Hands Off

35*> SURVIVAL

WARNING ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️
This is the first full-on explicit sex scene in the book and I just wanted to warn readers who are not comfortable with such to steer clear.

CLAIRE'S POV

PRESENT DAY

Seven days. Seven days of peaceful misery. That has been my state of being for the past week I have been in Italy.

It was supposed to be our honeymoon and Barbara had done everything to make the experience otherworldly. From the exquisite hotel room and lavish cuisines to the crazy itinerary of fun stuff I had on my schedule.

Everything was perfect.

The only issue was that Noah is nowhere to be found. He disappeared after we arrived at the hotel resort and since then I haven't laid eyes on him.

Normally I wouldn't be worried. I would have been overjoyed, but this wasn't a normal situation.

The promise he made to me on the altar still rings in my head. It took me a good five hours of silence during our wedding reception for the information to sink in.

I was shaking like a leaf when we both entered the car that took us to the airport because I thought he would slam my head against the windshield or do something worst, but he didn't do anything.

Then we boarded the private plane that took us to Italy. I was even more anxious because I thought he had a more sinister plan to propel me out of the moving plane.

What better way to make me feel immense pain than to hurl me out of a plane that is 40,000 feet in the air?

But again, I was wrong. Noah did not utter a single word. He just sat still and watched me throughout the journey.

When we arrived at our destination, he vanished into thin air that night.

I would like to believe he left because he wanted to clear his head and curb his anger but that would just be a murky lie. I know for a fact that Noah's up to no good and he must be finding new ways to bring me immeasurable pain.

I just wish I had an idea of what he was devising, that way I can make a contingency plan ahead of time.

"We have arrived miss," the driver's voice pulled me out of my train of thought.

I lifted my head to see that we had arrived at my destination. I came down from the hotel shuttle with a nervous sigh.

"Thank you," I told the driver before he drove off.

I smoothed the front of my turquoise knee-length lace dress with the palm of my hands as I gazed up at the antique two-story bakery.

I was supposed to be meeting Noah's aunty who was a pastry chef, today. Barbara said it was important to make a good impression on her because she was a very important member of the family and Noah was in fact close with her.

I too really wanted her to like me, but knowing she was Max's mother, who by the way is a mass murderer, plus the fact that she was a direct kin of Alonso, I could only imagine the worst about her.

I expelled a puff of anxious breath as I stepped into the building. I climbed up the long winding stairs and stopped in front of the rustic wooden door.

"You can do this, Claire," I spurred myself before lightly knocking on the door and then opening it.

About a dozen different eyes turned to me as I walked into the room.

I did my best to remain calm as my eyes wandered around the space. From the look of things, I just interrupted an ongoing baking class and it made me even more uneasy.