Johan thought for a moment, while the red-haired woman, whose first name he had just remembered, Lana, took her first steps into the villa.
Johan studied as indifferently as possible the faces behind the sunglasses of the bodyguards flanking the gate, and remembered their names.
'Icarus and Romeo.' Johan said to himself, following Lana into the villa.
Erick hadn't shown any photos of the Vaughn family residence, so when Johan laid eyes on the series of mansions spread across the inconceivably vast land owned by Erick's family, his heart almost came out in his mouth.
Mansions in Victorian, Gothic, picturesque style.
There were mansions that looked like they had come out of a pseudo-futuristic film.
The whole place was like an Italian villa, but the contrast between all the mansions made the place look like something out of a web novel.
Johan wasn't sure which one was the main house - or even if any of them were actually the main house - so he just let Lana guide him.
"It's good to be back, isn't it, Mr. Vaughn?" Lana asked, noticing Johan's gaze at all the buildings.
"EE yes." Johan replied, trying to return to reality.
Part of him actually wondered if this really belonged in the real world, or if it was all a fever dream, and he wasn't about to wake up any moment now.
They walked for a few more minutes, crossing the immensity of the villa, until they finally reached what was the center of it.
To Johan's eyes, it looked more like a miniature city than a proper villa - not that he had ever seen many to be able to say something like that with confidence - but the mansion at the center of it all made Johan's heart race. chest.
If he had called the other houses mansions, he had made a grotesque error in judgment.
All the surrounding houses, lined up in a strangely random and logical manner, looked like little houses compared to the monster in the center of the villa.
Surrounded by a fence with spear-like bars, the building on the inside welcomed its visitors with a vast lawn and a huge swimming pool.
Bigger than any pool Johan had ever seen.
To the right of the lawn, an open parking lot and a covered parking lot, with at least fifty cars, all very luxurious, and further back, covering the distance from the covered parking lot to the opposite edge of the pool, was the biggest mansion that Johan had ever been able to build. to imagine.
With five floors, hundreds of meters long from one end to the other, modern architecture, it was a mixture of concrete, steel and glass, so pleasant to look at, that there was no doubt that whoever built that immensity had been someone of the most famous architects in the world.
"Is six months long enough to forget what your house looks like, Mr. Vaughn?" Lana chuckled very subduedly.
Johan tried to divide his line of thought into two focuses.
'I need to find a way to contain this fascination that overflows into my eyes without my control.'
'Six months? Erick was out of here for six fucking months? Who's crazy enough to leave a place like that to go out into the world, when everything a person needs is right here?'
But the answer Johan gave came from a third line of thought, more direct, and perhaps much more cynical than the others.
"Sometimes I forget how beautiful my house is." A very slight smile appeared on his lips.
With that smile, Johan took a step forward, and the two headed towards the gate, which opened automatically, the bodyguards flanking the entrance bowing slightly towards him.
***
Inside, Johan almost had to hold on to Lana to keep from jumping back.
All the servants were waiting in two lines, forming a corridor around Johan, and when the doors opened...
"WELCOME BACK, MR. VAUGHN!"
The shout coming from the back of everyone's throats, in a unison so perfect that it seemed like something from a movie, rehearsed, made Johan's soul almost leave his body.
Using everything he had in him, however, Johan managed to suppress the fright and shock, and appear as composed as possible.
"It's good to be back..." Johan said, not knowing what else to say to Erick's servants. "But now, I need to get some rest. Call me when dinner preparations are finished."
All the servants nodded, and rushed off towards their respective tasks.
Lana was about to turn around and walk away, when Johan called her again.
"Miss Baker, I think I need to be honest with you..."
The woman with the curled red mane's eyes opened a little wider than usual, but she didn't say anything.
Johan approached her, and bending down a little because of their height difference, touched her hair, parting it a little from his forehead.
A little under the unruly black strands of her medium-long, cropped hair, there was a small series of stitches.
Lana's eyes widened a little wider.
"When I said that I had a little incident earlier, which caused the injury to my hand, I failed to mention that I suffered a pretty bad blow to the head, so... Just between us..." Johan shifted a little, looking slightly uncomfortable. "I don't remember much about the layout of the rooms, so could you... Take me to my room?"
Truth be told, Johan needed all the composure he had and had trained in those few days he spent with Erick, to manage not to show his body's reactions around a woman like Lana.
Johan needed a lot to control his breathing, his heart seemed to beat in his throat, and he felt an infernal heat on his face.
It was as if he were being struck by a sudden and violent attack of some illness.
Lana's cheeks were very slightly flushed, but they seemed to regain their usual clear, composed tone when Johan pulled away again.
"I see..." Lana replied, quietly. "Of course, but you need to see a doctor as soon as possible. I'll arrange that, okay?"
Johan nodded, and took a step in the direction Lana followed when, without any warning, a male voice, full of disdain, sounded from the front door.
"Not so fast, Erick! Where do you think you're going without telling me you're back?"