Chapter 22 Illicit Desires
LISA
Our drive to the library and the process of picking out the textbooks and materials for our assignment was quiet and fast. I had thought getting started on the assignment would be surprisingly helpful.
He was more than surprisingly helpful and in no time, we were almost done with work that should have taken us at least three days. My phone vibrated for the umpteenth time and I muttered an excuse to the man sitting opposite me before picking up Tana's call. "Girl, where have you been? I've been calling you since you left. Have you checked online? It's going crazy. You didn't tell me..."
"Tana, I told you I was going for a group assignment, I'm actually in the middle of it right now and if I can call you back or meet you in the hostel by midnight, I should..." "Yeah, you said it," she replied in a tone that made me know she must be rolling her eyes to the back of her head, "but you didn't mention that your partner is Axel Ivanov."
"Yes, Axel is my..." his head snapped up at the mention of his name and I looked away from him, "but how do you even know that?"
while but Axel
"So you guys have been so busy you didn't even know what's going on on social media?" she whined, her tone all shades of suggestive but for the life of me, I couldn't even think of what she was suggesting.
"What do you mean? What's going on on social media?"
From the corners of my eyes, I saw Axel's brow furrowed together and he picked up his phone.
"You flung over his shoulders, the way he dropped you on the chair, girl, I didn't know your relationship was progressing that much with that hot dude, please feed my imagination and tell me that you guys reenacted the scene and instead of a car, he was dumping you on a bed before tearing your clothes off and fucking you senseless."
God! My reactions to her words were instantaneous, the way my body heated up at the images her words conjured was almost embarrassing but I was... All my nerves were on high alert, every single brush against my skin, every single word spoken or implied was... Everything was adding to the need pulsing in my lower belly and the heat in my core.
It was that bad.
"Come on Tana, must your mind always be this dirty?"
The frown that had been on Axel's face since he started pressing his phone morphed into something else, amusement maybe? And I glared at him.
"My mind is not dirty or at least, my mind can't help being dirty with the smutty pictures you guys just served us, like, they look like something straight out of a porn site."
"Porn... God! Wait, Tana..." fear and apprehension climbed up my spine as the realization of what she has been saying since morning dawned on me.
"You mean our pictures are online?"
"Yeah, trust St. Williams students not to carry last on things like this. They got pretty good shots, no one needs to doubt your relationship after this, it's so obvious you guys are totally banging with the way you fit together, how come you didn't tell me that you were getting some from that hot specimen of a man?"
"Because I'm not getting any from him!" I yelled in exasperation and across me, the amusement on Axel's face deepened and I glared at him.
"Listen Tana, I'll just call you back, send me the pictures you're talking about, uhm?"
"Yeah, sure, my regards to him."
"Fuck you."
Her loud laughter rang in my ears before I pressed the red icon and almost immediately, the pictures came in from her.
Oh shit!
I couldn't even see the pictures, couldn't see how wrong the pictures looked, with me thrown over his shoulders like a good little girl that was just seconds away from getting thoroughly fucked. The only thing I could see was Angel's smile when she gets a hold of the pictures.
The disapproving look on papa's face. Angel's voice as she spelled it out to me that I was totally out of my mind to even get this close to Axel.
And she was right, I was completely out of my mind to get close to Axel to the point that he'd throw me over his shoulders without blinking.
How did we even get here?
How did the students even manage to take the pictures? Axel carrying me and dumping me in his car took less than 30 seconds but that measly 30 seconds were more than enough for the
Twenty-Two Illicit Desires
"Have you seen the pictures?"
"Yeah," he still didn't look up from his laptop.
I felt fury start curling in my body.
"And?"
"And what?" He still didn't look up from his laptop and I was just a breath away from snapping.
"And what are we going to do about it?"
He briefly glanced up from his lap, "why do we have to do something about it?" He asked in a bored tone as if I was boring him, as if I was irritating him.
"Because our families won't be likely to share that kind of relationship and..."
"What kind of relationship?" He gave me his full attention now.
"You know, whatever it looks like in those pictures."
"It doesn't look like anything."
"God! Axel, it looks like we share some sort of sexual relationship and... and..." I trailed off to lick my lips nervously, "my family can't see those pictures, they'll assume the worst and I'm not ready to start explaining and trying to defend myself."
"That's your problem," he stated casually, "and we don't share a relationship where I get to concern myself with your problems."
My eyes blared brimstones at him and the asshole didn't even blink. I should have known. While my family knows his face and all there's to know about him, his family doesn't know my name or even my face. It was just going to be him frolicking around with one of his numerous girls and even if they get to know that he was frolicking around with the enemy, there's probably no one to give him an earful. He's the Don, he controls the Mafia.
But for me... I couldn't even bear to think of what I'd have to go through.
There was nothing I could do from here, even though I had my laptop with me, I needed security chips to get into cyberspace and get rid of those pictures. The chips were in the hostel and to get to the hostel when it was almost midnight would take a while because rides would be scarce.
And the pictures already started circulating hours ago.
It'd take too long before I can get rid of them and before then, Angel would have gotten a hold of them.
If she hasn't gotten a hold of them now.
My insides churned as I stood to my feet.
"I have to go then, I have to go and get rid of the pictures since it's my problem."
"It's already being taken care of," he replied in a gruff voice but I could see a flicker of an amused grin in his eyes.
"What?"
"Prince is already taking care of it, he should be done in a couple of minutes..."
As if on cue, his phone vibrated and he glanced down at it.
"You might want to check your phone, they should be gone by now."
I picked up my phone with shaky hands and Lo and behold, the pictures were gone, they disappeared into thin air just like that.
Within the space of mere minutes.
Wow!
I slumped back in my seat.
"How did he even... wow, he really lives up to his reputation of being an IT genius."
Of course, I know Prince Chen, he was the CEO of C47, a 23-year-old genius who built the security company from scratch and made it into the best one the country has ever had and if we weren't enemies, he was someone I'd have loved to get mentorship lessons from.
"Yeah, he is, he's the best at what he does and he's so fucking not subtle about it."
My lips stretched into a teasing smile, "why do you sound like you don't like the idea of that?"
"You wouldn't like the sound of it too if you were at the receiving end of hearing him brag about himself 24/7, you'd lose your mind."
"I don't think I'd mind though, I've always loved and admired his work, and it'd be such an honor to even hear him talk, not like I haven't watched his speeches on YouTube but to hear him talk but still,
to see him personally and just hear him talk to me would be..." I noticed that he was now staring at me gruffly, "it'd be such an honor."
"Do you have a crush on him?" His tone sounded even gruffer than his look.
"Of course not, he's an enemy, remember?"
"Yeah," he leaned back against the chair and locked his hands together behind his head with his eyes boring holes into my body.
I shifted uncontrollably.
"So that's the only thing stopping you from having a crush on him? Because he's the enemy?"
"Maybe!" I quipped, my hand brushing an errant strand of hair behind my ear and I saw that he not so casually followed the movement with his eyes.
"It might not necessarily be a crush on the romantic but I just liked that he's so smart and intentional, if he could build his empire at just 20, I can't help but wonder what he'd do at 30, 35. He's so inspirational. I guess, if not for the whole enmity and all, I wouldn't mind getting mentored by him."
I glanced up to see that he was looking at me with a bored and irritated look.
"I'm sorry if I'm boring you but you asked so..."
"Never knew you talk this much," he reached for his bottled water and took a languorous sip, "I guess it takes Prince Chen to bring that out in you."
I smiled, my lips stretched into a smile that was uncharacteristic of me, especially in front of Axel and he stilled for a while, his expression getting caught in shock as if he was seeing the last thing he expected to see.
The smile wiped itself off my face slowly as I became uncomfortable with his scrutinizing gaze. We were together in the study room, it was dark and the library was already probably deserted by now and he was looking at me like...
"Why didn't you just tell me that Prince was already taking care of the pictures when I asked you instead of getting me unnecessarily worked up?"
"I enjoy teasing you," he replied without missing a beat, "the look on your face when you're riled up is just... it's completely satisfying."
What? My jaws slacken as I stared at him in disbelief. He enjoyed getting under my skin, enjoying driving me completely crazy just because what? The look on my face when I'm riled up is completely satisfying?
"Just when I think you can't be more of a psycho than you already are, you find a totally initiative way of proving me wrong."
He shrugged defiantly with a grin lighting his dark eyes, "what can I say? I aim to please."
I stared at him, and willed my mouth to spurt out a comeback but after a while, my shoulders quaked and I had to bury my face in my palms as I laughed.
"You're really impossible," I said in between laughter and when he didn't say anything, I looked up at him.
My throat suddenly became parched.
He was staring at me with an intensity I'd never seen in his eyes before. Dark, unreadable, and still intense.
Very intensely, they made my body tingle with self-awareness, made goosebumps spread all over my skin, and made a low heat kindle in my lower abdomen.
"We should leave if we don't... I mean, it's late and we can just round the project up tomorrow, I'm already sleepy and..." I rambled on and on and I expected him to have a snark comeback in return but instead, he nodded and zipped his laptop bag.
"Yeah, sure."
Thank God!
I packed my bags too and we were almost by his car when he spoke again.
"You've ordered a ride?"
I frowned up at him, "a ride?"
"Yeah, how do you intend on getting back to school?"
"The same way I got here," I replied to him with the tone of someone talking to a lunatic, "in your car."
He feigned complete shock, "you mean the enemy's car, Red? It's late, the roads are deserted, even if you scream for help now, no one would hear you and you want to ride with someone who's a pro
at kidnapping and torture? Come on, Lisa, you can do better."
I pressed my lips together in annoyance.
"So how am I supposed to get back to school now?"
"Catch a ride, of course, isn't that better than riding with a killer?"
"It's 1 am, Axel, cars stopped running a long time ago, and..."
But the fucker already unlocked the driver's door, stepped in, and zoomed off.
What the fuck?
I stood there, rooted to a spot as he drove off. I couldn't even move, I just stood in that position, completely paralyzed with shock.
The car stopped quite a distance from me and he reversed back slowly and stopped beside me.
The window glided down a bit so I'd hear him.
"Just get in, Red."
I grabbed the doorknob.
He zoomed off again.
I saw red.
We repeated that three times before I finally gave up! I'd rather sleep in the library than ride with him.
"Get in that car, Red."
I ignored him as I continued to walk away while the car followed at a leisurely pace.
"Red, get in, it's starting to drizzle, do you want to get wet?"
"I'd rather get soaked than bear the trauma of sitting beside you so get lost."
"Come on Lisa, don't be a child."
I ignored him and the car stopped all of a sudden.
I stopped too because he was suddenly towering over me.
"Get in the car, Liza, don't make me repeat myself."
"I'm starting to think you have a sinister agenda and that's why you want me to get in your car so get lost, Ivanov, I'd rather walk the whole distance than ride with you."
"And I'm trying to think you're trying to provoke me on purpose, Red."
His voice turned darker, smokier, igniting the already knighted fire in my abdomen.
"Are you trying to provoke me to see if I'd toss you over my shoulder again?" He stepped closer to gently caress my hair, dark eyes feral as they stared down at me, "is that what you want, Red?"
No, it's not what I want, it's what I need.
But I didn't, couldn't even say that out. I just broke away from his stare and I stepped into the car.
Coward's way out but I'd rather be a coward than give in to the implied challenge in the air.
Axel soon got in and the drive back to St. Williams was pregnant with unspoken words.
And illicit desires.