I leave the library and head back to my room. I wonder what he wanted to ask me. Could he have wanted to ask if I wanted to spend the night in his room? I think I am reaching now. I honestly wanted us to spend the night together but that will be doing too much. I am already doing too much damage by going against my own values. I do not regret it in anyway though and right now, I am not going to think about it.
I enter my room and contemplate on taking another shower. But I decide against it. I don't want to wash his hands and kisses off me just yet. I fall asleep with a smile on my face. Honestly, it was the best sleep of my life.
I wake up the next morning in a similar manner. With a smile. I go into the bathroom, and go about my morning routine. When I am done, I put on a pair of fuchsia pink shorts and a baby pink kaftan top. I contemplate of wearing makeup and my hand goes to grab the foundation just before I stop myself. I have not written makeup for so long. I don't usually wear makeup but I started when I got married to Levi and he started to hit me. I was wearing makeup to hide my bruises. Since the accident, I have not worn any makeup except for lipgloss because I don't have a reason to. But today I am reaching for the makeup. Is it to look good for Ezekiel? That can't be it. I change my mind and just put on lipgloss and I head downstairs.
"Good morning. How'd you sleep?" Miss Tammy says as soon as she sees me.
"Good morning. I slept well, thank you." I have kind of been staying away from her presence as much as I can because I am sure she knows I was in Ezekiel's office that afternoon she came to knock and I am scared of being judged by her. I cannot bear to look at her and see contempt for me because I am a married woman and I am cheating on my husband with another man.
I go to sit at the table opposite Ezekiel and he does not look up from his iPad.
"Good morning." I greet.
"Morning." He grunts back at me.
Okay, what is going on? Did I do something wrong? Is he still mad at me about avoiding him after what happened in his office? Is this his own idea of a payback? I steal glances at him while Miss Tammy played my breakfast and he does not once look at me.
What the actual fuck? What is wrong with this man? Just last night, he was eating me out like I was his last meal and this morning he won't even look at me?
Miss Tammy puts my plate of pancakes drizzled with syrup in front of me. She adds a low bowl filled with grapes and blueberries to it.
"Are you okay darling?" She furrows her brows.
"Yes Miss Tammy, I just haven't slept properly." I smile a bit.
"Is it the sleepwalking again?" She says in a whisper.
I just smile. I actually have not sleepwalked since the week after I woke up from the accident.
I look at Ezekiel through my lashes and this man is not even looking at me. Maybe he realised he was wrong and should not have anything to do with a married woman. I should not let this get to me also.
I eat my breakfast in complete silence and halfway through it, Ezekiel leaves the table. I finish eating and help Miss Tammy clean up.
"Are you sure it's just sleep." She asks again.
"Yeah. I am just going to lie down and see if I can get any sleep."
"I have some sleep medicine just in case."
"Thank you Miss Tammy." With that I hurry out of the kitchen not wanting her to ask me any further questions. I did not enjoy lying to her.
I am not going back to my room to go and sleep, I am going to lie in my bed so I can wallow in sadness and overthink what happened.
Just as I pass the other guest room on the way to my room, I get snatched into the room and put against the wall with the speed of light. I cannot shout because I realise that a hand is on my mouth. I stare wide eyed at none other than Ezekiel. Is he trying to play on my mind?
""Hmmmph hnmmphm hmmpp." I release muffled sounds as I try to pry off his hands from my mouth.
"What?" He whispers. Why is he whispering?
I hit his arm and he gets the hint.
"Don't shout." I give him a blank stare.
"Promise you're not going to shout." I nod still wondering why he is whispering. He slowly takes his hand off my mouth as if he is testing me and will slam his hands back on my mouth the moment I raise my voice.
"What is the meaning of this?" I whisper angrily. "Why are you giving me mixed signals? Just yesterday, you were mad that I was avoiding and you were eating… you made me feel good, at breakfast, you acted like i don't exist and now you are snatching me up and bringing me to strange rooms. What is your problem?" My eyes are welled with tears, my nose is stinging and I got the last statement out choked up with tears.
"I'm sorry."
"As you should. I need an explanation." He sighs.
"I did not want to make you uncomfortable. I know that you wouldn't want me teasing you or getting handsy with you in front of Tammy. Tammy is a woman of principle, she won't say anything but she will frown at it and I know you will not want her to look at you through a critical lens. I really don't care what Tammy thinks but I know you do." My tears fall freely at his words. The fact that he cares enough to not want to me fall out of grace with Miss Tammy. He does not mind her reaction but he knows I do.
"You could have at least acknowledge my presence." I say with tear streaked face. This is the second time I am crying in front of him. I know he sees me as a cry baby now.
"I know if I did, I would not be able to stop myself from grabbing you and kissing you like my life depends on it."
"Please don't cry." He brings out a handkerchief from his pocket and dabs my face with it.
"You have the permission to cry only if it is from pleasure and if I am the one giving it to you." I laugh and hit his chest with tears in my eyes.
"I promise I did not mean to upset you. Please let me make it up to you." He says as he lifts my face by my chin and kisses me senseless.
"I got you something."
I brighten up. I love gifts.
"What is it?"
"It's in my office. But we will have to sneak past Tammy. She's upstairs. I think she followed you, that's why I told you not to shout."
"Followed me? Why?"
"Remember that day you caught Janet and I in my office?" I nod. "Yeah, you were not supposed to see that. And according to Tammy she said you told were going to take a nap. So I don't think she believes you when you say you want to go and sleep." He laughs and I laugh to.
"I need to come up with a new excuse."
"Yes you do."
"Okay so how are we going to get to your office without Tammy seeing us."
"I don't know. Me going up to my office is not suspicious but you coming right after is going to raise alarm bells."
His face gets serious for a little bit. His serious face is so sexy, but then again, what is not sexy about this man?
"Wait here."
He goes out and closes the door behind him. I hear him talking to Tammy but I cannot hear what is being said. A door opens and closes. I wait patiently. About ten minutes go by and then I hear a knock on the door. I don't open it because what if it is Miss Tammy? Then I hear his voice.
"Open, it's me." I open the door beaming and he takes my hand and leads me to his office. He claims my lips again after he closes the door and locks it. He then leads me to his chair and sits me on his lap. There is a new phone on his table and he hands it to me.
"I'm sorry, I could not recover your phone from the accident scene so I got you a new one. I should have gotten it a long time ago. I'm sorry it took this long." I hug his neck and mutter a thank you.
"You should prepare yourself tonight, I am taking you out to dinner."
"Shouldn't I be keeping a low profile?" I ask in confusion.
"I'll take care of that. A stylist will come with dresses. Pick whichever one you like. You can take more than one just in case you change your mind and you don't like the one you picked earlier."
"Are we meeting anyone?" I ask just to be sure. Anytime Levi and I went out to anywhere, my presence was to play the role of the trophy wife. An arm candy.
"No baby." He kisses my shoulder. "It is just you and I."