-=-
Clara’s secretary called her brothers to come to her office for lunch as she laid the food on the table, but there was nobody in the office, and she did not know if Clara came back from her bike ride, so she left.
Max and Jeremy came in laughing. They were teasing each other and betting on Clara again. They were trying to guess where they would find the two CEOs, and what they would be doing. Yeah, it was a bit mean to bet on their sister, but they had nothing else to do at the moment, and her love life was the hottest news right now.
Their plan was to catch them, ‘making out,’ they both said in unison as they barged into her bedroom.
When they saw Sebastian with his arms wrapped around Clara, they high-fived. But when the couple never pulled apart, it seemed like they were not making out after all. Sebastian had his finger on his lips, telling them to quiet down.
The brothers got confused why Clara had her arms and legs wrapped around Sebastian. Then they realized she was taking a nap. Naps and Clara were always a poor combination. Her nightmares never gave her an option to choose when they would appear, and when left alone, she always woke up screaming.
Ever since she remembered her sister’s name, she’d been dreaming about her more and more. The dreams seemed more graphic and more brutal. It was like she was reliving her abduction all over again. She would always call out to Celine, but today something was different. Clara was asleep, like a very peaceful baby.
Max stood on her side of the bed and frowned. ‘What is happening here?’ he looked at her dumbfounded. She never slept this soundly before. Even when they had hugged her or shushed her to sleep.
They let her sleep a few more minutes, but the brothers started whispering on the couch.
‘Do you think she’ll get mad that we let Sebastian hug her?’ Jeremy asks with concern.
‘She might, but I think he’ll know what to do. I’m getting hungry. Maybe we should eat and forget about them.’ Max replies, his tummy grumbling.
The brothers stared at Clara when they heard her speak. ‘Thanks, Max,’ Clara said, ‘I had this dream, but..,’ she stopped and then, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she asked.
‘Uh oh! She’s awake.’ they both whispered.
Clara was sitting upright in bed and glowering at her brothers and Sebastian. ‘What the f*ck is happening? Why are you two there? And why is he beside me?’ she was frowning as she laid her eyes on them.
Sebastian said, ‘Don’t get mad. I heard you whimpering after my shower, and tried to console you, then you wrapped yourself around me like a leech. I didn’t want to wake you, so I just laid there and waited.’
Clara glared at Sebastian for smiling. ‘These two came in here because lunch is ready,’ he explained as he stood up, straightening his shirt, pretending like what he did was nothing out of the ordinary. He took his jacket from the closet and put on his shoes, acting all cool and smooth so he could deflect Clara’s anger somewhere else.
She stood up and started straightening the bed. Clearing her throat, ‘Ehem! Well, I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to grab you like that.’
Sebastian looked into her eyes. ‘I wasn’t complaining.’
‘Oohhhh…’ Max teased.
Clara ran to the bathroom. ‘You guys go ahead and eat. I’ll be out in a moment.’
‘C’mon man, let’s go eat. I’m hungry.’ Max thumps Jeremy in the chest. ‘She’ll probably take a while. She’s hiding from you,’ he said pointedly to Sebastian.
‘So, try not to ask her about her nightmares, okay.’ Jeremy said protectively.
‘Why not?’ asks Sebastian.
‘Because it’s a sore topic, and she doesn’t trust you, not yet.’ Max winks at him. ‘I’ll tell you--’
‘Just act normal and pretend everything is normal,’ Jeremy interrupted, shaking his head at Max.
‘I’ll tell you this, she fell asleep with you, that’s a plus. And she’s not grumpy.’
‘She was mad when she saw me beside her.’ Sebastian looked towards the bathroom.
‘Nah, that’s fine. That’s typical Clara. Ignore it.’ Max disregards Sebastian’s concern. He knew his sister was attracted to him, otherwise, she wouldn’t have fallen asleep in his arms. She had a thing about sleeping beside someone else. If it wasn’t him or Jeremy, she wouldn’t fall asleep.
‘Here she comes. Say something funny.’ Jeremy signals.
‘Ha ha ha ha…. Too late,’ Max pretended to laugh like something funny amused him. ‘Clara’s here…’
They were having sushi on this low table in Clara’s office, and even though it looked like they ordered enough food for an army, the siblings were still stealing food from each other’s plates.
‘Stop it!’ she yells like an annoyed kid. ‘These are mine, stop stealing them,’ she had her arms encircling her plate, and she was kicking Max. She had a smile on her face, and she was laughing. It was refreshing to see her like this after her nightmare. It was like whatever plagued her never existed.
Sebastian sat beside her and gave her the dishes she seemed to like, and she noticed his gesture and announced, ‘Sebastian’s on my team. Let’s see you mess with him,’ she laughed, sticking out her tongue at her brothers.
It was a lot of food, and Sebastian, together with both brothers, eventually polished it all off. They do not believe in wasting food, so with all their tummies full, they collapsed on the couch, giving off the feeling that they were in a college dorm with their best friends, just hanging out.
When Sebastian left, Max had to get ready to fly to San Francisco for his first real date with Celine. He could have asked to ride back with Sebastian on his private plane, but he did not want anyone to know what he was doing.
Who knew what might happen? This might even be a disaster. He doesn’t remember working this hard to date a girl before, and he’s going to lengths just to see her. Well, she better be worth it, being Clara’s sister or not has nothing to do with it. Maybe the challenge has gotten to him. The selection of women throwing themselves at him on every occasion did not entertain him. They were all shallow and vapid, talking about nothing but fashion and the latest trend. He could not hold a conversation with them even if they tried.
In his gut, he knows he wants something better. Someone better. Someone who challenges him. One who is smart, and has a sense of humor, someone like Celine.
Every time he closes his eyes, he can see Celine’s teasing smile when they flirted that night. And then that guy Dante showed up the next day. It showed him she was no pushover. He liked that she was feisty and asked him to leave, which meant she had a fire in her, and he wanted to see it burn brighter. He wants to be the person who made her fire shine. ‘I wonder how she is in bed? I hope she’s as equally responsive.’ He was getting a hard-on just thinking about kissing her, having her in between the sheets, under hi--‘Sir, please return your seat and your tray back in its upright position. We are ready to land.’ The flight attendant interrupted Max’s sexy daydream, alerting him to how close he was to seeing the object of his fantasies. He adjusts himself before doing what the attendant instructed. He can’t scare his fellow passengers by sporting a boner.
-=-Celine was nervous. This was their first official date. After that disastrous night at the club. Then followed by the equally unpleasant lunch. Even she wouldn’t want to go out with her. It seemed like trouble followed her wherever she went. And just to prove her point, the zipper of the flowy Sunday dress she was going to wear broke apart, leaving her with no option but to ditch the dress and look through her closet for another one.She tried to pretend not to care about this date. It wasn’t a big deal, just another regular date. That’s what she said to herself, but she knew she wanted it to be special. There was something about Max that drew her to him. Actually, it was their group. The siblings looked like a very fun group to be with. With their ages being close together, she envied that they looked like they were each other's bes
Now she understood why the hostess bothered her. It was because Max was smiling at them as they walked toward him. Celine hoped his smile was only for her, and it seemed the hostess felt the same way. ‘Is she seriously competing with me?’She stared Max straight in the eye, testing to see if he was going to break contact and look at the blonde bombshell coming toward him, but he never strayed. He had passed her test. It seemed that he only had eyes for her. ‘For now.’ her evil conscience taunted her. ‘He’s only looking at you because of what you’re wearing.’She was wearing a simple dark blue A-line dress with butterfly sleeves and a deep V neckline that led down to gold buttons on the front of her dress and stopped at her knees. It would look simple if someone else wore it, but on Celine, Max thought she looked s
After dinner, Max invited her to walk around the outdoor shopping area that surrounded the ‘V.’ There were little gift shops, cafes, ice creams parlors, and restaurants that littered the area to entice people to relax and go shopping.The food they ate didn’t really satisfy their hunger, so they stopped at a cafe to have some cake and coffee for him, a milkshake for her. The atmosphere at the cafe was more relaxed, probably due to the fact that it was a more open environment, and there was less expectation to act more sophisticated and classy because the cafe was more casual. Which lightened the mood a bit until Max started running his hand up and down her arm while they were talking about mundane stuff.She was so aware of how his thumb was lazily caressing her arm, giving her goosebumps, and the nerve endings from her arm were just igniting
Celine kept refusing her friends, but they kept begging and dragging her to the bar so they could ask her about her date. They knew he wasn’t from the area, or they would have heard about him already. Most of the time she could stand mingling with the women who talk about nothing but fashion and the latest shopping sprees, but these women that spotted her were the ones she called “the vultures.” They were prey animals that loved criticizing and making fun of people who were not up to their level, and right now, Max was on their radar.These women always knew what was happening in town and would disseminate news as fast as their fingers could type on their phones. Celine would have gladly not have associated with them. But she learned that it was always better to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.She tried not to be a
He probably wouldn’t even know how to tell the sign that what he was feeling was more than lust, even if it hit him in the face. He had long denied the fact that he wanted to fall in love, that he wanted to feel that all-consuming feeling his friends go through when they say they found the woman of their dreams.It was all relative to how rich you are and if your parents are still alive. Orphans do not get the same liberties regular people with families do. In this society, people from the upper class reject orphans. For them, orphans are not good people worth marrying, they have shady pasts. They are without direction and their blood should never mix with the tainted orphan blood. It did not matter how successful a person was, the stigma was loud and clear.What people don’t realize is some people are orphans even if they have parents. If one
He took a quick shower so she wouldn’t have to wait, and he was afraid that she would leave and opt to wait for him downstairs, so he was a bit disappointed when he was right. Max thought she left when he didn’t see her on the bed, so he pulled out his clothes from the closet and wiped his body down with the towel from his waist, leaving him naked as Celine watched from the window. He was drying his hair when he heard a gasp and his brown, surprised eyes found another set by the window. Celine turned away and laughed nervously. ‘I’m sorry, I thought you left.’ Max hurriedly slipped on his clothes to make it less awkward. ‘Oh, well, I’m still here,’ she replied. ‘Did you like what you saw?’ whispering in
‘I feel so fucking awesome!!!!’ Celine wanted to scream. ‘This guy really knows how to fucking kiss, and oh my gosh, if that is how he kisses my lips, I could just imagine, ohhhhh… I’m addicted. Maybe I should just let him do whatever he wants. Who cares if we just started dating this week? At least I didn’t sleep with him yesterday. I waited. One day hahaha… goes to show how much self-control I have.’Celine was touching her lips and imagining kissing Max again. ‘Wait, hasn’t he been in the bathroom long enough? What is he doing in there, anyway? Is he jacking off without me?’Celine knocks on the door and hears running water on the other side. ‘Max! Is everything alright? Are you okay in there?’ He opens the door, and