Twisted (Never After #4)(17)

Her eyes flare but she doesn’t bite back. Part of me is almost disappointed. I’ve been enjoying the way she riles so easily.

“Bring the boy here to meet me,” I command.

She shakes her head. “It’s not that easy. No one knows. We can’t just— ”

“Does your little secret rendezvous spot have room for one more?” I quirk a brow.

Her tongue swipes across her bottom lip as she stares at me and nods slowly.

“I’ll find you tonight then.” I jerk my chin toward the door. “Now leave. I’m a busy man and you’re wasting my time.”

She spins around, leaving in a flurry, but despite me telling her that I have things to do—which is true— I stand still behind my desk, my thumb grazing my lower lip, wondering what it will feel like when I force her to be my wife.





Chapter 7





Yasmin





I wasn’t sure how I would feel after talking to Julian, but I didn’t expect it to make my anxiety skyrocket. Yet here I am, sitting in the vacant bedroom in the staff’s wing— the same one Julian found Aidan and I in the other night—more nervous than I can ever remember being in my life.

Ever since I left his office at the Sultans headquarters, there’s been this gaping, pulsing ache in the center of my gut, one that sends tremors of anxiety through my limbs until my whole body shivers. You’d think that knowing someone was in my corner would calm me down, but Julian Faraci is about as calming as a fire alarm, so it’s having the opposite effect.

I can’t get rid of this feeling, and it’s bothering me.

Or maybe it’s because I haven’t talked to Aidan in days, despite all the times he’s called and texted me. If I’m honest, I was hoping that maybe if I ignored everything, it would just disappear on its own. I know avoiding problems never makes them disappear, but for some reason, I continue to test the theory, hoping that eventually I’ll be surprised and things will magically get better.

That I won’t feel like I’m drowning from everything I always want to say but don’t.

That I’ll be free to love Aidan openly and in public without disappointing everyone who matters.

That my father won’t be sick.

But life never works that way, despite all the times I’ve wished for it to be so.

So after I left Julian’s, disgusted with myself for letting him affect me the way he does, for letting him touch me, I texted Aidan and asked him to meet me here.

Julian and I never set a specific time for our meeting, but I want to make sure that I’ve cleared the air with Aidan beforehand.

United front and all that.

My leg jumps in a steady, nervous rhythm as I sit on the corner of the twin bed in the small room, the cashmere of my blue pantsuit gliding over my skin with the antsy movement. I can’t sit still. My eyes bounce from the blank tan wall opposite me to the small window on the right, where there’s a rickety old wooden chair that I’m not sure can actually hold weight, and then back to the blank wall again. Over and over, I repeat the track of my gaze, my mind moving over possible scenarios as quickly as my leg taps against the ground.

No one has occupied this room for years. Well, nobody except for Aidan and me when we started to sneak away, needing to be alone somewhere people wouldn’t see. There’s still a slight level of risk, but it’s an inconspicuous place, the very last room in the wing of the staff’s quarters, hidden away in the far corner.

I think about the first time we came here all those years ago, when I was a bumbling fifteen-year- old girl and just coming home for summer break.

I peer around the corner at my father and his new employee, my eyes drinking in the man like I’m starved for the sight. It will be the most embarrassing moment of my life if I get caught, but I can’t stop myself from peeking any chance I get, regardless.

They’re arguing about whether it’s a good idea to switch over to synthetic diamonds for industrial use, which means they’re the lower-quality diamonds that get used to cut and polish the ones high-end enough to sell.

Personally, I think it sounds like a good idea, but my father is stuck in his ways and rejects even the notion of a synthetic diamond. But just from eavesdropping on this conversation, I can tell the man at my father’s side will get his way.

My father’s been busy spending all his time with this new guy ever since I got home from summer break three days ago.

Julian, I think his name is.

I can’t wait to tell Riya about him. She’s been boy crazy since last year when she stayed with me for the summer and went out one night while I was sick, letting a random guy from New York City pop her cherry.

But I doubt that guy looked like this though.

I’m so mad I don’t have my camera, or I’d sneak some pictures to send to her.

Ever since my father introduced Julian and I when I first got back, I haven’t been able to stop looking for him everywhere. And when I look, I usually find him. It’s a sprawling estate, almost as big as the boarding school I attend, but I’m convinced Julian’s moved in and has made himself at home while I’ve been gone.

At first, I kept “casually” running into him whenever I had the chance, but it only took a few times of him either sneering down at me like I’m annoying or ignoring my existence altogether for me to take to hiding in dark corners and watching from the wings.