Carefully stepping inside, I’m met with the overpowering smell of her. I bathe in it, welcoming the electric shot it sends through my veins.
My boots barely hit the tiled kitchen floor when suddenly the front pocket of my pants vibrates.
“Aunt Mae?” I answer as my eyes scan the small feminine space decorated with monochromatic colors.
“Hi, River. Sensei Clark is here waiting for your martial artstraining.”
“I’m on a stakeout right now,” I tell her, heading out of the small eat-in and up the carpeted staircase that leads up to the second floor where Lux’s room is. “Can you coordinate with him another time to come?”
“Sebastian said you two didn’t have anything planned for today and were still waiting for Christian to get back to you with more information,” Aunt Mae huffs out. “And you know if I reschedule with Clark, he’s going to be annoyed.”
There’s no way I can get all the way back there quickly.
I rub the back of my neck, not wanting to explain the object of my recent obsession. She won’t understand, or like Sebastian would—try to talk some sense into me. “It’s something I’m working on alone.”
“You never work on anything alone,” she comments, but there’s a lightness to her voice telling me she is holding back a chuckle.
I briefly poke my head into the bathroom and Lux’s office before something on the wall catches my eye. Walking toward her desk, I see a framed quote and to my surprise, it’s one from my favorite poet, Edgar Allen Poe,“I am a writer. Therefore, I am not sane.”
My new obsession, a Poe fan?I smile to myself, appreciating a small thing we have in common. And it only makes me even more intrigued by her. I stay in her office for only another second before heading to her bedroom.
“I do on occasion,” I defend, but I’m barely paying attention to what Aunt Mae says when my eyes hone in on Lux’s bed. The comforter is a cream color, fluffy and inviting. I envision her lying softly between the sheets like I’ve watched on the cameras.
“River,” she scolds. “You have enough things on your schedule. You donotneed another thing added to it.”
I close the small distance to where Lux laid last night and I glide my fingers across the soft fabric, imagining what it would be like if she were laying in it now.
“Did Sebastian say something to you?” I ask absentmindedly.
“He told me you’ve been going over to that girl’s house every night for the last week.”
I sit on the edge of Lux’s bed and let my eyes roam over the space. It’s simply decorated with a long dresser on the adjacent wall and a matching tall one in the corner, but then I notice the closet door ajar and it catches my attention. I need to get her off the phone so I can enjoy this time in Lux’s house.
“Can you reschedule my session with Sensei Clark for Friday?”
“River, don’t change the subject.”
I lift off the bed and walk toward the closet, pushing the door open to expose rows of shoes and racks of clothing. “Aunt Mae.”
“Fine. I’ll reschedule.”
“Tell him I’ll pay him double for him coming all the way out to the Manor.”
I’m about to end the call when I hear Mae’s distant voice calling my name.
“River?”
“Yes?
“Remember not to get caught up in your impulsivity,” she kindly reminds me.
I sigh and take two fingers, rubbing my temples. “I know, Aunt Mae.”
“See you when you get home,” she says before ending the call.
Morphing into River Thompson, the kindhearted and eccentric billionaire is something I’m good at, even with my aunt. Although she’saware of our nightly operations, no one truly knows how dark my blood runs.
Not even Sebastian.
