18+| Warning: Explicit sexual contents and mature language.
All that Claire needs is an adventure of a lifetime. Being a Rapunzel in the castle, surrounded with all lavish one could possibly need, she was still deprived of something very essential;...
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When Claire returned, everyone was in the living room. She couldn't stop wondering about Bruno no matter how hard she tried to make assumptions about his predicament—the reason why he left his family for two years. As she approached them, Ryan's intense gaze thawed her thoughts like a candle in flames.
Why was he staring at her like that? Her breath shallowed the more she took steps closer, and he looked like a king on the throne as he took a seat on a wing chair, propping his ankle onto his opposite knee afterward. His gaze didn't free her even when he reclined back, resting his arms lazily on the wooden armrests.
"Hey, Claire, come in!" Bruno urged, waving at her to join them.
So fucking awkward. Claire wished she didn't come here today.
"How exactly do you two know each other?" Mr. Stevens asked, smiling confused at them.
"We met recently," Bruno replied.
"On the same day I met you both," Claire filled in, her eyes betraying her mind by stealing a long glance at Ryan as if she was explaining it specifically to him.
"What a coincidence," saying this, Mr. Stevens drew his glass of juice from the coffee table. "But I'm so happy you came to visit and brought this rascal back to us."
"No, it was all his doing." Claire sat next to Bruno, and across from Ryan, as her cheeks flushed with unfathomable warmth.
Brothers! They are brothers! Was fate fucking with her?
Ryan didn't say a word, but it felt impossible for him to avoid Claire's hazel green eyes that made her look like an angel with the little white sundress she was wearing, her wavy golden hair falling past her slender shoulders splendidly.
She looked different today. Perhaps... more beautiful? Maybe it was the dress. Or her glowing hair that complimented her bronze skin perfectly. But why was she with Bruno? With no deeper meaning to it, Ryan couldn't will his curiosity away.
Lunch was served shortly after, and Claire spent the whole afternoon in the mansion. She was able to learn that the boys' mother, Mr. Stevens' daughter, died two years ago and that's when Bruno left and only stepped foot in this house today.
Around six it was time to go. As much as Claire loved and enjoyed their company, their amiable laughter, and the warmth of their home, a reminder of how different her family was from theirs, she had to report at work first thing tomorrow morning.
"Consider this your home, okay? Because I'm sure you can make good friends with these two," Mr. Stevens told Claire as they stepped out of the house, ready for her departure to Lisbay.
"Okay, thank you." Claire smiled shyly at that friendship proposition.
With Bruno, yes. She was already friends with him.
But with Ryan, she could never see herself as his friend. She just couldn't.
