Merging Hearts (Smitten Hearts #1)

Chapter Twenty-four

Rain and Hazel

The click of the front door echoes through the foyer and I take quick strides into the house with an uneasy feeling brimming at the back of my neck. I’m expecting to find everything arranged, controlled and ordered—as usual. However, when I step into the living room, I know that something is wrong.

It first starts when Frank looks me dead in the eyes with that perfectly blank face of his and orders me to take off my shoes and change into the ‘house slippers.’

What. The. Hell?

The air seems different, a change so obvious I can’t overlook it. My eyes dart around the walls with a wince, noting the disturbing signs. The house reveals itself in its new form as I walk in further. Furniture is in new places, the artworks around the house are shifted and a new unrecognizable scent lingers in the air.

The audacity strikes a chord, awakening a flicker of anger that rushes down my spine.

I match into the kitchen, the only part in the house where silent noises are. The scent of steaming soup invades my nose. Hazel stands there, cutting a potato on the counter. My steps pause at the sight of my sister sitting in front of her with a smile on her face while she cuts a green onion.

Angela’s eyes widened in shock and for a second, I wonder where she was when Hazel called people to move my furniture and paintings around. Hazel’s best friend holds my ten grand Chateau d’Yquem wine, and I growl in anger. They all have a lot of explanations to make.

“What have you done?” The words slice through the air as a cold demand for an explanation.

I can swear I hear a whimper from Hazel. She turns to my sister, then to my housekeeper for a silent plea for help, but Reina scrams off the chair, the genuine smile on her face earlier now replaced with an awkward one.

“Hi, brother. Bye, brother.”

She drops the knife with her and runs to Kang Su-mi, pulling my wine from the woman and placing it on the table. In less than two minutes, they both grab their bags, put on their shoes, and leave. But not before I see Hazel widening her eyes, shaking her head, and mouthing some words.

With irritation, I glance back at the door and watch as both ladies finally run out, shutting the door behind them. Hazel, Angela, and I remain in the deafening silence.

Deciding to deal with Hazel later, I turn my head to my housekeeper to give her a piece of the restless anger in my heart, but she pushes herself off the wall. “The dog is hungry.” We don’t have a dog, but Angela is known to spit out just anything in order to get out of a situation.

She leaves before I can say otherwise.

I shut my eyes, blow out a little breath, and open them to find Hazel’s bottom lip trapped between her teeth. “My room, now.”

I walk away, leaving no room for disobedience.

My room –the only private space I have since Hazel came into the house– has been violated. I now have a bedside lamp, and a white couch lies just a few feet away from my bed. The shock assaults my senses, leaving me momentarily speechless, gone, and so mad.

Hazel walks in just in time. A smile almost grazes her lips as she takes in the expression I have upon seeing the new state of my room.

“What possessed you?” I ask, my voice going dangerously down several decibels.

“I redecorated our home.” Our home?

“Redecorated?” My right eye jerks. “Who gave you the right to walk into my room? Who gave you the right to violate my space like this?”

Her eyes flashes with frustration mixed with a little something –an emotion I can’t quite decipher. Her shoulder stiffens with a subtle sign of defiance. “Maybe if you stayed home more often, you’d have a say about the things that go on around here.”

“This is my house, Hazel, my house. Whatever motion is going on in your head is wrong. This is my place.”

Our eyes lock with silent battle and her lips purse in annoyance. “It’s our home. It’s my place too. I didn’t walk in myself, you brought me here. It doesn’t matter how much time I have, I’m going to make it livable for me. I refuse to spend another day in this freaking cold surroundings you call a house. If you don’t want me here anymore, tell me. I’ll pack my bags and return to Su-mi, and we’ll forget we ever met.”

I blink. Of course she’ll resort to using my weakness against me. Typical human being. “Are you threatening to back out of our agreement?”

Hazel meets my eyes unflinchingly. “Not threatening, simple telling you. If you still want me here, you won’t tell me how to live in it.”

“This is what you spent a hundred and sixty thousand for?” I ask softly. “Rearranging everything I’ve had control over for years?”

She takes one step closer to me. “Is it too much? Did I finish the money in your account? I took it as compensation for your absence. Isn’t that what the credit card was for? To compensate me for—” Her speech falters and her eyes widen when I slowly close the distance between us.

Something shifts in the air. Our animosity is still there, no doubt, but the current of a deeper emotion has surfaced, pulsing around the room.

She inches back, but doesn’t exactly take a step away. Her brown winsome eyes dance between mine, filling up with wariness and anticipation. I hold her forearm and pull her to me with a force that makes her hit my chest with a groan. “To compensate you for what?” I ask, but she stays silent. I can feel her heart racing, her breaths coming out in short gasps. “Why do you enjoy frustrating me?”

“I don’t—”

My heartbeat pauses when I dip down and brush my breaths on her ear. “Why do you bait me?”

“I’m not—”

Why do I think of you every time? Why did you not leave my head in Philadelphia? Why did I leave a business incomplete for you?

I leave the unasked questions in my mind.

My breathing increases at an imbalance rate when I curl my hand behind her neck and push her face to me, standing nose to nose, mouth to mouth, and lip to lip with her.

Now I’m the one baiting myself. I should stop.

“What do you want from me?” I finish in a weakening whisper, my lips brushing hers with each word. A loud curse erupts from my chest when she gasps and parts her lips in the process, opening up for me.

Rain!

I’m too far gone.

My blood pulsates loud in my ear and I slam my firm cold lips to her soft warm ones, locking my fingers with her hair and pushing her closer to me.

Hazel

Oh Santa Maria, Rain is kissing me.

His fingers curl into my braids—a sudden possessive gesture that both startles and ignites something in my lower stomach—and tugs hard enough to make me gasp from the sweet pain. My eyes are forced shut when his tongue enters my mouth like an unexpected intruder and twirls with mine. He explores my mouth like a tourist would navigate an unknown city, leaving an indelible mark on the map of our new intimacy.

My hands are rolled into fists, hanging in the same level with my head as he explores my mouth with his lips, his tongue, his … everything.

What should I do? Should I grab his shirt? Hold onto his back? Should I unbutton his shirt? Unbuckle his belt? Does he wanna take it further?

A surge of heat sweeps through my veins when his touch transitions from possessive to tender. His fingers, once firm in my hair, now trace a path along the curve of my jaw, igniting shivers on my skin.

I haven’t kissed a lot of people, but I can already beat my chest that this kiss will top all others. Rain kisses the way he talks—hard, controlling, and dark—and he tastes the way he looks—hot, sin-like, strong. Strong like spice, heat and cocoa. Strong like a drug that I won’t ever be able to get out of my system anymore.

My hand uncurls and I place my palms on his chest to push him away, but I end up fisting his suit and pulling him even closer to me. He sighs into my mouth and my knees shake.

Snap out of it, Hazel. My voice of reasoning yells at me.

Metaphoric ice water pours on me out of nowhere and I push Rain away breathlessly. His eyes are dilated, cheeks are flushed, and lips are swollen. I can only imagine what I look like. I stare up at the ceiling, unable to look at him after what has just happened.

What’s wrong with me? Why does everything about Rain seem so intense? Why does he make my heart beat so loud and leave me breathless every time? Even when he’s being an asshole.

“ Principessa , I—” he breathes out and I return my attention to him. He runs his palm down his sobered face, while I bite my lips, fully aware of what he’s about to say.

“That was … it was just a mistake and—”

“A mistake,” I repeat dryly, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes.” His face takes up his signature blank expression and I almost hold him by his large forearms to shake him until the flustered, horny look climbs back to his face. “It shouldn’t have happened. It was a mistake and you know it.”

A deadly mixture of confusion, anger, and hurt flood my senses, and the sexual tension that once filled the room gets chased out by another brimming fight in the corner. “Then why did you do it if it shouldn’t have happened?”

“I’m sorry,” he grinds out. “Let us not forget the true bases of our arrangement.” You were the one who kissed me, you stupid man . “This is and will always be a business deal. Don’t forget that, and don’t try to frustrate me anymore. I’m not a nice man when angry.”

Tightness grips my heart and a single sardonic laugh falls out of my mouth. I search his face for any sign that he’s lying, that he also felt something from our kiss, but his stoic expression gives away nothing at all—neither the regret that seems to seep out of his voice, nor something to tell me that he also feels the way I currently do.

For a moment, there’s only silence. Tears well up my eyes from the way my heart stings at his words. He sighs and my face pinches at the way he seems to be at a conflict with himself.

Who are you fighting, Rain? What are you fighting?

“Leave.”

I take a step closer to him, but he takes three back.

“Please,” he begs like he’s in pain and I release an angry breath before bolting out of his room and into mine.

When I get into my room, I wrap around my pillow for what seems like hours, before getting a text from Reina that she has transferred the money back into the account.