Semua Bab The Stripping Heiress : Bab 11 - Bab 20

{Hailey’s POV} If the walls of Lachlan House could talk, I think they’d scream. The morning after my welcome-to-hell party, the estate was too quiet. Not hungover quiet. Calculated. Like the silence was… waiting for something. My wing. I felt ridiculous even thinking about the words. In my mansion. The first four doors led to suites, each of them sized to make a king bed look tiny. The closets could have doubled as bedrooms. And the bathrooms! Showers with built-in seats and a minimum of three different showerheads apiece. I took the longest shower of my life. The hot-water supply was endless. The glass doors on the shower held in the steam. It was like having my sauna. After drying off with plush, oversized towels, I put on my ratty pajamas and flopped down on what I was pretty sure were Egyptian cotton sheets. Kaira appeared in the doorway. “This is unreal,” she said. “This entire place is unreal.” “That’s one word for it.” I tried to focus on the marvel that was Lachlan Ho

{Hailey’s POV}I wasn’t sure how long I’d been lying there when I heard it. A voice. “Pull the candlestick.”I was on my feet instantly, whirling to put my back to the wall. On instinct, I grabbed the keys I’d left on the nightstand, in case I needed a weapon. I scanned the room for the person who’d spoken, and came up empty.“Pull the candlestick on the fireplace, Heiress. Unless you want me stuck back here?” Annoyance replaced my initial fight-or-flight response. I narrowed my eyes at the stone fireplace at the back of my room. Sure enough, there was a candelabra on the mantel.“Pretty sure this qualifies as stalking,” I told the fireplace-or, more accurately, the boy on the other side of it. Still, I couldn’t not pull the candlestick. Who could resist something like that? I wrapped my hand around the base of the candelabra. I was met with resistance, and another suggestion came from behind the fireplace.“Don’t just pull forward. Angle it down.”I did as I was instructed. The candel

Chapter 16 – The heat I didn’t go looking at George Lachlan. I didn’t search the house hoping to “accidentally” run into Julian Lachlan, shirtless and smug with another cigarette tucked between his lips. I wasn’t planning to think about the way he looked at me in the room last night, flicking my bean. But the thing about fire, it finds you. I was heading to the library after Aaron had left me behind. I’d overheard Clara mention there were panels in there that hadn’t been opened in years. And if this house was truly full of riddles, then the library seemed like a good place to start unraveling them. I turned the corner. And there he was. Leaning against the doorframe like some carved sin in human form. Julian. His sleeves were rolled up. His jaw was sharp. And that stare… God, it hit me like a slap and a whisper at the same time. “Well, if it isn’t the heiress with a habit of wandering into trouble,” he said, voice low and rough. I didn’t stop walking. “If you’re plann

{Hailey’s Pov}I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss.Julian’s lips on mine. His hands gripping my waist. The heat. The fire. The way he kissed me, like he hated it and wanted it all at once.It messed with my head. I didn’t even like him.Julian Lachlan was cocky, rude, and had a way of making me feel like I didn’t belong, even though I was the one who inherited this place.But still… when he kissed me, my body didn’t care.I needed air. I left the hidden room in the library, climbed the stairs, and didn’t stop walking until I reached the garden doors. I stepped outside barefoot, the cold stone path shocking me back to reality.It was still early. The sky was pink and gold. Quiet.Too quiet. The mansion sat behind me like a beast watching my every move. I looked back at the windows. Some were lit, some dark. I wondered who else was awake. I wondered if Julian was standing behind a curtain, watching me.Or maybe I wanted him to be. I shook the thought away.“No more distractions,” I

{Julian’s POV}“She was there,” I said through gritted teeth. “In the boardroom. Sitting in the goddamn chair George left for the CEO.”Silence.Then Aaron dropped his controller. “Wait, what? Hailey Vale? Stripper girl? Corporate queen now?”“She was in a suit,” I growled. “Looking like she belonged.”Aaron raised both brows. “Let me guess—heels, glossy lips, attitude for days?”“Shut up,” I snapped.“She really sat at the table?” Marcus asked, his voice calm, but I could tell his mind was racing. “She spoke during the meeting?”“She argued with me,” I spat. “Told the board I didn’t own anything. And no one corrected her. Not one damn person.”Aaron chuckled. “Well, technically, she’s not wrong. We don’t own anything.”“I’m not in the mood, Aaron.”He lifted his hands. “Just enjoying the fall of the Lachlans, one heiress at a time.”Before I could answer, the front doors slammed open. Debra marched in, heels clicking like gunshots on marble.“I saw the press release,” she said withou