Secrets in the Ashes: Fragments of Desire

Chapter 3: The Room Upstairs

It took all but two days to pack up my flat and sell my furniture that I no longer needed. Olly kept to his word and paid the fee for breaking my lease. He even hired a team of movers to pack up all of my things that I wanted to keep and bring it to his house.

I had tried to fight him on moving rooms from downstairs to upstairs, but he had been adamant that I take the room next to his. I gritted my teeth through the entire discussion, fighting desperately to not blurt out that I didn't want to be next door when he brought home his next late night companion.

When I refused to give in, he personally went down and started bringing up all of my personal items I had asked the movers to place in the room downstairs.

"You're being ridiculous," I sighed. I had never been truly frustrated with him in the year I had been with him, but his unwillingness to bend or even listen to reason was getting under my skin in the worst way possible.

He dropped a box on the floor of the upstairs room and took a deep breath. "Why are you fighting me so hard on this?"

I followed after him angrily and grabbed the box, prepared to drag it back downstairs. "Why are you so dead-set on me sleeping next to you?" I wanted to kick myself for my word choice, but it was out there now and I wasn't going to take it back.

He laughed, giving me a knowing smile. "Any man would be a fool to not want to sleep next to you, Harlow."

"Stop teasing me for five damn minutes," I bit out. My cheeks were already warming from watching Olly work up a sweat, lugging my things up the stairs.

"I told you, I want you close enough should I need anything. Plus, I want to turn your old room into a second office."

I scoffed. "Why do you need a second office?"

"It's not for me."

My brows pulled together in angry confusion. "Then who is it for?"

He shrugged. "My company has been expanding, we are starting up a new project this season and I want to turn the downstairs room into a security centre. If anything happens, I want you close to me. Why are you so adamant that you should sleep downstairs?"

I was too angry to argue, so I just stood there, quietly seething as I glared at him.

"Tell me what's wrong." He said it with a commanding tone that left no room for arguments. Not that I wanted to argue. Not that I wanted to be having this discussion in the first place.

After a deep breath, I finally looked away towards the floor. "I just don't want to have to listen to you bring home women every other night."

He barked out a laugh and my head snapped up to face him once more, my glare intensifying. "That's an easy fix."

"How so?" I asked with a scoff.

"Simple. I will stop bringing home women." He shrugged and his easy dismissal enraged me.

"You – Olly West – are going to just stop bringing home women? Hah!" I laughed in his face.

He smiled as if he didn't have a care in the world. "This will be a place you call home, as soon as you accept the offer. If you don't want to listen to me screw around, then I won't. It's a pretty reasonable request. Plus, I can always bring my companions to a hotel if I need to."

"And what if I want to bring home a man?" I asked bitterly with my arms crossed over my chest.

He took one large step towards me and leaned in, his nose almost touching mine. "Don't force me to make threats, Harlow. I always keep my word."

I took a half-step back and swallowed audibly. "You're ridiculous," I breathed for lack of a better response. My heart was thundering in my chest and I was battling the rising urge to either slap Olly or kiss him.

He smirked down at me as if he could read the debate in my eyes.

Olly West always seemed as if he could read my thoughts, almost like he'd been doing it his entire life. I felt like an open book to him and nothing I did helped to alleviate that feeling. I had tried to be more closed off, maybe even a little mysterious, but he called me out every single time.

There was no emotion I could feel that Olly didn't read just from glancing at me.

“Stop that," I tried to sound as serious as I could, but my frustration made my words catch in my throat.

“Stop what?"

“Stop looking at me like you know what I'm thinking." I pursed my lips and tried my best to stand a bit taller.

He simply shrugged and smiled down at me. “Stop trying so hard to hide from me." His words were soft but heavy. Too heavy for me to formulate any kind of coherent response to.

Instead of speaking and digging myself further into a sinkhole, I turned on my heel and stomped down the stairs to the room downstairs. I grabbed a box and started angrily packing up a few of my things, bringing it up to the room next to Olly's once it was full.

"That's more like it," he cooed and something in me broke at the satisfaction in his tone. The smoothe dulcet tone of his voice was almost enough to make me forget the raging inferno which I had become from our talk.

I ripped off the over-shirt I was wearing in frustration, leaving me in a tank top and shorts. I tried not to smirk when I felt Olly's gaze linger a bit too long, burning the entire backside of me when he thought I wasn't paying attention.

It didn't take long for the two of us to clear out my old room downstairs. We worked in tense silence and avoided eye contact, though I could sense him staring at me every now and then. And I would only be lying to myself if I said that I didn't steal a few glances here and there.

When we were finally done, we both collapsed onto my new bed, our heads nearly touching where we lay on the down comforter. The sweet musky smell of him wafted over towards me and I couldn't stop myself from inhaling the scent and savouring it.

"How about a shower?" He asked as he sat up and turned to look down at me, hovering over me in a way that made me feel a little too at home in his proximity.

I felt the skin of my chest and throat redden with heat. "What?" I asked as I sat up on my elbows and awkwardly tried to shift back away from him.

He laughed. "Sorry, what did you think I meant?"

"Nothing," I blushed and rolled off of the bed, stomping over to the door that led to my ensuite bathroom. I gave him one last look before stepping through the threshold and slamming the door behind me. I didn't blink or breathe until I felt the door's lock click into place.