Shattered Vows

He combed his hand through his dark hair. “Look, you get to add things to this place however you want… mostly. I’m going to try to stay out of your way and I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of mine. This place is more than big enough for the two of us.”

“So, then you’re fine with the plants there.” I waved over to my newest favorite things. I took great pride in the way Bastian looked literally itchy just staring at them. He needed something to ruffle his feathers because God knew this whole situation ruffled mine.

He stuck his hands in his pockets, and I thought I saw the fists they made under the expensive fabric. “Fine.” He said through gritted teeth. “Salt lamp and suitcases in your room though.”

“Suitcases. The salt lamp stays. I need peace when I’m out here.”

“Peace? I’m not even going to be here.”

“You’re here now. And this place isn’t peaceful.”

“You don’t like it?” His voice was suddenly pained.

“Does it matter?”

He dragged a hand through his hair. “No, I guess it doesn’t. I’ll help with your suitcases and show you to your room.”

“So, we’ll just pretend we’re together when people come over and that I sleep in the same room?”

“The queen and king of England had different rooms,” Bastian said, like it wasn’t a completely preposterous idea.

“Not one of my friends would ever think I’d live with a man if I wasn’t sleeping with him.” I grumbled but that was sort of a lie because I didn’t really have any close friends anyway.

“Who? Linny? I have yet to see that woman since the first night I met you.” He scoffed like he knew me better than everyone already.

“Linny just travels a lot.” I crossed my arms. “Fine. Would your friends believe that?”

“Katie lived with me for a while.”

For some reason, that grated on my nerves and I probably should have let my feelings about it die, but my mouth ran away with itself. “And she just said you almost slept with her!”

“It was complicated.”

I told my curiosity to shut up and ground my teeth together to keep from asking further questions.

Turning to the left, he ushered me into a room that was bigger than my grandmother’s whole house. The views were sweeping and again looked over my town, while the bed and walls were decorated in soft pastels.

I trailed a hand across the oak dresser and circled the bed to get to the opposite door. It led to a bathroom with ombre mosaic tile all the way up the shower walls and mirrors framed in gold to match the faucet.

My fingertips dragged against the deep blue tile. “It’s like a wave.”

“I figured you’d like it.”

That one comment had me turning back to study him. “What do you mean?”

He cleared his throat. “There’s another room too. This one though, I think, suits you.”

I hummed. I wanted to tell him that he didn’t know me but I was starting to think that maybe we knew one another a little. He was putting me in new situations and witnessing me in such a vulnerable state, it caused me to question all relationships I’d had up to this moment.

“I think this will work just fine.” I nodded as he placed my suitcase on the ground near the dresser. I folded my hands together, although I was itching to get my crystals laid out. “Want to give me a tour of the rest of the place?”

“Sure. Guess you’ll need to see where we pretend to sleep with one another,” His tone was light but my body was on some sort of high alert being alone with him in his natural environment.

Bastian was one of those enigmas of men who didn’t belong in our world. He was too appealing but elusive enough and powerful enough to stay away from. He walked through this place like he owned it and I wonder if he felt like he owned every single thing in the world.

Maybe he almost did–he was certainly much closer to it than I was, even with the prospect of owning some of this oil company.

The hallway stretched on and on with two more double doors that Bastian pointed to. “Spare bedroom and spare bath.” We passed another sliding door and he mumbled that it was closet space.

“Should I stock paper towels there or something?” I asked. “I just need to know our chores too because I’m not very domesticated.”

He pulled at his neck like he was uncomfortable saying the next part. “A maid comes through daily to make sure we have what we need. You can tell her if you’d like something even if it’s a shirt. Just let her know your size. A chef will be here every now and then to cook, but he mostly just stocks things in the fridge.”

I couldn’t hold back my scrunched up face. “A maid and a chef?”

“It sounds ridiculous, but I didn’t know how we would operate together and this just makes it easier.”

“Is this because of me though or do you always have these things?”

He glanced toward the last door at the end of the hall. The arched doorway and double wood doors told me that was the master suite. “Does it really matter what I have in other places, Morina?”

“Well, if we live together for six months–”

He cut me off. “This place is big enough that you’ll probably barely see me. I travel a lot too.”

“Hence the private jet,” I grumbled and turned to the master suite. I didn’t know why I was annoyed with him for separating us and reminding me of how different our lives were.

Maybe I was irked that this life seemed easier and I wanted my life to seem easiest, uncomplicated. I didn’t want to want anything in the world. It made for unhappy thoughts about greener grass on the other side.

I knew the allure wasn’t true; I just didn’t need temptation brewing for six months. By the water in my town was where I found happiness but luxury had a funny way of presenting itself as the most appealing thing in the world.

I gripped both handles of the large doors and glanced over my shoulder. “Shall we?”

The left side of his mouth tipped up a little. “You shall whenever you want.”

I don’t know if I imagined it, but his eyes trekked down my face and paused at my lips as I licked them. I shoved the doors open and ignored the butterflies in my stomach.

The bed in the middle of the room overlooked more of those sweeping views. The windows spanned the whole room and wrapped around to the bathroom. There wasn’t much to say except “Wow.”

I whispered it as I walked on plush carpet around the bed and up to the window. Bastian came up next to me, so close I sucked in a breath when he reached out. I thought he was going to pull me to him, that we were going to continue our one night stand.

The fact my mind went there when I’d told myself we couldn’t ever go there again was proof enough that I needed to do some self reflection in my own room.

Yet, he didn’t reach for me. His hand went right past me to push the window and it moved quickly, extending out a few inches before sliding into a pocket in the wall.

He stepped out and beckoned me out to stand over the city on the terrace with its glass balustrade.

I shook my head.

He tilted his, confused. “Are you scared?”

This was new for me. “I guess I am.”

“I’ve had coffee out here, Morina. It’s completely stable.”

“I mean, you say that, but I’m pretty happy where I’m standing.”

He put his hand out. “Come on. One foot on at least.”

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