Vincent’s POV:My princess is spiraling.She paces the floors so fast I’m dizzy just by watching her. I mean, I expected something akin to her current reaction. I just didn’t expect her to freak out entirely.“How did that even…” she whirls around and faces me. Her eyes are a cocktail of worry, arousal, and fear. “That looks…painful?” I can tell she’s cherry picking her words. I’d have found her reaction adorable. That is if her chest wasn’t rising and falling rapidly, and she hadn’t immediately jumped to her feet and reeled back at the sight of my dick.She’s scared. And it’s not funny.“It doesn’t hurt,” I answer, keeping my voice soft. “I got it a long time ago, it’s fully healed now.”She blinks up at me, her eyes misty. “Did it hurt when you got it?” her eyes track down my body to my dick which was still hanging out by the way. She swallows nervously, her hand cupping over her mouth. “It must have hurt a lot, right?”“Not much.” I said with a shrug.She looks up at me. “Make no m
Calypso's POV:“I’m fucking done!”Charles grabs my wrist, the same hand holding my suitcase, and yanks me back to him. My body reacts before I can, and my hand comes flying at his face. He catches my flying fist, holding both of my hands and trapping me against him. He stares into my face, an amused smile dancing on the edge of his lips. “Are you done now?”“Let me go! Let me go right now!” I scream at him. Yet the more I struggle, the tighter he holds me. He spins me around so my back is pressed to his chest, while he holds my arms in an X across my chest. His head dips into the crook of my neck, his hot breath fanning my skin and making me feel sensitive against my will. “Calm down now, let’s talk this out. As we always have.”I laugh bitterly. “This…this is not going to be talked out.” “We always have worked things out,” he says, pressing an open mouthed kiss to the left side of my neck. “For six years now, we’ve worked out our differences. That is exactly what we’re going to d
Penelope’s POV:And the line goes dead. I get into the car and take a few minutes to calm my racing heart. I’ll have to tell Sera about this. Hopefully she can track the person down. I don’t like this. A strange person sends me a picture, and my mother lies to me about it. Now they’re saying I’m blind?What the actual hell?“Miss Verdant,” Athena’s steady voice is like a much needed anchor. She’s in the drivers seat, her head turned over her shoulder as she watches me. “Is everything alright?”“I think I’m being watched, possibly followed too.” I say, guilt creeping into my tone. “I’m sorry for today,”“There’s nothing to apologize for. It’s late, should I drive you home?”“You should go home,” I say. Even though there’s a room for her at my apartment, she prefers to go home to hers at the end of the day. In her words, she doesn’t want to bump into Vincent not even by accident. That reminds me, I still haven’t asked her what her history with him was. As I stare at her, I try to wo
Penelope’s POV:My heart skips a beat. A delicious beat. “Alright, I’ll be there soon.” I say and hang up. Athena pokes her head into the back seat. “Home?” She asks. “No. I have to go—” my phone vibrates, cutting me off. I pick it up, glancing at the message that just popped in.An unknown number. For a while, I think it’s Charles. Then I remember I just blocked the number he used to call me. “One minute,” I say to Athena as I open the message. It contains one photograph. At first glance, it doesn’t look like much. A picture of my parents and a couple. They way it’s angled, I almost brush off the image. Almost. The couple my parents are talking to in the photograph is Mr and Mrs Halstead. My brow furrows as I zoom into the picture. It looks like an old picture, one taken years ago. I know that by my mother, her hair is without a single strand of white, a rich black color tumbling down her slender shoulders. She looks beautiful here, radiant even. My father has his arm around
Penelope’s POV:All from Vincent. Guilt eats my heart and leaves nothing behind. He did call, he did text. I just didn't see any of them. Oh. My phone was on dnd all day. “Pen! You need to look at this!” Sera’s panic laden voice pulls me back. I look up to see her walking up to me with her laptop. She halts a few feet in front of me, glances at the screen then back at my face. “Actually, I don’t think it’s right. Forget about it.”I put my phone away, making a mental note to apologize to Vincent later. “What is it?” I ask. She glances over my shoulder at Athena. She looks worried and a tad guilty. “It’s about Mrs Fletcher’s painting. And it’s not pretty.”She shows the screen to me. Displayed on it is a surveillance video showing the storage room where some paintings were kept last night. “Nothing is happening,” I say after a few seconds. “Just keep watching.” Sera replies, her voice tight.Just as she says that, the video moves. Two figures walk into the storage room, entangled
Penelope's POV:The next day at work, I can barely keep my eyes open. “Wait! Are you for real?!” Sera slams her fists down on my desk, rattling my pen holder and sending a few loose papers flying. She leans down so close that our noses bump. “You’re a landlord now?”I rub my temples, groaning softly. My head hurts…and I haven’t had my morning coffee. “Yes. That’s exactly what I said.” “And landlord of Aether Garden no less?”“Yes.”“Damn. My mom will lose her shit if she finds out.”“Why?”Sera leans back and shrugs. “She’s always had her eyes on the place. The penthouse, I mean. I advised her against it and…yes. She’ll skin me if she finds out.”Her deadpan tone makes me laugh. Sera’s mom is one hell of a business woman. I’ve lost count of how many ventures she runs. As a result, I’ve seen her only a handful of times, even though Sera and I have been friends for years. “You won’t tell her, right?”Sera shakes her head and calmly walks to the water dispenser. “You want to keep thi