Chapter Fifty-one Evan Sterling's POV (Ten Years Before)

“Guess where I went…” I said, smiling down at her as she held my gaze in a lazy, sexy gaze.
“Office?” She said. I chuckled.
“I know I am a workaholic, baby, you need not rub it in, but it is the weekend, and I don’t normally work on weekends, except I choose to,” I said, brushing my lips down the bridge of her nose.
“So, where did you go?” she asked in a soft tone.
“To see your Aunt—”
“Aunt Sophia?!” she exclaimed in a gasp, and her eyes darted in their sockets. I chuckled.
“You should know, you ruin my reputation of being an unfeeling, but articulate jerk today—”
“Aww… what did you do?” she asked, raising her hands to cup my jaw.
“I told her the truth.”
“And what is the truth, my darling?” she asked and the way she said that with the warm glow in her eyes and a teasing smile tugging the corners of her well-kissed lips, made me feel all warm inside. How being with the right person could make everything different was quite magical. I have never imagined myself in a position like this -- feeling this vulnerable with a woman. It fascinated me.
“I told her I am falling in love with you, and want her consent to date you,” I said, not making any attempt to hide my emotions. Her smile wavered and her lovely eyes grew intense as they darted in their sockets searching mine.
"Was that how you would have wanted me to express my feelings to you, yesterday?" she asked in an emotional whisper. I shook my head, not breaking eye contact with her. The play of emotions in them was enthralling.
"I put it that way because every second spent with you makes me love you more, want you more--" I said in a voice I couldn't recognize as mine. It was way deeper and filled with emotions. Her lips trembled and she bit down on the lower lip.
"In that case, I am falling in love with you too, Evan, and it is scary."
"How so?" I whispered, lowering my face to nibble on her lower lip, forcing her to release the plum flesh to me.
"It's an overwhelming emotion for me."
"You have no idea--" I said, running my fingers through her hair to hold her face still as I slipped my tongue into her mouth, exploring and tasting her. My body grew hard again for her and I pressed against her. She did the same, causing me to let out a shaky breath.
“You should have seen me, I was a mess,” I said against her lips in my bid to calm my body. She giggled. I drew back, arched an eyebrow and scowled at her. An action which made her laugh.
"Very empathetic of you my little witch," I said. She raised her hand to her mouth, laughing the more. She was adorable.
“I wish I was there to see you,” she said.
“I didn’t want her to see your face—”
“How bad is it?” she asked, looking sober.
“Bad enough to make me have him picked up by the police—”
“Evan—”
“Don’t try to change my mind. Brian was with me on it. If we hadn’t shown up, Estera, he would have raped you. You know that, right?” I said. She nodded solemnly. And whatever she must have seen on my face made her raise her face from the bed to press her lips to mine.
“Don’t get angry. I want to put the ugly incident behind me. I just want today to be a happy one for me—”
“I will make certain that you have a good time,” I said in a tender tone, she smiled, searching my gaze.
“Did you tell Aunt Sophia about Tyler?”
“No. We will tell her when we go back, hopefully, it will look less scary then,” I replied, stroking her cheek.
"Did she agree for us to date?" she asked and I could detect a tinge of anxiety in her sultry tone. I nodded.
"After I promised over and over that I will wait a little longer to put babies inside you," I teased. She gasped. "I'm joking!" I quickly added. She smirked.
"Mmm … I am certain if you had said that to her she would have taken it in strides."
"She loves you. I saw that. And I appreciated that more than you can ever imagine. She is concerned about you not talking about today because of your parents--"
She nodded. "I was hoping to blank it out," she replied, lowering her gaze.
"Hey," I said, making her look into my eyes, "you can’t blank grief out, it never works, they are your parents, you are expected to grieve for as long as you want. I just need you to know you are not alone. Okay?" I urged. She nodded. "I will always be here for you. I am not going anywhere--"
She raised her hand to cup my jaw and lifted her head to press a timid kiss on the corner of my mouth.
"Thank you," she whispered. I nodded. My phone rang and I let out a sigh, before disengaging from her to reach for it on the nightstand.
"Evan Sterling, " I said.
"Good morning, son?" My father's voice replied from the other end and I sat up.
"Morning, dad," I said and a frown furrowed my eyebrows.
"We need to talk--"
"Okay--" I replied in a drawl.
"When will you be returning?" he asked and I couldn't help noticing that he sounded agitated. Edward Sterling was never agitated about anything. He was a man who spoke and carried himself like some demigod who was way above the laws that governed mere mortals.
"A couple of weeks…" I replied.
"Make it one week. I need you back here and we need to talk," he snapped.
"Um… what's wrong?" I asked as I got out of bed naked and started to pace. Estera sat up looking at me with concern. And also I couldn't help noticing her eyes trailing down my body as she clutched the sheet underneath her hands. I couldn't help smiling at her. 'Look all you want, darling, I'm all yours,' I thought.
"It's not something we can discuss on the phone… just make sure you get back soon. Have a safe trip. Your mother said hi," he said and cut the line. I lowered my hand feeling puzzled.
"Is everything okay?" Estera asked and I directed my eyes to her, studying her for about a minute. I recalled two past lovers asking me the same very question once or twice and my savage shut down was always cruel. I always said something that literally means we are here to fuck focus on that or you are supposed to act like the fixture when I'm doing something important.
But now with Estera asking the question, I opened my mouth and said, "I hope so, that was my father asking to speak with me. Something he doesn't want to talk about on the phone."
"Will you go to him then? It might be important," she replied.
"He doesn't know I'm in town, I want to keep it that way. I will see him when we get back from Paris," I said, and a slow smile made my lips stretch: first because I just remembered I was going to spend the next couple of days with her -– and I’m definitely not cutting it short for no one, and secondly because I just shared a portion of my life with her in the most normal way and it didn't make me feel any negative emotion.
"Hey, I have loads of surprises for you today--" I said, feeling profound happiness twirling inside me.
"Oh, yeah?" she said in a drawl with a teasing smile. Her beautiful eyes shone with mischief.
"Oh yeah--"
"Does one of it include the part when you pin me down and have your delicious ways with me?" she said, batting her eyelashes.
I threw my head back and laughed. I have never felt so in tune with another human in my entire life.