sexual appeal

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ᚔ A week later ᚔ

Mallory finally allowed me to leave the hospital after an arduous week in that boring, antiseptic space that was filled with nothing except the haunting sounds of monitors beeping and the shuffling noises of machines. 

Ismael and Naya offered to send me home and the moment I entered through the main door into the Illiades household, Grecia and Osbert quickly rushed to me as Grecia held me in her embrace and ran her hand through my hair at the back of my head. She sighed a huge relief, "Heavens bless my boy, thank you for coming home." 

"You had us worried, lad," Osbert added. 

I placed a brief kiss on Grecia's cheek and tapped gently on Osbert's arm as I said, "I'm home, thank you for waiting for me." 

This heartwarming moment only lasted for a brief while before Holden walked towards me and mentioned, "Wren, you've been requested." 

The seriousness in his tone alarmed me and I quickly hopped out of Grecia's hold, leaving the old couple behind as I followed behind Holden. Instead of the study, the butler led me to the receiving room and pushed on the door slowly. 

My heart sank the moment Holden introduced, "This is Ms Lorelei Hepburn, esteemed lady of the Hepburn Corporations and she is Sir's fiancée." 

At the first moment Mallory agreed to discharge me from the hospital, I got into a car and sped my way to the main household. I marched through the door and the first person I saw was the butler of the main household — Father's loyal pet. 

"Sir, you have not informed of your return," Wyatt bowed a little to greet me but my patience thinned to the point that I couldn't be bothered to answer those formalities. 

I seethed, "Where is Father?" 

"Sir is in his study," Wyatt responded politely. "However, he had requested to not be disturbed." 

Nobody gives a fuck about that.

Without a word, I strode towards the study and slammed the door opened. The old man simply sat in his cushioned recliner as he spoke in a toneless manner, "Aillard, I didn't raise you to be irreverent." 

I closed the door behind me and walked towards him, settling on the couch facing him as I glanced towards him sternly. The anger boiled within me but I suppressed the raging blaze as I brought up an important matter, "I have been informed of Lorelei's return." 

"Finally, isn't it?" Father smiled, unamused. "This is a wonderful arrangement that would greatly benefit the two families." 

"Listen here, Eldrick. It's about time you learn that I'm not a darned pushover," I said coldly while standing up and adjusting my suit jacket as I fixed the button back. I warned, "I was never a piece on your chessboard." 

"Careful, son. I hold onto your weakness," Father threatened. 

I immediately knew everything that he held against me — the very sole person that mattered the world to me. Infuriated, I threw an envelope with a stack of documents on his desk, scoffing, "Think again." 

Pivoting towards the door, I left the study and left my enemy's confidence perfectly shaken. With all the bad cards in my hands, the only way to win this game was to bluff my opponent into believing that I held onto different cards than the ones I was actually holding. 

For Wren, I cannot lose. 

I swallowed to make sure my voice remained calm even when I was trembling emotionally. I greeted, "Ms Hepburn, I heard you've requested for me." 

"Please address me as Lorelei," she smiled. "I asked for Aillard's assistant and I have to say that I'm surprised that you're rather beyond my expectations. Though, Mr Ashenherst, you do have really beautiful eyes." 

What does beyond expectations even meant? 

The self-consciousness nearly caused my head to drop just so that I could check on myself. Yet, professionalism and self-discipline trained me to keep my eyes on the esteemed guest ahead of me as I discreetly looked at her from head to toe and felt a sudden pressure pushing against my chest. It struck my realisation that Lorelei Hepburn was undeniably enchanting. 

Her sepia-coloured eyes were fringed with long lashes and her rosebud lips were of a perfect shade of pink. Lorelei wore minimal make-up and carried herself with unwavering confidence, proving an obviousness that this lady possessed a kind of natural beauty that required little effort. She was at least a few inches taller than me and she still wore heels, making me feel rather small in front of her. Putting a mental image of Aillard beside her, I was quite convinced that they matched incontestably. 

"Ms Hepburn," I nodded politely, unwilling to address her by her first name because it was inappropriate. "How can I help?" 

"I managed to hear a little about Aillard from Jeremiah. As you've known, I had been staying abroad for the past years and I would like to know more about him," Lorelei requested in a considerate manner. 

Before I could reply to her, a familiar deep voice sounded from behind me, "I can introduce myself to you, Lorelei. You don't have to ask my special assistant for my profile." 

I turned and realised that Aillard had returned to the household, he wore a polite smile and the mental image I saw earlier was realised ahead of me. They stood facing each other before Aillard turned towards me and said, "You can go." 

"I will take my leave," I acknowledged, trying my best to sound as neutral as possible despite all the rioting emotions within me that complicated my entire being. Holding onto all the strength and composure I kept on myself, I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. Holden glanced towards me with a concerned expression but I managed to mask my unease perfectly. Without a word, I went downstairs and headed back to my room. 

When I passed the mirror at the doorway, I stared into it and looked at myself while the nasty feelings of insecurity tugged at the bottom of my heart as all the words in my head harped repeatedly in a nagging manner. I unbuckled my belt and the grey tapered pants dropped from my waist as they gathered in a messy heap down at my ankle. I stepped out of the clothing pile and my fingers released all the buttons of my blouse, allowing the fabric to slide past my shoulders before I removed the chest binder. My clothes littered the polished oakwood floor as I took another step closer to the mirror. 

I took a good look at my feminine self, unsure about the oddness that I saw ahead of me. Even when I promised myself that I would never linger on those feelings ever again, it still pained me when I knew that there was a part of me that couldn't be honest with anyone. 

I was too caught up with my own thoughts to not realise that I had forgotten to lock the door when I entered my room earlier. The knob turned and the door was pushed ajar, my senses heightened as my body reacted instinctively to cross my arms around to cover as the same deep voice I heard earlier ago sounded through the quiet air, "Wren—"

When Aillard lifted his gaze to look towards me, I knew it was all too late. I stood all bare in front of him as he stopped in his steps while looking at me with wide eyes and an expression in a display of how flabbergasted he felt. 

I remained rooted to the ground, too dumbfounded by his unanticipated appearance in my room. We were both astounded but probably by totally different things. My mind had stopped functioning and my body's only reaction was for me to lower myself into a crouch as I tried to hide from his scrutiny. 

I was afraid to look away as I waited for him to recover from his freeze, he cussed an expletive under his breath before he entered the room and closed the door immediately, even clicking the lock. My heart crashed nervously against my chest when I called him, "Aillard—"

"Wren!" Aillard exhaled angrily. "What the fuck are you thinking to remove your clothes with the door unlocked?" 

"What?" 

"What if the person who entered is not me?" Aillard almost raged, except that he was talking in a low tone as though trying to keep it down. 

Two strides were all it took for him to close up the distance between us and he put an arm beneath my knees and the other across my back before hauling me up as if I weighed nothing. The slingshot of velocity forced my body into a reflex as I folded my arms around his neck and stuck my naked body close to him. I gasped and a shot of pain went right to the left of my chest that sent me into a coughing fit. Aillard patted on my back and reprimanded softly, "For heaven's sake, my little songbird, breathe properly." 

Aillard carried me to my bed and placed me down. He looked towards me and I noticed the smooth move of his throat along the length of his neck as he worked on a gulp. Pulling on the large throw I draped across my bed, he covered me up. I was already dying of curiosity and I finally asked, "Don't you have anything you wanted to ask me?"

"Of course, I was astounded by the apparent fact that your lungs weren't the only thing Mallory did surgery on," Aillard rambled sarcastically and rolled his eyes. Staring straight at me with his storm grey eyes, he admitted, "It's natural that I would know, Wren. I'm bound to know from all the time we spend together."

"How?" I confused.

"I'm not going to tell, but what were you thinking?" he asked again. "You were never this careless."

Right. I was always careful whenever it concerned my identity. The Fayed siblings only knew about me when Dad entrusted the fact to them so that they could look after me, especially Naya because of all the young, girly matters that Dad couldn't possibly understand and teach me about it. I had no idea how Aillard learned about me but when his question struck me again, Lorelei's words replayed in my ears in a disturbing manner.

Tugging the soft woollen material off my shoulders, I asked, "Then, do you also think I don't have any sexual appeal?"

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a/n:

let me know of your thoughts/predictions.