Page 92 of When Hearts Collide
I’m not taking her to the standard suites. That’s not where she belongs. Instead, I press the button to the top floor.
“I’m so happy,” Millie says, her dulcet voice curling around my heart, but instead of chains, her voice is a soothing, life-giving balm, an antidote to the corruption inside. “You chose me.”
A sharp guilt slices across my chest with the swiftness of a sword, but my heart pounds at her words. I know I shouldn’t have succumbed to my inappropriate desires for her. I should’ve been stronger. I’m the older, more mature person between the two of us. I know what’s at stake.
But I can’t fight it anymore.
This need for her that is becoming a necessity, like oxygen to my lungs and food to a starving man. Everything pales compared to her—all the responsibilities and shackles, the rules of the family trust, the lure of the honorary doctorate—everything that used to mean the world to me.
And under the cloak of nightfall inside the dark forest, away from NYUC, she and I are just man and woman, two people who are drawn to each other like moths to a flame.
What choice do we truly have?
And now, with her in my arms, it’s as if she belonged there all along.
My voice is thick and hoarse as I reply, “I…I feel the same way.”
And it’s true. The only true thing in my life. The emotion I feel with every ounce of my soul. If I were to die now, I’d be a happy man.
The elevator doors silently glide open, and I stride to one of three doors on the floor before pressing my palm against the palm reader. Instead of staying at the estate like Dad and Maxwell, the rest of our siblings, myself included, have opted to live in our apartments either within The Orchid or elsewhere in Manhattan.
The door automatically opens, and I carry my princess inside my haven of dark marble and reclaimed timber.
“Sir, welcome home.” Gretchen, my housekeeper steps into view from her attached en-suite quarters, dressed impeccably in her usual uniform—a navy pencil skirt and a white blouse, her salt-and-pepper hair perfectly arranged in a bun. The elderly woman alternates her hours with others on the housekeeping team employed by The Orchid to serve the apartment owners on the top floors.
Her sharp brown eyes take in Millie in my arms and she immediately asks, “Do you want me to prepare a bath?”
I nod. “Thank you, and yes. In the master bath, please.”
Millie gives me a shove, her face flushed crimson as she lifts her head off my chest and smiles at Gretchen.
She whispers, “Put me down! I’m not an invalid!”
“Hush. You’re mine to take care of now.”
The words come out with no forethought, but they ring very true to my ears. I want to take care of her.
As long as I can. Until I’m not allowed to.
Gretchen smothers a smile as she walks discreetly toward the master suite on the far right and Millie hollers, “Thank you!”
Another little elbow shove from my squirming vixen. “You caveman. I can walk by myself.”
I bite back a satisfied grin as I look at her in my arms, her large blue eyes blinking at me with so much heat and tenderness in them, and my heart doubles in size.
“You poked the bear. Now you need to bear the consequences.”
Millie snorts and rolls her eyes. “Har. Har. The pun.” Then she snuggles back into my chest and emits a satisfied sigh. “I love the way you smell.”
Smirking, I stride past the spacious living room, which is dim except for the light from a crystal floor lamp on top of the navy Persian rug, past the chef’s kitchen I rarely use, down a wide corridor and I make a sharp left through the double doors of the master suite. I hear the water running and smell the soothing scents of lavender and tea tree oil wafting through the air.
Gretchen gives me a terse nod as she exits the en-suite bathroom, efficient as always, and murmurs, “Everything is set up, sir.”
“Thank you.”
She hurries away and closes the door behind her.
I stride inside the bathroom, where a bubble bath has been prepared in the deep spa tub. A tray containing a simple fruit platter of watermelon and grapes, something she typically has on hand for me, two glasses of water, and two flutes of what looks to be champagne, is set on the side of the tub, completed with a few sprigs of daffodils.
