~Ayla's POV~
I was woken up to the sound of a car door slamming, making me jerk awake in surprise as I sat in Soren's car. We must have arrived at his house already. The week had passed by so quickly and I still got along with Soren about as well as I had when we left a week ago. What progress I've made.
A sigh left my lips as I got out of the car and looked up at the view in front of me, realizing that we really were up on a giant hill like he had described to me. The drive was long to get here, so it was already dark and I could see the city lights in the distance when I looked out. It must've been quite a drive to get up here, making me glad that I had slept through it. "Are you going to help bring in the twelve thousand bags or do I have to carry them all in myself?" Soren complained from behind me, sounding grumpy. I'd almost forgotten about the fact that he and I had stopped by my house earlier to pick up all of my things, just so I could move in with him.
When I turned around I looked up at his house and my jaw dropped, incredibly taken aback. "That's your house?" I gasped, blinking at it in disbelief. I heard him snort. "Yeah. Technically yours now, too, since you live here." He said, walking off to the front door with a couple of my bags in his hands. I continued to gaze up at the pretty house, unable to even imagine how much it must've costed.
Much of the walls were made entirely of glass, which meant that there wasn't really any privacy, but I guess that that didn't matter since nobody else lived up here but him. His house was the only one.
I headed over to the car, realizing that I needed to help bring in all of my bags, and grabbed a couple before I walked inside. I was greeted with a long hallway, the walls a dark grey color and the floors some sort of dark concrete. I didn't see Soren anywhere, nor did I hear him, so I walked down the hallway and into a large living room area that had to be stepped down into. The couches were black and the floor changed from the dark concrete to a light wood, which was a nice change. I glanced to the right and saw a pool table just up two steps, with several pool cues hung on the wall just in front of it. Then to the upper left of the living room was the kitchen, with dark cabinets and a dark island in the middle. Clearly, Soren didn't favor having much color in his interior decoration.
I glanced at the steps that were right between the living room and the pool table area, the tall ceilings and completely glass walls making it easy for me to glance up towards the second floor from down in the living room, which seemed to branch out into two separate areas. Above the kitchen was a little balcony and I spotted a door that I assumed led to a bedroom, whereas above the living room was another area that seemed rather open. I headed up the stairs and realized it seemed to be an open office area, so I assumed he worked here sometimes. I turned around and glanced across to the other upstairs area, and the door on the balcony space suddenly flung open.
Soren stood there, his blue eyes landing on me. He leaned against the doorframe and raised his brows. "You going to stand there forever or are you going to come here?" He asked with some sass, making me huff. I walked down the hall beside the stairwell and over to him, coming to a stop in front of the door. He smirked at me and leaned down a little. "You barely brought any bags in." He tsked, one of his long fingers flicking me gently on the tip of my nose. I gasped and reeled my head back, shooting him a look that he ignored. He spun around and stepped into the room, moving to the side so I could enter. "This is going to be your room." He said, leaning his shoulder into the wall.
Like everywhere else, the front wall was glass. I peered around and set my bags down by the foot of the bed that was in the middle of the room, awed by how nice it looked. The blankets were white and it was obvious that this room was probably never used, but it was pretty nonetheless. Hung on the wall above the dresser across from my bed was a flatscreen TV, and to the very right of that was a door that I assumed led into a closet.
"This room doesn't have a guest bathroom attached to it, so your bathroom is just right here." Soren suddenly grabbed my wrist, his hand easily wrapping all the way around it, and he dragged me out of my new room. He led me to a door that was to the right beside my room and opened it, letting me see inside. Thankfully the walls weren't entirely glass in here or I'd probably have a heart attack, but there was a thin window along the edge of the front wall to let some natural light in. The shower was to the very left and there was a dark colored sink between the shower and the window, and the most odd thing to me was that it was suspended off the floor. The mirror was circular shaped and had LED white lights behind it. In front of the shower along the left wall was a big white tub and beside that was the toilet.
"It's nice." I said, glancing up at him. He released my wrist and I took a step away, not wanting to get too close. "Where's your room, though?" I asked, realizing that I hadn't seen it. He gestured me to leave the bathroom and turned off the light as he followed me out, leading me down the hall. I wasn't too sure where we were going at first until he led me to the right of the office space, where there was a door that I had failed to notice.
"This is my room, but don't go in." He said simply, and I nodded my head, glancing out the window behind him. It was pitch black outside now. "Come on, let's bring in the rest of your stuff." He hummed, heading back down the stairs. I followed him back outside and we brought everything inside, leaving it all at the foot of my bed for me to put away later. Soren left me to begin to unpack, so I first started with hanging up my clothes in my closet, which I found to be very spacious. It was bigger than the one I had at my house. Though it took me about an hour, I finally finished hanging up my clothes, moaning as I collapsed onto my back on the big bed. Even this bed seemed better than the one I had had at home.
I sighed softly and glanced over at the remaining bags of clothes that I had that needed to folded and put away in the dresser. It'd probably get finished sometime tomorrow, because I was feeling tired of unpacking my stuff already.
"Ayla?" Soren's deep voice called out my name and I heard him rap his knuckles against the closed door. "Are you up? I was thinking of just ordering pizza for dinner, if you want anything." He told me, causing my eyes to fly open. I practically flew out of bed to run over to the door, swinging it open aggressively. "Pizza?" I gasped at him, my stomach grumbling obnoxiously at the thought of food. Somehow, I hadn't realized how hungry I was until now. "I want pizza!" I exclaimed. He smirked in amusement and placed a hand on my doorframe, his bicep flexing as he leaned down towards me a bit more. "You're not going to have another food-gasm, are you?" He taunted me, blue eyes playful.
"Stop that!" I scowled at him, annoyed that he kept holding that over me, and he laughed loudly. It made me jump, the sound of his laughter surprising me so greatly that I just blinked up at him. He had not truly laughed in front of me before. "Alright, then. Pizza it is." He turned around and sauntered off, leaving me staring after him, still stunned by the sound of his laughter.
I quickly followed him downstairs, being careful not to completely slip and fall on my ass in my socks. "I'm surprised people even deliver to you this far out." I said as I trailed after him into the living room. He glanced at me and plopped his large body onto one of the couches, sprawling out on it. "Of course they will. People will deliver anywhere, for the right amount of money." He yawned, lulling his head back over the armrest of the couch. His jawline appeared even sharper with his head back like that, and it was truly in moments like these that it overwhelmed me how much of a man he was. I'd never met anyone who exuded manliness before. Hell, I hadn't even know that was truly a thing before I met Soren.
"You're staring at me." Soren muttered without looking at me, making me immediately whip my head away as I sat down on one of the opposite couches. "I'm not." I scoffed, hoping he didn't pick up on the embarrassment I was feeling. I wasn't sure how he'd even noticed me staring. His eyes were closed! "Yeah, not anymore." He mumbled, snorting to himself as if it were funny to him how stupid I could be.
I decided to stay quiet, not wanting to embarrass myself any further, and stood up from the couch after about a minute or so. With him laying there that way, I found it hard to keep my eyes off him so I began to walk along the windows, peering out into the darkness. I couldn't see absolutely anything out there, but it was still pretty. "Are you eyeing the pool? You can take a dip anytime you wanna. It's your pool too, now." Soren spoke in a low voice, surprising me. I blinked, confused. "You have a pool?" I asked, looking over my shoulder at his relaxed body.
Soren lifted his head and opened his eyes, staring back at me. "I guess it makes sense that you didn't see it, since it is dark out." He mused, standing up from the couch. He began to walk off towards the pool table, gesturing for me to follow him, so I did exactly that. I followed after him and he led me out a door that was just behind the wall that the pool cues were hung up on—yet another door that I had managed to miss. Before he walked out he flicked on a switch and a bunch of lights turned on outside, lighting up his backyard. It seemed that, yes, he did indeed have a pool, and a rather large one at that. If it were daytime, I would've easily seen this out the windows.
"Wow." I said, a smile growing on my lips at the sight of it. I had always wanted to live in a house with a pool, and now I did. How cool!
"Nice, hm?" He hummed, making me glance up at him. He was looking at me and I noticed he looked a little bit sleepy, which made sense. He had driven all the way to my house, which was a six hour drive, and then helped me pack up all of my clothes for two hours. After that, he had then driven us here and helped me bring everything up to my room. It was only natural that he be tired.
Suddenly feeling a little bit bad that I had made him do all that, I pulled him back inside after gripping his wrist. I had even slept for the entire six hours of the car ride, and not bothered to ask him if he wanted to switch out even once. I'm so mean! He was probably tired by now. "You can nap, if you want. I know you're tired." I said, making sure to lock the door and turn off the outside lights when we got inside. "But the pizza is going to get here eventually." He grumbled, trudging his way back into the living room, where he flopped onto the couch again. "I'll get it. You can sleep and I'll wake you up so you can eat when it gets here." I insisted, knowing he needed to nap at least a little. His eyelids looked as if they were struggling to stay open.
"Mmm," Soren grumbled as he rolled onto his side. "No, I can..." He yawned and his eyes finally fell shut. "I can sleep." He mumbled. I giggled softly, sitting down on the opposite couch to wait for the pizza to get here so I could answer the door to bring it in. Not even ten minutes into him being asleep, he began to shake a little, as if he were cold. I stood up, clueless about where to go, and began to look around the house for an extra blanket somewhere. It took me about ten minutes more, but I eventually found this big, fuzzy blanket in a closet in the upstairs hallway. I headed back downstairs and carefully covered him up, causing him to curl into it a little bit more, pulling it closer.
He stopped shivering.