Love, Lies and Billionaires

He popped out from under the duvet and planted a kiss on her lips before settling himself beside her, their chest rising and falling in unison.

Covering their bodies with the duvet, they stared at the ceiling in silence, each person drowning in their own thoughts.

She turned to face him, then placed a hand on his chest. “Isn’t there some meeting you have to attend to?”

He looked at her and raised a brow. “Really?”

“What?”

“That’s the next thing you have to say after the multiple orgasms?”

Red crept to her cheeks, and he hit his chest playfully, “Stop it. You know what I mean. Was I supposed to say thank you?”

“It’ll be very much appreciated, yes” he turned away and smiled to himself.

She just chuckled and rolled to the other side of the bed where a bedside table stood. She reached for her phone and turned on the screen.

“Oh, my god!” she screamed and sat up in the bed, shielding her body with a part of the duvet.

“What? What’s wrong?” Kendrick asked, looking away from his phone.

“How long were we up? It’s past ten!” She says, her eyes wide in surprise.

“So?”

Maren scoffed, “Excuse me, ‘Mr I don’t have to work all the time, I’ve got lots of money I have nothing to do with.’ I have to go, alright? I’ve also got a family to attend to,” she said and slipped into her flip-flops.

“You might not mean it that way, but that hurts, you know.” he turned back to his phone.

“Well, I’m glad you know that,” she called from the shower. She turned on the tap in the bathtub and when it reached her level of satisfaction, she added a generous amount of lavender-scented bath salts, and watched as they dissolved with a smile. Scenes from the night before flashing into her mind.

Carefully, she squeezed in a rich, creamy bubble bath into the water, which created a fragrant foam that danced across the surface. The sweet aroma of vanilla took over the room.

When she had stirred it and they’d mixed, she gently slipped in and settled herself inside, the bath foam covering the rest of her body apart from her head.

She closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet smell of the water for a minute before another smile crept to her lips again.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Whore” she muttered, accusingly. She could do this forever.

“Looks like everything’s been taken care of at home.”

Her eyes fluttered open at his voice and she turned her head to view him standing at the door in something as simple as just shorts.

“I don’t mind being late for another day,” she smiled. Her eyes strayed down to his crotch and that size which had been inside her all fucking night.

“Hey, I’m up here,” he reminded, and she chuckled, a strategy to avoid biting her lip. “Your phone’s been buzzing and ringing. I thought I’d come tell you.”

“Really? Who are they from?”

“Louise, mom-Alexander”

Maren’s smile dropped a little, and she sank back into the tub and shut her eyes again.

“I know that face,” Kendrick said and took a step further into the room, folding his arms.

“I really don’t want to have this conversation, please.”

“Yeah, me too, but you really can’t keep ignoring the fact that your feelings for Alexander are undeniably mixed. And moving back in with him only made it worse”

“What’s your point?” she asked, still refusing to look at him.

“I should be asking that question,” she said. His voice was now more serious.

She opened her eyes and turned to him with raised brows. “Really?” Kendrick only stared back at her.

“Okay, look I don’t know how many times I’m going to explain this but I really, honestly, only got back to Alexander because he is Nathan’s father and Nathan’s grown so accustomed to him.

“Isn’t that enough reason that I want my son to be happy?”

Kendrick didn’t reply, but it was obvious he wasn’t buying it, and he really didn’t want to make matters worse.

“Look, I know you’re going to say, like you always do and I won’t deny it, Alexander has shown a better version of himself these past few weeks and it’s made me think so much but honestly I really don’t know why I’m still so drawn to you more than to him. It’s just-”

“Hey, it’s alright,” he interjected, cutting her short as he could feel the stir in her emotion.

She fell silent for a while and looked at his beautiful, tattoo covered self. “What I’m trying to say is, I know it’s wrong being here and there at the same time and I really am trying to make up my mind so no one gets hurt, alright?”

Kendrick just stared at her and bottles up his words. Then, steadily, he walked over to her and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Just finish up and answer your phone”

“Really?” Maren thought as he walked out of the bathroom. She shook off the feeling and tried to focus on taking her bath as she sank back into the water with only her face on the surface.

Two weeks ago, after the entire revelation with Kendrick, she’d agreed to get back with Alexander not just because of Nathan but secretly also because she wanted eyes averted from her while she snuck out with Kendrick.

Instead, it made it worse. Now she was even more torn than she ever was, getting to know both of them.

Even bad enough was Kendrick seemed to be on her neck each time something about Alexander came up and she was certain it wasn’t jealousy, but something else she couldn’t decipher.

She held her breath and slipped completely into the water, hoping it would help her keep her mind from thinking about Irene who still hadn’t been heard from.

It’s been almost a month and Micheal had completely ghosted them, which was really suspicious but that was just another to the list of suspicions she had about everything going on.

She wished this could all just go away. Like some wind could just blow and she would wake up from all of this and laugh it off.

But it couldn’t and she couldn’t just ignore some vital details of her life just like that.

Suddenly, her eyes flew open. She had to get to work!