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This was totally going to find its way into my book someday. It would be the creepy, evil villain’s mansion full of useless rooms and cobwebs. Sebastian’s house was immaculately clean, but the book version was definitely going to have cobwebs. I thought I’d add some torture dungeon hatches, too.
I eventually realized some of the otherwise unremarkable wall panels were actually secret doors. That meant I had to backtrack and start shoving randomly at every section of wall I could find. Some of them gave a satisfying click and swung open to reveal little closets or even, in one case, a hidden bathroom.
By the time I’d seen most of the top floor, I was fairly sure Sebastian didn’t decorate or furnish the place himself. It looked more like a super high-end model home where a professional design team had made the place up to look classy for potential buyers. None of it felt very lived in or used. It made me imagine Sebastian hauled up in an isolated corner of the sprawling home every day while all these rooms sat dormant, which gave me an unexpected pang of sympathy for the man.
Of course, that was stupid. He was the one who decided to buy this big ass house. If he wasn’t going to make use of all the space, he should’ve got something smaller.
I stopped at the top of a dual staircase that swept down elegantly to the ground floor. From the balcony above, I could see a huge, curved wall of windows that was letting in some orange light from the setting sun. Then I heard the sounds of splashing in a pool.
Curious, I made my way to a bedroom with a window facing that direction. I had a view of a pool surrounded by rock features and artificial waterfalls. A shirtless man was slicing through the water with efficient strokes. I narrowed my eyes, deciding I was looking at Sebastian.
The right thing to do would’ve been to walk away and not stare. But then again, how did I know he wasn’t about to cramp up and sink to his death down there? So, for his own safety, I stood at the window for… a few minutes. I kept a very close eye on him, watching his long, lean body for any signs of imminent cramps. Being the largest muscle in the human body, I kept my eye on his glutes in particular when he got out to mess with his goggles. The man had muscles I didn’t know existed, so I made sure to pay careful attention to those, too. Just to be safe.
When he finally started toweling off, I decided to explore one last section of the upstairs. Part of me wanted him to find me wandering around his house. Why? Because screw him and his fancy mansion. Screw his millions and millions of dollars earned from people like me he would happily tell to abandon their dreams. And most of all, screw his heartless ass for getting me pregnant.
I took a deep breath. Happy thoughts, Kenzie. I pictured the time my brother Travis got kicked out of his apartment when they discovered he had a lion cub hidden in his room. An entire SWAT team had to come escort him and all his exotic pets out. I was lucky enough to be there to see it, like some twisted version of Noah’s Ark as half a dozen exotic animals were led out and taken by animal rights workers.
Travis had managed to get all of them back and found a new place within weeks, but the memory still made me laugh. To his credit, he didn’t keep most of his pets. He was sort of an unofficial exotic wildlife rescue charity service, with a big emphasis on the “sort of” part.
By the time I discovered another new room, I forgot all about my annoyance with Sebastian. This room was easily the largest yet. It had its own balcony with an outdoor area absolutely decked in greenery and flowers. All sorts of plant life hung from trellises, potted in decorative vases, or grew as part of the gorgeous green walls hemming in the space. It was like a little private oasis.
I walked straight through the big room without paying much attention to the decor and entered the garden.
I enjoyed a few minutes sitting on one of the stone benches by the flower wall. I could hear birds chirping and the setting sun was warm on my face. With the scents of flowers and fresh air on my nose, I could really start to see this as a new beginning.
I closed my eyes and enjoyed the warmth on my face. This was a new beginning for me. I was even feeling the itch to go retrieve my laptop from my place so I could sit down and write something.
