The Maid

7. Dream On

"Tell me your dreams," he whispered.

It was quiet. A peaceful quiet. Save for the sounds of our hearts beating and the waves gently crashing against the yacht, I could not hear a thing. His voice wrenched through the silence, soft but unyielding. I could have chosen to ignore his words. I could have gotten up, pulled on my clothes and demanded he take me home. After all, we had committed an atrocity. But I could not. In the same way his voice tore through the quiet, it tore through my heart. It would have been a sin to ignore it.

My head, which was propped up on Jace's arm, rolled over to face him with an incredulous expression. "Is this how you normally talk after sex? I never took you for such a romantic," I joked, and then sighed. "I'll tell you my dreams if you tell me your secrets. Tell me something that no one knows about you."

He gazed up at the ceiling. "My secrets, huh? If we're talking about things the general public don't know, then there's a few things that my family tries, very meticulously, to keep out of the paper. One of those things would be my older sister, Cassandra. After my sister announced her relationship with another woman, my father told her to go live with her lover and kicked her out of the house. Another secret of mine is that I was not always this wealthy. I lived in an average middle-class family, until my father's business boomed and resulted in us raking in millions. I decided to set up my own architecture business because I despised his controlling nature."

After he finished speaking, I decided to cave into his request. "My dreams are silly. They're just the same old dreams. I want to become a vet, I want to get married, have five kids and grow old together."

Jace Leichhardt stared at me with curious blue eyes, filled with a world of possibility and impossibility.

I looked away. "... Obviously that's not possible now." I glanced back at him, realizing that I just implied something serious. "Unless this was a one-time thing, which, if it is—that's totally okay."

"I don't know," he said softly. He abruptly stood up, pulling on his clothes as he made his way over to the anchor windlass. "I think we should go home."

The whole ride back felt sickeningly uneasy. It was three in the morning, and the sky was dark with trepidation. Somehow, the yacht seemed to rock harder against the waves than it did before, but that was probably a result of my panic and imagination. Time seemed wretchedly slow.

When we arrived back at the wharf, Jace finished fastening his yacht to the pier, before he turned to face me. "I'm sorry for what I did to you; I don't think it should happen again."

I nodded slowly in understanding, face deceptively calm whilst my insides twisted and toiled with turmoil. Even the car ride was awkwardly silent. The entire process was painful. "I'm sorry for what I did to you?" So it was just a one-time thing!

As I got out of the limousine, I slammed the door much harder than necessary, not waiting for the chauffeur to escort me out. And frankly, I found myself throwing an internal tantrum as I stomped my way back to my room.

I almost thought I heard Jace sigh.

I growled under my breath. "How dare he! I'm not some little china doll ready to break." I wasn't even a virgin, so why was he apologizing? It was clearly consensual.

I fell back onto my bed with a loud exhale sharply coming from my mouth. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to forget, but I could not fall asleep. I decided to check my phone, and found multiple messages on it. Most of which were happy birthday greetings sent from my family and friends.

Mom: "Happy birthday, darling! Your father and I are in Sydney right now and it is smooooking hot down here. Literally and figuratively. The weather is crazy, but look at all the hot young guys on the beach... Don't tell your father I said that! Love you <3."

Amy: "Happy birthday, loser. Sorry I couldn't make it to another one of your boring dinner and movies birthdays xoxo."

Derrick: "I've tried calling you 7 times. Where are you?"

Groaning, I dialed Derrick's number, regardless of the fact that it was past three in the morning. Whatever. He'll probably call me back when he wakes up. However, I was taken aback as he picked up on the second ring.

"Hello? Emma?" he answered.

"Hi," I laughed sheepishly. "Sorry I haven't picked up your calls all night. I've been... busy."

"Doing what? We always hang out on each other's birthdays."

"Ah, I just figured that, since Amy wasn't here, I'd make plans with someone else," I lied straight through my teeth. Well, it wasn't necessarily a lie. Just a lie of omission. Which was still probably a lie, now that I thought about it.

Derrick breathed out a sigh of relief. "Silly, even if Amy isn't here, we can still celebrate your birthday with just the two of us." I didn't want to. Derrick and I being alone together in some dark intimate atmosphere with a bottle of champagne or wine... Well, who knew what that would lead to? In fact, the outcome with Jace sounded exactly like the result I was trying to avoid. "Well, anyway—happy birthday. Let me know when you're free, so we can hang out."

I yawned. "Thanks, Derrick. Sorry for calling so late. I'll talk to you later."

When I laid back down on the bed, this time, I found myself swiftly falling asleep. Talking to Derrick calmed me. I did not know why I was so worried in the first place. But certainly, I did not want to wake up ever again. I knew that I had to face the man who had been tormenting my thoughts for so long now, and I was afraid of the things that I would or wouldn't say when I saw those piercing blue eyes.