*INNOCENT TEMPTATIONS || 18+ 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥*
_Episode 17_
ALEX POV
“Alex?” she called out again. I thanked all the Gods that we decided to move round the boat and weren’t right where Sarah could see us. She’d most definitely drown me.
With one more knee-buckling kiss, Alex swam away from me. I took that as my cue to go the opposite way and climb onto the boat as quickly and unnoticeably as I could. “What were you doing?” I hear her ask with suspicion lining her voice. “I swam around for a bit after the kids left.” A smile graced my lips at how fast he had managed to come up with a good lie. “Where’s Gianna?” of course she would ask that. Nosey bitch.
Before Alex could reply, I shut the bathroom door and walked towards them, as if I had been in there all along. “I’m here. Is everything okay?” she eyed me questionably and my smile never faltered. “Yes. It’s time to get going now so I wanted to round everyone up.” I nodded at her and sauntered past her husband, making sure to sway my hips as I did so.
I placed my dress over my figure once I had dried myself off. My hair was sprawled down my back in long damp waves, which contrasted to the usual straight hair I had kept. I scrolled through my phone for a while until we arrived back where we began.
The ride home was uneventful, I sat with the Luca and Elena, fighting the urge to fall asleep after the day I’d had. My eyes rolled back when I caught a glimpse of Alexander holding hands with Sarah in the front seat. Asshole. Think rationally Gianna. He probably forced him into it.
I sighed and closed my eyes, leaning against the window and closing my eyes.
“Gianna.” I felt a hand on my shoulders and opened one eye, peaking at the idiot who decided to wake me up from my glorious nap. Speaking of glorious. Alexander smiled and I glanced at my surroundings noticing that we had reached their home. I stretched my limbs and took note of the empty car, my mind wandered back to our interrupted make-out session earlier, but I decided against finishing it in such a risky place.
“We’re here c’mon.” I got out of the car and he walked me over to mine, standing at the door as I got in. I looked at him with a smile. “What? No goodnight kiss?” he rolled his eyes. “Maybe another time, we almost got caught today.” I laughed and he stared at me in question. “Not my fault your wife is clingy.” Alex chose not to answer me and instead turned around without another word, walking into his huge ‘family home.’
The drive back to my apartment was silent, thoughts of earlier clouded my mind and I smiled eternally.
For the first time in a while I had felt absolutely content and happy with my life, despite the obvious barriers between Alex and I being together, I still felt giddy knowing I had come this far with him. Although I knew he still felt hesitant to be with me, which made sense. He was married after all. Unhappy, but still married. And he was too good of a man to just throw that away.
I pulled into my driveway and stared at my reflection in the wing mirror. My mascara was slightly smudged, not too much to make me look homeless, luckily. Overall, I had a good day, up until Sarah decided to ruin it, but that wasn’t about to lower my mood, I still had other chances.
I unlocked the door and was greeted with an empty apartment one again, just as I was about to text Celine, my phone rang. “Hello?” I asked, placing the phone between my shoulder and ear. I walked up to my room and flopped onto the bed, awaiting the voice of my best friend. “Okay I really need to make this quick.” She whispered. “I’m literally calling you from this guy’s bathroom to let you know that I won’t be coming home tonight for various reasons, getting laid being one of them, but I’m safe. Tell me all the dirty details of your day when I get back. Okay gotta go I love you.” She hung up the phone before I had the chance to reply. I laughed at her antics and shook my head smiling at the thought of her having a fun night for the first time in a while.
A few hours later, the sun began to set. The deep orange glow blurred with shades of red, purple and pink, illuminating the late afternoon sky with stunning colours. The silence was only broken by the light buzz of vehicles rushing to get home and sleep in the weekend. The win rippled lightly, blowing in my face as I stood on the small balcony adjacent to my bathroom.
After lounging around on my bed for a few more minutes I got up with the intention of freshening up and preparing myself for the night. I walked inside of my en-suite and looked at my reflection, noticing my flushed cheeks and plump pink lips. I grinned, satisfied with my appearance and stepped into the shower, ensuring the water was at its hottest temperature. I grabbed the vegan body wash I had loved and lathered it all over my figure, making sure to rid myself of all the dirt and sweat from the day. I turned the water back on and rinsed off the soapy residue, the smell of lavender and vanilla clung to me as I reached for the fluffy white towel next to me.
I then brushed my teeth, finishing off with a few skincare products to keep my skin glowing and radiant. I threw on a white tank top and a pair of my most comfortable pajama shorts, yearning to cuddle up into my sheets.
I lazily scrolled through social media and responded to texts for an hour before deciding to get a goodnight’s sleep before the weekend started.
I tossed and turned in the sheets, feeling restless, until I decided to get up and go drink a glass of water, hoping it would settle my mind.
I prayed my ears were deceiving me when I heard a slight knock on the door. My body stilled in place, slightly alarmed at who that could be.
A burglar wouldn’t knock, Gianna. My subconscious reminded me.
Cautiously, I advanced to the door and slid open the peephole, sighing in both relief and surprise at the person on the other side. I opened the door to be met with a very, as usual, drunk Alexander. “Alex? What are you doing at my house?” I asked quietly as he strolled into my living room without as much as a greeting. “Got any water?” he replied.
I silently made my way back to the kitchen and filled up a glass of room temperature water for him. By the time I had gotten back, he was sprawled out on my couch, quietly staring at the ceiling. The clock on the wall read ten p.m. and I looked at my guest expectantly as he began to chug the water. “Sorry didn’t mean to crash.” He said not bothering to make eye contact with me. “Had a huge fight with Sarah and went out for a few drinks and I didn’t wanna go back home.” His words were slightly slurred but more put together now and I looked at him with pity. “I’m sorry.” I frowned, unsure of what else to say.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, sitting next to him on the leather couch. He didn’t reply, instead leaned back and closed his eyes, resting his hand on my bare knee, causing incorrectly timed butterflies to sprout inside my stomach. “No.” he replied.
We sat in a comfortable silence for a few extra minutes. I stared at the man in front of me in awe as a sliver of moonlight cascaded over his eyes, releasing a glimpse of his freckles to my wandering eyes. As the silence continued, I decided to get up at the thought that he had fallen asleep. But before I could fully stand up, he tightened his grip on my tan skin and I stilled. “Did you know Sarah isn’t the kid’s real mother?” I looked over at him in question and surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Their mom died a while back. Her name was Emily. We had Luca and Elena together.” His eyes flickered open, staring at my stunned expression. “What happened to her?” I asked cautiously, not wanting to strike a nerve. “Car accident.” He mumbled emotionally. “It was four years ago today actually.” I cursed myself for not being good at handling people’s emotions, knowing I could never comfort him like he needed right now. “Sarah hates it when the day comes around. Always moaning about how I should be over it by now.” I gasped lightly. “No offence, but why on earth did you marry such a gremlin?”
“Sarah wasn’t always like that.” A humorless laugh escaped his pink lips. “We met about ten years years before what happened, her and I were best friends and she’d always come around to comfort me. Which Emily didn’t agree with , but she had nothing to worry about. At some point after her death I got lonely, I was deteriorating and I needed someone. She was there for me when I had no one.” By now his head was lying across my lap as I dragged my fingers through his soft hair, lightly pulling the tips. “One thing led to another and she fell pregnant. She practically begged me to marry her when we found out. The kids seemed to like her too, so I decided it would be best if we all lived together anyway. At the time I had come into a lot of money and then got to her head. She began to love her card more than me.”
I tried to hold back my tears at the thought of someone not loving this man as much as he deserved to be. I always knew Sarah wasn’t as perfect as she portrayed to be, but this was extreme. Alexander seemed like the perfect husband and the most loving family, I knew he deserved the world. No one could convince me otherwise.
“Why don’t you just get a divorce?” I whispered.
“For the kids. I don’t want them to go through something like that at such a young age. I don’t know which is worse. Living with divorced parents, or living with parents who don’t belong together.” My heart broke at his words and I wiped away a tear before I began sobbing in front of him.
I knew what he meant, I knew it all too well. Growing up in a broken household is an experience I wouldn’t want anyone else to have. Nothing hurts more than not having a relationship to look up to. Not seeing your parents as in love as they should be. It ruins your perception on love, forcing you to figure out what you should and shouldn’t stand for in a relationship, it was hard.
My parents have never known peace, they fought over every little thing they disagreed on. There was never a calm day growing up in our household. We had to learn how to black out the constant noise.
Finding out about their separation was the best day of my life. I finally felt like I could be happy in my own home again, not having to find an escape in school.
“Gianna?”
“Yeah?” I asked sleepily.
“Do you want to go with me to an event tomorrow? It’s a charity ball out of town, I don’t know if you’re interested in that kind of stuff but-”
I cut off his rambling with a big sleepy smile on my face. “I’d love that.”
His voice drifted into the night as I fell asleep against the saddened man on top of me, falling into what I didn’t know, would be the best sleep I’ve had in a long time.