Chapter 5

He slowly caressed his fingers on my cheek, I stiffened, feeling the warmth of his skin on mine. I blinked multiple times before I was able to slap his hand away from my face.

"Do you seriously want them to get us caught?"

"What's the big deal?" He chuckled. "It's not like we are siblings by blood."

"Still---" I gasped. "What happened between us was just one night. It will never happen again."

"Are you sure?" He put his hands on his pockets, looking so chill.

"Yes, I am. So don't bother convincing me to come on your boring trip, cause I will not. I have so many more important things to do than pretending I am part of a one big happy family." I turned my back on him and started walking away.

"You will change your mind. I am certain of that," he said before I heard his footsteps following me back to the dining room.

When we reached the table, mom, Franklin, and Hans were just quietly eating dessert. I sat on my chair, extremely wanting to go home now. I tried, but mom pleased me to stay a little longer.

"We are planning to stay on an island in Hawaii, I bought a private property there, you should go see it," Franklin said.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward." Vance glanced at me, still with a playful smirk. I almost kicked his chair for Pete's sake.

"Did you convince her?" Mom asked Vance.

"Not yet. You're right, she's hard-headed, but I can manage. I'll convince her again."

"Don't bother." I rolled my eyes.

"Sofia, please." Mom showed me her puppy eyes again. She really does know my weakness when it comes to her. I could rarely say no to her. I mean, all my life, she was the only person who stayed with me, protected me at all costs. I owed her so much, but I just couldn't always grant her wishes. I also have a life to live on my own.

I sighed deeply before I ate a piece of cake. They continued planning the trip while I stayed quiet, made my mouth busy chewing all the time so I had reason not to speak.

After eating, I excused myself. I really wasn't feeling the environment in the dining room.

I sat on the sofa in the living room and massaged my head. I closed my eyes, relaxing myself. At last, mom finally allowed me to go home to my apartment, but she asked me to say goodbye to my stepdad and stepbrothers.

A sigh of relief escaped my mouth after I finally hopped in my car.

Then it was another day for me, working my nuts off, but in reality, I just wanted to have enough money to retire. I took a cup of coffee and immediately headed back to my office. I walked around the desk and took a sit before sipping on my hot caramelized caffeine. I checked my emails while sipping from time to time.

Someone knocked on my door and before I could even say a word, it opened, revealing my partner in the industry, Kyle. He quickly sat on the visitors' chair in front of my desk.

"The Villanueva's signed another agreement with us. I must say, it's always hard cooperating with them. They demand too much and I always have to innovate. If only they aren't a big client, I will not please them."

I chuckled and shook my head, not surprised at all. "I could see how they stressed you out." I closed my laptop and stood, grabbing my bag. I then walked around the desk to come near him. "Let's go, we need some stress eating."

He looked at his wristwatch. "Perfect timing, it's lunchtime."

I shrugged before pulling him out of my office. Kyle wasn't only my partner at work but also a really good friend of mine. I had known him for how many years now. We met in college and 'til then, we didn't take separate ways.

We walked out of the building and across the street. Trisha texted us to meet her at our favourite lunch place and so we did go there and we found her chilling at the table near the glass wall. I told my order to Kyle so he could order it for me, then I sat on the chair parallel to Trisha's chair. Unlike us, she was an engineer and we met her on one of our projects, surprisingly we bonded well and she became part of our friendship.

"I think I'm missing something here." Trisha pouted.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Trisha glanced at Kyle who just finished talking with the waiter.

"What's she talking about, Kyle?" My brows crossed.

Kyle laughed. "Don't act innocent. It's about the guy who took your virginity."

"Hey!" I got immediately uncomfortable by the thought of Vance. "Don't say it too out loud." I scoffed.

"Oh my God! So it's true? You just got your flower popped!"

"Shh..." I looked around, everyone still seemed to be busy eating and doing their business. "My God, it's embarrassing to talk about it in public." I brushed the strands of my hair away from my face.

"Congrats, dear!" Trisha giggled more. "Tell me more about it. Is the lucky man, good? Is he handsome? Yummy?"

"Oh my God, Trisha!" I covered my face with my palms. I could just imagine Vance and damn, yes he was freaking handsome, but no, no, I shouldn't see him now in a sexual way.

Finally, our food arrived in no time and I quickly tasted the burrito. Oh, I had been craving for this since yesterday, so yummy, so tasty, and, juicy plus the hot sauce added some fantastic kick to it.

After I finished my two burritos and orange juice, I leaned back and massaged my stomach, at last, I felt so full. Kyle and Trisha also finished theirs after a few minutes. We exited our favourite lunch place and Trisha had to say goodbye as she was working for a different company although just near to ours.

As Kyle and I got back to our office, I just answered some emails before I grabbed my coat and keys. I walked towards Kyle's office and Knocked when the door was closed. He quickly responded. I told him to go fix herself as it was time to check one of our ongoing projects with Villanueva's. We would visit the site every day just to make sure everything was going smoothly as planned.

We arrived at the site and saw the head engineer. "Miguel! The most dedicated engineer I know." I greeted him while approaching his direction.

"Careful." Kyle reminded me while he was looking at my stilettos and the uneven ground. I just chuckled.

"Well, this is a million-dollar contract, I cannot fail this project." Miguel shrugged.

"Indeed." Kyle handed him the updated building plan since Villanueva's requested some changes to it. It wasn't easy adjusting the plan, especially now that the construction was ongoing, although we had no choice.

We discussed the updated plan with Miguel together with his team. After an hour or two, Kyle and I finally hopped in my car. I drove back to the company while Kyle was busy answering some calls from our signed clients.

I was about to enter my office after just arriving when I stopped as I felt my phone vibrating from my bag, I checked it. My brows crossed at the unknown number on the screen. I looked around before I entered my office and locked it. I then answered the call, put the phone on top of my ear while I turned around my desk and sat on my soft, relaxing swivel chair.

"Hello?" I called out.

"Hi, Sofia."

I flinched and looked at my phone screen with my eyes widened. I put the phone back on top of my ear.

"How did you get my phone number?" My lips trembled, hearing Vance's breath on the other line had me twitching my legs like my skin was tingling.

"Oh, that was the easy part." He chuckled. "Convincing you to come with us is actually the hard part."

My lips thinned before I sighed. "I told you, you cannot convince me." I squeezed my eyes closed, part of me was punching my chest for declining.

A long silence hugged the call and I was stunned the whole time, remembering all that happened to us, my face heated and blushed.

"You should come. It'll be fun."

He was tempting! I bit my lower lip. "What's hard to understand with the word 'I'm busy?'"

"Busy or not, you should come. I want you to come." His voice was more serious, making it sound hotter.

I squeezed my eyes closed and puffed a large amount of breath. "I can't. Perhaps we should just avoid each other. What happened to us, cannot happen again!" I bit my lower lip, my body was screaming contradiction.

"Why is that?"

"Because--- because we're technically siblings now! We can't fuck each other as if your dad and my mom are not in a relationship."

"Technically. But we're not sisters by blood."

"Still, it's wrong! We shouldn't do it again." I gasped, my chest aching as I betrayed it.

"It's wrong because my dad is marrying your mother, but they didn't give us a choice. Try to think of it, if they aren't in a relationship, do you think it will still be wrong? Hell no!"

"Yes! But they are in a relationship!" I sounded hopeless.

"But we still have the right to decide for ourselves. We didn't choose to become family. It is their relationship that made us forbidden."

I bit my lower lip as I massaged my face with my palm. I didn't utter a word.

"I cannot let them stop our desires. They don't have to know."

"What are you proposing?" I breathed out.

"I want you in my bed, Sofia. You will be in my bed and no one will know. I can keep a secret, can you?"