Chapter 101: Fountain of Love
Moana
“The water feels nice,” Edrick said as he stood barefoot in the fountain in front of me. “I promise.”
My eyes were wide with disbelief. What had changed in the Alpha billionaire’s demeanor that night? He was suddenly acting more playful than I had ever expected, and the way he held his hand out for me with an almost childlike expression on his face made me smile.
I hesitated, but he only kept holding his hand out. Finally, I kicked my shoes off with a sigh and lifted my skirt. I took his hand and climbed up onto the bench, then stepped into the fountain with him. He was right; the water was nice and cool, and it felt soothing on my hot, swollen feet. Standing there, I couldn’t help but let out another sigh of relief and shut my eyes for a moment, tilting my head back toward the sky as I felt all of my frustrations wash away with the water.
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Edrick asked.
I opened my eyes and met his gaze. His gray eyes were soft and gentle — something that I sorely needed after everything that had already happened that night. It was hardly even an hour into the banquet and I had already been accosted by Edrick’s cruel father, who told me that I needed to take his money and my baby and leave his family alone, and then I was equally assaulted by Kelly, who went so far as to even hit me because she was so jealous over my dynamic with Edrick. Needless to say, it was an incredibly stressful evening… But the way that Edrick was looking at me now made all of that feel so insignificant.
“Yes, it is,” I replied, feeling my face go a bit red as I looked up at Edrick.
We stood there like that in silence for a while, just looking at each other. He seemed to be studying my face, as though he was searching for something; although what exactly he was searching for was a mystery to me.
I didn’t realize it at first, but we were still holding hands. My heart began to race as I came to this realization, and I quickly pulled away, distracting myself by holding my skirt up with both hands and wading around in the cool water. I heard Edrick clear his throat behind me, and I glanced up to see that he, too, seemed to be trying to distract himself.
While Edrick was looking away, I took that moment to study him now, just as he had studied me. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and the first couple of buttons were undone around his collar, giving him a casual look. The way that his soft white shirt billowed in the hot summer breeze along with the way that his dark hair became ruffled made him appear effortless and relaxed, much unlike the stark Alpha CEO I had come to know over the past few months. There was no denying that he looked incredibly handsome like this, with his sharp jawline and sinewy, muscular arms. I had never seen him work out, but he must have done it quite a lot, because his biceps strained against his shirt when he moved.
Beyond that, however, his eyes contained something new and gentle that I hadn’t seen before. He seemed to be lost in thought; his brow was somewhat furrowed, but not in an angry or brooding way, and at one point he gently bit his lower lip, causing my heart to flutter for the briefest of moments. As I watched him, I suddenly felt Mina begin to react strongly to his handsome appearance inside of me, begging me to do something. She wanted him, and had been wanting him more than ever lately, for reasons unbeknownst to me. Maybe it was the baby making her want to find a mate. But I knew that Edrick could never be my mate; not with the stark differences in our social status. To him, I was still just a human. Even if he did find out that I wasn’t human, it wouldn’t change the fact that I was from an incredibly low social class, and he was from the highest social class possible. If he was going to be with anyone, perhaps it should be Kelly; she was, after all, a wealthy socialite. I was an orphan who was nearly homeless before Edrick hired me.
I must have been staring at Edrick for too long, and he noticed, because he suddenly looked up and met my gaze again. My face went even redder, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
I especially couldn’t tear my eyes away when I suddenly saw a mischievous smirk spread across the billionaire’s face.
Suddenly, without a word, he reached down into the water and he…
Splashed me.
I felt my jaw drop. “Edrick!” I exclaimed, laughing. “You got me all wet!” Without thinking, I reached down and scooped my hand into the water, splashing him back with even more vigor in retaliation for what he just did to me.
Much to my neverending surprise, Edrick only splashed me again, this time harder.
We kept going back and forth like this, our laughter growing and floating through the air as we splashed each other more and more. During those moments, I saw Edrick smile — truly smile. There was a youthful look to him, as though he was no longer the stressed Alpha CEO I had come to know, but was rather the same young boy who slept out here in this very garden when he was a child. And, during those moments, I felt an overwhelming sense of emotion wash over me. An emotion that I couldn’t quite place my finger on just yet.
By this point, we were almost entirely soaked and both of us were too caught up in the fun of the moment to care. I reached down to splash him again, but then I suddenly felt my foot slip.
In an instant, I was falling forward, unable to catch stable footing in the slippery fountain. All of my mirth suddenly melted away, replaced by fear of harming my baby, and my eyes widened as I fell forward.
But a pair of strong arms caught me, wrapping around me.
He slipped, too, and together we went tumbling down into the shallow water.
The air was quiet now, replaced by the shocked silence of our mutual fall and the soft sounds of our heavy breathing. I pushed myself up, realizing now that I had fallen on top of Edrick — but his hands were still on my waist, holding me, keeping me from pulling away.
Something came over me then. I felt Mina begging me to get closer to him, so I did.
I kissed him.
For an eternal few moments, we laid together in the shallow fountain, our wet lips pressed together with a strange sense of gentle urgency. His lips were soft and tasted like heaven, and I felt his hands slide up along my waist, over my arms and up to my face, cupping my cheeks in his palms. During those moments, I was certain that I could stay like this forever.
But I couldn’t.
When we pulled away, both of our faces were beet red. Within a split second, I could see the regret filling Edrick’s eyes; I felt a sense of regret, too, for what I had done. Not only had I ruined my dress, but I had also made the mistake of kissing a man whose relationship with me was nothing but a ticking time bomb.
“S-Sorry,” I said, pushing myself away from him and onto my knees.
Edrick only nodded and stood. Without a word, he held his hand out for me and helped me stand.
Neither of us spoke as we stepped out of the fountain, but as it turned out, we didn’t need to.
Because Verona was standing in the archway, watching us with an open mouth and wide eyes.
