___________________________
"You were mine the second you put your signature on that contract." He looked at me with pure lust and dominance in his eyes.
"F*ck you."
He smirks and moves closer to me, coming to my side of the booth and caging me ag...
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November
I walk down the long, narrow, wooden dock.
The breeze is small but yet it still pushes cold air in my face. The sound of swans and ducks in the distance, the occasional pop of fish breaking the surface of the water.
Once I make my way down to the very end of the dock, I sit with my right leg propped up on the wood.
I look to my side at Astoria. She's been at these docks ever since we got here about a week and a half ago. Always at the same time, Every. Single. Day.
Before it's dark out when the sky mixes with blues, pinks, and oranges. She lays her head on my leg and wraps her arms around it.
"Do you ever think of moving? I mean away from the city," she sighs, still looking out into the vast lake. "Away from the people, away from the stress. Just everything."
She looks at me questioningly, her eyes big and her mouth slightly parted. I look out at the forest beyond the lake. I know what she's asking. But I don't know if I can give her an answer.
I would be hard with work and everything. Ice never thought about leaving Norchester. It's been home for years now.
For both me and James.
I want to give her a straight up answer, but I don't know how. A thought crosses my mind and a small, halfway there smile forms on my face.
"You know the lake is pretty nice this time of the year," I say as a change of conversation.
She sits up straight. She noticed what I did judging by the look on her face. Either way, she doesn't bring it up again. "But it's winter. Wouldn't the water be cold?" the funny thing about that is, the lake is what you'd call a geothermal pool. It's naturally heated by the earth's crust.
"It's heated so it feels amazing when it's cold out." I try my best to convince her. I'm in need of a topic change, yes but I also want this moment. I've never brought anyone here.
"Come on," I begin to take off my grey button up and eventually the matching grey trousers. Before I could get off my shoes she stops me with her hand on my arm.
I look at her with confused eyes as I notice that she hasn't taken off anything. She looks down sheepishly, her hands in her lap.
She hesitates before she answers, "I-I can't swim. I never really learned. I never g-got the chance." she looks on the verge of crying. Her eyes begin to glass over and she plays with her fingernails.
I sit back down on the wooden dock next to her. "I never really had that family bond, you know. And after I turned 18 and could finally fend for myself, I just never thought it was necessary." her voice is soft, almost as soft as the breeze that flows through her curly brown hair.
"Plus, I never thought I'd leave Norchester. I don't know, I'm just rambling." a look of embarrassment floods her face and her cheeks turn a dark shade of red.
