Billionaire Romance: Seduced by the Billionaire (20 page)

Mellissa rolled her eyes. “How
could she possibly hear you if she’s in the car?”

Thom turned back around.
Delighted to hear Mellissa’s pleasing tone assured him she was no longer angry
at him. “Should I yell?”

“Do as you please.” She bulged
her eyes out.

He just smiled at her, glad to
feel they were back to their old selves again.

“Natalia…” Thom’s voice
reverberated throughout the neighborhood as the wind drifted his voice to
Natalia’s ears.

Staring at the street ahead,
Natalia’s eyes fixed on something on the road. Her mind wondered what was
happening on the inside, curious about what Thom and Mellissa were doing. Thom
had told her he was just going to retrieve his phone, but she knew he had so
much more in mind.

She turned his gaze at Thom as
soon as her ears picked up the sound of his booming voice. “What does he want?”
she wondered.

Natalia waved her hand for Thom
to go on, but instead, he waved back at her as if inviting her to join him.
“No, I’m not gonna go there…” she motioned her lips for him to read, uncertain
of what to do. Mellissa might pull my hair…

She opened the door slightly and
poked her head out. “Go on…” she whispered so quietly that even a bee couldn’t
pick up the sound.

Watching Thom for his next move,
she saw him waved his hand at her. Without any choice, she opened the door
completely and stepped out of the car. Her boots’ heels clicked on the cemented
pavement while her brown coat gleamed warmly in the rays of the sun. She neatly
ponytailed her hair, giving her that smart looks that might give Mellissa a
little bit of butterflies to her stomach…

 Without warning, she slammed
the car’s
door shut. Prepare yourself, Natalia. Whatever she does, just stay
calm and don’t go berserk. Keep your poise, she practiced in case something
ugly happened…

As she walked forward, her knees
trembled while her hands produced a water dam that dripped as she continued
walking. Every step felt like a nanosecond. She tried to slow down, but she
couldn’t go any slower than her pace right now, or else make them think she was
being a free Madonna.

About three meters away from the
veranda, she saw a girl went inside the house.
Is that Mellissa
? She
wondered as she fastened her pace now. Thom was still standing at the main
entrance, seemed to be happy as he patiently waited for Natalia to come closer
so that they could enter the house together.

Natalia took a step forward to
the first step. “Why did you call me?” A look of pretentious anger appeared on
her face.

“It’s not my idea,” Thom smiled,
grinning at her.

She could tell by the twinkling
of his eyes that he had a good news to reveal, but she didn’t want to know, not
until they got back to the car. One more step away from him, she grinned
slightly as to show her gratitude for making her feel better.

“Is everything going alright?”

Thom buried his hands in his
pocket. “Everything is going
great…”
he assured her, alleviating the
tension in her nerves.

Instead of replying back, she
just broke her lips into a tiny, but rich grin that spoke of her gladness.
Then, she stood by him.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s
come in.” Thom walked forth while Natalia clung onto his arm like what a real
couple did. His big and well-built biceps felt like a rock pillow that soothed
her fear.

Natalia shook him slightly.
“Take your shoes off. We don’t want to appear rude to her presence,” she
explained, cautious not to make any mistake for the sake of keeping everything
civil and casual.

Thom obeyed and unlaced his
shoes. Natalia did the same. She unzipped her boots’ zippers and took them off.
But on the edge of having bare feet, Natalia heard footsteps approaching… Aware
of who it was, she just kept her gaze on the wooden floor, eyeing Thom sideways
as to see how he’d react.

“What are you two doing?”

In shared panic, Natalia and
Thom looked up and saw Mellissa holding a bottle of champagne. Without knowing
how to respond, Natalia brought her gaze at Thom for an answer.

“Um… we thought it’d be rude if
we didn’t take our shoes off. In fact, they might actually be a little dirty.”
Thom humbled himself down, attempting to steal Mellissa’s affection for her not
to sing about his curse.

Natalia could sense Mellissa’s
glaring eyes on her.

“No, of course not. Please, come
in with your shoes on. It doesn’t really matter. I or mom could just call a
cleaner to clean the mess up,” or I’ll have to do it myself, she grinned.

“Really?”

“Of course. Please, come on in.
We have a bottle to share,” she smiled.

Natalia brought her gaze at
Mellissa and their gazes locked. A burning sensation swept through them as if
their souls had been enemies since the beginning of time. Thom watched
vigilantly, mindful of what could erupt. As their stares defied the law of
gravity, something came over to Mellissa that made her smile at Natalia. A
sensation of remission knocked on her heart, as if begging for something.
Forgiveness, perhaps? Mellissa’s eyes twinkled in delight and without a doubt
she had something in mind. What could that be?

To her surprise, Natalia was
astonished to witness Mellissa’s smile for the first time. Ever.
Is she good
to me now?
Natalia wondered as she parted her lips into a refined smile.

Thom sighed.
Wow. I didn’t
know they’d be good friends,
he thought as he kept his eyes on the girls.

Mellissa pleasantly took her
eyes away from Natalia to Thom. “So, what are we waiting for? Come on in,” she
invited, eager to spend the rest of her day with them.

As Mellissa went ahead, Natalia
and Thom were in utter disbelief of how much Mellissa had changed. Not in a
million years they’d ever thought this day would come.
Miracles really do
come true
, Thom thought as he smiled at Natalia.

“So, let’s join her.”

Natalia swallowed. “Alright,”
she giggled slightly, delighted everything was going well so far.

 Natalia followed Thom from
behind. As she stepped further, the magnificence of Mellissa’s house took her
breath away. From furnishings to the decorations, the house stood proud of its
own. Every glitter of the chandelier made her gasp for air. The displays looked
expensive and imported from Europe, but she could tell the majority of them
came from Italy. Wherever she turned, each corner was lavished with costly
objects she’d only seen in the museums…

As they reached the lounge and
sat on the couch, a sense of familiarity comforted her. Turning her head to the
kitchen, she saw Mellissa preparing finger foods for them, as if they were
truly guests of honor.

Mellissa’s mouth parted in deep
curiosity. “So, let’s be true here,” Mellissa began talking.

Natalia rested her hands on her
laps, keeping her poise nice and tight.

“Thom, tell me, or rather tell
us,” Mellissa paused as she brought her gaze at Natalia, “who you really are. I
can’t just assume anything, can I? Not unless you want me to misunderstand
your, you know…”

“My bear shapeshifting ability,”
Thom finished, utterly comfortable talking about such private and rather a
dangerous topic as this.

Natalia smiled at Mellissa as
she saw her walked closer with a tray of crackers with cheese and vegetables on
it. “Do you need a hand, Mellissa?” she kindly offered.

By the awkward looks in her
face, Natalia could tell Mellissa was still in the process of accepting her as
a friend, or a possible friend. Mellissa hesitated for a second but eventually
let her guard down.

“Yeah, that’d be awesome,” she
beamed.

Natalia walked toward Mellissa
and took the tray from her hands. Then, Mellissa walked back to the kitchen to
grab the bottle of champagne and three wine glasses.

“Who would have thought you
girls will be friends?” Thom joked, adding a sense of humor to the lively and
fresh ambiance.

As Natalia placed the tray on
the coffee table, she heard Mellissa cut in. “We’re trying. I guess it might
take us a long time to get along with each other, but I know we’ll get there,”
she said, being truthful to herself and to them for transparency she said she
would give her fans.

Natalia smiled, flattered to
hear Mellissa speak such kind and magnanimous words about them.
I wish this
goes well
, she hoped.

“Right,” Thom beamed, ecstatic
to begin tomorrow hanging out with two women in his life.

Keen to discuss the matter that
once haunted her down, well for a couple of days it did, Mellissa rushed to the
couch with a bottle of champagne and three glasses. She placed them next to the
tray, which Thom had begun feasting on.

“Alright, let’s kill the drama
and tell me who you really are. Now,” she demanded, impatient to abolish the
misconception conceived on her mind. Clearing things out would finally let her
sleep at night.

Thom finished the cracker. The
crackling sound made Natalia cringe in slight fear of how Mellissa could handle
what she was about to hear.

“Okay, first off, promise me
you’ll keep it secret, alright?” Thom asked.

Mellissa took a sip of her
champagne. “You got my word. I’ll zip my lips till I breathe my last,” she
swore.

Thom glided his gaze at Natalia.
“This is it,” he said.

Natalia nodded.

Mellissa hugged a pillow as she
prepared herself to hear the history of Thom’s darkest and the deepest secret
curse he’d been hiding for years.

Thom cleared his throat,
prolonging the inevitable. “It all began when I was sixteen when mom and dad,
Samantha and Natalia, and, of course, I, went to the Alaska for the summer
holiday. It was Friday afternoon and we went skiing. For as far as I could
remember, I got lost and found myself close to a cave. Little did I know it was
the den of bears–”

Mellissa cut in. “Did you come
into the den?” she curiously asked.

Natalia stared at Thom,
agonizing to hear his story for the hundred times.

“Yes, I did,” he continued, getting
a little emotional now. “When I got inside, I searched for something I could
use to let my parents know I was lost.”

“Did you find something?”
Mellissa cut in again.

Just listen,
Natalia
wanted to shut her up, a little annoyed at Mellissa’s interruption.

“No. All I found was a huge bear
with lots of wounds on its body. At first, I didn’t know what it was. The bear
was facing the wall, crouching as if it didn’t want to see the sun. So I
approached thinking it was just a dead animal stuck in a cave and when I pulled
its fur, quite hard actually, the bear turned around and stared at me–”

“What did it looked like? Oops…
sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, please continue…” Mellissa apologized as she
finished her drink.

Thom smiled, coming to terms
that Mellissa was rather intrigued with his story than afraid of it. “It looked
scary as, but one thing that made me wonder was its eyes. The bear’s eyes were
swollen and looked infected with thick pus coming out of its eyeballs.”

Mellissa and Natalia shivered
with shared disgust.

“Sorry girls, but that was the
truth. I’m not making this up, this actually happened. I myself was as equally
astonished as you girls are at what I’d experienced. So to make the story
short, the bear saw me and attacked me. I was lucky to have my ski poles with
me, or otherwise, I would have been long decayed underground right now.” Thom
took a moment to breathe. “Maybe it was better if I died, right? So that I
don’t need to live with this curse anymore…” 

Natalia patted his back,
saddened by everything Thom had been going through in the past couple of years
till now. “It’s okay, Thom, everything will be fine…”

Mellissa stared at them with
jealous eyes. Suppressing her insecurity, she grabbed the bottle of champagne
and poured some into her glass. “Does anyone want some more?” she asked,
abolishing the drama.

“I’m fine. Thanks, Mellissa,”
Natalia sweetly declined.

Mellissa brought her gaze to
him. “Thom?”

Looking at his own glass, he
hadn’t even scratched a quarter of it. “Um… I’m just gonna finish this one
first, but thanks, though,” he smiled.

‘All goods. So, what happened
next? How did you become, I mean, at some time, turn into a bear?” she
startled.

Thom took a sip. “The bear
knocked me down to the ground and scratched my chest. And since then, the scar
never faded. I doubt it ever would.”

“It might. Don’t lose hope,”
Natalia cut in. Although she knew nothing could reverse his curse, she was
still hopeful a miracle would someday grant her wish for him to stay normal.
But Thom would disagree. He’d already accepted who he was and changing it would
mean losing a portion of his identity.

“Ah… so you mean that the curse
was caused by the infection from the bear?” Mellissa wondered.