Page 32 of Fated to Them

“I didn’t, mom, and don’t you worry. I will be giving him a piece of my mind when I see him again,” I tell her, and she nods.

Dropping the washing basket of folded clothes on the end of my bed, she says, “I will fetch the first-aid kit. Meet me in the kitchen.”

I groan. How the hell am I going to hide that for work? I pull off my wrinkled clothes and put on some yoga pants and a singlet. I try Sam’s phone again, but it keeps coming up that it has been disconnected.

Walking downstairs, I sit on the stool. My mother comes over, dabbing the mark with some Dettol, and I hiss as it burns.

“I’m sorry. Gosh, it’s deep for a bite mark,” she mutters, shaking her head before covering it with some non-stick gauze.

“Really, Addie, this is just strange for him to do. Has he bitten you like this before?” she asks, and I shake my head. Sam is into some weird things, but biting isn’t one of them. He is more the pull-your-hair-and-strangle-you type, not fucking-devour-you literally.

“I think maybe, you might need to look elsewhere. This isn’t right,” my mother says, and I have to agree with her.

Yet I just don’t remember anything, and that is bothering me more. Because of the huge-ass bite mark, I end up staying home all weekend, praying it will heal before Monday. We laze around the house watching movies. Maya is still sick with the flu, though my mother is feeling much better thanks to the cold and flu tablets she’s brought.

Monday morning, though, when I haul my ass out of bed, I am relieved to find the mark nearly gone. Still, I can tell it is going to scar. Great, just what I need. I pull on my black slacks, button-up shirt, and blazer, choosing to leave my hair down to cover the horrendous mark on my neck that stands out like a sore thumb. I drop Maya off on my way to work before pulling up in the top car park and catching the lift up to my floor.

I try ringing Sam off the work phone, thinking maybe it’s just my phone. No luck. The phone disconnects, which I find a little odd. I’ll just have to go see him one night after work and demand to know what’s happened. The fact that he has changed his number is a little worrying. Have I done something wrong?

“Hello, Addie,” Cyrus says, creeping up behind me.

I am so consumed with my troubled thoughts that I don’t hear the elevator signaling their arrival. I spin around and face him. Something is different about them. Cyrus leans in closer, a smirk on his lips, his manly smell making me lean in closer before he clears his throat, his hand moving to my neck, as his thumb brushes my jaw line, sparks rushing on my skin, making me gasp.

I am completely struck by him. I have always been attracted to them, but something is different. I fear them, yet I can’t bring myself to move away.

“Now that is the sort of reaction I have been wanting from you,” he whispers, leaning in, his lips brushing mine softly.

I moan as his tongue slips into my mouth. He presses himself against me, and I feel my panties dampen with arousal. The phone rings, snapping me out of the weird trance I am in, and I jump, pushing him back, confused. Why did I just let him do that?

He watches me stepping back as I rush around my desk to answer the phone, dropping it on the desk with my butter fingers in a flustered state. Cyrus grabs it, handing it to me with a smirk on his lips as I take it from him, and I find myself struck once again by his beautiful caramel eyes.

“Are you going to answer it?” he says, raising an eyebrow at me, and I shake my head, stuttering as I answer the phone. I hear him chuckle before he walks off in the direction of his office when I notice Eli is also standing in the foyer watching us. I feel my face heat up at my reaction to him, feeling guilty that that is the second time I have let him kiss me, the second time Eli has caught me with his husband.

What the fuck is going on? I feel like my life is slowly falling apart. I am not able to wrap my head around everything that is going on. First, I lose an entire night and can’t relay anything. Sam bit me, then changed his number, then I have been daydreaming about my bosses all day and have literally got no work done and can barely focus being around them, which they seem to be enjoying. What the fuck is going on with me? I may need to speak to my mother. Maybe I am starting to lose my mind.

Just before my lunch break, Cyrus comes out and stops at my desk. “You are going to pick Maya up soon?”

“Yes, I need to drop her at my mother’s. Why, what’s up?”

“I was wondering if I could come with you. I need to drop something off on that side of town.”

“When do you want to leave?” I ask him, and he smiles down at me.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“We can go now and pick Maya up on the way back.”

He nods, and I grab my bag. As I walk to the elevator with Cyrus, I notice Eli standing in his doorway, leaning on the door frame, watching us.

We hop in the car, and I start heading to the address Cyrus has given me, pulling up at some post office. Cyrus gets out, walking toward the post-office boxes. He unlocks one, grabbing the mail out of it.

“You have your mail sent here?” I ask when he gets back in the car.

“Some of it. Usually, we have everything sent to the office. I just haven’t checked it for a while, so I thought I would come with you. Give me a chance to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“Soya City,” he says, buckling his belt.