His Queen

Chapter Eighteen

Arielle sighed as she looked at her most recent painting.

It had been a month since the incident and her mind couldn't help but replay scenarios of how everything played out.

Sebastian had the glass doors and wall of Arielle's art room replaced the day after but Arielle couldn't help but meaninglessly stare out at the hallway with guilt.

Sebastian was rarely home anymore, leaving early in the mornings and coming home late at night.

Arielle never slept before he returned home, afraid that one day he wouldn't.

She didn't mind waiting.

Slowly, she covered the piece of art and made her way to their bedroom, scanning her finger and opening the doors to the large empty room.

Sebastian had doubled up on security, worrying about the incident has now been his new past time.

They no longer had time for dates and cuddling, but Arielle didn't mind.

If it brought Sebastian piece of mind to know that she was safe then she was more than happy to oblige.

She worked from home, shipping and designing through email and FaceTiming instead of the average in person meet up.

It was times like this that she wondered if she should've fought harder for a normal life.

Was she okay living her life tip toeing around everything?

Arielle shrugged and headed to the sink to brush her teeth and do her skin care routine.

For the two weeks after the incident, Sebastian had stayed home with her, worried that if he left Arielle she would disappear in front of his eyes.

Eventually though, his company called for his presence and after much persuading he left her in the care of the security.

To: Ari
From: Seb
I'll be home late today love. Go to sleep without me.
sent: 11:46 P.M.

To: Seb
From: Ari
Alright, come home soon. Stay safe <3
sent: 11:47 P.M.

She had gotten used to those texts.

The ones that stated that he wasn't coming home.

Yet, he she heard every groaned of frustration he let out as he got home and stripped from his work closed.

She kept her eyes shut feigning sleep but she knew she couldn't sleep until she knew he was safe. Even if it meant some nights she lacked sleep herself.

Occasionally, he would forget to send a text which would have Arielle waiting all night but she didn't mind.

Arielle had kept it to herself, not wanting to stress out Sebastian even more.

She didn't say anything when he took another girl on one of their usual "dates" to throw off the public.

He never told her much about work and though that did bother her, she decided that there would be another time and another place for that talk.

Arielle walked over and grabbed Sebastian's large hoodie before slipping it on and tossing her other pair of clothes in the hamper.

It still smelled like him.

With that, she tucked herself into bed and closed her eyes.

Sebastian wouldn't be home for a couple more hours and she knew that.

***

"Fuck." Sebastian groaned, looking through the papers on his desk.

It bothered him as he looked through files and files of paper work, still backed up on the company workload.

To him, there wasn't enough time in the day to do all the work he needed to do.

Sebastian hadn't fired Zach yet despite the suspicious circumstances around him.

It was then that he realized that Zach was acting out of the ordinary: leaving at random times, picking up calls at around the same couple of times every day, and tampering with documents before hand.

Jaxon had warmed Sebastian to stop before it got more out of hand but his gut told him to continue.

There was more to Zach than a couple of falsified documents an suspicious calls. He needed to be kept close to gain more information.

2:38 A.M.

He sighed as he looked at his watch.

Sebastian considered working through the night again but he opted against it. He had already done that last night.

Quietly, he packed up the documents into a drawer in his desk before locking it and taking some with him to go over at home.

He would eat breakfast with Arielle today, it had been a while since he had seen her in waking hours.

Too long.

The walk down his elevator and to his car was cold and eerily quiet.

It was only the moon and his headlights illuminating the empty road as he drove back home, the road bare with no cars in sight.

It was a long drive but after making it past the two gates and into the garage, he made his way up to their bedroom.

He found himself walking lightly, careful to not waking Arielle up.

Sure enough, after scanning his fingerprint, he opened the door to find Arielle with her eyes shut laying on the bed.

He smiled at her figure, her chest rising up and down slowly with every breath.

She was beautiful.

Even more so in his hoodie.

He carefully made his way over to her fragile body and pressed a kiss to her forehead, feeling her immediately untensing up.

After dropping his paperwork on his beside table, he slowly made his way to the closet before grabbing nothing but a pair of pair of gray sweats and making his way to the shower.

After all, Arielle had the matching hoodie.

Despite sleeping shirtless, Sebastian always bought both the sweats and the hoodie so that Arielle could wear the matching piece.

He found that his larger clothes fit her body loosely and perfectly all at the same time.

Still, Sebastian wore the hoodies since Arielle insisted that it wouldn't smell like him if he didn't.

She must've missed him.

With a quick rinse for his hair, Sebastian groaned as he had his arms on the shower wall, letting the water hit his bare back.

Was Arielle happy?

Was he asking her for too much?

It wasn't long before he got out and changed into the pair of sweats and quickly drying his hair and his torso.

After brushing his teeth and moisturizing his face, Sebastian reminded himself to shave in the morning after letting his stubble grow in for the last couple of days.

Turning off all the lights, he finally crawled into bed, reaching over to carefully pull Arielle closer to him.

"I love you. Good night honey."

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That's it for this chapter!

It was kind of a filler chapter but it gave you guys a little bit of insight on what life is like for the two after the incident in the last couple of chapters!

How did you guys like this chapter?

I hope you guys can check out my other books  "12:00 A.M." and "Full Contact" as well!

I think you guys will enjoy those stories!

Please make sure you guys don't forget to vote, comment, share, and follow!

Love you guys!

-Anne

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Updated: 4•22•20