Se connecter~ SIENNA ~I woke up feeling like I was floating on clouds. The beddings were super soft and sunk deep where my body laid. My limbs were no longer sore and the fog in my brain was gone. Rubbing my eyes and looking around the room, I tried to recall the events of yesterday. It was such an eventful day, it felt like more than twenty four hours.The gala. The MD announcement. Running away from home. A four hour train ride. Arriving at Gavin's home. Meeting Maxwell. Dinner. A foot message—That was the last thing I remembered. Did I fall asleep during the massage? How did I get upstairs and into bed? Did Gavin carry me? It felt like being a child again; that feeling of falling asleep watching TV in the living room and waking up tucked into your bed with no memory of how you got there. I sat up straighter, leaning my back against the cushion headboard. Then I burst into laughter. Deep belly laughter. Because it was funny. How did I go from swearing I’d avoid Gavin the last time I w
~ GAVIN ~She frowned. “Why?”“To keep me company.”She looked at me like I had suddenly grown a second head. “You never want company, Gavin.”“That’s a rather bold claim. How would you know that?”“Look at this place,” she said, gesturing around the living room, like she couldn’t believe she had to point it out. “This is not how someone who ever wants company designs their home. Everything here screams: "Do what you came to do quickly and get out”.”I glanced around before returning my attention to her. “Well, you’re right. I generally don’t like visitors. But now I’m asking you to do what you came to do — and stay a few more days.”She shook her head. “No way. Your home looks like a hospital and I hate hospitals. I mean, except the art pieces, there’s nothing here to create excitement. Everything is just… bland and depressing.”I cracked a toe knuckle. “Ouch!” she shrieked. “Is that part of the massage or are you punishing me for telling you the truth?”“Two things can be correct,”
~ GAVIN ~Watching Sienna settle comfortably in my home was doing something to me. I couldn't name it. I wasn't sure I wanted to. All I knew was that I'd spent the last few days mildly annoyed that she'd traveled without a word to me, and the moment I saw her sitting in that train station — hood pulled over her head like she was trying to disappear into herself, every trace of that annoyance dissolved.Now she was here, working her way through the meal Todd had thrown together on short notice. And I was sitting across from her, pretending to be engaged with my tattoo and not watching her every move. With just a shower, she looked a lot better than when she walked in, but I still wanted to know what had made her cry. “Are you going to tell me?” I asked again when she broke eye contact and returned to eating her food — or more accurately, moving it around the plate. “I’m not. That’s an ‘official’ question and I’m not answering any tonight,” she said. I snorted in laughter. “No, yo
~ SIENNA ~He was sprawled along the sectional, headphones plugged in because of course, in the absence of a TV or anything like it, he had to provide his own entertainment. He noticed us immediately, even though he wasn’t looking at the door. The headphones were off in an instant. “Oh hi.” His outfit was very loose, like comfort was all that mattered to his style. Dark brown hair fell at the sides of his face even though it was long enough to be packed into a bun. The man looked younger than Gavin and was obviously very comfortable in his house. Could he be the brother Gavin had mentioned? I didn’t have to wonder for long. Gavin stepped in front of me. “Sienna, meet Maxwell, my longest-serving staffer and trusted friend.” Oh, so not his brother. But still someone important. “Max, this is Sienna.”I didn’t get a title which was telling. Either Maxwell already knew everything about me or Gavin didn’t have a name for whatever we were. Or both. Maxwell stood and shook my hand b
~ SIENNA ~ After the call, I spent the next few minutes watching every car that drove in and out of the station’s parking area as if I would know which one was Gavin’s when he had so many. “What an expensive addiction,” I muttered under my breath, wondering what crazy hobbies I would pick up if I had all that money. “Looking for me?” His voice came from behind, sudden enough to make me jump. I turned sharply. He hadn’t come in from the expected gate. He had entered from somewhere else entirely. Somewhere only a man like him would know about. I stood up from the waiting chair — my back and thighs silently thanking me — and faced him. For a moment, it felt like I was seeing him for the first time all over again. His sharp jawline softened just slightly by shadows. His full lips drawn in that familiar smirk… or was it a full smile this time? And his eyes. God, those eyes — hazel, intense, watching me like a scientist studying an experiment. Maybe it was how darn irresisti
~ SIENNA ~I was four hours away from home and except Margo was home, I didn’t have a way to get in. I checked the time. 8:10pm.By the time I arrived, Margo would definitely be back from wherever she might have gone today. She didn’t keep late nights. Later, we can figure out how to get me a new key. I leaned back in my seat and shut my eyes, feeling tears quietly stream down my face and wondering which of my hundred problems was causing this outburst. The woman sitting beside me noticed my occasional sniffles and subtly angled her body away, as if grief were contagious.That was my cue to stop crying and do something with my time on the train. Sleep wasn’t an option even if that was all I really wanted to do. Not when I was solo-traveling at night — my body would just never relax enough for that. So I did something I should have done five years ago when I graduated college instead of marrying my enemy. I applied for jobs. My CV was ready as I had been working on it since I mo
~ SIENNA ~A frown crossed my face. “What part of the gym makes it better? The sore muscles? Hand calluses? Machine accidents?”Gavin gave me a look that could best be described as pitiful; a face that clearly said I didn’t know what I was missing. “The discipline it builds. Results. Confidence in
~ GAVIN ~From the moment I found out what Max ‘knew’ I needed, I vehemently turned it down. But he insisted. In his words, “We have work, Gav. Go let out this steam so you can function with a clear head tomorrow.”So here I was, in a private booth of a shadowed sex club with a dancer he whispered
~ GAVIN ~The air in Maxwell’s balcony was heavy with the smell of cigar as we puffed into the night. A bottle of the strongest vodka I’ve ever had sat on the stool between us, flanked by our half-filled glasses. A speaker was blasting metal music inside the house, the sound filtering out and servi
~ SIENNA ~I ignored him and continued searching for a ride on the app but it kept returning ‘No available drivers for your location’.Maybe because the kind of people who dined at Aurum Noire and environs didn’t need cabs to leave. Their chauffeurs and convoys were parked close by, waiting for the







