"Someone is here for you, Mr. Stark." Erica stood before her boss with that trained elegant poise, her tablet balanced on her palm.Alessandro looked up from the open screen of his laptop and checked the time by his watch, reclining into his seat with an automatic grin lighting up his eyes."My wife is here? Let her in."But the assistant lifted a brow in confusion, her forehead marred in a frown."Oh no, sir. It's Bella George, she said it's urgent."And at that, Alessandro's eyes narrowed to slits, and he leaned into the table, pulling off his glasses."Allow her to come in." Gone was the ecstacy in his tone and that rush of maddening happiness that had rippled through him when he thought it was his wife.They indeed were supposed to meet for dinner and he had haboured the silly hope that she had somehow come to surprise him.But it was to his full disappointment when the doors opened and the fake blonde with an equally fake body walked into his spacious office.She wore a skirt t
Alessandro stared at her with his full attention, as though she were the sun and the moon.The intensity of his gaze scared her as much as it made her heart race in weird ecstacy, those powerful feelings eliciting different emotions in her.Guilt, disbelief, fear of being labeled a liar.And when his grin widened and those sinful lips parted to let out words, she felt even worse."A sight for sore eyes indeed. Missed me, baby?" Because she couldn't force herself to smile or pretend like a storm wasn't brewing inside of her, Eve swallowed hard and diverted the topic."Em, you are friends with Bella?" Yeah, that wiped the smile off his handsome face, and he stood from his seat, walking towards her just as she was taking off her jacket."Hardly friends, she came to ramble about something unimportant. Don't worry, I took care of it." That was a nice way to evade what she wanted to know. Eve feigned a smile this time and held her breath as he took her jacket, his fingers brushing her a
It was Eve's first time walking into the gigantic building that housed the Stark Hospital.Security and the medical staff bowed as the chairman, Alessandro walked past them with his wife by his side, his strides faster than she had ever seen.Just as she was seeing him that scared for the first time.She hadn't realised how much he cared for his grandmother till then.It was Eve who had gotten behind the wheel on their way, since Alessandro's chauffer was away on some errand and Alessandro...Well, he was in no state of mind to drive.He had been gawking into space ever since they got the news and left his office, pushing everything she had just learnt somewhere insignificant.Another ball of guilt slammed into her heart as she thought of the last time she had encountered the older woman.She had walked away from Grandmother Fiona Stark's birthday banquet after all.Now, all the anger she had harbored didn't matter anymore.Eve muttered a silent prayer as the elevator doors slid open
"Remember that her bedtime is nine o'clock and she's allergic to...""Peanuts, oh my God, it's not like I was going to pawn your kid for diamonds or use her to attract a new boyfriend, although that could work if I took her to a party...""Anastasia!"There was a chuckle at the other end of the phone, followed by a scoff."Just kidding, Ava. You can calm your tits, okay? Even if I wasn't going to be a good babysitter, grandmother would have my head if anything happened to Zoe."Eve let out a sigh of relief, relaxing the shoulders she hadn't noticed were tense before.Then she sucked in a deep breath, "Okay, thanks again for doing this." Anastasia Stark waited a while before she responded. "Yeah, it's the least I could do considering you know...how you were there for us when Nana was sick."A small smile spread on Eve's face, the sound of familiar footsteps preventing her from delving into a certain memory lane.It had been a month since Grandmother Fiona Stark survived a stroke and
'I want to apologise to you, Ava, about how me and my family have treated you all these while. We thought you were only a fake, a lying gold-digger, but we were so wrong about you.' A fake... Grandmother Fiona Stark had been right about one thing, No matter how much Eve tried to fit into the Stark family, it was never going to cover up her guilt. She was a pretentious substitute anyway, A replica of the real Ava, fake. *** "Baby, baby wake up. Are you okay?" Eve woke up with a gasp, drenched in the heat of her own sweat. Her fingers were gripped tightly to the sheets, and she almost butted heads with Alessandro who was on top of her, regarding her with a very worried expression. "Seems you were having a bad dream. Is it about the Lancaster bastard?" Eve nodded softly, and felt that familiar emotion of guilt slam into her heart. There went another lie. In a swift moment, she was gathered into sturdy arms and crashed into the warmest and most comforting body, her breathing
"This is weird, something is wrong somewhere."Well, for Eve, it could never get more weird than positioning butt naked in the middle of a studio where she was surrounded by canvases,With a very naked Alessandro Stark playing artist with that serious look on his face.She made a mental note to self; nude Alessandro with a grim expression equalled a clown.Regardless of how she felt, she swallowed the urge to laugh or make the various jokes in her head."Wrong?"Alessandro nodded and looked up from the canvass, gripping the pencil tightly in his fingers."Yeah, I... something doesn't seem right."He moved away from the canvas and stepped into her line of vision, wearing nothing but that glorious effortless seduction that suddenly made her want to jump him right there.But also induced the feeling of guilt in her.She wasn't supposed to be selfish and only thinking of how much she wanted him at this moment when he was struggling.Eve cleared her throat and held herself still, holding h
Eve was pulled out of a long long sleep by her annoyingly loud ringtone.It all came down to reaching for her phone and flinging it into the bathroom since she was still sore from earlier that morning.The reminder had colour flooding her cheeks, and she attempted to bury her head in the pillows,Well, that attempt failed, since the ringtone went off again, and this time, it was louder and ten times more annoying."Oh for Pete's sake..." Eve started to curse as she roughly pulled the duvet off her body, but she was halted by the image of her husband who stood in front of her, holding out her phone."It's been ringing for a while, think you should take it." Well, that thickness in his voice was definitely a total awakening agent.But it also brought memories of early that morning, and all the things they had done in his studio.He'd had to carry her up the stairs after draping that robe over her, his deep chortle laughing at her exhaustion."Guess I just brought to life the expressi
Something changed between them.Perhaps it was the declaration that Eve had made, or that pillow talk they'd had. It could also be their routine of her posing as his Muse while he tried to get what he was looking for.He still hadn't succeeded after the fourth day, but they had grown closer and learnt more things about each other than they both thought they would.For instance, Alessandro had let it slip that he had once tried out being a Dom between the sheets before with an ex, but it hadn't worked out so much.There hadn't been that trust between them.Well, damn her for picking up on that among several other things he had shared with her, but Eve was determined more than ever to try something new with him.Somehow, with each moment she got closer to him, she feared that their time together was running thin.It was obviously her paranoia, but she couldn't shake the thought out of her head.Which was exactly why Eve stood in front of the package she had ordered online, a mischievou