Throughout the drive to the house, Caroline couldn't stop gushing about how pretty Lucia was and how happy she was that her son got a respectable lady to marry. Oh if only she knew, Lucia thought. When they arrived at the building, her mouth dropped open.
Lucia had been in a big mansion before, but never one like this. The house was mostly covered in gold. It had a Victorian style to it that made Lucia wonder if Stefan's family came from royalty.
"She's beautiful isn't she?", Caroline, Stefan's mother, came up behind her as they walked into the house, "I always talked about retiring and living out my days in a place like this. And Stefan took it upon himself to make it come true", she said and smiled wistfully.
What a wonderful son, Lucia thought, how come he's such a jackass?. She stole a glance at him on the balcony making a call, a beautiful jackass, she thought. She also noticed that he was speaking in hushed, hurried tones and Lucia wondered what was wrong.
"So how did you two meet?", Caroline's voice brought Lucia back.
"Um…", they didn't really practice their story for this question, Lucia thought fast, "oh he didn't tell you?", she laughed. "It's a really funny story, why don't he come down here and we'll tell it together", then she turned to Stefan. "Ste— uh, hey babe why don't we tell your mum how we met?", she said smiling with clenched teeth.
Stefan quickly got the message and came down.
"Oh it's like every other love story", he said and hesitatingly put his arm over her shoulder.
Lucia was fighting every urge in her not to inhale the scent of him, he was so damn close. "Yeah", she said. Then she looked up at him, her face void of any expression, "it was love at first sight".
His eyes stayed on hers for a moment longer, the green of his eyes getting lost in the brown of hers, an unlikely, yet beautiful combination.
"I can see that", Caroline said quietly, she had been watching them this whole time. They immediately broke away from each other's gaze and Stefan brought his arm to his side.
"I'm gonna go see if the help has gotten your room ready", she said and left the two of them.
"Nice work", Stefan said and laughed, "she almost believes we're in love".
Lucia gave a sad laugh, "yeah", then she remembered something, "did she just say our room? Like the room we're gonna be sleeping in? Together?"
Stefan gave her a look that seemed like she was crazy, "we're pretending to be in love right? What do you think it'll look like if we stayed in separate rooms?"
"Like we're trying to keep chastity till after marriage", Lucia said. Stefan chuckled and stared her down, the way he looked at her made her feel like she was bare assed naked and he was going to devour her. She squeezed her legs tightly together.
"Not a chance", he said with a low deep guttural voice and Lucia felt her thong dampen.
////////////////
At dinner later that evening, Lucia and Caroline talked and laughed like they were old college buddies that just got reunited. Caroline Baxter owned a lot of literary works and she and Lucia bonded over their love of literature.
"So how long have you been working for The Scope Lucia?, they're a really big magazine, popular too", Caroline noted.
"Uhh, I just started recently actually, I'm actually doing a piece on this guy", she said and playfully nudged Stefan.
He faked a laugh, "yeah", he said and closed up immediately. Lucia understood that he didn't want to bring that subject up, it was too close to the truth. She started to change the topic but Caroline wanted more, "oh really?, how nice, what's this interview about?".
Lucia groaned internally.
"Just work stuff, you know, the usual", Stefan said quickly.
Fortunately, Caroline got the message, "oh fine!", then she looks to Lucia, "i hope he's not like this with you my dear?, he never tells me anything", she says and downs her half empty glass of wine.
"Oh you're overreacting Mum, it's probably stress", Stefan said, dismissing his mother's tantrums.
"Probably", she scoffed. "What are your plans for tomorrow?".
Stefan and Lucia looked at each other.
"Don't tell me you don't have plans?", she asked.
"I was thinking of taking a tour of the house, and maybe taking a walk around the area, maybe, it's such a beautiful place you've got here Mrs. Baxter", Lucia said, trying her best to sound humble.
"Oh please, enough with that, call me Caroline, and you're not doing some silly walk or tour, Stefan's taking you on his yacht"
Stefan nearly choked on his meal and Lucia stifled a laugh.
"What? You're always with some skank whenever you're there, how about now, you take your wife-to-be?", Caroline suggested.
"I'll check with the captain", Stefan said.
"Good, so it's settled, the lovers are going to have a day out in the sea", Caroline said, squealing like a little girl.
After dinner, they all retired to their rooms for the night. Stefan got out of the shower and met Lucia typing away on her laptop.
"You brought that here? Do you ever do anything except work? Jesus", he said as he dried his hair.
Lucia, trying her best to muster enough willpower so she wouldn't drool over Stefan's rock hard body, kept typing into her laptop, "incase you're forgetting, I've got an ultimatum for this piece, and I've also got to let my boss know that I wouldn't be coming to work for a specific period of time courtesy of your inability to decide when you'll free me of this slavery", she said without taking her eyes off the screen.
He sighed audibly, "Lucia"
"What?"
"Look at me"
"I'm busy", she spat back. He chuckled and walked towards the bed. He was standing in front of her now, towering over her. Lucia fought the urge to look.
"I took care of it". Her head shot up.
"What? What do you mean you took care of it?"
"I mean, the interview has been worked on and submitted and I told your boss that you were gonna be absent for as long as I needed you to. I need your head in this Lucia, and I'm gonna get it", he said looking at her. He was dangerously close now, the only thing separating their bodies was the small space between them. Her eyes traveled down his perfectly carved body and noted every upward and downward curve of muscle, every scar and every dent, it would be etched in her memory forever, she was sure. His body started drawing closer, and as her hand reached out to touch it, he immediately stood upright.
She looked up at him and saw that he only leaned in closer just to grab a pillow, she felt silly.
"I'll take the couch while you take the bed, since you don't want your 'chastity' to be messed with", he mocked and went over to the couch and lay down.
She sunk further into the bed burning with shame and embarrassment. She wasn't embarrassed about the chastity talk, she wasn't embarrassed about being a virgin or anything like that, infact, that was what made Micheal fall for her the more. What made her cheeks burn with embarrassment was how close she was to ruining their plan. She had to stop letting Stefan get to her like that, it was going to be hard, but she had to try, she really had to try.
She drifted off to sleep that night and her dreams were plagued with Michael and his letters.