The Billionaire's Unauthentic Daughter

C H A P T E R 6 9

"Care to tell me why you're kidnapping me at office hours for no apparent reason?" I asked once I was seated in the passenger seat. I looked up at the bright sun scorching down at us, right above our heads.

He shut my door for me while looking around sneakily.

"I'm taking you on a date." He whispered into my open window.

"Right now? Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"Is what your parents think but I already told my manager to clear my schedule from this afternoon."

He rounded to the driver's seat and slid in.

"Wow. You chose something else over work? That's new. That's good. You should do that every now and then."

"Yeah, it was you who has made me want to not be in my office lately. I'm yet to decide if it's a good thing." He said, pulling away from the house.

"It is. There was going to be a breaking point soon anyway.

You have been working hard for many years, making us feel as if we are good for nothing.

" It was true. I felt utterly useless and a gold digger to be here when I could see how hard Ethan was constantly working although I was sure there was no need for that.

It only made me more determined to study well and get a good job.

In some level, us being kidnapped had turned out to be a good thing.

I was able to give more time to my academics and self growth.

I had grown more mature and I couldn't wait to get out of here and prove myself to the world.

For some reason I wanted to prove myself to Heather so that she could really believe me when I said that I wasn't a gold digger or had any other intention and was stuck here purely by some twisted fate.

He chuckled. "I didn't mean to. Anyway this date isn't really planned and I really just wanted to spend time with you so I don't know what you'll think of it."

"Ethan, anything's fine really."

We were driving into hilly areas and had gotten quite far away from the city. The cars on the road started lessening and I started to wondered where exactly he was taking me and to do what.

My questions were answered when he drove into the parking lot of a water park. Our first date since we got together was at a water park.

"This was unexpected. I didn't bring a change of clothes." I said.

"I've got it covered." He said as he opened the trunk of the car, pulling out two small bags. He bought us two tickets and we gave the bags at the counter to put it in a locker and then he led me into the park.

It wasn't crowded at all owing to the fact that it was the middle of the week. Everyone was busy, stuck in their offices hoping Friday would come sooner.

It felt weird to be just the two of us here along with a few people.

We changed into clothes that he had brought along so it wouldn't matter if it got wet.

"Where do you want to go on first?" He asked as we met up in front of the changing rooms.

I looked ahead. All the rides seemed deadly. I wasn't scared. It was just that I hadn't been to a water park in ages.

But I knew this was going to be fun, especially because I was here with Ethan.

"That one." I pointed at a simple cylindrical slide which ended in the large pool at the base.

"Okay, let's go!" He held my hand and led me to the slide.

As there weren't a lot of people around we didn't have to wait for our turn.

I went first, sliding down the tube effortlessly only to splash into the water.

When I resurfaced, Ethan had already followed me and we laughed together, shaking water off from our hair.

Whatever awkwardness I felt since I got here quickly dissipated and I became more comfortable.

We jumped onto the next ride which was similar to the previous one but was longer and had turns and dips. We played in the pool for some time, splashing water at each other's faces.

My favorite ride was the one where we were sitting on an inflatable raft and slid down the steep platform.

We went on every ride in the water park. It was fun. It was hours after that we finally completed all of the rides.

Just when we completed our last one and we were back at the humongous pool, laughing and chatting about how exhilarating the day was, I pulled him close and planted my lips on his. It was a soft and playful kiss.

We pulled away only when we were interrupted by a whistle.

"No PDA! This is a family friendly water park!" Shouted a woman from across the pool who apparently looked like she was a part of the maintenance crew. We immediately broke apart, getting out of the pool hastily to escape the embarrassment.

We changed back into our clothes and just as I thought that this was the end of our date, Ethan led me up a small hill. The sign on the trail indicated that it was the way to the ziplining spot.

I looked up at him in surprise. "Are we going to zipline?"

"Yes!" He said. "I'm a little afraid of heights but it's okay I know you aren't and so you're going to enjoy this."

Well, this was not good because I was a little terrified of heights myself. Why was Juliet such a brave girl? She was a risk taker and sometimes I didn't understand that girl. The girl I'd never met.

I smiled uneasily at him, looking away to not let him show that I was panicking on the inside. "It's getting late. Maybe we should come back later some day."

He shook his head. "It's not that late. We can definitely do this and go back. It won't take much time."

I didn't have any other excuse to stop him so I went along. I told myself that I'd just close my eyes and pretend I was not ziplining. Then it wouldn't be so bad.

We reached the spot and there were a few men assisting the other people who had come for ziplining. There were two more people before us after which it would be our turn.

We were at least a hundred feet above ground level. Ziplining from this height looked like a nightmare. The worst part of it was that I couldn't even see further than a few feet away because of the fog which gave me no idea about what was going to come at me so that I would be prepared.

I heard that it passed through a gorge with a beautiful stream of water flowing beneath.

I tried not to show that I was a little worried but Ethan was chattering on about how it was the first time he was going to zipline and I couldn't help but smile at his excitement, my own nerves put to ease.

Soon afterwards it was our turn. There were two zip wires running parallelly and Ethan and I were going to go at the same time.

It was a good thing that when I was extremely frightened, no sound comes out of my mouth which meant I won't be screaming in terror when this began and Ethan wouldn't think that I was afraid.

Once we were strapped into the trolleys, my overthinking brain with overactive imagination started creating various scenarios which ended with fatal conclusions.

I shook my head. It was going to be fine.

I looked to my side and Ethan looked giddy with fear, anticipation and excitement. He looked back at me and we gave each other a smile, well his was more of a wide grin.

And then it began. I quickly shut my eyes.

There were two seconds at the start where it felt like we were going slow and then immediately the wind whipped at my face and through my hair.

I felt my stomach clench when the steep slope prevailed and made me tighten my hold on the cables suspended from the pulley.

A little behind me, Ethan was having the time of his life. His cheers reached my ears and I heard him yell "whoa" and "wow" a couple of times.

I hesitantly opened my eyes, intending to just peek but the wind was so fierce that it had me looking at the view beneath me with wide eyes.

It was pure beauty. We were going through a pretty gorge.

The fresh water was running about sixty feet beneath our feet and was lined with greenery and shrubs, seemingly untouched by human activity.

The soft sound of water running around rocks and soil and hitting each other reached up to us, the only sound that was audible to us.

The sides of the gorge had random patterns running all over and although the height freaked me out, it dimmed in comparison to the sight in front of my eyes. This was fun. Scary but fun nevertheless.

We landed safely on a platform soon after the thrilling experience. Ethan stepped down on the grass. "This was perfect." He sighed, staring up at the sky. "But I feel a little dizzy."

I chuckled. "I loved it."

"Well of course. You're an adventure freak. You jump off a cliff, you zipline, you run away from home and so much more that I don't know yet. You do all sorts of scary things."

Well he was right about the first two. But he had done those with me too.

I chuckled. "Its fun. So...is there anything else we're going to do? Are we going to sky dive next?"

He pulled himself from the ground and shook off the grass in his hair and clothes. "No. That was it. Unless you have something in mind."

"Right now, all I can think about it how hungry I am."

"Me too. Should we go home for dinner or eat out? Driving home will take about two hours."

I shook my head vigorously. "I need food. Urgently. Like right now."

"Me too." He said again. "What should we eat?"

"I'm craving McDonald's."

A smile instantly lit up his face. "You read my mind. I can't remember the last time I had some McDonald's."

We left the water park where I had so much fun. We took a lot of pictures that day to keep as memories.

We started towards home and on the way we spotted a McDonald's and Ethan was going to pull up at the parking when I told him to just go through the driveway. He did as I told him and soon we had a lot of food.

"I'm hungry too, you know. And I can't eat while I'm driving." Ethan said as soon as we were on the road again.

He eyed the food in my hands as its delectable aroma spread throughout the car. He licked his lips and turned back to face ahead.

"I know. I've an idea. Let's go to the cliff where we used to go when we were kids."

"You want to eat there? I don't know, it's gotten dark now." He said, looking out his window at the setting sun and dark clouds.

"You took me there on my birthday at four am." I deadpanned.

"We weren't there to have dinner that night."

"Doesn't matter. Take us there."

"As you wish, master. Any other orders?"

I lightly shoved his shoulders, enough to not distract him while he was driving. "Hey, I never ordered you."

"Well you sounded pretty demanding."

"Fine. Please, take us there. I want to go there tonight."

"Now that sounds a lot nicer, doesn't it?"

"Oh whatever. Are you taking us there?"

"Of course."

When we arrived at the cliff, Ethan parked and left the headlights on when I told him to. We took two extra towels we had to use as a blanket to sit on.

We laid out the food and drinks in front of us and sat next to each other.

I knew this was a good idea, an extension to our date.

We had a perfect view of the brightly lit up city we lived in and above we had an ethereal picture of a dark sky twinkling with a million distant stars and a half hidden moon bathing us in its soft white glow.

We had an additional source of light in the form of the headlights of the car which we had left on.

We unwrapped our burgers which had thankfully managed to stay warm and took a bite, marveling at the taste. We were completely famished by our adventurous day and eating warm burgers under a night sky on a cliff overlooking a city abuzz with life was the perfect end to the date.

We were so hungry that our conversation was limited to moaning about how good the food was or how beautiful the sight was.

When we finally finished, we were full. We cleaned up the garbage and put it in the car to throw away later when we got home.

I happened to check my phone for the first time in hours and I knew I was in trouble when I saw that there were a few missed calls from Olivia and a ton of messages and missed calls from Dad and Mom.

Ethan glanced my way and looked into my phone on seeing my troubled expression. He took away my phone.

"I know we're going to get scolded when we get home so let's not worry about it right now. Will you do that for me?"

I nodded. "God, I'm going to be in so much trouble."

"It'll be alright. You don't have to worry. I'm the one who should be worried. I'm the one who kidnapped you without telling your parents. I'm the one who started dating you without asking proper permission from your parents and I'm dating you right under their roof."

"They're not going to throw you out for this." I did say that but I wasn't sure.

"Really? Because I have my bags packed in case I got kicked out." He laughed.

"You're right. Let's not worry about this right now."

I took him by his hand and led him back to the towels. We laid down on it. Now the only thing in front of our eyes was the blanket of stars and the moon above us. The city disappeared down from our view and his hand found mine.

"This is nice." He said.

I hummed my agreement.

"Juliet, do you think we should make it official?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to properly ask your dad for permission to date you. And if he says yes, should we reveal it to the media too?"

I sat up straight. "This is a little sudden. It's only been a few days since we started dating. And this was our first date. Don't you think we should wait?"

He shrugged, drawing patterns on my hand. "I want to be able to date freely without feeling like a criminal. Honestly I should've asked your dad first but things happened out of order. And if the paparazzi gets a whiff of me dating after the thing with Heather, it's only going to be hard for you."

"You don't have to ask him. I told you that he said he didn't mind us dating."

He smiled and brought my hand to his lips to place a soft kiss on its back. "Yes, but I want to still ask him. It's only good manners."

"Come on, I can date whoever I want."

"Of course, but he's a little overprotective of you now. I'm sure he just wants to make sure I'm not like Vince and you won't run away again. He's right to worry about it."

Now realizing where he was coming from, I nodded in agreement. "I guess you're right."

"You don't have to be so worked up right now. I won't do anything until you're ready."

He patted his arm and I laid back next to him, resting my head on his extended arm.

"Tell me if my head starts to feel heavy." I muttered.

We stayed like that talking for some more time and thankfully the conversation moved to other topics.

Once it was ten at night we decided to head back. The ride back was silent, both too tired to speak much.

When we arrived a little after eleven the mansion was still brightly lit. Clearly everyone was still awake.

When we walked into the living room, we saw my dad and mom sitting on the couch, watching a movie.

The sound of our footsteps alerted them of our presence and my dad shot out of his seat to turn around and give us a furious look. "Where have you two been?" He meant to sound angry but it came out more as concerned which he probably was more than being angry.

"Sir, I'm sorry I took Juliet without informing you. I thought we'd be back before evening but our plans got extended unexpectedly." Ethan answered.

"You two going on dates is fine by us but you could've at least informed us." My mom said, yawning at the end. She didn't seem as fazed with our disappearance as her husband was.

"We thought you ran away again!" My dad exclaimed with wide eyes. "I was about to inform the cops until I got a call from his assistant that he had taken the day off."

"Honey, let's not do this right now. The kids are tired. They are safe and that's all that matters as of now. You can talk to them tomorrow morning." She said, putting a hand on his arm then turned to us. "Have you two eaten yet?"

"Yes, we did." I told her.

She nodded. "Let's go to bed." She started pulling Alistair back.

"Fine. But I'm going to have a word with you two tomorrow, especially you Ethan." He said warningly. I gulped. I hoped he'd cool down by tomorrow.

"Yes, sir." He said.

"Good night, you two. Don't go running away somewhere in the middle of the night." Charlotte said, giving me a pointed look.

"We won't." I said defensively.

Once they were gone, I released a sigh of relief. "Well that wasn't so bad."

"It's not over. He's going to talk to us tomorrow, especially me."

"But hey, you aren't getting kicked out tonight." I said to remind him of the brighter side.

"Let's hope it's not tomorrow either."

"You won't. Seriously. I won't let him. Now let's go get some sleep, yeah? I'm so tired."

Once we reached in front of our rooms. Ethan paused.

"Should I sleep in my own room tonight?"

"What, why?"

"I don't want to give your parents any more reason to hate me."

I rolled my eyes. "They don't hate you and it's not like they're going to come check on me."

"I don't know. I think they might after what happened today."

"You're sleeping in my room." I looped my arm around his and started pulling him towards my room.

"Okay, okay. Slow down. You seem a lot excited today to get me in bed."

"Shut up."

After I had taken a shower and brushed my teeth, I went into my room. Ethan was already sitting on my bed, watching a sports channel. He smelled nice. He had taken a shower before me.

I climbed on my bed and wrapped an arm around his waist, resting my head on his shoulder. I suddenly wanted to cuddle.

He seemed surprised but chuckled and wrapped his arms around me, caging me in.

"Let's go to sleep." I murmured into the side of his neck.

"You don't need to tell me twice." With that he pressed the button to shut the TV off.

He started showering my face with kisses, settling on my lips after he made sure my whole face had been kissed.

"I didn't switch off my bedside lamp." I grumbled between kisses.

"Screw it." He murmured against my lips.

"No, I need to switch it off. I can only sleep when there is complete darkness."

"I'm giving you two seconds to get back," He said as he released me. He sat up himself to take off his shirt.

I turned over and stretched to reach the switch but my hand stilled when I caught sight of a figure standing outside my slightly parted door in my peripheral vision, their eyes trained on us.

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