6

KATHERINE

My heart was suspended in a state of panic as I exchanged glances with the man that was towering over me in my room. His eyes narrowed as she looked at me, daring me to say something. My heart was racing with panic.

I didn't know what to do, the last thing that I expected was Silas making his way to my house. As far as I knew, I thought he would be occupied with wedding preparations. What the hell was he even doing here? I thought that was what you wanted?

My subconscious taunted me.

Not here, not like this, and not when there was another man standing in the intimate confines of my room. At the end of the day I didn't know what to do.

I narrowed my eyes on him, sending a silent message for him not to say anything. His face was neutral, giving nothing away. It was almost his way of telling me he couldn't give two fucks who comes here and goes.

I considered pleading with him.

Another strong knock came on the door, catching me off guard. My shoulders flinched slightly.

“Katty, Are you there?” Silas said from the other side of the door.

'Katty' my chest clenched painfully at the name. I couldn't remember the last time he called me that, I could even hardly remember the last time I'd seen him.

I knew that I had been looking for a way to get a hold of Silas so that we could have a conversation.

Hence the reason why I hired men to snatch him off the streets. At the end of the day, if I knew that he was going to come to me, I wouldn't have gotten myself in this mess in the first place.

I wouldn't have kidnapped a strange, dangerous man in the process and he wouldn't be lingering in my personal space like he was right now.

His stared burned into me as if he was silently daring me to lie. What if Silas saw him and got the wrong message? I wouldn't want that happening.

My eyes fluttered closed for a minute. I needed to think. I needed to get my facts straight and come up with a plan.

“Katty,?” Silas called again. Why the hell was he even calling me that anyway. Wasn't he even aware of the effect it had on me?

How dare he call me that when he knew he was getting married to another woman.

Maybe it's finally happening. Maybe he's here to make amends but at the back of my head, I knew that it wasn't true.

No matter how badly I wanted to rely on my delusion, my intuition yelled at me to have common sense.

“Yes?” I finally responded. I made sure my response was not too sharp. I needed it to be a little dull to make my lie look more convincing.

“You okay?” He turned on the door knob. Thankfully, it was locked in place and at the end of the day, he wasn't able to shift it back into place.

I closed my eyes and sighed with relief when I realized that he couldn't come in. This stranger was at least smart enough to lock the door.

Thank goodness, I turned to the side to shoot him a glare, raising my fingers to my lips in a motion for him to remain silent.

His eyebrows raised in surprise, the corners of his lips tilted up in a smile as he stared at me. It was obvious that I was doing very little to intimidate him.

If I was being realistic about this whole ordeal, I couldn't tell him what to do. For the life of me, I hoped he could sense how desperate I was.

“Be out in a minute,” I croaked again, trying relentlessly to fake exhaustion. I realized that I was still in last night's clothes. I cringed.

I probably smelt like vomit and alcohol. You think?

There was no way that I was going to let him see me like this. I needed to give him the impression that I was doing fine without him.

I couldn't let him know that I had been miserable since he left.

“I'd be waiting for you in the living room then,” Silas said.

I could hear his footsteps departing away from the door almost immediately. I released a sigh of relief when I realized that he was no longer standing in front of my bedroom door.

“Is that him?” The stranger finally asked. I sprung down from the bed almost immediately and winced when I felt a sharp sting in my head. Apparently, I was still hungover from last night. Fuck.

“What are you talking about?” I raised an eyebrow to look at him as I pulled my shirt over my head.

I paused as soon as it clicked that there was a man in this room. I was clad in my black lace bra and my shorts.

I could have almost sworn that his gaze lingered hungrily on my torso as he allowed his eyes to travel down the length of me without shame.

My belly tingled with consciousness. Well, I guess nothing could clearly be done about the situation. He was here and there was nothing that I could do about it.

For now. To my irritation, he settled down to sit on my bed. It was almost as if he belonged there, like everything was his.

His arrogance was the one thing that I couldn't wrap my mind around but I was too tired and exhausted to get into an argument with him for now, and at the end of the day.

I guess there was nothing that I could do about it.

“The person you meant to kidnap, is that him standing outside your door?” He looked at me expectantly, waiting for my response.

The words on the tip of my tongue disappeared because I didn't know how to justify all of it.

Maybe my delusion was slowly paving the way to psychosis. Well, was it even worth it trying to make a good impression?

He probably thought that I was a psychopath, considering the fact that I had him kidnapped. The only question was why on earth would he bother to return to a psychopath's house? Shouldn't he be afraid? And then I realized that it was the other way round.

I was the one who was afraid of him because there was no telling what he was capable of.

There was no point lying to him. Something told me he already knew the answer. For some reason, he just wanted to confirm it.

“Yes,” I admitted. Shame consumed me as I turned away. I wasn't ready to be on the receiving end of anyone's judgment. My subconscious was already doing a lot of that.

I didn't need more. He said nothing in response. Without waiting, I hurried into my closet room and locked the door behind me. I leaned against it, exhaling loudly.

I was a mess, this whole thing was a mess. I was utterly and completely fucked and there was no solution for how to fix this mess. I didn't know what to do.

I couldn't remain in this room forever. There was no escaping the stranger in my room and there was certainly no way that I could escape Silas either.

Why not show him what he's missing. I headed to one of the racks and picked out a red, skimpy nightgown with a matching robe. Red had always been Silas's favorite color at the end of the day.

I headed into the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth. My morning breath smelt like ass.

My skin was a little bit pale. I packed my hair up into a messy bun almost immediately, sprayed some perfume, moisturized and put on the night dress, discarding my old clothes into the laundry bin, I finally headed out of the closet room, now dressed in a red nightdress.

The stranger lifted his gaze from the picture frame that was now in his hand. His gaze lingered on me but gave nothing away. It bothered me.

If there was no reaction from him, what were the chances that there would be a reaction from Silas? But I guess it was too late to question my choices now. I wasn't looking for his validation anyway.

Because you want Silas and not his.

His eyes darkened as I approached him. His eyes lingered on my cleavage for a short second before he raised his gaze to me. He looked amused.

“What's the occasion?” He asked. I shot him a glare.

“None of your business,” I snapped.

Maybe it wasn't necessarily a good idea to snap at him, considering the fact that I wanted him to stay here.

“I'd appreciate it if you remain here till I get back,” I said quietly. He tilted his head to the side as he watched me.

“You know one of the things that I find interesting about you?” He finally said after a brief moment of silence.

“What?”

“Your audacity. It is a very interesting thing to witness because what on earth gave you the impression that I'm going to listen and do whatever you tell me,” he said calmly.

My heart spiraled again as he stood up. I considered making a run for it but Silas was outside and I was stuck here with him.

I backed away until my back hit the wall and there was no more space to escape. He approached me.

The proximity between the both of us was close to non-existent as he leaned over me, one of his elbows relaxing against the wall as he looked down at me.

I was suffocating with tension. Why on earth was my body humming with anticipation? I was certainly the problem. My body was mistaking fear for anticipation.

“I'm not telling you to do whatever I tell you. I'm not giving you orders,” I said, my voice trembled a little as I stared at him.

I tried to maintain a neutral expression but the fear was impossible to hide.

“It sure looks like it."