CHAPTER FIVE

OLIVIA

White and Warm.

That’s exactly how I feel when I finally come to. The bright light makes me groan and put my arm over my face.

I snuggle into the duvet, a sigh of content falling from my lips at how comfortable I was. Its not until it registers that my room is usually cold not warm that I bolt up on the bed.

In place of my peeling pain and frozen in place windows, all I see are white walls and a huge bed that I was just lying in. This is clearly not my room.

I try to remember how I got here but my brain can’t seem to recall. It’s not until I look down and realize that I’m naked that the real panic sets in.

As I struggle to get out of the bed, I pull the duvet with me and use it to wrap myself up. If I wasn’t in my room then where the hell was I?

With quiet footsteps I snoop around the room, checking for anything that would give away where I was or whose house I was in.

Someone I make into a walk-in closet that is much bigger than my entire apartment put together two times. I grab the first shirt I see off the hanger and quickly pull it down my body. It stops just above my knee but I’m not complaining, its either that or nothing.

Against my better judgement I head to the door, turning the knob as quiet as possible in the case I have been kidnapped and will need to run away.

My feet step on the white cold tile of a hallway and I’m faced with the decision of following my left or right.

Instead I walk to the room opposite the one that I just walked out from, the door squeaking a little as I let myself in.

It was empty, my eyes searching the room for any hidden persons or camera. When I see none I back out of the room only to hear voices coming from the right side of the hallway.

With unsteady steps I make my way toward the voices, using the wall for support and hoping my palm wouldn’t stain it.

When I make it to the door a the end of the hallway, I realize its the kitchen from the cabinet I can see through the slightly open door.

I push the door open with a deep breath but a gasp falls off my lips at the scene in front of me.

There’s the dickhead that I bumped into when I was leaving the gym. He’s seated on the kitchen counter naked with at least half a dozen girls surrounding him.

So he was the one that brought me here, I don’t recall agreeing to his offer so I’m not sure what I am doing in his house.

“You!” I yell when none of them glance my way or even notice that there’s someone standing at the door and watching them.

 “Dickhead!” I yell again when they don’t turn to me, before I can stop myself I grab a spoon off the rack close to me and throw it towards him.

I cringe when it hits him square in the face and he groans out loud. His blazing eyes locate mine and I scowl at him.

“Don’t tell me you dragged me here because I didn’t agree to your stupid proposal?” I walk towards him, only stopping a few feet from him when his expression promised murder.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asks as he picks his robe off the floor and covers himself with it.

I fight the urge to roll my eyes. I can pretty much tell that the girls are giving me annoyed looks but they’re not the reason I’m here. Maybe another time and another day I would be able to appreciate their beauty.

“I’d answer your question” I tell him, raising my two hands up in surrender when he doesn’t calm down “But I need to know why I’m here”.

“What do you mean know why you’re here?”

“I woke up in your bed naked dickhead so I’m asking again, what are you doing here?”I take a deep breath in, fighting the temptation to throw something else at him. If anyone should be angry in this situation then it would be me.

He scratches the back of his neck, immediately going shy on me. His gaze searches everywhere but my face.

“About that…” he trails off.

I walk closer to him until I can feel his hot breath on my face “What did you do to me? Did you and your friend think it was okay to just bring me here and do as you wish because you need a wife or whatever it is?

My voice echoes round the house and I realize that all the girls are gone, leaving me with dickhead whose robe was beginning to let loose.

“That was not what happened…”

I hold up my right hand cutting him off, “Did you touch me?” I suddenly ask with horror. I didn’t feel pain anywhere that could mean I had been violated but I needed to be sure.

His face goes a beet red “There’s not much to touch anyway”

Hell freezes. Did he just? “What are you trying to say?”

Standing up straighter he looks me in the eye with a bit of amusement on his lips “There’s nothing much to touch, besides I took your clothes off with my eyes closed”.

His explanation confuses me the more “Why would you need to take my clothes off in the first place and how did I even get to your house?”

Looking away he scratches the back of his neck again “You fainted so I had no choice but to bring you home”

I blink several times “Fainted?”

“I swear it wasn’t my intention. It was raining heavily so I couldn’t see the roads properly, then I just hist something and it turned out to be you” by the time he’s done with his tale his eyes are glued to the floor.

I sigh “That explains why my head hurts so much” I turn away from him and lean on the counter “Do you have any idea where I was headed?”

“No, from the investigation Kyle did he found out that you had just been evicted from your apartment” he taps his jaw lightly “Which will explain why you were wandering under the rain alone”.

I don’t know why I nod but I do “So you’re expecting a thank you then?”

He straightens up “Hearing one would be lovely”.

I almost bare my teeth at him, “Well you did knock me down with your car”

“I am sorry about that, if you…”

I hold up my hand again “I’m tired of your explanation, I’ll just get out of your way” I turn to leave the kitchen when he hold me back by the elbow.

“But you don’t have a place to stay” he says.

I pull my hand from him “Meaning?”

“I can’t let you go out all alone into the streets, my conscience will not allow it” he pauses and I nod for him to go on.

“Why not just accept my offer, that way you’ll have more than enough money and a roof over your head instead of staying out in the cold. And who knows, there are guys out there that are not as kind of me”.

“Striking at my lowest aren’t you?” I laugh “You’ll make a great business man…besides, I’m very capable of taking care of myself. I’ve been doing it my entire life”.

“That’s not what I mean Olivia” his voice is calm “You just have to pretend for three months and all the money is yours to take. There’s no need for any type of relationship between us, you stay out of my way and I stay out of yours. We just have to pretend to be married to my parents and the public”.

He’s beginning to win me over, not like I have much of a choice “Nothing will really happen between us?”

He raises his brow “Why do I have the feeling that you feel repulsed by me? I’m not that bad of a guy”

I deadpan “I’m gay, I’m not attracted to you one bit”

“You meant it when you said you were not attracted to me?” he whines like some high school boy that just had his ego bruised.

“Not one bit” I confirm. I face him “You’re really paying me all that money just to play pretend with you for three months?”

He nods, a smile breaking across his face “That is all. You can keep having girls on the side while I do the same, we won’t even sleep in the same room”.

I find myself nodding without giving myself the chance to think it all through, there isn’t another option anyway. “Well, you have yourself a deal” I say through my teeth.

The grimace on my face doesn’t bother him because he pulls me into a hug “You don’t know what you just saved me from”

I’m about to reply him when the door bell rings and he springs away from me with panicked eyes.

“Quick! You have to hid” he says, pushing me into the hallway.

I twist in his hold “What do you mean hide? Are you a drug dealer?”

“Far from it” he pushes me into a bathroom and hides me under the sink. “Just keep quiet and stay here, I’ll come get you when they’re gone” he says before running out.

I thinking of just following him out to see whose at the door but I decide against. If he’s hiding me then something dangerous could be happening out there.

I pull my knee to my chest and rest my throbbing head on it. I’ll just give him thirty minutes, if he doesn’t come out then I’ll go out and see what is really going on.

Its over an hour and he’s still not back. My legs are cramped really bad and I fear that I’ve lost all the blood in them.

Its too quiet in the house, I can’t even hear a single sound so it might not be some dirty drug business going on.

The door suddenly opens and he walks inside, except this time he doesn’t have his robe on. He comes directly to the sink and suddenly his junk is directly in my face as he starts brushing his teeth.

Did this dude just forget me under his sink?