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Dedicated to:BitchThatsMe
Gee you're such a good-hearted person and I LOVE you for being such a lovely reader AND an even better friend! Thanks for all the support hun! ^^
"What consumes your mind, controls your life."
~ Pinterest
Breanna's POV
My fingers traced Ray's jawline frivolously, the small dip right below his cheekbone and his perfectly arched eyebrows made me smile with giddiness.
Golden sunlight was peering through the windows, making his bronze skin gleam beautifully.
He looks so peaceful when he's asleep.
People would never guess that his heart was full of menace and hatred, only I was given the glorious opportunity to listen to his stories as he cried on my shoulders during those unforgettable nights.
I hugged the blanket to my chest, leaned up and kissed him tenderly on his cheek, trying my utmost not to wake him up from his afternoon slumber.
I reached down to the floor, found my clothes and put them on hurriedly. The sun was beginning to set; now starting to paint the sky in a dangerous blood-orange hue. The chirps of birds were beginning to fade away, leaving the silent rustling of leaves and chilling howls of the evening gale to take over the night.
After taking a warm shower, I put my bathrobe on and began to browse for clothes to wear for the date. I gave the clock a quick look, confirmed that I still had roughly three hours left until till 8 pm and continued to stare willingly at a light blue flared dress then kept it back inside my closet to look for another one.
"Don't," a voice interrupted me, "you'll look better in blue." Ray was sitting up on my bed, smiling through his raven black tousled hair.
I smiled back. "You think?"
Rubbing his drowsy eyes he said, "You'll look good in anything but light blue matches your eye colour."
My eyes fell on the dress as I removed it back from the closet and examined it. Why was I so concerned about how I looked?
Ray was looking for his shirt when I interrupted him, "Ray? I hope you don't mind that I'm going."
"I do mind. But if that's the only way you'll get rid of him then I guess we have no choice." He bit his lip hesitantly, got off the bed and started adjusting the blanket.
He had always been extremely protective of me; I knew how much it affected him that Carlton Hargrave just happened to come back into my life out of nowhere, especially at a time like this.
Placing the blue dress on a chair, I walked closer to him. He straightened when I cupped his face and touched my forehead to his. His hands banded my waist and we stood there with our eyes closed.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," I said, caressing his lips lovingly with my thumb. He took my hand in is and kissed my palm.
Just then, the doorknob of the bedroom turned and Liz, Raymond's younger sister, walked in. Her plump cheeks flushed hard when she saw us, "Sorry, I can come back later."
I chuckled, pushing him away from me, "It's okay."
Liz entered the room, her hands shivering as she fidgeted with her fingers. Her short-shoulder-length, disheveled black hair fell all over her face and it looked like she wanted to tell us something but the words just wouldn't come out.
"What's wrong, Liz?"
After a gulp, she said, "they may have found out about Carlton's real identity."
Carlton's POV
I reached home at around 7am and sneaked into my house successfully hiding from everyone. I had once again managed to attempt a life-risking task without my security guard suspecting a thing.
Either I had a lousy bodyguard or I was too good at this.
I spent the entire day sleeping to relieve my muscles and my head from the pain of the fights, so I was up and ready by 4pm for my date with Breanna Riley that I had scheduled for 8pm at Bamonte's, one of the most exquisite Italian restaurants in Brooklyn.
Because I didn't want to waste all the time I had, I decided to finally attend the private rooftop day party that my friends had been attending since morning without me. It was organized by a close friend who made a lavish living out of hosting private parties and social events alone.
The sun was beginning to set when I arrived. The fairy lights hanging above started lighting up one by one. The crowd gasped and focused on the bizarre yet striking transition in the colors of the sky before they began swaying to the rhythm of the song.
I enjoyed being under the open skies; it gave me a sense of freedom, made me feel spacious.
"Carlton, look here!"
I was snapped back from my trance and looked straight ahead into the camera lens a few feet away from me and remembered what I was doing.
Samantha, my social media accounts' manager, held a camera in her hands and ushered towards my legs, "Prop one of your legs on the coffee table, make sure they see those Nikes."
I did as I was told. Adjusting myself on the couch, I propped one leg on the coffee table sporting my brand new pair of white Nike shoes and ran one hand through my disheveled brown hair that the fast winds were throwing against my face.
"Now that is hot!" she squealed, backing away enthusiastically and kneeling down to click several pictures.
Frowning a bit at the pictures, she added, "I want you to smirk more...and stop looking like you want to murder someone." Sighing, I smirked and she screamed with excitement, "Oh my God. That is perfect!"
After minutes of gawking at her artistic creations, she jogged over to me and flopped beside me, showing off her proficiencies in making me look hot in photographs.
"I think this one's great."
"Yeah, it is," I said rather casually, focusing on the massive NYC skyline in the picture behind me, the sky was cloudless, the shades of orange and yellow like offhanded strokes of paint on canvas, "Post this one for me, Sam."
"Sure thing! What should the caption be?"
"Um...thanking my followers for their support or some shit like that."
She whipped out her phone and began to type something hurriedly, "You gotta give me a raise for all these efforts, you know?"
I chuckled sluggishly. Samantha has been managing my accounts for about three years now and I have gained a massive following because of her; it's almost become a job for me now - endorsing expensive brands and modeling while I traveled. That's why I always brought her everywhere with me on vacations.
"I can never thank you enough, Sam. Relax and enjoy the party," I smiled, leaving her and walking over to Dylan Summers who was slow-clapping eerily as I approached.
"Look who decided to show up." He grinned from ear to ear, "Where have you been all morning?"
"Sleeping and shopping."
"Shopping?" he backed away from me comically, "Dude...I bet you have more clothes than the Queen of England."
"I gave most of them away-" I reached into my back pocket to find a pack of cigarettes. After lighting it, I said, "-and bought new ones. Do you like this Givenchy jacket? It costs about three thousand dollars."
Dylan stared at me with utter disgust. "Man, I don't really care. Just let me enjoy the party and stop stealing everybody's attention."
"Where are the others?" I inhaled the smoke to calm down my raging mind. I wasn't showing it, but knowing that I had a date with Breanna in a couple of hours was driving me crazy. It had consumed every part of my mind and body.
"You mean your friends that drugged themselves to unconsciousness last night in your penthouse?" he said, pointing at the pool where they were messing around and laughing with a bunch of girls, "They're all the way over there trying to get those girls to sleep with them."
But Damien was nowhere to be seen. One of these days, I might have to ask him why he loves being alone all the time.
All of a sudden, Dylan shook me lightly by my shoulder, "Speaking of sleeping with people..."
I turned my head around involuntarily to see what Dylan was looking at and to my surprise, I saw the last person I expected to see at a party as wild as this.
People moved out of the way to allow the royalty to walk through.
Alexandra Bancroft showed off her cleavage and perfectly smooth skin in a skin-tight white sundress. Her platinum blonde hair left to fall elegantly over her bare shoulders.
And she was walking towards me seductively.
I sucked a quick breath in when she stopped uncomfortably close to me and spoke through a grin, "Didn't expect to find me here, I believe?" She took the cigarette from my fingers, purposefully touching my hands, and took a big hit from it.
Dylan patted my shoulders and pursed his lips, "And this is where I walk away."
We both watched him walk over to my friends by the pool after which I looked back at her bashfully, "Alexandra, I-I'm sorry about last night-"
"No, it's okay, I get it. Someone heard gunshots and everyone had to be evacuated. "
"Yeah that was...unfortunate." I had been wanting to talk to her since last night, and even though I was upset that we had to meet again amid a huge crowd of people like this, I was ready to confront her about her bad intentions.
"Yeah," she nodded, glaring straight into my eyes just like she did last night when she was trying to get me to spew information about my brother, "You don't happen to know anything about those gunshots, do you?"
"No." I replied quickly and for a moment I thought she spotted my hesitance but my doubts were cleared when she pressed her body to my chest and began swaying with the beats of the song that the DJ was now playing.
Her sudden gesture made me suck a deep breath in. I've always crushed on her from afar, and now that she was in my arms, I couldn't handle her charisma...or maybe it was her sweet lavender scent that made me weak in my knees.
Her command over my emotions was more petrifying than it was enjoyable. I needed to think straight. It might require a lot of careful words to say what I was about to say to her.
I almost rolled my eyes backward when her palms snaked up my chest. She placed both her hands on either side of my face and pressed her lips to my ear. When she whispered slowly and gravelly, "Let's finish what we started, baby." I couldn't help but say yes.
**********
I watched her pull me into a cabin, but my heart was filled with guilt. Not because I had a date with another girl scheduled but because Alexandra's intentions weren't as naïve as they seemed.
Nonetheless, I allowed her to take me to a secluded area, where no one would hear us, so I could attack her with my deduction as to why she was suddenly into me. She smirked, shutting the cabin door behind her.
I was about to wreck her emotionally...and physically too if I had to.
The muffled sounds of the bass booted trance song playing outside shook the fragile cabin walls.
She was hugging me now, her lips lingering unnervingly close to mine.
My mind was whirling, not with pleasure but with fury. This little act that she was putting up was starting to look pathetic.
The instant she leaned up to kiss me, I interrupted her, "Are you sure this is what my brother would've wanted from you?"
She paused abruptly and looked up into my eyes, "What?"
I was clenching my teeth. The amount of deception in her words and her actions was unbearable. My hands curled into fists until my nails dug painfully into my palm, "You know exactly what I'm talking about."
Her lips parted as she took a few steps away from me, eyebrows narrowed as her face twisted into a puzzled frown.
I smirked, finally feeling a sense of achievement as I saw her lip tremble. Taking slow strides towards her, I exclaimed, "You seem to know a whole lot about my brother. Did you really think I didn't see through you?"
"What're you sayi-"
"Let me guess. Your discreet relationship with my brother, Caden, didn't end that well and since he's known as an international asshat, he probably broke your heart and now you're trying to get back at him by sleeping with me."
Alexandra's back had hit the cabin wall, a loathing sneer materialized across her face, "We were not in a relationship."
"So he was your fuck buddy then?" I grinned with triumph, placing both my hands on the wall on either side of her head, trapping her. She was shaking, she was defeated and the immense joy I felt at that moment was unexplainable.
"Careful what you speak, Hargrave, you might not live to see another day."
"Are you threatening me?"
"If this is what you think is the truth, then why did you come to bedroom last night?" she spoke in a challenging tone.
"I didn't, remember?" I was just beginning to enjoy this when a smile formed on her face too.
"Stop using the gunshots as justification," she jeered with confidence, "you have quite the audacity Carl, and do not excuse the situation by speaking of Caden Hargrave. You don't care about your brother; you might have slept with me last night, even when you thought it would hurt him. But you don't care about him."
"Damn right I don't," I lifted my chin up to remind her who had the upper hand here, "and I don't want to have to do anything with you anymore, Alexandra. Not because I care about Caden but because I don't want to be used as a pawn in your pathetic game of revenge. I'm more than that, better than that."
Surprisingly, a chuckle left her mouth. With hilarity in her eyes, she shook her head, "No. No you're not. And we both know that you're just a spoiled brat with money and power, whose parents are disappointed in him. That's all you are and that's all you will ever be."
"You don't know me or what I can do."
That seemed to make her even more buoyant. She was smiling now as she closed in until the distance between our faces could be measured in breaths, "Oh but I do, courtesy of your brother. The truth is that you don't care about anyone or anything because everyone around you owes you. You think you can control everyone."
I fisted my hands that were resting on the walls and prepared to fire back with something equally harsh but she cut me off by speaking again, huskily and gravelly, amusement anointing her voice, "And you know what's the best part about you? You enjoy breaking hearts. You love seeing them helpless and crave for you; it's a sport to you. You love and enjoy knowing that people need you."
My eyebrows had furrowed as I glared at her with utter fury.
She gave me an accomplishing smile, "And you know how I know this? It's because we're the same, you and I, born and raised with lies and blood in our hands. The only difference is that I'm willing to take that extra step and show my father the things that I can do that my brother and his beloved son can't."
I swear I felt my hands curl into a fist to knock her perfect teeth out while giving her a death glare, threatening her to stop talking before I crack some bones.
But she didn't stop.
Infact, it only thrilled her more to see me like this. "And you? You're willing to run away from all of this because your brother is better than you. Believe me Carlton, no matter how much you run, this is what you are and what you'll always be. You can't run from this. So just embrace it."
I was speechless, glaring into the eyes of this woman who managed to shut me up with merely her words. All I could say in my defense was, "I'm...not jealous of Caden."
"That's adorable," she pouted, mocking me through her eyes. Her hands found my chest and she pushed me away from her very gently, "I shall take my leave then."
I gulped painfully like I was swallowing something sharp down my dried up throat.
She lifted her index finger up to caress my jaw slowly as she whispered in my ear, "If you ever want to talk, I'll be at your doorstep, love. Just call me."
Saying that, she kissed my cheek and trudged out of the cabin, her heels clicking as she did, mocking me, enraging me.
I stood in the center of the cabin, unable to make sense out of this. It was as if she spoke everything that the voices in my head had been shouting at me all these years. And I had been avoiding it.
I squeezed my eyes shut and after a long time I felt defeated and in pain.
Everything she said seemed true even when I didn't want to accept it.
**********