Chapter 11
Aaron
I was smiling like an idiot all morning and the entire office knew something was up. Waking up next to Cassandra was the best damn sight I had ever seen. She was a pure goddess lying naked across me with her platinum blonde hair fanned on my pillow with her hands draped on me possessively. Yeah, she possessed me. And as strange as it sounded, I wanted her to be possessive of me. A trait I formerly despised but now it swelled my heart when that came from Cassandra. I had opened my heart up to her yesterday and I hoped that she had taken it seriously. Because now the ball was in her court. I had left her at my home to rest for the day despite her insistence on coming in to work. I had to write her an official allowed absence letter before she agreed to take the day off. But now I was missing her terribly. Hell, I had it bad for her.
The phone in my pocket buzzed and I pulled it out. It was a text from Cassandra.
Reason # 12: You are stubborn, arrogant and you have the evilest smile that makes me want to slap you.
I grinned at her words. She was sending me the reasons I had previously asked for in the hospital room when she was refusing to come home with me. Every reason was lousy. Just like her resistance to my touch. I typed back.
Try again, baby. I know you love my smile and slapping me is the last thing on your mind. ;)
Her reply came just as quickly.
Definitely arrogant! Arrogant face, arrogant mouth and arrogant you.
I chuckled and faces turned to my direction in surprise. I ignored them and walked to my room, typing.
I definitely like what my arrogant mouth does to you. I’d love to put my mouth back to use right now.
Damn, she had a tendency to work me up through texts. I wanted her right now. I sat on my desk and logged into the computer. Her text came in again.
You are insatiable.
I wrote back;
I don’t remember you complaining.
I remembered her asking for more. She replied;
Because you never allowed me to speak?
I grinned at the memory. Yeah I was definitely addicted to her delectable mouth.
Blame your luscious lips for that. Now I am missing the taste of them.
I waited for her to reply but minutes passed and my phone remained silent. I text her again asking if she ran out of reasons. Still no reply. I decided to give her a few minutes. Ten minutes later I hadn’t received anything. I tapped her number into my phone and hovered my thumb over the call key, wondering if I should give her a call or not. Just then Melinda knocked on the door and informed me of a client’s arrival.
An hour and a half later, I still hadn’t heard anything from Cassandra. I called her number. It rang three times and then went to her voice mail. “Hey, it’s me, Aaron. Uh… Just wanted to check on you. Is everything okay? Call me.” God I was acting like such a pussy. But was I to blame? Given her flight nature, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d ran away from me. But heck if I was going to let her slip away from me again. Not after what happened yesterday. Everything had changed now.
I called the land line of my apartment but that too was left unanswered. Now my worry was getting to me big time. What if something had happened to her? All sorts of assumptions fogged my mind and I just wanted to see her for myself. I wanted to check on her, I couldn’t resist.
“Mr. Maxfield, your eleven o’clock is here,” Melinda called but I waved at her in dismissal. “I’ll check in later. I have to go somewhere. Tell Mark.” I didn’t wait to hear her answer. I drove past the speed limit to my apartment. What if she wasn’t there? What if she had decided to run away? It was stupid of me to leave her like that in the morning. So damn stupid. I rushed towards the elevator, ignoring the doorman who was saying something to me. I just had to go up and see her. For the second time in twenty-four hours, Cassandra Levant had made me desperate enough to give up everything. She was capable of making me do anything. Let’s not forget she made me a stripper in our first encounter. It seemed like ages ago. I stepped out of the elevator onto my floor and went to my apartment’s door.
I rang the bell. Once. Twice. And then reached for my own set of keys. But the door wasn’t locked. She left the door open? I frowned and then entered. It was dead silent and cold inside. “Cassandra?” There was no one in the living room. I checked my bedroom. Empty. “Cassandra, are you in here?” She had left. She had run away. Again. I was beginning to get upset.
I pulled my phone out to dial her number again as I walked back towards the kitchen. My gaze fell on a paper note that was laid straight on the counter. I reached out to it. It was a note;
I had an amazing time, Aaron, but I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be with you. So I am ending this now and leaving you for good. I will send my resignation to you soon. Cassandra
“Fuck!” I growled and crumpled the paper in my fist and thumped hard on the counter. Damn her! She didn’t have the decency to say that to me in person? My blood began to boil in rage. She was a coward and she was resigning. Like hell I would allow her to get away with it this easily. I called her again and stormed towards the living area. She didn’t pick up. I tried again. That’s when I heard a phone buzzing somewhere. I turned around to see a phone lying on the couch, vibrating. I went to it. It was Cassandra’s. What the hell? She left her phone here? Why on earth did she do it? I unlocked the screen. She didn’t have a password, thankfully. The screen opened to the texts from earlier. There was a half written message;
And I am missing yours. I love
What is all this? I am losing my mind. She left me a note that said she didn’t want me but left her phone behind with a half written text that clearly showed her interest in me. Either she was playing with me or something was wrong. I went to my bedroom and looked around. That’s when I found her clothes from earlier. Even her wallet was right there. This was something ugly. Fear began to envelop me. I needed to find her. I took the elevator back to the ground floor.
“I need to know where Cassandra is. She was in my apartment this morning. But she left abruptly. I need to know if she called a cab or something.” The doorman looked at me like I was a maniac. Hell if I cared at that moment about myself. “I was calling you earlier to tell you that your guest left.” “Where did she go? Did she say something?” I held my breath, waiting for him to answer. “No, but your other lady friend was with her.” “My other lady friend?” “Yeah, she came here earlier as well. She asked about you but she didn’t go up or let me call you. She said she’d come back later. Then she came a couple of hours later and made me call up to your guest.” This was crazy. Who could have come here? Cassandra knew none of my associates. Hell I didn’t even have a lady friend who’d visit me at my home on a Monday morning. Except…
“What did she look like? The other one. Who took Cassandra, what did she look like?” “She was pretty. A brunette.” I pulled out my phone and showed him a picture. “Was it her?” The doorman smiled widely. “Yes, yes. She’s the one.”
I gritted my teeth and rushed towards my car. Elsa had stepped over every line today. Did she take her? Was this a kidnapping? Am I being absolutely crazy? Is this just a harmless day out between two girls? But why would they leave the door open and why would she leave her phone? So many questions and worries were flying through my head. I have no idea how serious this is!
If anything happens to Cassandra, I will be a broken man. Part of me is assuming the absolute worst and I think that’s fair considering how much of a psycho Elsa is.
Cassandra
“I don’t know what he finds attractive about you. We need to do something about it.” I was in the hands of Aaron’s psycho ex. I should have been alarmed and put my guard up when I was first called by Aaron’s doorman and he had told me that Elsa Marek wanted to meet me. But damn my curiosity, I wanted to know why she was here to see me. Aaron’s conversation with her earlier was in the back of my mind and I wondered what she had to say to me. After all, they both must have had a history together and I wanted to find out what that history was exactly. So I gave her permission to come up. Big mistake. Now I was bound to a chair in god knows where.
She forced me to come with her, at gun point. I don’t know why this psycho had a gun or if it was even real. But I was not willing to find out. The best thing I can do is just play along with her game.
My thoughts shifted to Aaron. What would he think when he’d find that note Elsa had made me leave for him? He must think that I ran away. It wasn’t like I had given him any impression to think otherwise. But after yesterday, I did want to take a leap with him. I did want to test the waters with him. His words from earlier came back to me. But with you, I want to try everything. I can only hope that you’ll be there with me to test the waters. And after that, he had given me the most priceless gift; time. Take all the time you need but always remember, Cassandra, if you run away from me, I’ll chase you down to the ends of earth. Would he come after me now? Even when he’d find out that I hadn’t had the decency to say goodbye to him in person. Probably not. And that thought made me want to cry. For the first time in years, I wanted to cry.
Elsa was back and she had something in her hands. “Where should we start from?” She raised a pair of scissors. “No, Elsa. Please don’t do this. We can sit and talk about all this. There is no need to do this.” I jerked my head away but she caught a lock of my hair and pulled. I yelped in pain. “Talk about what, Cass? That how he left me for you? Or how he dismissed me from his life because of you?” She was going hysteric. “I love him. I was content in giving him what he wanted from me. I was even okay when he went after that other bitch, Jasmine. Or his other one night stands with bimbos. It was alright. Because he always came back to me. But then you came out of nowhere and he stopped seeing me.” For a minute I thought she was going to cry. But then she glared at me.
“But not anymore. I’ll make you so ugly that he won’t even recognize you.” And then she snapped the scissors and strands of my hair fell down. Oh God, this was really happening. I closed my eyes shut and called that one name I could think of. Aaron. “He even jumped in that water to save you. I wished you would have died. It would have made things easier for me. And then when I tried to talk to him, he said he was done with me. And that is all because of you!” She threw away the scissors and looked around as if searching for something better. I dared not to think of the plans she had for me. I’ve gotten off easy so far, a bit of hair will grow back… But then she stopped and looked at me intently.
“Water. Yes. He saved you yesterday, but you’ll suffer today. I’m going to watch you drown in my own pool. Nice and easy, eh?” An evil smile appeared on Elsa’s face and I looked at her in horror. “No, please. Elsa, listen to me. Let me talk to Aaron and we’ll sort this out. I am sure he is not that into me like you are thinking.” I tried to settle her down. But this woman was totally nuts. “Since he returned from that wedding, he is avoiding me and that is exactly when you two hooked up, wasn’t it?” I gaped at her in surprise. How did she know? She laughed at my expression. “Yeah, surprised, huh? I keep a close eye on my man. I love him that much.”
“That is stalking. Not love.” The words came out of my mouth and her hand hit my face. “Bitch!” I was stunned by the sudden action. But then I didn’t care. “You are a crazy, dumb-headed bitch who doesn’t know the difference between obsession and love. Love is what he feels for me and I for him. He saved me because he loves me. He called you out because he didn’t want to sleep around with anyone except me because we share something special. That’s love. What you are talking about is stalking and obsession. You fucking psycho!” My words silenced her for a bit.
“You are right, Cass. I am obsessive. And you should know what obsession makes a person do.” She pulled out the gun from the back of her jeans’ waistband. “You are the thing that stands between me and Aaron. So I am going to keep him for myself and kill you right here. Story ends.” She loaded the gun and I closed my eyes. “What, not gonna see your death coming?” she laughed loudly and I whispered, “I love you, Aaron.” “No!” someone yelled and then there was a loud shot followed by shrieks and things falling and crashing. I waited for the pain to take over. But nothing hit me.
I dared to open my eyes and found Aaron disarming Elsa. Aaron was here. Relief flooded inside me. He was here. My love. He had chased me. He had found me. Tears welled in my eyes and I didn’t fight them. They were long due.
“I did this for you, Aaron. I love you so much. She doesn’t deserve you,” Elsa was pleading as Aaron shoved her aside and rushed towards me. “Cassandra, baby, are you alright?” he cupped my cheeks, his voice was hoarse. I leaned into his touch and nodded, unable to speak. He started to undo my ropes. “Aaron, please,” Elsa tried again but this time Aaron pointed the gun at her. “Stay the fuck there Elsa or I swear to God, I’ll shoot you!” She backed away. Aaron freed me from the restraints and then crushed me to his chest. This was home. Before I could even savor his touch there was a siren outside. It was the cops. Aaron must have called them on the way over here.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” I whispered into his neck. “I’ll chase after you, Cass, every time.” He looked down at me and then lowered his mouth to take mine in a kiss. The kiss was as soft as a feather, but it was still possessive. “I love you, Cassandra.” He pressed his forehead against mine as he confessed. “I love you too, Aaron, and I want to take every leap and test every water with you,” I said to him through tears. He kissed away the wetness on my cheeks and then playfully smiled down at me. “I was looking forward to a little more cat and mouse. I like the chase.” “Aaron!” I smacked his chest and he laughed and hugged me again. Oh yeah, I was one lucky maid of honor to hitch the best man.