His Obsession || Book One

History

I ran cold. I couldn't even speak.

Finally, I gathered enough strength to talk, "And your plan is to. . . kill him?" The word had trouble getting out of my mouth without a shiver up my spine.

He cracked an arrogant, crooked smile. "If I don't, he'll kill me. Or worse— you."

I couldn't believe what I had been hearing, it was absurd. Unreal. I shook my head, swallowing back the dry lump in my throat. "No. I can't just let you go. You could get hurt."

He groaned, "Me getting hurt should be the least of your worries. But before I deal with Marcello, I need to take care of some business in the east side of town."

"I'm ashamed and so selfish that you risk your life to protect mine. If anything happens to you-" He cut me off as I began to panic.

"Nothing is going to happen, that's a promise." Eric placed his tender hands on my chin, lifting up my face to meet his eyes, "I'll see you soon." With that, he placed a soft, warm kiss on my lips, in which I dreaded when he pulled away.

My eyes dropped to the floor, knowing I couldn't argue my way with him. And so I accepted defeat and trudged toward the balcony, staring past its glorious waves, unable to hold back my shedding tears.

Just as I was deep in thought, I heard the door slam behind me, clearly Eric had stormed out the suite.

After fifteen minutes of weeping, my sobs finally came to an end. I shed so many tears that I had ended up feeling dehydrated.

Checking the refrigerator in the suite, there had been a cool, crisp water in which I downed in seconds.

Just as I began to flip through the channels of the plasma TV, the suite's telephone rang.

Instantly, I felt a rush of paranoia. Oh, no. Marcello found me.

The phone rang for seconds, but each ring I felt the sweat drench my skin, the throbbing of my own eyes, the ringing screaming and vibrating into my ears. The thumping of my heart against my chest and my fingers were curled into a fist, nails digging into my palm. I couldn't hear my rapid breathing, only the piercing noise of the ring, but I could feel the oxygen flooding in and out of my lungs.

With sharp intake of breath, I reached for the phone.

"Hello? Mr. Laven?" I immediately recognized the voice, it had been the same man from the front desk.

Upon hearing his voice, composure and calmness washed over me. "He's busy right now, but is there anything wrong?"

"We're so sorry to bother you, but I'm afraid we're going to need to speak with him in person about his credit card. There seems to be a serious problem, and if we're unable to sort it out, this may lead to Mr. Laven being arrested."

Arrested? I completely panicked in my speech. "He'll be unoccupied in an hour, maybe two— I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding."

"I'm afraid not, this is extremely urgent. I know Mr. Laven personally, which is why I haven't called the enforcement yet. But if he cannot sort this out, we'll have to arrest you— and him."

I could not afford to get into trouble. It'd completely damage my future. "No, no, no! Please, just tell me how I could help resolve the issue."