Chapter 25: My Ring?

Zander followed after me and gently held my hand to stop me in the hallway. I was on my way back to my suite. I looked at him with an impatient expression. Didn’t he see I wanted some distance from him?

Why did he have to after me like that? Zander needed to give me more space, or I’d be further pulled to him. That was the opposite of what I needed.

“Cleo, can we talk about the…”

I cut him off because I knew what he wanted to say. “I can’t do this right now.” A tear threatened to escape, and I bit my lip hard. “Just go back to your room and forget about tonight.”

He frowned at me and pulled me against his chest. Zander’s eyes looked into mine with an intensity that made my breathing become shallow. I disliked how he affected me so easily.

Zander gave a pained expression and said, “I don’t want to forget about kissing you. Don’t lie and say you didn’t enjoy it. I know your lips reacted to mine.” He added, “I’d kiss you again to prove it but I won't."

He wasn’t wrong but should I tell him the truth? That would lead him on. I had to stop whatever was going on with us before it was too late.

I took a deep breath and said, “I did enjoy it…but we can’t do that again. It’s not a good idea.”

Zander let go of me and brushed past me in the hallway. I sat down against the wall and felt like my heart was being ripped to shreds. Why did he make things so hard for me? I wanted him but we weren’t engaged.

I slowly made my way back to my suite. I didn’t bother changing into pajamas and went to crawl into bed. The sheets got pulled up to my chin before betraying tears fell down my face. I wiped them off and shut my eyes and tried to sleep.

The next day felt weird. I dreamed about kissing Zander, and it annoyed me. I pushed thoughts of him away, as I got ready.

I removed all my makeup and grabbed the first clothes that I spotted and put them on. It was going to be an off day for me. Memories came flooding back of last night and caused my heart to ache. I had really hurt Zander.
Part of me regretted hurting him.

I finished brushing my hair and knew I looked awful today. Hopefully Zander wouldn’t talk to me about last night when I saw him next. But I wasn’t ready to face him until after I had a clear head.

I had to clear my mind of him. Having breakfast and coffee seemed like a good idea. I walked into the kitchen and headed for the coffee maker.

Shortly after I got there, footsteps came into the kitchen and Maurice walked in. He smiled at me and said, “Good morning, Cleo. How are you this morning?”

“I’m alright. How about you?”

“I’m doing fine.” He paused and added, “Ash is very excited about your upcoming wedding. He keeps talking to me about the details.”

A lump caught in my throat at the thought of the wedding. I swallowed and tried to act normal.

Finally, I said, “I’m looking forward to it too.”

Maurice pulled orange juice out of the fridge and got out a glass before sitting down.

I made coffee and sat down. Zander came back to my mind while the kiss replayed in my head. Despite it being cut short, I kept wanting to relive it. I’d never felt such intensity from any of Ash’s kisses. It was so horrible.

What was I doing? Ash’s father was in the same room as me, and I had the nerve to think about someone else. Why was I thinking about Zander again?

I shut down those thoughts and sipped my coffee.

Eventually Maurice asked, “Do you want me to get one of our chefs to make you breakfast?”

“Sure, that’d be great. Thank you.”

“It’s no problem. As the future wife of my son, I’m happy to offer this.”

Maurice walked out of the kitchen and headed off in the direction of the bedrooms. I kept sipping on my coffee and tried to not let guilt overtake me. Maurice was so nice to me. He thought I was only dedicated to Ash but that wasn't true.

Maybe I had been denying things for a while. I hoped that Ash and I could work, but someone was in the way. Zander.

A realization swept over me. It seemed that I couldn’t stop my feelings for Zander. I couldn’t be engaged to Ash while fighting my attraction for Zander. That wasn’t fair to Ash and his feelings for me. I didn’t want to fake anything with Ash or have a false sense of happiness.

Marriage with someone I wasn’t 100% sure with wasn’t a good idea. I didn’t want to end up hurting Ash if he wasn’t my right guy. I deserved to be with who I was meant to be with and not just settle.

I took off the ring while setting it on the table and noticed an inscription. I read it twice to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. The name on the inscription was not right.

It read, “To my love, Jenny.” This was the same Jenny that we saw in documents last night. Why was the inscription to her?

My face fell to a look of horror. Ash had told me that the ring had belonged to his mother. Jenny was his mother.

What was the reason for all the secrecy of the pack? I wanted to know what they were hiding here. There were more secrets than there should’ve been. It seemed more and more secrets came as the days went by here.

It dawned on me if Ash had even known about the ring. He probably didn’t but gave it to me anyway. That was even more unsettling.

There was no time to waste. I hurried off to tell Zander the big news I had found out.