Suddenly I felt Damon’s strong arms wrapped around my waist as he rested his chin on my shoulder. I could feel the heat coming out of his body. I could smell the expensive perfume he used. He was intoxicating me.
Then suddenly I felt the touch of lips at the side of my neck. He kissed it chastely and softly like the inside of a rose and his lips lingered longer than I thought it would be. I closed my eyes as I tried to savor each second that I could have while I was inside this fairytale book.
He moved his lips away from skin and I could not help but groan inwardly. Please, do not end it yet. Then I felt Damon’s lips turned slightly upward against my skin the moment I groaned.
I turned my head to the side and saw that he was smiling at me.
“I’m pooped. Can we go to bed now?” Now he was making fun of me. His eyes were wide and clear blue. He looked like a little child when he did try to widen his blue eyes like that.
“Okay.” I handed him the wine glass.
He took my hand and led me towards his bedroom where we usually slept together. He left the wine glass on a side table we passed by on our way to the bed.
We lay side by side, our usual positions, faced each other while holding hands. He lifted his head and kissed my temple, I could not help my heart from smiling. It was just a sweet simple gesture, but it did made a grand imprint on my being.
“Thank you for tonight.” He softly murmured.
“Me too.” I said back to him. I should be the one thanking him for the invite, the dinner and all and not the other way around.
“Go to sleep, Amanda.” He gently commanded me, always the bossy one.
“Goodnight.” I closed my eyes and drifted off with the image of his sweet smile on my head.
~***~
“Wake up sleepy head.” A familiar smooth voice registered through my left ear. “Time for breakfast.”
I slowly opened my eyes and saw lovely blue eyes smiling down at me, a different kind of smile than the one I slept in but it was irresistibly gorgeous as well. He was so gorgeous even early in the morning. How could he manage to look like this even just upon waking up?
“I’ve prepared you breakfast in bed.” He said as he placed a tray with pancakes, orange juice in bed along with a long stemmed rose. He took the rose and handed it to me.
He was just not gorgeous in the morning, he happened to be romantic as well. I couldn’t help but felt the warmth on my cheeks spreading and that weird familiar tugging in my heart.
I took the rose from him and inhaled its scent then I smiled up at him and he gladly returned it with one of his own.
After breakfast, he offered me a ride home in his Aston Martin. It was a good-looking engine just like the one who person who drives it. The people in my neighborhood watched with wide eyes as the car passed them by. Of course, who would not drool over Damon’s car? It was an Aston Martin for shouting out loud!
Their jaws dropped even lower when they saw Damon opening the car door and me stepping out of it. Hello, it was Damon Rhodes. No one expected an orphan with a minimum wage salary from a third world community came out of a high-end first class million dollar worth of engine owned by a sexy billionaire bachelor. Of course, it would surprise the hell out of them.
“I’ll see you tonight?” He said as he walked me to the door.
I could feel the eyes of my neighbors boring into my back. It was like daggers shooting me from behind. “Sure.”
“So this is me.” We stopped in front of my cheap door compared to his penthouse doors and turned around to face each other.
I knew I was tall, but he was much taller, and his presence alone was bigger than anything in this corner of the state was. I stared up to his face, his blue eyes glimmering so beautiful under the bright late morning sun. He was beyond beautiful, and he was here standing in front of me. He lowered down his head as we stare at each other and kissed my cheek. Then he was gone.
And I was all alone at the doorstep smiling and blushing like a lunatic.
He was gone but I could still feel the touch of his lips on my cheek, the warmth of his breath. The memory of his smile and the sound of his voice still clung around the air. He was gone but it felt like he was still around. At least in my head he was.
I opened the front door, still drowned in ecstasy caused by Damon Rhodes. I felt like floating in the air. I felt like I wanted to spin like a girl in her dress as I caught the wind in my hair, trapped in my own bubble like a pubescent girl who recently learned that her crush also liked her.
Then suddenly I stopped from smiling and was now staring at my twin brother who was looking at me as if he didn’t knew who just had entered the apartment.
He lifted a brow when I stared at him as if I was caught doing something shameful. What? I shrugged and passed him by on my way to the bedroom.
“Not so fast Amanda.” Aiden said just like how our father would have said to me if he were alive. “Who’s that guy?”
Uh-oh. Busted. “My friend.” I lied, looking anywhere except at him.
“Are you with your ‘friend’ the whole time you are not at home?” He emphasized the word friend along with quoting hands.
Damon was my friend, right? I knew he was, or at least I thought he was despite my growing feelings for the man. “Yes. What’s with the hundred questions, Aiden?” I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. Aiden was acting like a dad asking his daughter where she had been.
“I was asking you a hundred questions because it just happened that you didn’t come home last night, and some young man was with you when you did find time to come to our apartment.” He said. Geez, he sounded like daddy. “And, he was driving an Aston Martin.” He pointed out.
Now I got it.
He thought I was a dirty girl who goes to bed with some rich man.
Well, maybe I was.
But he didn’t have to know it.
“Who was he anyway? A drug dealer, mafia, politician?” He started again with his questions. Being smart and all made Aiden all snoopy and exasperating. He was always like that.
“Damon Rhodes, okay.” That made Aiden shut up.
There. Shut up, twin brother.
“Damon Rhodes? As in the billionaire?” He asked in a small unbelieving voice.
I sighed. He didn’t know how to stop asking questions, didn’t he? He was like a gossip reporter rather than a medical student.
“I have to go to work. Can we talk about this later?” Silently hoping I could finally escape this interrogation room.
“Sure. But don’t you dare try to avoid me. Be ready to be asked with the hundred questions, sis.” He said, partly teasing and partly serious.
I had better prepare for the questions he would be throwing at me because I knew that he meant he was going to dig as deep as he could just to get his answers.
“Yeah whatever.”
After I had redone my make-up and changed into my diner uniform, I felt lighter and much cheerer on my way to work. I was in love and being in love gave me the cheeriest of the mood I could get. I unconsciously hummed as I took each steps on the pavement.
“You seem so happy.” A voice interrupted me.
I turned around and saw one of the regular costumers of the diner and Aiden’s senior, Chace Lewis. He was smiling down at me with his blue-green eyes and cute dimples. He looked handsome in his uniform and tousled brown-blonde hair.
“Oh, hi.” I replied.
“Hello. You’re on your way to the diner?”
“Yup.”
“Do you mind if I walk with you there? I’m on my way to grab something to eat before starting my shift in the hospital.” He asked.
“Not at all.”
We walked together on the way to the diner as we talked about any topic that would come across us. I never went shy talking to a man before, benefits of working on the giving pleasure department, so I never had a problem getting to know Chace better.
We reached the dinner and I quickly put on my apron to get Chace�
�s order, I brought him his meal and we could not stop smiling at each other, just a friendly warm kind of smile, it was harmless honestly.
Margaret cornered me back in the kitchen and she looked like a big bear cornering me like that. I was not sure if I should be afraid, she looked like she was about to make a meal out of me. “Tell me everything and don’t you dare leave a single detail.” She narrowed her eyes at me.
“I hate you sometimes, you know.” I kind of glared at her. She was equally exasperating as my twin brother was.
Margaret replied by sticking out her tongue at me like an immature childish adult and I could not help but laugh at her. She really was a child in many ways.
I told Margaret what happened with me last night, the party, the dinner afterwards and when he brought me home in the morning. After my story, I saw my best friend’s face painted with a dreamy expression and I could not help but laugh at her facial expression but I did my best to suppress it.
Margaret was the real romantic between the two of us. She was the one who believed in fairytales, prince charming and to the famous quotation that love conquers all. She was the one who hoped that someday her fairytale would happen, even though she was quite pessimistic about Damon and me. I wondered what had made that change.
“You are one lucky bitch.” Margaret said when she finally came back from fantasyland. A happy smile formed on her luscious lips. “I was the one hoping for the fairytale and you are the one having them.” She said in her bitter good-naturedly way.
“Hey.” I reached for her.
She took my hand and gently squeezed it. “You deserve the fairytale, Amanda. You’ve been in a lot of sacrifices and I was hoping Damon is the one who will make you whole again.” Margaret pulled me in an embrace. “I love you like my sister and I wanted you to be happy.” She murmured.
I couldn’t help but feel the pang of guilt inside my gut for her not having the fairytale she wished, and love her at the same time for all the wonderful thing she did to me.
~***~
“Amanda.” I knew that voice all too well to not recognize it. I turned around, saw Damon Rhodes in his sharp midnight blue business suit and tie. He looked so gorgeous and edible. I wanted to eat him whole.
“Damon.” I said with a voice way too high to even sound normal, so I cleared my throat and adjusted my pitch. “What are you doing here?”
“I had a business meeting in a restaurant around the area. How about you?” He asked.
His eyes slowly moved away from me and towards the man with his arm draped around my shoulders. Damon stared at him with threatening, dangerous, penetrating gaze.
“This is my twin brother Aiden Sparks.” I started making introductions before something broke loose, especially with the way Damon stared at my twin. “Aiden, this is Damon Rhodes.”
I turned my attention to my twin brother who was tucked to my side as if he was stapled there forever. His arm were draped all over my shoulders and if you didn’t knew that we were twins, you would thought that we were just some young couple out on a date. We were always like this, Aiden and I, always touchy and open to each other, a simple hug and public display of affection was nothing but a sibling gesture to us.
Damon’s feature smoothened and relaxed when I told him Aiden was my sibling, and then he slowly put on his charming smile for my brother. “It’s nice to meet you.” He extended a hand towards Aiden, obviously trying to win him over, and I wondered if it would work.
“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Rhodes.” Aiden pumped Damon’s hand up and down with genuine pleasure and respect for the famous billionaire.
“There’s no need to call me that, it makes me feel old. Just Damon.” He smiles and I blinked at Damon.
Did I hear him right? Did he say that Aiden could call him Damon? As far as I knew, everyone called him Mr. Rhodes or Mr. Damon Rhodes but not Damon. Aunt, his ex-girlfriend and I were the only ones allowed to call him that. But he was telling my brother to call him Damon, was that for real?
Aiden must have noticed the oddity of that as well, because he too looked surprised. He took a glance at me and our eyes met, my brother’s and mine, the same shade of green reflecting one another’s like mirror reflection, both of us were shocked, unbelieving and clueless. We stared at Damon at the same time, just like those twins on TV.
“Could I invite you both for a cup of coffee?” Damon asked.
“Sure.” Aiden replied though the way he looked at Damon made me felt nervous. Guess our night stroll along the streets of New York was not a good idea for a sibling bonding at all, I knew it, we should have stuck with the usual movie night instead.
Seven
“So you’re taking up a pre-med course.” Damon said as he reached for his cup of Americano.
I noticed he was trying hard to be attentive towards my brother, but every ten minutes he took quick glances at me. Was there something on my face?
Aiden told him about his pre-med degree, he was fond of telling stories about his latest achievements. I was proud of him and his endeavors more than anyone else was.
“Tell me Damon, how did you and my sister met?” Aiden asked out of nowhere.
Ding! The lottery question was finally out. He was quite tenacious.
Damon looked nonchalant and cool as he continued in enjoying his cup of coffee. He stared at me and I could not help but stared back at him with pleading eyes. I was holding my breath, wishing he would never tell Aiden about my night job. I knew Aiden would despise me if he knew about my hooker nightlife, and I could not afford to lose him. I would die if he hate and leave me alone.
“I had an accident while driving and she rescued me. I cannot thank her enough for saving my life.” Damon said.
I let go of the breath I was holding and stared at my brother with a smile. “Those basic life support lessons you urged me to attend helped a lot.” I laughed mirthlessly.
Aiden smiled back at me, though I knew by the look in his eyes that he did not have his fix yet. “So you’re a friend of my sister just as what she told me, maybe you could tell me where the two of you have been the day you brought her home.”
Oh. My. God.
This was so not happening.
I wanted to sink beneath the ground and hid there forever. How could Aiden have asked such a brazen question?
“We came home from a party where she attended as my date.” Damon explained without batting a lash.
“A party, up until the morning?” He asked. He really wouldn’t back off, would he?
“I feel dizzy, can we go home now?” I interrupted with the lamest excuse I could formulate in my head. Damon looked at me with concerned blue eyes and Aiden with a scrutinizing look as if I just had an extra head on my shoulder.
“Okay.” He said after contemplating for a long time whether I was telling the truth or not. Whew, thank God.
“I’ll give you a ride home.” Damon offered as we all stood from the chairs.
“No. We can manage. Thanks.” I quickly said and gave him a pleading “do not insist” look.
As Aiden and I walked out of the coffee shop, I knew the night has not ended yet. I was so right, because the moment we stepped inside the apartment, Aiden started shooting questions after questions about Damon. I dodged all of it by retreating to my room as quickly as I could and lay my head on the pillow, pulled the duvet over my head and pretended to sleep, and he did not bothered me anymore. Finally.
The next morning, I woke up an hour earlier that I normally did but I chose to prepare for work instead of going back to sleep. Last night, I decided not to go to my work because I have a feeling that Aiden was guarding the door and was ready to bombard me with his questions.
I snuck a peek around my bedroom door and found an Aiden-free living room, guess he was still sleeping. Then, I tiptoed on my way out and shut the door as quietly as I could.
The moment I knew that I was safe from my twin, I dashed as fast as I could and bumped into the hard chest of Chace Lewis. I
looked up and saw him smiling as if he found me funny.
“Why are you acting like you were trying to break out of prison?” He asked in a teasing manner.
“Likely. My brother was like an FBI investigator with his nonstop questions.” I replied.
We walked side by side just like yesterday on our way to the diner, me to work and him to grab a snack. On the way we covered endless topics, I told him something about me and in return, he did that same. I was a bit disappointed when I realized that we were almost there, because I had a great time talking with him.
We entered the diner laughing together about some silly joke he told me, his humor is so dry yet I found myself laughing at it, then I scanned the premises just like how I normally did whenever I entered the establishment with the aftershock of the laugh still etched on my face. Then my gaze met a certain pair of blue eyes.
The clearest blue eyes I had ever seen in my entire life.
They did not look so pleased at all.
The laugh dissolved my lips and I became a deaf for a second, trapped inside a glass dome that I could not hear a single noise coming from the rest of the diner. Damon looked not so happy the moment he realized I was with Chace and was laughing with him as if he was my good ‘ol buddy.
“Why don’t you find a booth and I’ll take your order in a minute.” I told Chace and he nodded.
This must be my lucky day!
Chace had chosen the booth next to Damon. Of all the vacant table inside the diner why did it had to be next to Damon?
I walked at the back of the diner and as I was putting on my apron, Margaret showed up. “It looked like both of your prince charmings would finally get to meet each other.”
“They are not my prince charmings, okay.” I snapped at her as I tied the apron around my waist.
“Why so snappy, bff? Like I would believe that thing.” She said before disappearing to attend to a costumer.
I walked nervously and scanned the whole premises, my eyes focused on Damon most of the time. He looked like he wanted to snap Chace’s head off his neck, and Chace was oblivious to Damon’s dangerous look.
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