Heartless

Chapter 23

Julia's POV

The next morning, I woke up far too early. It was 5.30AM and the sun had only just risen, but I was too awake to fall back to sleep.

I got out of bed and quickly slid on my soft shorts and a t-shirt and tied my hair up into a ponytail.

When I left my bedroom, the whole house was silent and I could tell that I was the first one up.

Zach had told me that the boys had training at 7, so I was slightly surprised that they weren't awake.

I hopped down the stairs and made my way into the kitchen to make a coffee, trying not to be too loud.

Once that was ready, I went outside to sit in the sun for a while. It was nice to be able to look out at the gorgeous view whilst I had some alone time.

I sat beside the pool with my coffee and thought about the previous day.

It'd been so lovely spending time together as a group and looking at all of the different sights Sicily had to offer.

Trust Reed to completely ruin my night with his mood swings.

I was still extremely angry at what he'd said to me and was now dreading the fact that I had to face him. Ivy, Kayla and I were going shopping, which meant that I'd have to 'ask for his permission to leave.' Another thing I hated about being his 'hostage'.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a noise coming from inside the house. I turned my head to face the glass walls and could see a figure walking around inside.

I immediately knew who it was and unfortunately, he'd spotted me too.

Reed was walking through the house shirtless, with sweat dripping down his chest. His hair was wet and flopping over his face, making him look incredibly attractive.

He'd obviously been working out and I bit my lip to avoid my thoughts.

Suddenly our eyes connected and he stopped in his place. I quickly avoided his gaze and turned my head to look back at the hills, keeping my coffee mug between both palms.

"Julia?" he said, I as could tell that he'd started walking towards me.

"Yes?" I sighed impatiently, reluctantly looking back at him.

"What are you doing out here? It's not even 6AM yet."

"I could ask you the same question."

"I've been in the gym. What's your excuse?" he smirked, attempting to be friendly but failing miserably. I wasn't going to ignore last night.

"Sorry, am I not allowed to be awake 'master'?" I said, using air quotations as I stood up to face him.

"Julia we talked about this. I told you I didn't mean what I said and you know it. Stop being petty and get over it."

"I'm not being petty. I just thought I meant more to you than being just a stupid hostage."

"You do. You know that you do." he said, stepping towards me and tracing his fingers along me arm as he looked down at me.

"Do I?"

"I haven't got time for this today Jules. I've got training to get to." he sighed before walking back into the house.

"Wait." I shouted.

He slowly turned around with an impatient look on his face.

"What? I'm not going to apolog-"