Chapter 284: Can I Trust You With A Secret?
Chapter 284: Can I Trust You With A Secret?
Camilla
In a setting like this, I was practically invisible and that was exactly how I needed to be. Although this may have been just some deal I was paying off. And as I continued to walk around and take photos along the way, I realized something that had me sweating a little. Whether it was intentional or not, Gregorio had offered me a gift by sending me here and that was the gift of a distraction. Further, it made me remember the fact that I haven't picked up a camera or planned wedding in nearly a year.
Everything was so robotic and numbed at The Safe that there wasn't a single spark of interest within me to start my work again but the more I walked around here, the lighter things felt. I was enjoying myself.
"If you could just drop your left shoulder down ever so slightly and twist a little more towards the camera." I instructed politely, keeping up the facade and ignoring the nagging fact that I most certainly didn't have to be exposing everything properly since this wasn't truly an event I was hired for.
I think I just missed this, I have put my career on the back burner for so long now that I have allowed myself to forget where my interest lies. But before I could get too deep into my many regrets, a flash of something caught my eye. I knew what it was before I could even fully turn my body but instead of the extravagant diamond necklace draping perfectly off the woman's neck making my jaw drop, it was the bearer herself.
White blonde laid in precise curls along her back, her makeup undoubtedly done by a team of professionals and her dress sized flawlessly to fit every curve of her body. Everything about her screamed money and the demand for attention but it wasn't in the same way Gregorio, Domenico or Adriano's presence did. When a server approached her with a tray of champagne fluted, she sneered slightly like he was below her, not even bothering to look at the man or thank him before he was promptly moving in the other direction.
She demanded attention in a way that was snobbish and the sudden polite smile she shot at the date at her side made me connect two facts that were responsible for my shock. I knew this woman.
"Hi, Lauren, I am so glad you were able to make it." A man I am assuming to be the host of the event swept in before anybody else could, planting two air kisses on each of her cheeks while trying to mask the fact his eyes kept dropping to the jewelry around her neck.
His efforts were fruitless, though and the name I now knew as Lauren practically preened at the attention.
"Holy fúck," I breathed out quietly as I silently cursed them in my head for not letting me know who exactly I was stealing from.
She was their father's second wife after he made them believe their biological mother Louise was dead. Based on the little I learned about Lauren while I was at The Safe, she ditched Raphael and stole all his fortune and ran away with another. And I am guessing it was the man by her side.
I can't exactly explain why my heart broke in the way it did at the sight before me but I was equally angry as I was devastated for the people waiting outside for me. At the one hour mark of me writing as the event's photographer, I had managed to effectively make the swap and go completely unnoticed, the weight of the diamond in my hidden pocket burning hot into my thigh.
It took everything within me to follow my direction and to make my way out of the building when all I wanted to do was yank that woman's head and make her pay for the loss she caused my men. Maybe it was because of the trauma of my own mother that made me want to punish her but there was also no denying that it was mostly due to the fact that I was possessive, possessive over the men that weren't even mine anymore.
Clenching my jaw at that and forcing those thoughts out of my head, I didn't look back until I was out the door and my skin was being assaulted by the biting chill of winter air. I took a deep breath and embraced the coolness traveling to my lungs, tipping my head back to feel the soft caress of snowflakes falling to brush against my face. Yes, I was angry but I was running on pure adrenaline right now as I moved myself over to the somewhat hidden meeting spot Gregorio and I had agreed on.
My short, platform boots crunched against the freshly fallen snow sprinkling the ground and he knew I was coming as I turned the corner to find him already watching me, his dark figure leaning against the side of the building that was blanketed in the shadows. I wouldn't have even known he was there if I wasn't so attuned to him but I had his whole attention as I moved to stand at his front.
Neither of us saying a word, I let out a soft breath as I dipped my head down, delving into the hidden pocket of my pants and coming back out with what had to be at least worth one million dollars. His hands clenched for just a moment at his side before I felt his fingers brushed against mine, clearly reliving some unpleasant memories.
"That was your stepmother, wasn't it?" I whispered lightly and the necklace left my hand as his eyes held on mine, looking at me so intensely it made me dizzy.
"She was the thief that stole from us." He uttered, the sound of his words rough and pained yet absent of any regret.
I waited for him to say more even when the space between us was filled with silence, only hesitating for a second before his hand turned me gently towards a window I hadn't noticed until now. Our reflections were barely visible but still there as I blinked up at him, following his careful lead as he stepped into me. I shivered under the heat as his hard chest pressed against my back and truthfully l had no idea what was happening as he slowly revealed the parts of him I never had the chance to uncover last year.
It was a kind of beauty I just couldn't describe and it kept me silent even when he brought both of his hands around my body to clasp the diamond necklace around my neck. I wanted to resist, to take his hands and pull them away until I understood his endgame but maybe this time there wasn't one. As the heavy weight of the jewels draped down along my chest, his hands slid down too, both coming to rest over the curve of my hips.
"Can I trust you with a secret, sweetheart?" A low voice hummed against my ear, my heart racing as he found a patch of skin to circle just beneath the waistband of my pants.
The air may have been freezing around us but we were anything but cold.
"Yes," I murmured.
I felt him hum again softly as though it were a sound of praise and yet it all felt so contrasting to the heaviness that had settled in place of the usual teasing person behind me. It was easy to forget through all of his humor that he has demons that equalled mine even if he were rooted in the exact opposite world than the one I was raised in.
"Lauren Jonkins tried to poison my brothers and I and we couldn't do anything." He said and I was utterly speechless.
"Do you know why we asked you to switch the necklaces out rather than just stealing it and having her panic over it going missing?" He asked and I shook my head.
"This event is for charity." He began, his eyes never straying from mine and waiting for me to end this and loving the fact that I never do.
As he runs his hands up beneath my shirt and suit jacket, I try not to moan as he cupped my breasts in both of his hands, giving them a tight squeeze over the barrier of my bra. How far was l really going to let this go? When his fingernails scratch against my painfully hard nipples, my suddenly lax body seems to say very far.
"Lauren Jonkins's donation is renting out this necklaces." He paused to pull one hand away from my stomach and up to grab the real diamond around my neck.
I watched as he licked his lips while glancing down at mine, a low sound forming in his throat as though he were desperate to taste them. I tried to lean into him but he kept me pinned still, taking complete and utter control of me. I have missed this dangerously too much.
Never crossing that final line, his nose just brushes gently against my rosy cheek as he uses the necklace to angle me to his preference, hovering his mouth just a little over mine.
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