Louisa's p.o.v;
I woke up at someone else's house. How did I end up here? I looked around and noticed I was in a small bedroom and the door was closed. I got out of bed as carefully and quietly as possible. The floor was cold against my bare feet and it made me shiver slightly.
I remembered what happened last night. The images from last night flashed in my head where Ace stabbed Paulo in front of my eyes causing his blood to splatter on my face which made me disgusted. It was exactly like how I had dreamed but the difference was someone died and not me like in my nightmares. I ran to the bathroom and barfed into the sink. I gargled and washed my mouth and walked out of the bathroom once I'm done.
I saw Ace placing a tray of food and looked like he was about to leave.
I asked, "Why did you bring me here? Who's house is this?"
"This is my house. You can be safe here."
"I won't be safe if I'm near you."
When I tried to walk out of the room, Ace stopped me by gripping my hand which was on the door handle and said, "It's not safe out there either."
"Did you forget who i am? I'm a cop. I can take care of myself. Now, let go of my hand."
He took my hand off the door handle and asked, "You almost got raped by him yesterday. Is that what you call being careful?"
"Didn't I already sleep with him according to you? Then why do you care?"
He stared at me for a moment and let go of my hand which was in his grip before and said, "Even if you want to leave, I won't allow you."
"What do you mean by that?"
"It means I kidnapped you." And walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
When I tried to open the door after he left, it was locked. I looked around and found a window beside the bed. I ran to the window and tried to open it but it was locked too. Did he kidnap me again? What does he want now?
After a while, he walked in with a glass of juice and kept it on the table beside the bed.
I said, "Raphael will be looking for me right now with other cops in the city. You're going to get caught by them for sure."
"Since you informed him that you're leaving for your parents' home for a week, I don't think he'll look for you. At Least for a week."
"How did you know that? Did you tap my phone?"
"Yes. The signal was lost when you started off at the house to the airport. It looked suspicious so I followed the car behind but got lost in the middle. It took me some time to track you again, and found the cab in which you travelled in. You weren't there. All I found was a group of guys inside the house. Through them, I got to know that Paulo was behind your kidnapping so I rushed to the place as soon as possible. If I had reached earlier, I wouldn't have let him touch your shirt too."
"Why are you telling me this? Did you forget that I'm a cop? What if i arrest you for the murder? Since I'm the eye witness, you would go to prison without any hardship."
"Then why didn't you stop me from killing him? Because you know well that he doesn't deserve to live as well. Let's not talk about this. Eat the food and go to sleep. You know that I don't like screaming." And he walked out of the room.
I still can't believe that Paulo died in front of my eyes. Why didn't I stop him from killing him? Did I want him to die as well? Even though he did tried many times to rape me, i didn't do anything in return instead of holding a grudge against him. That's why I made him fall into my trap and arrested him that day. But I never wanted him dead. All I wanted was to see him suffer, not die.
After a while, the door was opened and Ace walked in with the food tray and placed it on the table beside bed again. Was it afternoon already? Since the windows are closed and there are no clocks on the wall, I couldn't find what's happening around me. The only thing that I saw were my own thoughts and they weren't pleasant ones either. The first thought that came to my mind was: 'Is this it?'
My eyes grew large as I felt tears start to form in them. I tried hard not to cry but they did come out. I could hear Ace's heavy steps walking towards me and I could feel his arms wrap around my body. He began stroking my hair and humming softly. I turned and looked at him through my blurred vision. He was looking right at me and it broke my heart. "Hey..." his voice was soft. "It will be okay..." he whispered.
"How can you know?!"
He chuckled and pulled me closer. "Because you're going to get better."
There's a silence between us for a few seconds.
"How?" I asked.
"You have me here, don't you?" His hand was running gently over my arm. "If anything bad happens, I'll be there for you no matter what."
"It feels like nothing's gonna ever go back to normal.. Like... like no matter how much I try.... I don't know why things kept turning bad.. Why it keeps getting worse each day.." I replied, trying to control my breath so I didn't start crying again.
"You have to give up eventually, you know." His response surprised me a bit.
"What?" I asked confusedly. How can he say something like this after he kidnapped me.
Ace sighed, "I'm sorry for saying it like this..." he continued, "But... I mean it! We were never meant to see each other in the first place."
Ace pulled me into another hug. His chin resting on top of my head. He held onto me for a couple seconds before Ace spoke. "Let's have lunch." He let go of me and stood up. "You need to eat something. It would help you get your strength back." Ace said, smiling softly.
I sighed deeply and got out of bed. The pain was still there, but I had become used to that by now. As much as I wanted to complain about everything, I knew that we needed to take care of ourselves or else we'd be dead.
While I was eating, He gave me one last look before leaving the room and closing the door behind him. As soon as I heard the click of his footfalls fade away, I threw myself on the bed. I was exhausted and my throat hurt from crying too much.
I laid there for about half an hour, trying to sleep but i couldn't. After a while, i rolled over on my back. The ceiling was dark blue tiles and the walls were white and decorated with small pictures of various places. Some were places I had never seen or even heard of.
I remembered Ace telling me once that he found them on a website when looking up his parents. He told me that the pictures were supposed to remind him of what life used to be like, where they lived and all the good memories that they made together but now I'm wondering if he actually knew anything about those times.
For a moment, I wondered if he still remembers what happened or if everything has gone too blurry for him. He'd never said it out loud but I knew it affected him quite a bit, maybe more than anyone else.
He hasn't talked about them or told anyone what happened since but then why would he? There was nothing left to talk about between us anymore. The only thing that remained was the pain. It took me some time before I fell asleep that night but after hours of tossing and turning I finally dozed off.
When I woke up the next morning, I felt somewhat better than before but my throat still hurt a bit. I didn't want to tell Ace about it though, he always gives me these worried looks, thinking i'm sick but honestly, I think i'm fine.
I found Ace sitting by the side of the bed reading a book. He put the bookmark between the pages.
"How long have you been here?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. My throat was extremely dry, which meant that I probably cried a lot last night.
"Not long," he replied. "I brought you breakfast."
I nodded and sat up. I stretched my arms above my head and yawned. "Thanks."
Ace smiled and handed me a plate with two pieces of toast and a cup of coffee. I grabbed the plate and started eating.
As I ate, I glanced at the book Ace had left on the table and realised that it had fallen on the floor.
"Sorry about that." I picked it up and turned it to the page where the bookmark was.
"No problem." Ace replied, going to sit on the chair near me.
We spent most of the morning in silence. At first I wanted to break the ice but when I noticed that Ace was still engrossed in his book I decided not to speak anymore and just enjoy the quietness.
I finished eating breakfast and got out of bed. As I was about to take a shower I noticed that Ace was still in the same spot.
"Everything alright?" I questioned. I wasn't sure if I sounded annoyed or worried. I didn't care either way.
He looked at me and nodded. "Yeah... Everything's fine."
I went straight to the bathroom. Once I entered it I turned the water on and stepped under the stream of hot water. I felt my muscles loosen up after a few minutes.
Suddenly, the bathroom door opened and he walked in naked.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"Just taking a shower." Came the reply and he stood beside me under the shower. Was he doing it on purpose?
I finished showering quickly and wrapped a towel around myself before stepping out of the shower stall and dried myself with it.
Ace walked after with a piece of towel around his waist and said, "You can find clothes in the closet.
"Okay..." I mumbled, heading to the closet.
While I was looking for a dress to wear, I felt his hand touching my shoulders from behind asking, "Do you want me to find one?" I knew without looking that he was there even if I couldn’t hear anything coming from his mouth.
"Can I touch you?'' he asked in a whisper, barely audible.
"What do you mean?" I replied with equal hushedness but I turned around to face him anyway. He had his hands on my cheeks and was leaning down just slightly enough for his lips to brush mine. The kiss was brief but it was enough to bring goosebumps to the skin where our lips connected. It only lasted a couple of seconds so when I pulled back from him I had a slight feeling that I had seen red. My eyes met his and I saw a look of confusion on his face. Especially because of the way he looked at me right now. I needed to stop him from doing something he would regret.
As soon as his head was up again, he smiled at me before leaning down again. This time we shared a longer kiss. His tongue brushed against mine before moving further down, making my body tremble in anticipation. As always when he kissed me, my mind went blank. All I could focus on was the sound of his voice as well as how I felt every second that he held me close to him. The way he kissed and touched me… I didn’t want this to be real. This was just a dream! No matter how badly I wanted it to be real, I refused to take advantage of him. And now, here he was trying to take advantage of me. Even though part of me wanted more.
My fingers tangled themselves through his hair and he moaned into my mouth in response. My body shivered as he started pulling me towards him until we were pressed tightly together.
I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist while he placed kisses all over my face. My heart beat wildly in my chest. ‘This is wrong!’ I thought to myself frantically. But despite this, I was powerless to stop what was happening. And yet, when his lips moved down my neck and my nipples hardened underneath my dress, I was powerless. He gently nibbled on the area where my earlobe meets my shoulder. When I closed my eyes, a soft moan escaped from my mouth. He smirked against my neck.
When I felt his hands begin to caress my body from head to toe, my breath caught in my throat. My eyes fluttered shut as I let out an involuntary gasp. A wave of heat washed over me like wildfire as I imagined what would happen next. My mind was completely consumed by lust and desire but somehow I was still able to think clearly. I could feel his warm, hard erection rubbing against my stomach.
His cold fingertips continued their course down my back then along the hem of my dress which made me shudder uncontrollably. Before I could get a word out, he was lifting my dress off my body, his fingers brushing against my bare leg lightly.
He lowered me onto the bed, kissing my lips repeatedly while he removed his towel around his waist. I tried desperately not to touch him or make eye contact. I felt guilty knowing I was letting him have whatever he desired from me. However, I could hardly keep my eyes focused on one thing for very long. His body looked so unbelievably sexy that I just wanted to touch him more than anything.
Without hesitation, I felt him slip his hands beneath my bottom and pull me up onto him so that we were finally standing face to face again. His eyes roamed over my body hungrily. With one hand he cupped my face while the other snaked around my back to grip my ass tightly. I moaned softly.
"So pretty," he murmured as he ran his nose along my jawline.
I felt like everything stopped. I couldn’t control my breathing. Every instinct was telling me to pull away, push him away… but the words he said were like music to my ears.
Suddenly his lips were pressed against mine and I gasped as his tongue invaded my mouth. His hand slid under the towel I was wrapped in and I felt sparks shoot straight to my core. His lips moved feverishly against mine as his fingers began roaming down my sides. I was already starting to pant when I felt his lips start trailing across the tops of my breasts. I whimpered quietly.
If this kept going much longer I would probably give in and go for it! He lifted me higher onto his hips and my legs automatically encircled his waist, pressing myself firmly against him. His mouth travelled back up to my chin and I tilted my head to the side giving him better access. Once he got there I groaned loudly and gripped tightly onto his shoulder, digging my nails into the skin. He chuckled against my skin. I couldn’t tell if he was laughing at my actions or if it was because he liked how desperate I had become. Either way, I enjoyed it. ‘Damn right.’
I felt my panties slide off my thighs and into his free hand. His thumb ran up the inside of my thigh and he trailed his tongue along the top of my panties. I was practically screaming now, begging for him to continue. Just as his finger was almost inside me, he pulled away. He sat back on the bed, keeping us both hovering over it. I was confused by his abrupt movement. His eyes locked onto mine and I found myself drowning in them. My hands tightened on his waist as a shiver went down my spine.
"What's wrong?"
He bit his lip and shook his head. "Nothing," he said in a hoarse voice, glancing at the ground for a moment before returning his gaze to mine. "We should probably stop."
With that he climbed off me and put on his jeans and walked out of the room.