Chapter 27 #2
Exhaling exhaustedly, she turned away and began pacing back and forth again.
“Mother wants grandchildren, and I doubt Anthony will find a wife anytime soon.”
So did I.
Sighing, I finally let the truth slip out, because I was so tired of giving Brittany false hope with my avoidant behavior.
“I don't want children, Britt.”
She shook her head urgently.
“You wouldn't have to worry about that. We'd have nannies.”
“No.”
“What?”
She spun around to face me again.
“No.” I looked at her determinedly. “I'm not going to marry you. Not now. Not in five years. Believe me. One day you'll understand. And then you'll thank me for saving us from this mistake.”
Tears returned to her desperate eyes, but I fought against all my pity.
This was necessary if she wanted to stop wasting her time with me and I didn't want to end up in more unpleasant situations.
My voice regained its calmness.
“You deserve someone your own age. Someone you can grow old with and who has the same goals as you. Just as children deserve a mother who doesn't hand them off to nannies, but chooses to devote herself fully to them. Because she has time. Because she is willing to make time when it matters.”
Brittany shook her head.
“No, the two of us...”
“You won't have any of that with me.”
Too many stimuli, too many emotions that I couldn't classify or express at the moment, which made me turn away from her and walk down the hallway with growing unease, leaving her behind.
I hadn't meant to hurt her, but this had gone too far.
If her parents continued to put this pressure on her, I would have no choice but to confront Joseph.
I paused in the passageway to the entrance hall, unwilling to mingle with the crowd any longer.
I had to get out of here. Away.
Starry Eyes
Cigarettes After Sex
My gaze lingered on the young brown-haired woman in the blue blazer, who was standing by a window in the corner of the hall, her eyes wandering outside while her fingers played with the golden cord of the heavy curtain.
She wasn't supposed to be my anchor, and yet I allowed myself to be drawn in for a moment, losing myself in the luxury of anonymity, as none of the guests – all engrossed in loud laughter and heated conversation – seemed to notice me behind the massive statue in front of the passageway.
Everything faded into the background. As if there were only two authors, trapped in an empty world.
She swayed back and forth to the soft music, as if in a trance.
Suddenly she paused and everything inside me froze, curious to see what she was reacting to.
She was still looking outside, so I also looked through the window, toward the... rain. It was like a cloudburst.
Quill broke out of her trance, looked around, but didn't notice me, then hurried unnoticed through one of the passageways, a smirk on her lips.
Where was she going all of a sudden?
With growing confusion, I watched her disappear, unable to resist the curiosity that was bubbling to the surface, but if I entered the hall now just to follow her, someone would notice me.
There was only one way.
Since all roads led to Rome in Monica's house, I turned around, took the longer route through three salons to avoid running into Brittany again, crossed the empty kitchen, and paused.
My gaze fixed on the bowl of blueberries, which was still standing where Quill had left it.
Where could she have fled to?
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a shadow darting through the hallway adjoining the dining room.
Had someone just rushed out of one of the salons?
I stepped into the hallway as well, my stomach knotting with worry.
The massive double doors to the grand rear terrace were open, as always, and... Quill ran down the stairs, stormed through the park until she disappeared around one of the hedges.
Where there had been worry just a moment ago, pure panic now exploded.
Hastily I looked around, spotted a black umbrella in the cloakroom, and without further hesitation rushed out into the torrential rain, holding the open umbrella over my head, trying to make out where she had run.
If I don't find her...
My heart racing, I quickened my pace and turned around the same hedge, only to arrive at one of Monica's parks, where I stopped abruptly.
Another Day in Paradise
dreamsoda
The rain pelted down on my umbrella with a deafening pounding. Nevertheless, her exuberant laughter reached me as she slipped out of her blazer, threw it onto the wet grass, and spun around in a circle with her eyes closed and her arms outstretched.
The rain hammered down on her relentlessly, but it didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. Instead, she smiled, stretched her face toward the sky, and let the cool water run down her skin and soak her white blouse until the fabric clung to every curve of her upper body and I thought I could make out her dark bra underneath.
I swallowed, watching the most vibrant soul I had ever encountered dance in the rain as if it were washing away all the misery that had befallen her.
The sun emerged from behind the clouds, reflecting in the rolling water droplets on her face.
She moved as if she were dancing solely for the rain. A spectator who became one with her every movement.
I envied the rain. It was allowed to spill over her, flow down her curves, follow their contours, linger on them, explore her…
She opened her eyes, spotted me in the middle of her turn and stopped, looking just as taken aback as I had been the moment I had spotted her in Monica's kitchen earlier.
Then her smile returned and she laughed exuberantly.
The mere sound sent a pleasant tingling sensation through my stomach, and automatically the corners of my mouth turned up on their own while my hands clung to the umbrella.
I didn't want her to stop, I wanted her to laugh more often, I wanted to capture that carefree, lively Quill Veritas smile, because it gave me the illusion of being able to fill my miserable ink battery.
“An umbrella?” she continued to laugh and turned again before dancing towards me. “Do you fear the rain?”
“No, I...”
Before I had a chance to finish my sentence, she snatched the umbrella from my hand and hurried past me, so that the rain could now pour down on me unhindered and with unexpected coolness.
“Hey, what...” I spun around to see Quill running away with the umbrella, laughing. “Quill!” Her laughter grew louder, her steps faster. “Come back!”
She turned to me, still running, and even though she seemed to be laughing at me, her soaked hair, from which water was already dripping, as well as from her nose, adorned with faint freckles, and the delightful corners of her mouth were the most fascinating things I had ever seen.
“Damn...” I growled, because the rain seemed to be laughing at me too, slowly but surely soaking through my suit jacket.
“That was a mistake!”
With a grin, and, driven by a kind of adrenaline I hadn't felt in a long time, I started to run, causing her to quickly turn around and continue running across the lawn.
“Davian Rydell is afraid of rain,” Quill laughed melodiously, dancing with the umbrella through the floods that the sky was sending down on us.
Oh, just you wait...
I caught up with her, and when she spotted me, her grin widened. She skillfully dodged me, circling a pile of leaves that Monica's gardener must have swept up, but she didn't expect me to jump over it.
“Davian is...”
I caught her, and a startled sound escaped her throat as I wrapped my hands around the lower part of her upper arms, making me grin triumphantly and sending the adrenaline in my stomach to new heights.
I had underestimated the momentum and hadn't expected her not to fight back.
Quill collided with my chest and I immediately lost my balance, slipping on the damp grass and trying to hold on to her.
Quill's eyes widened as much as mine when she lost her balance too.
Next, I felt her hands on my sides, on my chest...
It was too late.
We fell, together, right into the soaking wet pile of leaves.
Starry Eyes
Cigarettes After Sex
A jolt shook my body, and when I realized that Quill was no longer holding on to me, I immediately sat up straight and looked around for her, alarmed.
I spotted her to my right, where she turned toward me in the leaves and grinned at me furtively.
Good. She wasn't hurt.
The umbrella lay five feet away, filling with rain, but I couldn't manage to avoid her gaze, especially when she calmed down.
Quill, who was still lying as if it were not a dirty pile of leaves but a cozy bed beneath the autumn trees, stared at me, her lips pressed together as if she had to control herself, but at some point she lost the battle against the corners of her mouth, which wandered back up before the forced tension completely disappeared from her lips and she grinned at me again.
An amused sound escaped her throat.
She laughed.
“You should see yourself, Davian.”
She was laughing at me.
I couldn't help but run my hands through the wet leaves and throw them at her.
Laughing louder, she turned away, raising one hand defensively while the other held her stomach.
This woman...
Only now did I realize how all the tension had left my body. And at that very moment, the harsh reality hit me.
I should get up, I should go inside, but the mere thought of having to explain to Monica or Tony why my suit was covered in leaves and why my clothes were half wet sent too much exhaustion through my body after what had just happened in that house.
The fact that I had the chance to be out here alone with her didn't make it any better.
Get up. Go inside.
Chasing Cars
Snow Patrol
But my body surrendered, and for the first time in a long time, I did not fight the urge to let go. Instead, I sank backward into the pile of leaves next to her, closed my eyes, and welcomed the drops of the fading rain on my face, as well as the feeling of relief in every fiber of my body.
A deep breath made its way through my lungs. Lungs that had been filled with water for the past few years.