Twenty-eight
Dexter finally let go of Anelia but never once took his gaze off of her. He was still very much shirtless and Anelia was really trying not to let her gaze wander anywhere that was below his neck.
Twenty-nineAfter they had had breakfast, Anelia had been left to clear up the dishes and clean up the kitchen. She had seen Dexter; alright perhaps the word spied would have been a lot more accurate, walk upstairs after he had finished his breakfast and Natie had said that she was going to her bedroom.
Friday came too early for Anelia. She got off the bed in a daze and walked into the bathroom to freshen up. A shower later her mind was fully awake and she put on a random white tee and a pair of well-worn blue jeans.She tied her hair up in a messy bun and exited her room. Walking past Dexter's room, of course not without throwing it a suspicious look, she proceeded along the
When Dexter took a step in her direction, Anelia did not need to witness him take another to predict his intentions. In a panicked and quite frankly, overly dramatic manner, she stretched both her arms out, displaying the palms of her hands in a gesture that was meant to bring Dexter to an abrupt stop."Stop!" She shouted, the remnants of her shrill voice bouncing off the walls of the spacious dining room. "Don't come near me!"
Anelia felt light-headed. She involuntarily pinched the collar of her t-shirt and fanned herself. It was suddenly all too hot in the room and yet the heat had nothing to do with room temperature. As if only realising what she had been doing for the first time, Anelia scanned her t-shirt and abruptly stopped with the fanning.What was she doing?She took a huge gulp of air to calm her raving feelings. She patted her face and was surprised to find it hot. Mortified by her reaction, she headed up the stairs to her room cupping both cheeks as if her life depended on it. After a good cold face-wash, the red that had stained her face a few seconds prior had lessened, replaced by the familiar pale colour. She patted her face dry and applied some vaseline. She always applied vaseline to her face and it worked just fine for her. Her skin didn't break out but well, when she thought about her elementary skin routine, it was one brutal reminder just how disparate their lives were.And that was th
Her heart stopped at the sound of the opening door. She heard the light footsteps echo on the floor of the study, before the door was clicked shut. With her fingers crossed, she edged further into the small space under the table and just foolishly hoped that she would still be owning a job when this was over."Here is the paperwork you asked for," she heard Mr Furler speak. There was some shuffling as she carefully listened in for the sound of approaching steps."How is the loyalty program coming along?" she made out what was undoubtedly Dexter's voice; except it sounded clipped and businesslike. Exactly how he had been with her the first time they met. "It has been making a massive difference, mostly on backpackers as well as families. The discounts and loyalty gift cards have certainly been attracting more guests but..."A few seconds of silence followed and Anelia gulped apprehensively."There seems to be a dip in the revenue generated from business travellers," Dexter suddenly spo
Dexter had really thought that he had seen it all when it came to Anelia Telford; standing on his chair, slapping him, throwing eggs at his back, the list went on but, clearly he had thought wrong. Or was it that she had proved him wrong? She seemed to have a knack for doing that and he was starting to find it very amusing.Dexter sat back in his chair and watched as Anelia's face slowly become a rosy pink. The scene alone was quite unbelievable but
Packing up Mrs Hally's belongings had been no trouble at all. All that she had been tasked with was packing the fragile chinaware and vases. When she had successfully executed her part, the two men that had been assigned to help them move, were swiftly moving the boxes down into the truck.She eyed the only three remaining medium-sized boxes that had been placed just near the
Anelia occasionally threw the man that sat behind the steering wheel scathing looks, as the car wheezed past endless rows of trees. To think she had believed that they would be transported to and from Mrs Hally's place by the truck. She narrowed her eyes at him and simultaneously folded her arms to prove her point. It only further exasperated her that he was doing a great job at ignoring her by smoothly focusing on the road. When she still failed to solicit any significant reaction from him, she huffed and looked at him."You know, I can't believe you tricked me," she spoke out."Tricked you?" He reiterated her statement in form of a question. "Yes! If I had known your intentions earlier, I would never have agreed to this!" She flailed her arms and gestured to the car whose interior alone made her uneasy. She had literally jumped into the car earlier because she could not risk standing there and possibly being spotted by any of the other employees. Most especially the Dappers. When
Dexter rubbed his hands over Anelia’s smooth skin, his fingers caressing and tracing every curve on the surface of her skin with slow deliberateness. They lay together, skin to skin and to say he was content would be putting it lightly. To think that he had actually entertained the possibility of staying away from her and concoct some plan to seduce and sexually frustrate her until she surrendered. The idea alone now seemed to have been doomed to fail from the very beginning. The plan had come biting him back—it certainly had been the longest week he had ever had to endure. And he wasn’t one to wait around, especially when he had been occasionally living right across the road from her. The issue with his latest acquired addition to his list of properties caused a ball of unease to gather in his stomach. It had to be the most impromptu decision he had ever done in his entire existence, and he hardly ever jumped into a decision without much assessment and evaluation. To say it was unl
Days passed by and Anelia attempted to keep her mind occupied with the restaurant, the priceless conversations that always arose between her colleagues during work hours and avoiding her best friend like the plague. Emma had tried to pry into the specifics of her sudden meeting with Freda, one that her friend didn’t fail to label as careless and reckless whenever the matter arose, but had failed to gain much information. Anelia couldn’t bring herself to repeat the drama that had unfolded that day, for fear of failing to keep the fact that Dexter remembered everything and had made his intentions towards her clear from her. Knowing her friend, she would have all her belongings packed in just a few minutes and toss her in the next taxi back to La Vida.The thought of going back to La Vida, of going back to him, it brought shivers all over her skin. Whether it was from fear or excitement, she was not too sure. Perhaps, it was a bit of both. She feared the unknown, the possibility that so
"Take me home," Anelia murmured in a voice that was devoid of feeling. She had spoken the very same words over an hour ago, when she had been more than pliant in his warm embrace and overcome with heat. Except the spoken words now lacked the same enthusiasm that had previously been present in them. Between their shared moment of passion which stood to remind her that all attempts to forget Dexter disintegrated to moot the second he kissed her, and waiting while Dexter explained everything to the police as soon as they arrived on scene; finding her wrapped in his arms and clinging onto him like a vice (much to her mortification), it was safe to say Anelia had sobered up. Add on the fact that while she had been deep in her thoughts, she didn't pay attention to the direction Dexter was steering his car in, only looking up at the familiar La Vida that was illuminated by a glowy colour one couldn't miss from a mile away.Dexter had ignored her protests and taken a hold of her hand like he
He was calm, cool and utterly composed as he walked down the remaining steps. If anything, he seemed to have walked in the middle of a very a boring play. His eyes finally shifted towards Freda after they had scanned her entire body and Anelia glimpsed the facade breaking for a mere second. In the next second, his features were schooled and it was if as she had imagine that crack.“You have been busy, Freda,” Dexter drawled, looking up at the stage with a lazy gaze. He twisted to look at the hall around him. “And fantastic choice of a hiding place, by the way. I never would have taken you for the sort to know of such dilapidated places.”Freda paced across the stage, the knife shining under the large beam of light she and Anelia were both under. “Why, thank you. And this,” she said, gesturing to the entire building. “Was my favourite place to hang around in my younger years. But, of course you never knew that because you never bothered to know me. But that’s all in the past. What’s im
Anelia found herself ruefully appreciating the importance of her eyesight, especially now that she was blindfolded and had no way of ripping off the piece of clothing covering her eyes.It was eerily quiet and all the twisting and turning she had done in the past hour, in hopes of somehow freeing herself had only served to bruise her wrists. Stubbornly, she twisted her wrists again and moaned at the pain that shot up her arm.Stilling, she took a large gulp of air and bit down on her lip. Hours ago, her life had been perfectly normal and she had enjoyed every little second of it. Well, that as wasn’t entirely true. The thought alone brought a wave of sadness that settled over the crevices of her heart and tightened.To say that she had tried her hardest to be merry, to spend as much time with her newfound family at the restaurant and with Natie would be understatement. She had been working harder than was necessary to take her mind off Dexter, to no avail. If anything, thoughts of hi
Two pairs of sharp eyes stared at each other. One of the two were encompassed by wrinkles that crinkled deeply when the owner was in a merry mood, one that she currently was not in. The other pair that closely resembled hers, in that they were an extremely piercing pair of orbs that could not be bullied into casting their gaze down, continued to stare back at her.“Should we not intervene?” The most talkative of the twins said in a voice that was close to a whisper. Brett’s only response happened to be a sardonic smile. Of all the people present in the room, he happened to find great amusement in the situation at hand.As if Mrs Hally, their grandmother, finally registered the words that Dave had quietly uttered to his twin, she turned her eyes to him. “I’m most disappointed in you two,” she said pointedly in the direction of Dave and Brett. “Your brother has always been stubborn and difficult to deal with, but I’ve always counted on you two to balance out those very characteristics
Hey guys! It feels like ages since I last wrote to you all. Firstly, I just want to say how overwhelmed I am by the support I've received on this book. Some of you have reached out on F******k to ask about the lack of updates and that went to show that my work means something to someone out there. For that, I'll forever be grateful. With that being said, I would like to take this this time to announce some exciting news. Yes, there's a new book on the block written by yours truly. If you enjoyed reading COLD, you'll no doubt adore MR KING. Please check out MR KING. Do not fret, COLD has not been neglected. It is drawing closer to the end, that's all I'm willing to say right now;). Happy reading! Stay safe xx
It was six in the evening when the car screeched to a stop near a small cafe in the outskirts of town. The taxi driver had tried to get her to converse, but Anelia had been too busy thinking about the preposterousness of her actions to really engage in the conversation."Be safe now!" The woman shouted, as Anelia stepped on the curb. "Thanks?" Anelia spoke loudly, although it came out as a question. Was the apprehension she was feeling internally so perfectly drawn on her face that the woman had felt obligated to wish her safe.Without another word from the drover, the taxi drove off and there was no way back now. It was too late to go back now. She had taken the bait and travelled so far away to get some answers.Anelia rubbed her palms on her jeans and unlocked her phone. There was no message to direct her any further, so she waited. She had barely taken a step in the direction of the cafe when the familiar tone of her phone signalling an incoming phone call rang."Yes?" She answer
Weeks flew by and things in the Telford household slowly shifted back to normal. Oliver decided to stay, and their conversations became less robotic and dry. Less forced. Things gradually eased back to what had been their normal, asides from Oliver's occasional guardedness that although Anelia found rather cute, she hoped he would sooner lose it than later. It was Saturday and Oliver had flown over to see his parents. That meant it was just her and Natie for the weekend. Macy had finally forced her to take her off days that Anelia had for so long been procrastinating to claim. That meant it was either they spent the whole day in the house or they chose to go out.Anelia knew one thing for sure, she much preferred being out there surrounded by the buzz of people than being stuck at home with her thoughts doing a party in her mind. Which was why they were going to the movies to watch Frozen 2, upon Natie's request. "Nat, are you done?" Anelia spoke over her shoulder, not sure if Natie