Blaire's POV 

My hands literally sweated as I held the phone to my ear, dialling Christian. After a few rings, a seductive husky tone from the other end picked up, “Hey, babes? What's up? Missing me already? Hah!"

“Christian, another threat,” I said, my voice paranoid and filled with twitchiness.

“What happened, Blaire?"

His calling me by my name struck me that he could guess what was going wrong.

I described the matter, the paper ball, it's a flight into my room and the threat, “Step back from Christian's life."

Everything.

“Shhh! Calm down, sunshine. Nothing will happen. Nobody can separate us,” His cool voice pacified my edginess and soothed me.

“Hm,” I sighed.

“Don't think about it anymore, divert your mind, do something else, something fresh. We will meet at school tomorrow.” 

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“And don't panic. Lock all the doors and windows before you sleep, all right?"

“Christian, I think I'm not five, so stop treating me like a baby!" I chided over the phone.

“All right, baby,” he chuckled.

“Huh,” I huffed and hung up.

I started unpacking and went brainstorming something creative. I decided to hang all the memories on the wall. I hung up the snap of Christian and dad. I pinned all the pictures I have had with Christian and scrutinised it after it was done. Some of them were my single portraits from the recent photoshoot. Some of them belong to my past, my old school, with Lily and some other friends in some pictures. A few bits and pieces of our family photos and lastly two of our little sextet - Me, Christian, Jasmine, James, Sophia, Duncan. I glanced at the space till left and smiled to myself imagining how wonderful it would look when I'll fill it up. 

Suddenly my eyes stuck on James, for a moment I was lost in thoughts then I shook my head, sending all my thoughts away.

                            ▪️▪️▪️

Days rolled out or shall I say, happiest days were rolling out. It seemed like we have been made for each other. Never had someone adjusted so much with my mood swings. Even Lily used to give up. We spent so much time together in and out, then we practised at night and then cuddled together to sleep. Temperatures there seemed to have dropped a little since Thanksgiving was at hand.

It has almost been two and a half weeks since my training started and I guess I could shoot pretty well by then, without flinching, stepping back or missing my target. I can't explain how exciting it was. A few days back we were shooting out in a significantly empty forest but God knows who called the police, we had to run at bullet speed to keep ourselves from getting caught. But if you get so much support from your partner in crime just like I did, you never fail to escape those crime scenes. We also went to some movie dates and a few drives. Altogether, a carefree, good and happy life.

And that day, Christian asked me out for a date. An official kind of date. I wore a light chiffon sundress and sat on the window sill while I noticed a red Mustang halted in front of the main gate. I rushed out of the room and ran to the front door.

"Holy shit!" I cursed as I reached the Mustang.

“Shelby Mustang 1968," I said with admiration in my voice recalling the exact year of this beast.

"Wow," I whispered admiring the ride yet again.

Christian stepped out, went to the other side of the car, opened the door and extended his hand forward directing me to take my seat, "Please, my lady," he uttered in a graceful manner.

"As you wish, my lord," I said mimicking his expression and we both laughed out at our fake formal gestures and addressing.

"So, it's yours," I pointed to the car as we drove off.

"No. Dad's," 

"I thought a sweet red ride would be more romantic than my bold and black Ferrari," he continued.

"Cool." 

"So are we going on a date?" I asked to keep the conversation alive.

"Um-hm," he shook his head.

"Then?"

"Uh! Road trip. A day out or rather call it a day in," he said as a mysterious smile hung off his lips.

"All right. I trust you. So yeah. Let's see," his eyes met mine and the mysterious smile turned into a genuine one as his eyes revealed pure faith and admiration. 

After a two hours long road trip, we reached a sand and gravel road which leads to a wood. At the end of that utterly bad road, a backyard of a villa came into sight. Christian pulled in front of the villa. We practically jumped out of the car and walked to the front porch. It was a beautiful beach-view villa. Nearly two metres above the ground on the cliff of the forest land, it stood all alone. Beautiful coastline ahead of 500 metres and dusty woods on the back.

"Magnificent," I breathed out.

"Isn't it? I know right," Christian's usual cocky-ness returned.

"Remember, once I told you about our outhouse here in San Diego? This is it," he declared spreading his arms wide apart as if greeting the air.

The curiosity of discovering the insides couldn't keep me waiting outside as I opened the glass door and entered the little yet fascinating house. A beautiful living space greeted me on my entrance. A small kitchen, a large dining hall and a small intriguing study along with the living room were all on the first floor. I took the swirling staircase and went upstairs, Christian lingered behind me. I opened the door to meet a huge bedroom and the most romantic balcony I have ever seen. Almost the whole wall on the side of the balcony was taken over by the huge glass door and of course, there was a fabulous washroom waiting for me to step in. It seemed like pretty much everything in this house was of the same theme, like the carpets, curtains, comforters and on the other hand, all the furniture were of a theme alike.

"You like it here?" His voice erupted.

I had almost forgotten about his presence here, “Hell, I love this place," I said, happiness erupting out of my voice.

"Can we stay here, like, forever?"

“Are you gesturing that you wanna move in?” he wiggled his eyebrows and I realised what I just said. I could feel heat reaching my cheeks.

Chris chuckled, “Sure. Someday, we will. Forever. Maybe in another one.”

                         ▪️▪️▪️

After a long soak in the tub, I laid on the bed in no time. I felt his presence beside me as a warm sure radiated off him. I scooted close to him basking myself in his blanket of warmth and drowning myself in the musky scent of his cologne. He slid his arm around me, wrapping me tightly in the process and threw a limb over me.

"Oh! I missed this,” He exclaimed under his breath.

"Mmm...," I drawled.

"Those months of the dorm, I still miss them," he elaborated.

"Me too."

“It's so silent in there, without you,” his voice sad.

Our eyes met for a split second before our lips met embracing us at a different level of ecstasy, perfectly gliding against each other and lighting the same sparks as usual. His long fingers glided up and lay on my hips as he pulled me closer while my fingers rummaged his hairs. It continued to ignite the fire until we surrendered to our breath falling short and our lips and parted.

"Christian?" 

"Mm..."

"You're so lucky," my voice was low.

"And why is that?"

"You've got so much. Those sexy cars and all these outhouses. Like born with a golden spoon," I trailed off.

"And you've got a family, Blaire. A perfect sweet family that cares for you and well...," 

“I feel what I have is more than enough. Like, look at your car, your house. Those are pretty expensive and luxurious too but you can at least afford them,” he continued, “Now say who's luckier?”

“One with excessive wealth? Or the one with the perfect family and proper wealth? Having something in abundance doesn't make you lucky, sunshine. It just makes you care less about that particular thing,” his voice came to a standstill.

I stayed silent and scooted towards him. After a few moments of silence, I walked up to the balcony and leaned on the wooden frame.

“I warned you the first day that you ain't my mingling type,” his voice came from behind, “not because we differ in terms of status, wealth and blah blah blah...,”

" - because I didn't want to involve you in my dangerous life."

"Dangerous?" I asked.

"People are behind me, sunshine."

I stared at him expecting an explanation, “my brother's a rough and dangerous criminal and he found out that dad has passed a legal will that as soon as I turn twenty- one, all that he has will be mine," he sighed.

"You see, how dangerous wealth is? I have life risk --"

"-- I don't know Blaire...what will I do. He wanted to use my mind in his business, he knew he could do wonder with it and -," there was a pause, "And he did. For a year or so..."

"But then --"

"Then what, Chris?" I asked.

"Then I met you," he whispered.

"I just wished to put my life back into pieces and I did it. I left his business and fell onto the steps with you --" his voice turned serious and grave as he stopped.

"-- in return, he threatened to kill us."

"Those warnings and threats?" I started recalling.

“Yes, sunshine. You're on the right track and for everything I'm responsible," 

"And the gun- training?" I tried putting everything in pieces.

"Yes, that is why I want you to be prepared missy."

"Christian,” I muttered under my breath and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Lunchtime. Shall we?," He asked as his arms replied to my gesture.

                          ▪️▪️▪️

After the capricious lunch, we strolled all the way through the coastline, holding hands and chewing mouthful of sour peeps. It was almost sunset when we left. It was a long ride and I already felt homely when we drove through the neighbourhood. Christian swapped his head in my direction when I hit the brakes hard, coming to an abrupt halt before a car.