Chapter 22: Chapter Twenty-Two

Philip POV:

I stared at the bunch of engagement rings in front of me and couldn't decide on what to pick. Everything looked nice and if Zoe didn't have only one engagement finger, I would have both the entire rings. I finally settled on one, it was placed on a black box with a red interior and the ring sat there, glistening. It was simple yet elegant and it seemed like Zoe's style. "I would take this," I told the lady.

"Amazing choice, sir. I was going to tell you to pick that. We'll have it packaged for you. Please, give me a minute."

"No problem."

I waited for her to package the ring into a small bag. I made payments and took the ring with me. I stopped by at a mini mart to get ice cream for Zoe.

I had made up my mind to ask Zoe to marry me tonight. The thought had raced through my mind the entire night and I made a decision when I woke up. I wanted more than anything to be with her the rest of my life. She had been moody all morning, maybe a proposal would cheer her up.

I found Zoe at the pool when I got home. I hid the ring in my back pocket. "Hey, baby."

Zoe looked up at me and her face brightened when she saw the ice cream. "Let's go inside, so you can have your ice cream."

"Can we have it right here?" She asked with hopeful eyes.

"Sure, baby. Let me go change my clothes." I dropped the ice cream beside her and went in to hide the ring and change into shorts. I left my chest bare.

I went outside and found her having the ice cream without me. "You were supposed to wait for me," I whined.

"You don't like these types of things," she reminded me.

"Well, I want to have ice cream with you today," I said and plopped down beside her, dipping my legs into the water like she did.

"Oh, that's why you bought two." She handed the second one to me.

I snorted. "Did you think they were both yours?"

"Of course," she nodded. "You hate sweet things, so I thought you bought two for me. You're always having those healthy and boring stuff.

"Healthy food is not boring," I argued.

Zoe played in the water with her legs as she had her ice cream. She stared ahead and seemed deep in thoughts. I didn't want to disturb her by asking her what she was thinking about. I wanted to give her space to clear her head.

"The sky is beautiful here," Zoe said out of the blue.

"Would you like to come here again?" I asked.

"Of course. Who wouldn't? The Maldivians are so lucky waking up to this every morning," she said.

"There are other beautiful places like this. I'll take you there," I promised.

Zoe smiled. "Sounds nice. Do you have any plans for us today?" She asked.

"To be honest, I don't. Do you want to go somewhere?" I asked her.

"How about we stay indoors and cuddle all day?"

I smiled broadly. "Sounds good to me."

Zoe stared at my melted ice cream beside me. "I knew you were going to waste that ice cream. You should have given it to me."

"How were you able to finish yours all by yourself?"

She looked at me like I had asked the most absurd question. "The cup is so tiny. I can finish way bigger ones at a go."

"That's so unhealthy," I told her.

"I'll work out later. How fast can you swim?" She asked with a mischievous smile.

"Very fast, baby," I replied.

"I bet I'm faster than you are. Jump in, first person to go back and forth wins."

"Sounds good to me."

I jumped into the pool and waited for her to do the same. "On your mark. Get set. Ready. Go!"

I swam effortlessly back and forth and won the bet. "So, who's faster now?"

"You cheated!" Zoe pouted and I burst into laughter.

"You're such a big baby," I told her as we got out of the swimming pool, soaking wet. Zoe's breast became visible through her wet clothes. The wet clothes clung to her skin like a second skin.

"Pervert!" she said when she noticed me staring at their boobs.

"I'm not sorry at all," I smirked. "You have the nicest boobs ever."

Zoe rolled her eyes as she shook her head. "You say that every time."

"You need to hear it every time." I walked towards her and pulled her T-shirt up. Her breasts were naked before my eyes. I cupped both breasts and took one nipple in my mouth and swirled my tongue around it. My mouth found the other nipple and I did the same thing. Zoe began to melt in my hands and her soft moans filled my ears. My hand went into her shorts, and I inserted two fingers into her already wet core. I watched her mouth part and her eyes as they rolled back in pleasure. I curled my fingers inside her and she moaned loudly. I slid my fingers in and out of her and fondled her breasts at the same time.

"Oh my God," Zoe moaned. Soon, her walls began to tighten around my fingers, and it didn't take long before she came in my hands.

"How about that pool sex you were talking about?"

I smirked and took off her clothes. "Get into the pool," I told her, and she obeyed. I watched her and I became harder. I took off my clothes and Zoe stared at my cock in awe.

I jumped into the pool and swam to the edge to meet her. I kissed her passionately before turning her around and tilting her ass towards me. I teased her entrance and heard her moan.

"Philip, stop teasing," she whined.

I entered her slowly until I filled her walls. We moaned simultaneously at the awesome feeling. "Fuck, you're so huge," she moaned.

My thrusts became hard and long, and Zoe was a moaning mess. I thrust in and out of her with a very slow pace and fastened my pace a little afterward. Soon, I was sliding in and out of her like a mad man with both of us moaning loudly. She felt so warm around my dick and the pleasure was making me go crazy.

"I'm going to cum!" she cried and her walls began to tight around my cock.

"Me too!" I held her waist and fastened my pace as I felt myself getting closer to orgasm. Soon, we both climaxed, moaning loudly as we had one of our strongest orgasms.

***

I paced the living room waiting for Zoe to come downstairs for our mini dinner date. My heart was racing fast, and I couldn't stay put in one place. I touched my pocket for the umpteenth time to check if the ring had magically developed wings and flew out of my pockets.

Zoe came down in shorts and a T-shirt. "I can't settle on what to wear," she whined.

"What you have on is perfectly fine, baby. The clothes will be off your body after the dinner anyway," I smirked.

Zoe rolled her eyes and came down the stairs. I pulled out a seat for her and spread the napkin on her thighs.

I took my seat and dished out the food for the both of us.

"Are you okay?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah, why?" I asked.

"You seem nervous," she replied.

Was it that obvious? "I'm fine," I told her. "Zoe," I called. "I…wow…I had no idea it was going to be this hard."

"What are you talking about? What's hard? Your dick?" She asked.

"What? No. Well, that will happen later. That's not what I'm talking about."

Zoe gave me a curious look. "Then, what are you talking about?" She asked.

"I had this speech planned in my head, but right now, my head is blank." I brought out the box and went down on one knee. "Zoe Ortega, will you marry me?"

Zoe gasped and froze. She palmed her mouth and tears began to well up in her eyes.

"What do you say?"

Zoe palmed her face and broke into sobs.

"What's wrong, baby?" I asked with worry.

She looked at me and I could see the sadness in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Philip. But I can't marry you."

I heard my heart shatter into pieces like a glass, I could hear the piece falling to the ground. "What?" I couldn't believe my ears. "Why?"

"Because I can't! I don't want anyone to get hurt," she replied amidst sobs.

"What do you mean? Who's going to get hurt if you marry me?" I asked as tears began to well up in my eyes.

"I can't explain in detail, but we need to end our relationship so that nobody gets hurt."

"Why do you keep talking about people getting hurt? The only person you're hurting right now is me. Zoe, I love you and I want to spend forever with you."

"If we don't end things, that asshole that keeps calling to tell me he’s going to hurt your dad and Aunt Emilia!"

She said and palmed her mouth, realizing she wasn't supposed to say that.

"Who are you talking about? Who keeps calling you? Is he the one that asked you to end us? Who the fuck is he, Zoe?!" I barked.

"I don't know who he is, but he sounds like a crazy person? Let's end this before anybody gets hurt. I'm so sorry, Philip. I'm sorry for ending us like this."

"Zoe, you're breaking my heart." Tears ran down my face before I could stop them.

"I'm sorry." She stood up. "I want to go home tomorrow," she said.

I got up and put the box in my pocket. "Fine. I'm going to find that bastard that threatened you and kill him with my bare hands. Then, I'll ask you to marry me again."

I picked up my phone and walked away from the living room to make a call and book different flights back to LA. Zoe would go in the morning in my private jet and I would go in the afternoon in a public plane. It was better we went at different times and stayed away from each other until I fixed this mess. I wasn't going to let anybody harm Dad and Aunt Emilia and I wasn't going to lose Zoe either.

I texted Zoe the time of her flight and the next morning, Zoe was out of my beach house. I was angry with her for not telling me all this while, I was angrier with myself for having no idea of what was going on.

My phone buzzed on the bedside table, and I picked it up. It was a call from Mark. "What's up, Mark?"

"Hey, Philip. When are you two coming back?" Philip asked.

"Today," I replied. I wanted to tell him that Zoe was already on her way because she broke up with me, but I didn't have the strength to explain anything. "Is there a problem?" I asked.

"Somebody tried to kill your father," Mark replied.

"What?!" I sat up immediately. "Where's Dad right now?" I asked frantically.

"He's completely fine. The masked man tried to strangle him, but he stabbed the man with a pen. The man was able to escape. He left no trail behind. He was wearing gloves so we can't get any fingerprints," Mark explained and I let out a sigh of relief.

"How did the man break into the house anyway? How did he get past the bodyguards?" I asked.

"He bribed one of the bodyguards who let him into the house as a laundryman. We were able to find the exact bodyguard and have him arrested."

Why was all these happening? I was convinced that the man who threatened Zoe and the man who tried to kill my Dad was the person. Why was he doing this anyway? What was he after?

"I'll be home very soon. Please, tighten the security around his house."

"I've already done that," Mark said.

"Call me before you touch down."

We ended the call, and I dropped my phone. I had a feeling the person doing this was someone I knew, but I just didn't know who exactly he was. But one thing was sure: I was going to catch him and make him pay for this.

***

Zoe POV:

I cried myself to sleep and woke up with a heavy head. Aunt Emilia knew something was up, but she didn't ask any questions. I wasn't going to tell her that I broke up with Philip because there was a threat on her life.

I couldn't believe that Philip and I were over. Although a part of me knew that Philip would solve this and we would get back together again, I didn't want to get my hopes up. I never expected that he would ask me to marry him. I badly wanted to say yes because spending forever with him sounded amazing. But I had thrown the opportunity away as soon as he asked. I remembered the look on his face when I turned him down. The tears in his eyes made my heart shatter. I had never seen Philip as broken as that before. I hated myself for doing that to him, I hated that strange man even more for making me do this.

There was a knock on my door. "Come in," I said.

Aunt Emilia came into the room and sat on my bed. "Zoe, what's wrong?" she asked with worry.

"Nothing. I'm fine," I replied.

"Don't lie to me, Zoe. You can't come back from a vacation in the Maldives and still look like this. Something must have happened. Philip didn't come with you yesterday. What happened between you two?" She asked.

"I broke up with him," I replied, and my eyes began to well up.

"What? Why? Why would you do something like that? Don't you love him anymore?"

"I do, but I have to end things with him before anybody gets hurt," I told her.

Aunt Emilia frowned. "Who's going to get hurt if you remain with him?"

"You and his father," I replied.

"How? Why? Who's going to hurt us?" She asked, confused. "Zoe, could you explain better? I'm so lost. Why would someone want to hurt me and Philip's father because you're dating Philip?"

I explained everything to her. I told her about the strange man who forced me to break up with Philip. I told Philip had asked me to marry him, but I turned him down because I didn't want to be selfish. I was willing to put my relationship to an end for the safety of her and Henry. I didn't want to lose anyone anymore. One more death of someone dear to me and I might lose it.

"Zoe, you can't make a decision like that without informing Philip," Aunt Emilia said disapprovingly.

"The man said not to tell Philip."

"But was the man there with you? If you had told Philip, would he have heard you from wherever he was? Do you think if you had told Philip, he wouldn't be subtle about it?" Aunt Emilia asked and I realized she was right.

I had been too hasty with my decisions. If I had talked things out with Philip, we would have sorted things out. The whole time, I was too scared to even think about disobeying the man.

"I've already lost him," I sobbed.

"Do you think Philip would let you go easily? He's going to fix this and come back for you," Aunt Emilia assured me.

"What if he doesn't?"

"Knowing how much Philip loves you, he is surely going to come back," she replied. "Clean those tears, honey and go take your bath. I made you carrot cake and some muffins," she stood up from the bed and began to head out.

"Thank you," I told her.

"You're welcome," she walked out the door and left.

I stood up and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and take a long bath. While in the bathroom, I decided that I would call Philip and asked to talk.

I came out of the bathroom and dialed Philip immediately.

Was he ignoring me? I dialed him again and he picked on the fourth ring.

"Hey," I heard his voice on the other end. He sounded like he had just woken up. "Zoe, are you there?"

"Um, yeah. Hey. I was wondering if you could talk," I began.

I heard him sit up on his bed. "Okay. Go ahead."

"No, I mean, talk in person," I said.

"We can't talk in person, Zoe. It's not safe for the both of us right now. Someone tried to kill my father and I'm very sure it's the same man who threatened you. He's in town right now and he has eyes on us. Can we talk on the phone?" Philip asked.

"I…um…I," I took a deep breath.

"Zoe. You can talk to me about anything, I'll listen," he said calmly.

"I'm so sorry for ending us like that."

"It's okay. I understand. But you should have talked to me about it before making a decision on your own. I know you were scared, but if you had told me someone was threatening, don't you think I would have done something about it?" He asked.

I broke into sobs. "I'm so sorry. I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

"It's okay, baby. I understand. Don't come to work for now, okay?"

"Why?"

"It's safer that way. I don't know who the hell that man is or what he wants, and I don't want to take any chances. I can't drop by at your house for now, but I'll call you as often as I can, okay?"

"Okay. I love you," I said.

"I love you too, baby."

And just like that, Philip and I were back on track, but we had to be subtle about it until we found out who that strange man was.

All of a sudden, my mood brightened. Was I actually going to dump Philip and live the rest of my life without him? Never!