Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Elowen hums in agreement, too tired for words, and I know I’m not getting any work done for a long while.
7
ELOWEN
The world outside our suite ceases. Adam hits pause, cancels everything, calling his harried assistant, Oliver, while he traces idle patterns on my bare back. He clears his schedule, and we exist in a self-contained bubble of each other’s bodies, showers, luxurious baths, and the occasional room service delivery.
It’s a delicious, hedonistic haze. We talk for hours, about everything and nothing. He tells me about his childhood, about the lonely, driven boy who inherited his father’s empire. I tell him about my love of languages.
Adam fucks me in every imaginable position, lets me learn what I like. What makes me scream in ecstasy, what fascinates me, and what makes me wince and pull back from. He learns to read my facial expressions so well I don’t even need to say much. I see it as an extension of my translator skillset, I joke. And he laughs. And he allows me to explore his body for as long as I want so I can learn the same about him. His cock fascinates me. I explore it from every angle.
It's a bubble I never want to leave…but bubbles are made to be popped.
On the morning of the second day, Adam's phone buzzes on the nightstand. He glances at it, a small, genuine smile touching his lips.
"She's here," he says, and reality instantly slaps me in the face.
My stomach tightens. I know exactly who it is because of the itinerary I was given–it’s Camille, his daughter. In the whirlwind of the accident and the bath, the bed, the sex and the bubble, I pushed the knowledge of his daughter’s arrival out of my mind. Now it crashes down on me with the force of an avalanche.
"Right," I say, hoping he doesn’t pick up on how anxious I’m suddenly feeling. "Okay." I hear myself saying, but my mind searches for excuses. Anything to avoid meeting her. I don’t feel ready. Too soon. Those two words repeat inside my skull. Like my chorus for the past few days. I love what I have found, however unexpectedly, here with Adam. And I don’t want it to end. But it is dizzyingly fast, and I need space and time to process.
Thankfully, he doesn't notice the shift. He’s already up, pulling on a pair of jeans, a new energy animating his movements. "Come on. I want you to meet her."
Of course, he’s super eager. That’s Adam. A force of nature, in human form.
Sometime during the past two days, some new outfits have been delivered to the suite, and I dress on autopilot. They fit perfectly. I make a note to thank Oliver for that. We take the private elevator down, Adam’s hand on my back feeling out of place even though his hands have been all over me for days now. When we reach the lobby, it’s early enough that everything is still pretty quiet…and she’s quite easy to spot.
Camille. She’s a few years younger than me, tall, and looks so much different than she did when I saw her last at the funeral. Like her father, she looks like she’s healed enough to smile again, and that smile broadens when she sees Adam.
"Dad!" She launches herself into his arms, and although she’s a grown woman, he catches her easily.
When they pull apart, Adam’s arm comes around my shoulders, pulling me forward. "Cam, this is Elowen. My…translator."
It's been so long since I've been introduced as anything but his fiancé, but of course, he wouldn't keep up the lie with his daughter of all people. Camille grins slyly.
"Is that so? I've heard from a bunch of people on Insta that Elowen is your betrothed. Care to explain?" she says. “I’m all ears, Father.” Her tone, though, is light and teasing, not accusatory. "It's nice to meet you, Elowen. I'm so glad someone's finally managed to drag him out of his shell."
Her kindness throws me through a loop. I shake her outstretched hand, forcing a smile that feels brittle on my face. What has Adam told her about us? The change in our relationship has been so sudden, I think she’s still under the impression that we’re in a fake relationship. Adam and I definitely aren’t engaged, but we definitely aren’t just employer and employee anymore either?
Why didn’t I ask him before we came down?
"It's lovely to meet you, too."
"Come on," Adam nods towards the restaurant, "I'll explain my little deception along the way."
The three of us walk toward the restaurant for brunch, Adam and Camille falling into an easy rhythm. They’re close, that much is obvious, and they’re talking about so many things in their lives that I’m totally unaware of. When Camille mentions something about how much her mother disliked skiing and Adam laughs, the reality I've been hiding from crashes over me.