Chapter 52

52 Hard To Strip?

1.

“Beatrice! Why aren’t you eating your breakfast?” Mom growled, pushing the plate near me once again.

My energy went down after I heard about Maddox’s departure. It opened doors for many questions and fears of mine. What if he didn’t like doing anything with me? But that can’t be it, or else he would not have asked me to come to meet him in the living room. What about him wanting to f*ck me? Could it be that he got upset because I didn’t let him do it after getting pleasure from him twice? But that can’t be it, because my mother did arrive when I said I could feel her nearby.

We were lucky that I stopped him, or else I wouldn’t be sitting here, getting forced to eat.

“Zane! You have a Halloween party at school?” Lord Vasquez’s mention of him made me lift my face and watch Zane enter the room to feast with us. He was wearing a white shirt and looking devilishly handsome.

“Yeah! Because the majority of the students had been traumatized by the earthquake, the school decided to throw a Halloween party for us in the open air.” Zane answered, picking up a piece of toast and buttering it nicely.

“Is it tonight?” Vasquez asked, and he nodded, filling himself with a glass of juice and taking a huge sip out of it. He hadn’t spared me a glance so far.

“Why don’t you take Beatrice with you?” As soon as Vasquez suggested that, Zane spat out the drink and coughed.

“What?” he asked his father through coughs.

“Calm down. Why are you rushing? It is not like it is going to run away from you,” Vasquez probably didn’t get why his son

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1

reacted so aggressively.

“Dad! I cannot take her with me.” He continued to complain, watching Mrs. Brown clean the table and give him a napkin to clean his white shirt.

“Why not? Your brother took her to his personal party. This is the school’s one. You are only giving her a ride,” Vasquez argued with Zane, who finally looked my way and then stared at his father.

“Brother took her to his friend’s Halloween party?” Zane asked, and when his father nodded at him, he whispered, “Interesting!”

“So, take her with you,” Vasquez ordered, and she didn’t object this time. I wasn’t feeling like eating anything anyway, so I excused myself and walked out of the mansion to roam around the gardens for fresh air.

“He should have at least messaged me or let me know why he was leaving,” I was talking to myself while holding my phone in my hands and brainstorming any reason I could find to help myself not feel dumped.

“Maybe I should text him,” I decided, typing a quick text for him.

Me: Hey. I heard from my mom that you left. Is everything okay?

I was biting my nails when I stared at the screen. He didn’t read my message, so I assumed he was away.

“Texting who?” I heard Zane call from beside me. He was

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hunching over the white statue in the garden.

11 288 Wouchers

“The school has a party?” I asked, deliberately averting his

attention.

“Yes! Do you have a costume?” he asked, and I bobbed my head at him. He was watching me with his beautiful, intense

eyes.

“Maddox took you out?” I knew he would ask me that. There was a little smirk on his lips as if he was already thinking something crazy had happened.

“Yeah,” I faintly nodded, making it seem less important.

“And you guys caught the bad guys,” he asked again, itching the corner of his eye but sounding hella sketchy.

“He did,” I corrected him, trying to avoid talking about last night.

“What else?” he asked, and my body got covered in goosebumps.

“Nothing. Then we returned home.” I had to look away from him when answering him because his eyes seemed to inspect

me.

“So, what costume are you wearing tonight for the party?” His questions were pretty normal-sounding, but the way he would raise his brow every time he finished asking me something got to me.

He was definitely not believing me when I said nothing else happened.

52 Hand To Strip?

“A corpse bride costume,” I answered agitatedly, “Flynn will be there?” I asked him before he could ask me any more questions.

“I don’t know. If you are this desperate to know, I can text him and get an answer for you.” He said it in such a way that I got the impression he didn’t want me talking about Flynn.

“He is your friend; how do you not know?” I asked instead of shutting up. I wasn’t interested in knowing whether Flynn was coming or not. I just wanted to get him off track and focus on something else.

“Hm! Beatrice!” Zane said my name in a husky voice, “Are you hiding something from me?” He smiled almost so innocently that one could not predict if he was being sarcastic or if he genuinely thought I was being secretive.

“No! What would I hide from you?” I answered him, letting out a nervous laugh and stealing his eyes.

“Exactly. We are mates. You are not supposed to hide anything from me,” he said, and when I watched his face, he gave me a shrug.

“So you don’t think I am your stepsister?” I asked out of curiosity.

“No! My dad is never marrying your mom. Besides, I am sure we are mates again and that we brothers cannot reject you,” he stated confidently.

“I will still like to confirm,” I argued.

“Hm! So! The corpse bride costume, huh?” He walked over

52 Hard To Strip?

11 from behind the statue to stand in front of me. He was so tall that I had to lift my face pretty high in order to look him in the

eye.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Is it hard to take it off?” He tilted his head, his eyes watching my face like a hungry beast and then traveling down to the valley of my breasts. I was wearing a white top. The cleavage wasn’t strong, but it was too tight on my boobs, giving out the impression of my breasts.

“I think my mom is looking for me.” His question made me feel a little weird, so I excused myself and ran inside the mansion again.