at him better.

"That site you made an account on? I own it. So I can easily find out things about the people on that site." When he sees the panicked expression present in Maria's facial features he sighs then continues.

"Plus, your dad constantly talks about you and your sister. So, I know lots about you..."

"Why me?" Her voice is quiet, almost a whisper.

Before he can reply Maria's mother opens the kitchen door and looks at both of them with furrowed eyebrows and a confused expression.

"Maria? What are you doing?" She asks and Maria internally panics. She's never been a good liar.

"I'm so sorry ma'am, Maria was just curious about the upcoming company anniversary celebration and wanted to know more about it." Maria feels her eyes grow wide, hearing him cover up for both of them.

Maria's mother stares at the two of them for a few seconds before sighing and nodding her head, agreeing with the cover up Mr. Styles has told.

"Maria, can you please come help me?" Her mother asks and Maria nods her head, watching her mother disappear back into the kitchen.

As she goes to walk, it's like déjà vu as she feels a tug on one of her wrists again. But this time she turns around to face him.

"Sit beside me during supper." Even though it sounded like a question Maria knew it was a demand and nervously nodded her head. This man is scary, who knows what he'll do if she disagrees with what he says?

Bad girls get punished..

Her subconscious taunts menacingly. Maria cringes internally at that. She doesn't know the meaning of that but she knows it can't be good, or like the punishments she gets when she's bad, like back talking to her parents or something along the lines of that.

"Good girl," he whispers in her ear, causing shivers to run down Maria's spine. She watches as he walks into the dining room, sighing to herself before entering the kitchen and helping her mother with the food.

After serving the food, Maria and her mother take their seats around the dining table. Sophie and Mr. Cuddles (Sophie refuses to eat supper if she can't have Mr. Cuddles join her) are sitting opposite each other at different ends of the table and her mother and father are sitting adjacent them on the left. That leaves Maria and Harry to sit beside each other on the right side of the table. To say she's nervous would be an understatement.