Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 86: Little Pervert

The youth on the hospital bed was still asleep, days after his surgery he still didn’t stir.

"We have to continue monitoring his condition, at this point, he doesn’t need life support anymore, he’s safe."

How long had she waited to hear those words?

Ever since she was called and informed of her brother’s accident. But everyday Kristen remained with a giant knife hanging over his head, no one knew if he would ever wake up again.

"But...when will he wake up?" Anne asked worriedly.

Her brother’s complexion looked a lot better than it ever had. Without the machines attached to him, he could breathe for himself he was alive on his own, yet his eyes were still closed.

"He might wake up today, he might tomorrow, a month from now or even a year from now, we can’t say. Right now he’s merely in a state of unconsciousness and waking up is entirely up to him." The new doctor assigned to Kristen explained.

Anne stared at her brother’s face before sighing, holding his hand tightly silently pleading for him to wake up soon.

That Friday when Anne reached the manor, she nervously stood outside for a while before knocking, butler Jones let her in.

"Miss Thompson, please come in."

After formal greetings and asking her about her brother’s health, he led her into the master bedroom and then informed her,

"Master won’t be here tonight unfortunately, but he has given me some instructions. You are to take this as a small break, if you will. Please enjoy miss Thompson." The butler said as he ushered her into the bedroom. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

When the doors opened, she found some uniformed women waiting. The room was fully lit instead of being dark like she was becoming used to.

Steam from a well prepared bath rose in the bathroom, flower petals dancing over the foamy water in the huge tub.

"A bath first before the massage madam, it’ll help you relax." One of the women in the room said.

Anne was surprised at first. Wondering why the masked person had felt the need to prepare this for her.

Was he doing this because he wanted to help her ease the stress she’d had recently, did he really think that deeply about her?

It was hard to believe that he would put her in mind enough to prepare something like this for her when their relationship was strictly contractual.

Perhaps it was just for the contract, after all she was to conceive, perhaps he was preparing her to be in the best state of mind for when it was to happen.

Though she slightly felt grateful that he wasn’t here tonight, another night of pushing back what she dreaded, the deed that would lead her to actually conceive.

The previous experience wasn’t dreadful, in fact it was...

She couldn’t think of a word to describe how it felt, she knew she didn’t hate experiencing that with the masked person, but she didn’t know what to do the moment she was confirmed pregnant, so she’d rather push it back as much as she could.

Without thinking too much, she quietly allowed the women lead her to a well prepared hot bath which inadvertently relaxed her.

It felt as if all the weight she’d carried over the last week vanished when she stepped into the hot bath, after which the women provided a soothing massage.

Anne went through the motions, allowing herself to enjoy the experience, but her mind couldn’t stop thinking about the masked person.

Judging from how he’d been treating her recently, she imagined a kind, warm and handsome face beneath the mask.

Thinking about it, what if he wore a mask because he didn’t consider himself attractive?

To Anne though, what made a man attractive was the heart beneath the surface.

At first Anne had seen the masked person as a hard, tough person, she’d associated him with darkness, demons and devils, she’d associated him with hatred and a dark heart, but his recent actions washed away that view, now she saw him as warmth hidden beneath cold words.

She didn’t know what his true voice sounded like because the voice she heard was gruff in a way that made it evident the mask made him sound like that, her memories of what his voice sounded like that night she’d gotten drunk wasn’t clear. Now she wished she’d listened closely. She wished she’d looked deeply through the dark to at least see how his facial features were, maybe she’d have an idea what he looked like.

His appearance didn’t matter to her in the sense of attractiveness, she just wanted to put a face to this person she couldn’t figure out.

Was he really warm as he made her feel or cold like his words sounded.

She wanted to know him, really wanted to know him.

When she’d had no other solution, she’d called him to ask for his help, she’d expected him to demand for her to repay him, she already owed him a few favors as it was but he’d...done all this for her.

A strange warmth fluttered into Anne’s heart.

After they were done with the massage, she was given a comfortable robe, after which they told her to rest for the night.

When she was left all alone in the vast bedroom, she stared out into the view, somehow wishing he’d actually showed up tonight.

....

The week was packed for Anne at work. From crafting and distributing press releases to media outlets in regards to the anniversary event soon to occur, to putting together historic research about the company in a storytelling form which would be used to create a nostalgic moment during the event.

She was still busy contacting a few of the company’s ambassadors when she suddenly had a strange feeling of someone watching her, but whenever she turned she would find no one there. That feeling continued a few times but Anne eventually shook it off and gathered some papers, taking them into Clara’s office.

Once she submitted the papers to Clara, about to leave, the latter stopped her.

"What are you doing later after work?" Clara asked.

Anne thought for a while before answering, "Nothing much, I’ll be going straight back home."

"How about we grab dinner together? You’ve been working here for quite a while but I feel like I don’t really know you much yet, if you haven’t noticed, I really like you and I’d like to get to know you better."

Anne didn’t reply for a while making Clara add,

"If it isn’t too pushy, that is."

Seeing that Anne took some time without replying, a trace of disappointment shone on her beautiful face.

"It is too pushy isn’t it? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be..."

"No, no, it’s fine. I’d love to have dinner with you." Anne quietly replied.

A trace of guilt hidden beneath her brown eyes.

What had she been thinking? With the way Clara’s eyes shone the moment she accepted to have dinner with her, it showed an innocent young woman just wanting to make friends.

Anne chastised herself for thinking too much.

During the past week, Anne had sometimes caught Clara staring at her weirdly. Whenever their eyes met, Clara would smile sweetly at her, it didn’t feel like much at first until it happened a few times.

Anne began to get a strangely bad feeling.

Clara’s eyes were warm and friendly, yet she always felt something inexplicably dangerous within them.

Anne wasn’t the type to push people away based on mere assumptions. Clara had done nothing wrong to her, so feeling that way made no sense to her.

Just now she’d hesitated in going for dinner with Clara because of that strange feeling, but the person in question was just a kind young woman who didn’t look like she harbored any bad intentions.

Clara beamed when Anne agreed.

After getting through her work for the day, Anne went on to finish one final task of submitting some documents to Gabriel Sterling’s office.

When she reached the office, she knocked for a long time but got no reply, after which she decided to try turning the knob.

It could be that he wasn’t in, and if that were the case, if the door happened to be open she could enter and drop the files then leave.

Luckily, the door opened easily.

Anne entered cautiously, heading straight for the desk. She dropped the files and turned to leave, then realizing he probably wouldn’t open the files if he didn’t know where they are from, and she needed him to view and approve of the list she’d brought so she could proceed with her work, hence she grabbed a pen and a notepad kept on the desk, tore a piece and wrote some words on it, then kept the note on the documents.

Just when she was about to leave, a door at the other end of the office opened, Gabriel Sterling strode out in nothing but a towel tied around his waist. His upper body bare and dripping with water.

Upon meeting this sight all of a sudden, Anne gasped and sharply whirled around in another direction turning her back to him.

"Well, well, well, is that a little pervert I see coming into my office to peek at me?"

Anne’s face flamed in embarrassment.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was just here to submit these files, I didn’t know you’d be..." Practically half naked, she completed inwardly before dashing towards the door. Why would anyone in their right mind leave the door to their office unlocked, go on to take a shower or whatever it is he’d just done, and then come out so shamelessly without bothering to check if anyone was around.

On a second thought it was his office, and he could do whatever he wanted, she was the one who came in unannounced, hence she did the first logical thing in this situation. She fled, but unexpectedly, the man rushed after her, slamming the door shut just as she was about to pull it open.