Bullied Cinderella - Hollie Hutchins Page 0,45

either.

But more so, I was curious about all the weird looks Elaina had been flashing me throughout the afternoon. First, in the bedroom when we were talking about her arrangement with the Perez brothers. And again over the table as she tried to explain to Jada why she didn’t see me fit for an arrangement instead. I offered to walk Elaina out to her car, taking my only chance to figure out what she was being so coy about.

I didn’t dance around it. The moment the baby was strapped into the backseat, I demanded to know why she was being so weird towards me. She faced me with an almost motherly, knowing smile - as she often did, being the oldest sister.

“You know, I don’t think Jada has the stomach for everything that goes on between me, Marco, and Felix,” she explained carefully.

“And what makes you think I would?”

She put her hand on my shoulder and squinted her eyes. “Because I have a feeling you may have experienced it once or twice. We were raised very conservatively. So...sometimes we’re convinced in our minds that something is wrong or that we shouldn’t desire it, but...our bodies never lie. We sometimes find ourselves reacting to things we’re convinced we shouldn’t want, but we do no matter how much we fight it.”

“What does all of that have to do with why you don’t want to marry me off? Not that I’m complaining.”

She cut her eyes over in the direction of the Valencia estate and grinned. “Leonardo is awfully handsome. He would make a decent partner if someone whipped him into shape.” She leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I bet he’s killer in bed too.”

My cheeks turned bright red, and I was so flustered I couldn’t defend myself in the way I should have. It didn’t matter anyway, because Elaina had no interest in hearing me whine about how wrong she was. She flashed me a wink and quickly made her way around the car to get in and drive off, leaving me standing there at the edge of the driveway, feeling like an idiot.

Elaina’s annoying little, snide comments mixed in with Jada’s despair and the upcoming arrangement was a lot to take in. It seemed like the perfect time to go for one of my daily walks around my family’s land to clear my head.

I had discovered a creek that ran along the edge of our property, and it had become one of my favorite places to go. Especially when my thoughts were getting away from me. When I explored our land and all of its hidden little spots, it wasn’t uncommon for me to think back on that night Leonardo and I spent together in the woods. I would see so many discreet places around our land and imagine running into him out here. It was an impossible scenario because he’d never dare to set foot on our property with all of the legal matters at hand.

I had felt so ashamed of my fantasies about him, and it was precisely why I had grown so fond of the creek. I could wade into the waters and feel the rushing cool flow of it against my skin. It was almost enough to ward off the heat of my desire, and I could picture my relentless thoughts about Leo washing away down into the river.

But Elaina’s words were nagging at me. What did she mean with all that talk of wanting things we thought were bad? Had her start with Felix and Marco been anything like what had happened between Leo and I? I suppose there was no secret about why it was forbidden. They were brothers and she was involved with both of them, for goodness sake.

My memories of Leo kept flooding me, and something about Elaina’s clever little speech had left me defenseless to them. It was almost like she was giving me permission to feel this way. I didn’t need much of a push since my mind seemed to go there whether I wanted it to or not. But this time when the flashes of my fantasies came and wouldn’t stop, I decided not to try and wash them away in the river.

Instead, I climbed up to the banks and collapsed across the grass. Sometimes my thoughts were so intense that I couldn’t do anything but focus on them. I didn’t want to walk or explore or sit. I just wanted to lay there and let them consume me.