What did he mean, he made a mistake?
“Did you come back for me?”
“Maybe.”
He was not the type of person who liked to use excessively flowery language. Nor did he bother about pleasing anyone. Kaiser Klef feared no one, not even Lenard Lee. And he always got what he wanted.
My thighs were still sticky with the load he had just ejaculated between my legs. I couldn’t even bring myself to get up to go to the bathroom after how he had taken me in that position.
“Piper, you’re just too trusting of others. Nobody, I repeat, is worthy of your trust. Not even me.”
“Not even you?”
He didn’t explain himself further.
“I don’t deserve your trust, but other than me, nobody can have you, Piper. This is final. I hope I don’t have to repeat this.”
“Are you talking about what happened earlier?”
I didn’t even have to ask how he knew. He probably planted spies over the entirety of City X.
“Although, I’m proud of you for putting them in a tight spot. This shows how ruthless you can be, Piper.”
He tucked a loose strand of my hair behind my ear.
“I can be even more than that,” I announced adamantly.
He chuckled in a low voice. “In the future, trust no one but yourself. This is the last time I’ll lift a finger to help.”
“Lift what finger? I helped myself!” I almost shouted.
He laughed again. “You’ll know soon.”
I ignored him and reclined on the bed-like chair.
“Ever been to Paris?” he whispered gently into my ear. I scowled, tossing him a frustrated look.
“Are you being sarcastic, Kaiser?”
“No, I’m asking you a valid question,” he expressed. I tugged his creeping fingers from under my skirt, and wiped myself clean with a wad of baby wipes I found in my handbag.
“No. Does that answer make you happy?”
“You seem really feisty today, Piper. Very, very attractive.”
I almost wanted to burst out in tears about what happened today with Syl, but I reckoned it would just mess up things further. I didn’t know if other than a beating, he did anything else to Syl but obviously such things didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was that he was here with me.
I inhaled and took in his scent. He had a natural talent for selecting fragrances and dressing himself up handsomely, unlike the other men I dated. Not that I was comparing him, but it was ultimately rare to find someone with this ability nowadays.
“I’m all yours, Kaiser.”
I knew this was the answer he wanted me to give him, since all men had such a weakness. They wanted a woman they could control and was obedient. While I wasn’t that kind of woman, I would try my best to satisfy all his desires. But in his heart, did he only have lust for me?
I fathomed that he was sleeping with other women and that was something I had accepted from the beginning. But six months down the road, I was starting to change my mind about having a no-strings attached relationship. This was more pain than good.
He didn’t question anything further but allowed me to lie in his arms. He explored my tingling body while I was lying on him. I ignored his touching and teasing, and tried to go back to sleep and dwell on the dreams earlier. But all I saw was a dark blank.
“Tomorrow, we’ll visit as many tourist locations as possible,” he said monotonously, seeing that I wasn’t asleep.
“Let’s just go to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum,” I replied.
“Are you sure, Piper?”
“I have the feeling it isn’t this simple. You must have brought me here for a reason,” I pointed out.
He smiled relaxedly. “See, I knew you would see through it easily. Fact is, there are issues with the companies and I came here to run from creditors and enemies. The other thing is, that person you are seeking might be here.”
“For real?” My ears perked up upon hearing ‘the person you are seeking’.
“I said, ‘might be here’. I can’t answer you on that.”
“How long are we going to stay here, Kaiser?”
I heard the ominous tone in his voice. “Until everything has cleared up. That can be one year, two years or even three. Are you up for it?”
“I don’t mind.” It was a lie. I was so anxious to get revenge, but I told myself repeatedly, without Kaiser’s monetary sources, getting close to Lenard for revenge was fruitless and could even cause my life as well as many others’. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the Great Wall of China. I had to take each step carefully, as if they would be my last.
My childbearing curse turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was happy to help him, even if it made me feel my love was unreciprocated for a while.
I thought that this was the right time to ask the question that had been lingering in my mind for a while now.
“Kaiser, if I may ask, who is Maca?”
He didn’t blink.
“I’ve kept it from you for a long time. She is my real biological sister, the daughter my mother never wanted.” He was a man with too many secrets, and I wasn’t sure if we had any communication breakdown as a result.
I didn’t know how I could put it in words without triggering him, if he promised me to destroy Lenard’s triad because of this Maca. He was just killing two birds with one stone.
“One day, could you introduce us?” I side tracked the conversation by talking about something unrelated. He nodded, silently uttering his answer.
“Sure.”
I was clueless if he wanted to continue speaking, but he stopped and just leaned on my arm. Then he snored so loudly that it told me he had fallen asleep.
I looked outside the plane window and watched the matchstick cars as they zoomed along the road. It wasn’t even a year since I returned, and now I was away on some ‘vacation’ that kept me far from my eventual plans.
Unless what he said was true, and my nemesis was actually waiting outside the dark gates of Hell for me to appear.
“Impatience won’t get you anywhere.” I heard ‘Milanda’ speak from the depths of my mind. I knew she was just an image my brain conjured up to make me resolve my decision. Milanda was dead. And she wouldn’t ever appear before me again. Those days of my capture must have been the last days of her life. Although I didn’t know how she died, I could attribute it to her mental state of mind and her personality disorder. I had more things to worry about than her identities clashing with each other. Nothing would change the fact she was dead now.
But my inner voice was right. I had to be patient for a bigger success. I got up slowly and looked towards Kaiser’s direction, where he was sleeping soundly like a baby on the other reclined chair on the plane beside mine.
He was a deep sleeper and he wouldn’t know or hear. I leaned over his body and wrapped my arms around him. Then I let out my tears. All those tears and upset feelings I kept bottled up in my heart, I released them in one go.
The only response I received from him were his noisy snores. I allowed myself a few moments of silence as tears kept streaming down. In half a year of being together with him, he caused me to realise this part of me, which I deemed to have lost. I couldn’t show my weakness in front of me or anyone else. I cleaned my tears off with the edge of my sleeve and silently instructed myself to get a grip over my feelings.
He was still sleeping. I removed my hands from him and peered down at his mouth. Bending down over his head, I crouched and positioned a kiss over his lips.
He wouldn’t know, I told myself.
But a sudden turbulence sent me stumbling into his arms when I was not mentally prepared. The cabin crew announced the strong gusts of wind, which caused the shakiness, and asked us back to our seats. I clambered back into my recliner and closed my eyes, but feeling his hand on my bare thigh awakened me to my senses.
“Looking for more, Piper?” He prodded my bare opening under the thick blanket, and I felt my cheeks reddening with heat. My underwear was somewhere under the blanket. In the end, it was he who had this massive effect on me. I longed to be touched and f*cked by him so badly, but he was just teasing me by poking my cavity.
“You’re so sensitive, Piper. Wait till we get to the hotel, then I have something to discuss with you in private.”
I shuddered at his words.
We disembarked hours later and got into a vehicle that took us to our hotel, the Strauss. Rather than solace, the thought of being alone with him just sent shivers down my spine.