Billionaire Romance: Seduced by the Billionaire (19 page)

Tonya was due
to arrive from her holiday at her friend’s farm this coming afternoon. And
Mellissa was not looking forward to it. Her mother did not even call her after
everything that had happened the other night. If Tonya asked what Mellissa had
been up to, she’d just roll her eyes away at her own mother.

Through the
lens of the window, Mellissa stared outside their house while having a cup of
green tea. Coffee contained sugar, so it was a no-no for her diet. As the cold
breeze swept through the window’s gap, she brought her legs up against her
chest. Her knees clicked, compelling her to get some exercise. Unless she
wanted her legs to cramp during her catwalks. That would be really
embarrassing. Thinking about it made her shiver.

She took a sip
of her tea. “How could he hide such thing from everyone?” she asked herself,
thinking about Thom’s bear shifting ability. Since the night she ascertained
his curse, her mind was restless processing everything about Thom. About who he
really was. And what else was he hiding from her as if she needed to know.

Her eyes
drifted to a white car passed by. Then, her gaze fell to the dog sitting in the
gutter. The German Shepherd’s brown fur reminded her of the bear. It had the
same shades of brown tinted with black across its body. Mellissa crouched her
body tighter as she imagined Thom transforming into a brute. Terrified to
imagine him turning into a bear, she took her gaze away from the dog and
focused on her tea.

Her tea rippled
as her hand shook in terror of what would happen if she ever met Thom again.
Concerned about her eye bugs from sleepless nights, she looked down at the
green water in the cup to mirror her face.

“I really need
sleeping pills. I can’t go to the pictorials looking like a worn out rug,” she said.
Her worried face made the illusion even uglier than it really was. Still
scanning her break-outs, her wrinkles and dark spots made her feel even worse.
If that wasn’t enough, her eyebrows became like a paddock. For sure,
Vogue
wouldn’t want those to appear on their covers. No way!

Mellissa sighed
a mist of resentment. “Why does my life suck? All I wanted is a perfect
relationship and now it’s all ruined! Why the hell does he need to be that
fucking bear?! Why not somebody else? Why not Natalia, instead?” she cried out,
distraught with the situation.

Hopeful to see
a prettier version of her now, she brought her face back at her tea again.
Nothing changed. But as soon as she shook it slightly and mirrored her face
once more, a different person emerged out of the aromatic warm water.

What the
hell?
Her face grew old and wrinkles decorated her
forehead and cheeks while her lips withered with deep lines of the days she had
left to live. Her eyes’ charm vanished, replaced with sadness and despair. And
her perfectly sculpted nose shied away as it flattened itself down. Mellissa
couldn’t breathe. She gasped for air, but her throat refused to let the oxygen
down to her lungs. Then, her eyes’ grew even wider as she saw black hairs began
covering her entire face.

“No. No. This
can’t happen to me. I’m a supermodel and I-I need to stay pretty,” she panicked
as her hands trembled with horror.

Alarmed with
what she’d witnessed, she deliberately dropped the cup to the floor, soaking
the carpet wet. If her mother was at home, she would’ve been scolded her behind
her back.

Surprisingly,
the cup did not shatter. Thanks for the soft carpet! Mellissa stared at the
floor, panting. Did she just have a daydream? Even she, herself could not
answer that same question. Bothered with everything in her life, her mind went
blank… Her ears deafened while her eyes saw nothing but white. Endless white.

While
everything was going as it supposed to outside their house, Mellissa did
nothing but blink continuously at the floor as if anything good would come out
of it. Helpless, she just stayed still – unable to move. If her eyes could
speak, they would’ve cussed at her. Really. Imagine how staring at something
without blinking for a couple of seconds would feel.

Finally, after
minutes of useless staring at the floor, she was back to her senses again.
“What’s that all about?” she wondered, frowning with fear of what her dream
could mean. Then, she realized she looked exactly like the bear, only darker
and uglier.

She stood up
and headed to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. “Maybe drinking too much
tea affects my vision. After all, tea contains a high percentage of caffeine. I
should have known better…” she said regretfully as if the green tea caused her
delusion.

Could the
dream mean a warning?
She thought as the water travelled
through her throat down to her stomach. As the water’s energy dispersed in her
body, she felt alive and refreshed, eager to continue living the way she did.
But she wouldn’t take the risk. Deep within her, she knew she had to change
something in her life. Something her mother wished Mellissa would’ve done years
ago. Her attitude. Yep. Her freaking rude, demanding and unthankful attitude.
That had to go.

She put the
empty glass down and leaned against the countertop’s edge, still shaken about
what she’d just experienced. Her goose bumps began settling down now as her
lungs continued pumping. She swept a glance across the lounge back to the
kitchen to see if there was anything she could do to use her time wisely.
Unfortunately, there was none. The entire house was crystal clear and not a
molecule of dust could be seen anywhere.

Mellissa’s
shoulder loosened up, releasing the tension from her body. “I don’t wanna go
shopping today…” she drawled, cautious not to be seen in public in fear of
paparazzi intriguing about her latest issue; the bear.

Downcast, she
sighed. She heard nothing but a solid quietude inside the house. The street was
quiet, daring not to speak a whisper. Her neighbors were the same. She hadn’t
seen the pervert old man who asked her for a wheelbarrow since then, perhaps
his wife butchered him already. Hope not.

Bored and
disturbed, she headed back to the lounge for her phone. Her sugar daddy had
just given her fifty-thousand-pounds to keep her well-endowed financially.
Although she had plenty of money already, she couldn’t refuse to accept her
sponsors’
offers… A chick like her surely had plenty of resources to keep her lavished
lifestyle.

Just as when
her butt was about to meet the couch, she heard a car parked close to their
house. Couldn’t bother to intrigue who it was, she sat down and leaned back on
the backrest.

“She’s back…”
she complained, completely out of the mood to entertain her mother or anyone.

Ignoring
everything around her, she focused her attention on her
Facebook’s
fan
page to gain some sort of moral supports from her fans all over the world. Upon
logging in to her account, literally million notifications slammed her in the
face.

“Wow…” she
smiled, ecstatic to have such faithful followers who brought her to stardom.
But then, as she realized her past and everything she’d been through, a sense
of guilt clawed her conscience. She promised to her fans she’d be as
transparent as a stilled water, but her tongue could only speak such oaths she
could never keep for the sake of getting famous. And now that she was at the
top of her game, her past began to hunt her down.

I can’t do this any longer. I
just can’t keep lying and pretend I’m good. I have to be transparent… I have to
let him go,
she pondered. Looking at the screen of her phone, her fans’
comments melted her heart. The majority of her fans asked her about the bear
and few were concerned about her welfare. Most of her co-supermodels also
posted on her wall, making her feel so flattered to the point that her proud
and arrogant spirit almost touched the ground with immense humility.

“I really have to change,” she
repeated, adamant to make a difference in her life.

She brought her gaze out the
window, letting her brain process everything. Emotionally invested, she closed
her eyes and drew a deep breath. A droplet of tear trickled down her left
cheek, caressing her skin. It itched, but she didn’t bother to wipe it off. For
the first time, she had finally let herself feel vulnerable.

Out of nowhere, a gentle knock
drummed on her door. She opened her eyes and brought her gaze to it, thinking
it was her mother. Gladly, she walked forth to greet Tonya and ask her about
her holiday. For sure, Tonya had a lot to talk about. She always did, so
Mellissa expected it with so much anticipation.

A knock drummed on the door
again.

“I’ll be there…” Mellissa
responded as she quickened her pace to open the door.

She pulled the doorknob down.
Swinging the door open, her mouth parted in a smile. “Hey, mom. How’s your–”

A look of horror swam across her
face. Eyes wide open, her mouth formed an ‘o’ as her nose’s holes enlarged. Her
heart sank. “T-Thom?” she stuttered, gripping the door tightly in case she
needed to slam it shut to hinder him from coming into her house.

His presence became a nightmare
for her now. Her yearning to steal him banished by the reality that he wasn’t a
mere human. At least not during half-moon. Thom’s name turned to be the thing
of the past now…

“Hi Mellissa,” Thom greeted,
forcing an awkward smile to appear on his face.

Mellissa took a step back. Her
lips trembled, resisting her effort to open her mouth to respond back. “Oh,
Thom… w-what brought you here all of a sudden?”

Relieved to know she wasn’t as
terrified as he would’ve imagined, he exuded a mist of relief. “How have you
been? I-I’m so sorry about what happened that night. I vanished without letting
you know, so please, forgive me…” he apologized, deeply sorry for everything
he’d caused her.

“It’s okay. You may leave now.”
Mellissa dared to shut the door.

He reached his hand out to stop
her. “Please, let me explain. It’s not what you think. I’m human, Mellissa. I’m
still the person you’ve known back in kindergarten…” he pleaded.

“So you’re admitting you’re the
bear in my backyard that night?” Her tone hinted contempt.

Thom paused for a moment. He’d
never heard her speak rudely to him before. By now, he knew their relationship
had developed an edge. His time hiding had expired. He had to accept the truth,
he’d lost her.

“What? Tell me, aren’t I right?
Now, tell me you don’t like me. Boo me away like what you’ve been doing before.
I dare you!” she cried out, completely out of herself. Her voice echoed at the
veranda.

“I am. But please, hear me
first. I didn’t mean to attack you or anything like that… I didn’t know what I
was doing.”

“Then, why did you come to my
house if you knew you were gonna do that?”

“I didn’t. I completely forgot
about my curse,” he explained.

Mellissa frowned. “Curse? What
curse?”

Thom sighed once more. “Let me
in first. I’m not gonna hurt you or anything like that. Natalia is in the car,
so you’re safe…”

“How Am I safe? You get out of
control and transform into this monstrous,” she paused, hesitant to say the
word, “creature,” she finished. She couldn’t say the word ‘bear’. Truth hurt
and right now it was giving her too much headache – something she could quite
handle at the moment.

“She knows everything about me.
You and her alone know what I can do. So please, let me clear things out for
you.” His eyes shimmered with sincerity, reminding Mellissa of the man she had
once fallen in love with.

Reluctantly, she agreed.
“Alright. Come in then.” She gazed at the black car where Natalia was in. “She
can come in too if she wants to.”

“Who?” Thom asked quickly.

“Your girlfriend.”

“Natalia?”

“Is there anyone else? It’s not
like you brought anyone with you, is it?” she replied sarcastically, a little
bit jealous of Natalia. The moment she found out Thom’s curse, she knew their
relationship wasn’t going to turn out as she’d planned. So what was the point
of holding him back?

“Right…” Thom smiled before
turning around to call Natalia.

Mellissa stood still, watching
him from behind.
I can’t believe I’ve made out with a bear
, she beamed,
getting used to the situation now. Her anger started to lower down as the
breeze swept by. The wind cooled her down.

“Nat,” Thom called shyly. His
girlish call didn’t reach Natalia.