Eternally Seduced (24 page)

          For one infinite-like second, I was terrified of what was happening. I was falling too hard and too fast for this man, and he was asking so much of me without really offering anything in return.

          He wanted me, but for how long?

          He said he was mine, but until when?

          Yet in the end, the lack of answers was something I could only close my eyes to – something I had to pretend didn’t exist. It was too late. I was already unquestioningly his, even if there came a time that he wouldn’t want me anymore.

          “Yanna?

          My arms around him tightened. “I’m yours, Constantijin. Only yours.”

Let your billionaire think all you want is his money.

He will hurt you less when you do.

Constantijin had me dressed in seconds, so quickly I could only blink as he helped me put on my underwear and pulled my gown back down. “Hide,” he said grimly.

          I blinked in confusion. “But I’m already dressed---”

          He shook his head. “I know those men. They’d talk about you the moment they’re done being hung over. I do not want the first thing that people will say about you when they find out about us to be an ugly thing.” He kissed my fingers. “I want it to be perfect between us.”

          A lot of butterfly wings fluttered inside my stomach when I heard those words.

          He caressed my cheek. “When I leave, wait for five more minutes before going out. I will be waiting for you then.” And then he was gone, calling out something in Dutch to the pair of intoxicated men, whose footsteps already sounded awfully near.

          Five minutes, huh?

          I knew exactly what I could do with that. Closing my eyes, a smile already touching my lips, I let myself imagine the pleasure I had experienced in Constantijin’s arms. In an instant, I was aroused again, my body yearning already for his touch. It made me blush, but the wanton feelings also made my smile widen. I wanted him madly, but he wanted me just as madly, too.

          Reluctantly opening my eyes when I felt that five minutes had already passed, I slowly retraced my path out of the forest. Here and there I’d let my fingers graze the bark of a tree, a flower’s tender soft petals, their textures a way of cementing the fact that this was all real.

          Constantijin might never admit it, but something had changed between us tonight – and it was a step closer to him loving me back someday.

          A swooshing sound interrupted my thoughts, and I saw two women almost stalking their way into the conservatory, the doors swinging heavily shut behind them. My eyes widened when I realized that the younger woman was the same one I had seen with Constantijin on TV last night.

          Why was she here?

          “Oh, did you see how he snubbed me, Mother?” Constantijin’s date screeched.

          “Calm down, Brittany. You won’t win him back with your temper.” The older woman opened her purse, taking out a lighter and a cigarette. Blowing out a circle of smoke, she continued, “But honestly, darling, I don’t care if you don’t get back together with him. His bloodline is…as you know...dirty.”

          “
Honestly,
Mother, I don’t give a damn even if his mother had fucked every guy in the city---”

          “Oh darling, I think she truly did back then.”

          “---but what I do care about is being his wife and getting access to his billions.”

          Maybe this seemed like an exaggeration, but even this far I could practically see the dollar signs shining in Brittany’s eyes as she hissed, “
Billions,
Mother. Don’t you think that’s worth ignoring he’s got a hooker for a mother?”

          The words took me so much by surprise I accidentally knocked over the electrically lit pillar next to me.

          Shit.

          “Who’s there?” Brittany asked shrilly.

          I was so busted.

          Or maybe I wasn’t. Maybe I could hide---

          A blazing light suddenly went my way, blinding me. I blinked, automatically trying to shield my gaze from the glare of the other woman’s Blackberry torch-like lighting.

          When I looked up, Brittany and Brittany Sr. were right in front of me.

          “Eavesdropping cheap bitch!”

          And there went the first missile, from the older woman no less.

          But because I preferred Switzerland’s neutral role in wars, I pretended the words didn’t rankle and said evenly, “I understand why you think that, but---”

          “Oh my God, Mother, I know who this bitch is! She’s that woman Constantijin couldn’t stop staring at a while ago.” Brittany gave me a look from head to toe. I’d be lying if I didn’t feel smaller as she did – and it didn’t even have anything to do with the fact that she towered over me by at least half a foot.

          “Who are you?” Brittany Sr. snapped.

          “None of your business.”

          Her eyes narrowed. “If you’re planning to tell Constantijin about what you think you heard---”

          Wow. She was really taking that route? I cleared my throat. “I know exactly what I heard.”

          Brittany suddenly pushed herself between her mother and me. Taking me by surprise when she suddenly yanked me by the hair, she snapped, “Listen, you little bitch. I’m going to ruin you if you ever speak one word about this.”

          The doors opened, and the sound made me close my eyes in despair.
Another
surprise guest? The night just kept getting better and better. Not.

          “Please release my guest, Brittany.” The familiar cultured voice made my eyes flare wide open.

          It really was her – Marge Kastein, Constantijin’s mother.

          When the other woman didn’t move, Marge’s voice turned into steel. “
Brittany.”
 

          Brittany released me with a curse. I curled my fingers into a fist. If I didn’t, I would be touching my scalp because it honestly hurt, and I didn’t want the blond bimbo and her mother to know that.

          Brittany Sr. drew herself up stiffly. “I don’t appreciate you taking that tone with my daughter, Margaret.”

          “And if I ever learn about you or your daughter mistreating my guest again, I’ll sue both of you for manhandling.”

          The older woman’s face became suffused with such rage, everything suddenly became clear. These two had a history, and it wasn’t a good one.

Brittany Sr. screeched, “How dare you? If it wasn’t for Erik Kastein, you wouldn’t even have the right to speak with me, you whore!”

          A pinkish film covered my vision. It was one thing to hear them backstab Marge – which I could honestly forgive since I sincerely believed that what you didn’t know didn’t matter a damn – but it was another thing entirely to insult someone I knew in front of me.

          Marge didn’t even flinch, and for a moment I was filled with such awe for her. Marge’s face, still unlined by age, shone with the kind of beauty that was more than skin deep. And in her floor-length gown, with its long black lacy sleeves and white empire-cut body, she wasn’t the one who looked like a whore. It was the other woman, whose probably royalty-like lineage didn’t appear to have a good effect on her fashion taste. She was dressed as provocatively as her daughter, in a glittery strapless gown that boasted a fake tan and meaty thighs.

Pity underlined Marge’s voice when she spoke. “After all these years, you still feel bitter that he fell in love with me, don’t you?”

          “
Love
?”

I winced at the shrill sound of the older woman’s voice.

“You flatter yourself. No, you turned his head around because of all your cheap little tricks in bed, and of course you’d be able to seduce him away from me. By the time you had a hundred men using your body, I was still a virgin---”

          The pinkish vision turned into fuchsia, no matter how much I was inhaling and exhaling to stop rage from taking over my common sense.

          “And you really had the gall to marry him, even though you know you’d make Erik a laughingstock, with everyone having had a taste of your always-hungry pussy---”

          Fuchsia deepened into crimson, and I clenched my hands together in an effort to control myself.

          “---and worst of all for Erik, everyone knew that when you married him, you were already knocked up with someone else’s child, a bastard who doesn’t know his place---”

          Crimson transformed into the bloodiest shade of red.

          I charged towards Brittany Sr.

          “What the---”

          “Yanna, no!”

         
Slap.

         
“You bitch!” Brittany howled behind me. And then she was clawing my back, pulling my hair to keep me off her mother, but I was already lifting my hand.

         
Slap.

          The red marks on each cheek didn’t even satisfy me. “You make me sick, old hag!”
Slap.
“How can you say such terrible words when you’re the ugliest cougar I’ve ever seen?”
Slap.

          “Let go of my mother,” Brittany screeched.

          Dimly, I heard Marge speaking in Dutch, her words fast and furious.

          The doors swooshed open, and all four of us froze for a moment, our eyes swinging in that direction. I hoped it was Constantijin, but this just wasn’t my night at all. A rather large woman in a black-and-white flapper dress gawked.

          Brittany was the first to recover. “I said let go of my mother!” She pulled on my gown so hard I heard a tearing sound.

          I automatically let go of Brittany Sr., clutching my gown to my body before I found myself in my underwear. Of course, that allowed the older blond bimbo to take advantage and suddenly I had one woman trying to get me bald while the other one wanted me naked.

          The large woman screamed, “
Security
!”

          A siren started wailing out of nowhere, as if triggered by the word. More slapping occurred after that, but this time it was me taking a dose of my own medicine. Brittany got to claw my face, but I got to jab her in the eye. And Brittany Sr. did manage to rip my gown off, but I sort of popped something of hers, and the next thing I knew silicone gel had exploded on three of us.

          Then there were the police, the walk of shame – it was all a blur after that, and I couldn’t remember much of it. All I knew then was that Constantijin was nowhere to be found.

There is no chastity belt

that your billionaire cannot make you unlock.

“Yanna?” It took a while before I realized someone had called my name. I was locked with the blond bimbos in a prison cell, wearing an inmate uniform because my gown – Daria’s actually – was beyond repair.

But it wasn’t that bad, not really. It could have been a lot worse. We could have been, like, arrested by sexual maniacs with badges. Or we could have been thrown into a cell occupied by, like, convicted lesbian rapists.

Compared to all the horrifying thoughts that had crowded my mind during the ride, reality was a lot more pleasant. In fact, the police station appeared to be one of the newest in the city – a fairly small one, with the other two cells still empty. The lady officer even offered us coffee as we waited for someone to bail us out and have the paperwork done on who was going to sue whom for God knew what.

All in all, I counted myself lucky. If there had been a real-life hardcore criminal standing even ten feet away from me in this prison, I would have freaked out.

Like what Brittany was doing – or had been doing since we were taken here.
Ten
minutes ago.

“Oh my God.” That was, like, the five hundredth time she had said that.
Five
minutes ago.

  Seriously, I wanted to freak out, too, and I was sort of doing it, but, like, silently. Besides, the only thing her screams and tantrums did now was to give me a headache.

"This is all your fault!" Brittany spat when she caught me looking at her.

If I didn’t feel so tired, I would have laughed. The shiner I gave Brittany was complemented by her white eyeliner, giving her a Glittery Panda Goddess look. Seeing it made me touch the slash she left on the edge of my face, near my left ear, and I winced in pain because the wound was still fresh.

“Let me out of this fucking hellhole!”

God! Did she, like, have to cuss all the time? Why couldn’t everyone just turn into a ditz like I did when I was stressed out? It was, like, so much calmer – and easier on the ears.

“Oh my God.” That made, what, 501 times for Brittany?

“Yan-na.”

          “Oh my God.” That was me, though.

          What was Alyx doing here?

          “Hello, my beautiful peace-loving friend.” Laughter tinged Alyx's voice.

           I covered my face with my hands. “Shut up.” I suddenly felt sick and miserable, absolutely shamed at how I had literally gone crazy earlier. With my eyes squeezed shut, all I could see was how security had to drag the three of us out – me and the blond bimbos – and pushed straight into the backseat of a police car that was conveniently waiting outside on standby, in case shit like what had happened did happen.

Marge had started to argue with security, but I pleaded with her not to – or at least I hazily recalled somewhat doing so. I hadn't wanted her to get involved and increase the chances that the stuff the B-squares - that was, like, totally what I was going to call them from now on – said about her would leak to the press.

          “I can’t believe you did that,” Alyx told me even though I still wasn’t looking at her.

          She wasn’t the only one. I just wasn’t raised that way. I had never gotten into a fight in my entire life. And before this humiliating fiasco, the closest I got to it was the subtle exchange of digs I’d have with Arian at work, which was totally lame since the best ‘dig’ I could do was make faces behind her back.

          “What are you going to say to your Mom when she hears about this?”

          My head jerked up at that. “
Don’t tell her
.” My life would be over if Carole knew I had been behind bars. Since I was their only child – and my mom only had me when she was almost forty – my parents were nearly fanatical about my safety.

          “Visitors for Yanna Everleigh,” the policeman stationed by the main door boomed.

          Alyx raised an eyebrow at me, saying musingly as she turned around, “This is interesting. As far as I know, you can’t have more than one visitor at a time.”

          “Yanna?”

          “Mr. Fix-It,” Alyx gasped.

          Gasping as well, I caught a glimpse of Drake’s tall form walking swiftly towards me. He was still dressed in his tux, and against the sterile background of the prison cells, he looked like an angel flying in to rescue me. I quickly looked down before his eyes could meet mine. What was he doing here?

          “Yanna?”

          My head jerked up, and my neck started to ache with all the sudden up-down movements I was doing with my head. “
Mrs. Kastein?”
What was she doing here, too?

          The main doors burst open. “Where is she?”

          I bent my head back down again.

          What took him so long?

          Seated on the opposite bench, Brittany’s mother – Beatrice – shrieked, “Where are
my
visitors, asshole?” She sounded drunk even though her test results were negative. Apparently, decades-old envy could have that effect on some people.

          “Constantijin, oh, thank God, you’re here, darling!” Brittany flew to my side of the bars, pushing me out of her way as she did. “It’s all this bitch’s fault! She attacked my mother---”

          “I will give you three fucking seconds to get out of my face---”

          "Y-you don't mean that!"

          "---before I have my lawyers take you to court and have you and your mother put away forever." There was a moment of silence.

          "Aaaaawkward,” Alyx said gleefully.

          Brittany burst out, “Are you insane? She was the one who attacked my mother first!”

“One.”

          “Is this fucking for real? You’re going to choose this lowlife nobody---”

          Constantijin’s voice became colder. “Two.”

          “Fuck you!” But she was already stalking away even as she spat the words out.

          “Yanna?” His voice was very gentle.

          I shook my head.

          “Please look at me, sweetheart. My lawyers already have everything under control. You’ll be out in minutes.” When I still didn’t move or say a word, he said even more softly, “Please, Yanna, for me?”

          God! He already knew how to manipulate me so well. It was scary to think how he could be even more manipulative once he found out I was in love with him, too. I looked up.

          Constantijin stood before me minus his blazer, and a half of his long-sleeved white polo tucked into his jeans while the other half was left hanging. His beautiful hair was roughed up, not at all sleekly arranged like I had glimpsed it earlier tonight.

          Tension was sketched on his face, but his silver eyes were brighter than I had ever seen them, with just too many emotions swirling in his gaze that I couldn’t make sense of them.

          I bit my lip hard to stop it from trembling. All I could think was I should have handled it better. Constantijin had wanted me to make a good first impression with me as his girlfriend but thanks to my outburst, everyone would think he was dating a gangster.

          “I’m sorry.”

          I waited for him to say something but he didn’t. Instead, he reached out to me, slipping his hand between the bars.

Slowly, I placed my hand in his and he pulled me carefully towards him. His other hand slipped between the bars as I came close, and I could see it trembling when he touched my face.

I couldn’t stop myself from wincing when his fingers came in contact with the wound on my face. When Constantijin abruptly drew his hand back, I said quickly, “It doesn’t hurt.”

“Don’t lie,” he bit out.

We stared at each other, everything and everyone around us fading. I found myself unable to breathe when I realized how much he was holding back. Then he said with heartbreaking simplicity that had me sobbing the next moment, “Thank you for defending my mother and me.”

          As I cried, I heard footsteps, followed by the clanging sound of keys. The metal bars rattled as the doors to our cell were finally unlocked. Constantijin swept me into his arms, literally, forcing me to hold on to him with my legs dangling in the air.

          I tried to struggle then, my face burning in embarrassment because I was acutely aware of the fact that we still had Alyx, Drake, and
his
mom with us. “Let me down!” I said hoarsely, throat still scratchy with tears.

          His arms only tightened. “No.”

          Marge smiled, and her voice was even gentler than her son’s when she spoke. “Thank you, too, darling.” She kissed my cheek. “We’ll talk soon. I’ll go now that I know you’re in safe arms---”

          I blushed even as Constantijin laughed.

          “I mean, hands,” Marge corrected herself innocently.

          When she turned away, Constantijin said coolly, “Morrison.”

          “Sir,” Drake said in a polite, bland voice before smiling at me.

          I smiled back hesitantly even as I did my best not to blush even more. This was seriously getting more awkward.

          “I’ll see you at work, Yanna. Take care.”

          Constantijin answered before I could. “I always take care of what’s mine.”

          “I’ll believe it when I see it---sir.”

          Constantijin stiffened. “If you are saying that I cannot fucking take care---”

          Drake was already walking away, but he said over his shoulder, “That’s not what I’m doubting.”

          I choked a second too late when I realized what that meant. Alyx was even worse, laughing outright as Constantijin cursed in fluid Dutch.

          Alyx’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “You
will
take care of her, won’t you?”

          “With everything I have,” Constantijin answered, his words strongly accented. It made me blink back tears.

          An impish grin appeared on her face.

          Uh-oh.

          “Alyx, don’t---”

          “And you will take care of her
that
way too, right?”

          “ALYX!”

          Constantijin lifted a brow at me before glancing back at my friend, his tone curious as he asked, “In what way?”

          Alyx slowly started backing away, which was smart of her because if she had been close enough for me to reach, she’d be, like, totally under six thousand feet by now.

          She said airily, “Oh, you know, like
sex
?”

          Constantijin coughed.

          “She’s still a V, but I’m sure you know that and I’m equally sure you know what to do with it.”