During the whole ride back to her parent’s place, she couldn’t get the devouring look in Xavier’s blue eyes out of her head. Was she imagining it or was he really craving for her? And suddenLy why did it matter? Shaking those ridiculous thoughts aside, she focused on looking over at the chocolate box she got for Bloom and the Barbie doll set she wanted for her birthday.
Bloom was her cousin, her aunt, Autumn’s daughter. Both of them lived with her parents ever since Midnight's uncle passed away, four years back. It has been really hard for Autumn but she pretends to be happy all the time but she cannot lie to an actress. Nevertheless, Midnight was really happy to go back home, she had missed her family like crazy. Although they lived in Mission Viejo which is only fifty-one minutes away from LA by car she had been too swamped with her shooting of the cult movie and magazine shoots.
And since tomorrow was her day off, she could enjoy some peaceful time at her home with her sweet family.
“Do I really need to come along?” Sam asks, “I mean it’s not that I don’t want to but it seems more like a personal celebration.”
Midnight pats his hand and says, “Bloom loves you and if I don’t bring you along she will kill me.”
Sam nods his head with a small smile lingering on his face. Midnight draws her hand back, relaxing against her seat.
“Plus my aunt wanted me to bring you as well.” She says before closing her eyes and dozing off almost immediately.
Sam tenses and looks over to ask her something but watching her asleep just covered her with a blanket. Sam loved spending time with Bloom and Midnight’s family. He has known them ever since Midnight was seventeen. And they have always treated him like their own family member. Since he had no family of his own he definitely loved spending time with them but there was a slight tension between him and Autumn which no one was aware of except the two of them.
Last time when Midnight visited them along with Sam, things heated up between him and Autumn. They went there to celebrate Midnight becoming the global ambassador of a fashion company. Midnight went on to sleep early with Bloom that day since she had a photoshoot the next day and she wanted to look fresh. Alex and Amanda were away during that time leaving Sam and Autumn alone. They were both intoxicated but still were conscious.
FLASHBACK-
Both of them were sitting on the bench outside the house sipping the bottle of beer while watching the stars. There was a light breeze in the atmosphere and the moon was shining brightly. Sam heard her sniffle and turned his head to look at Autumn whose eyes were brimming with tears, leaving him a bit taken aback.
He had always seen her so joyish and smiley all the time, he wasn’t really expecting her to see her vulnerable like this, especially in front of him. But he didn't interfere nor ask her any questions, letting her cry away for a while and just sat there quietly.
After a few passing minutes, Autumn pulls herself together and looks over at Sam who stares back at her. His chocolate brown eyes and his black hair falling over his forehead, his light brown skin looked so nice under the moonlight. For the first time, she was actually seeing how truly breathtaking he was.
“You’re the first person I have ever cried in front of.” She whispers, “And I don’t know why. You must be thinking how pathetic I am.”
“No!” Sam disagrees immediately, “I am admiring your strength to keep it all in for such a long time. It’s not easy to keep everything bottled up inside of you.”
“You look like you’re talking from experience.” Autumn observes and Sam looks away from her because she was right, he was talking from experience.
Maybe it was because she was light-headed she found herself leaning closer to Sam until their shoulders lightly touched, making both of them freeze in response. Then clearing her throat, she whispers, “If you ever feel like you want to talk to someone about anything, feel free to talk to me.”
Sam gets up sensing that the two of them were too drunk to think properly and was about to leave but Autumn held onto his wrist making him freeze on the spot. “Do you dislike me or something?”
“No!” Sam says, “But this is wrong in every possible way, Autumn and we both know that.”
Autumn chuckles bitterly before getting up as well, “You’re right, after all you’re two years younger than me and I should be dating guys who are older than me.”
Sam clenches his jaw after hearing her say that. He was attracted to her, he has been attracted to her since a pretty long time but he felt she would never feel the same way and even if she did, everything about this would be a mess. “Autumn, stop behaving like a child.”
“Whatever!” Autumn snorts and decides to walk back inside the house.
But Sam follows her behind and steps in front of her, colliding his lips onto hers in a hard, passionate kiss and the kiss intensifies within a few seconds as Sam pushed her against the wall making her gasp in surprise as Autumn was now trapped between him and the cold wall behind her. He twirls his tongue inside her mouth pressing his body on hers as she lets out a muffled moan, feeling him hard against her.
FLASHBACK ENDS***
Sam breaks out of his thoughts when Midnight shakes him by his shoulder. He looked into her concerned eyes and gave her a smile, making her relax instantly. He looked outside and noticed that they had already reached and were parked in front of her parents suburban house.
“You can get some rest after the cake cutting, if you’re not feeling well.” Midnight suggests and Sam nods gratefully.
He asks her to go first while he explains to the driver the schedule for tomorrow and makes some calls to arrange the day after tomorrow’s schedule and she walks off the van with the chocolate box in one hand and the big wrapped barbie doll set in another. He kept the sliding door of the van open to check if it was empty. Sometimes crazy fans or the paparazzi try to follow Midnight around and ever since her acting debut, those incidents have increased.
After a little while he steps outside the car as well and rings the doorbell hoping it to be anyone except for Autumn but it was her who opened the door. Then Bloom comes running from inside the house hugging Sam’s leg and he picks her up in his arms, laughing. Autumn gives him a small smile before opening the door further for him.
“Hello birthday girl.” he says and Bloom giggles in response.
“Sammy uncle is going to feed me today.” She announces and Alex along with Amanda chuckles.
“Oh he definitely is.” Midnight says who was sitting on the carpet right next to her parents who were on the couch.
Sam takes a seat and Autumn sits in the farthest corner of the room. They exchanged a lot about the events and happenings. After Bloom’s cake cutting and a fun dinner, Sam decided to help Autumn with the dishes. Bloom had fallen asleep in Midnight’s lap and she was chatting with her parents.
Both of them were in the kitchen alone and Autumn was trying her best to avoid him as she buried herself in the task of cleaning the dishes but then she felt him standing just a few inches away behind her. Her breath catches in her throat when his hot breath hits her sensitive neck.
He whispers in her ear, “So, how was your blind date?”
And Autumn freezes in response.
Midnight's phone dings and she sees her name was trending which was weird. Upon clicking on the news, she saw a picture of her and Xavier was leaked from yesterday, in the parking lot. The headline read, 'Maybe Midnight Hazelwood is not as angelic as she looks as she is clearly trying to seduce Mr Xavier who is already seemed to be dating the female lead of his movie, Amelia? '