Page 9 of Entangled
As if he could sense he was being summoned, Randy pulled up the black Rolls Royce and smoothly got out of the driver’s seat to open the door for us.
“Mr. and Mrs. Peirano,” Randy greeted with a nod.
“Thank you, Randy,” Jude replied, getting into the backseat, with me close behind. After Randy shut the door and loaded up the bags, we were off to the airstrip.
I had no idea why Jude felt the need to take the jet. We didn’t live that far from Lilah’s house. It was as easy as taking a ferry across the bay and driving the rest of the way. But I knew if he was taking the jet, it was for a reason. And one I didn’t bother asking about.
Rich men and their money.
The advantageof trips on the jet was that I got to enjoy a glass or two of champagne. It was the only time Jude allowed me to drink, and the world looked so beautiful from the clouds. Everything looked so small and insignificant down below.
It left me feeling the smallest bit buzzed from the alcohol and the view and made whatever this night held feel a little more bearable.
“Jude! Soren!” Lilah greeted us at the double doors of her mansion. Between the three of us, there wasn’t an ounce of love or a real smile. Lilah pulled me into an embrace, and I tried to keep myself from shivering from the cold of her dead, icy heart.
Seriously, what did my father see in you?
“Let me have the butler get your bags for you and show you to your room. You two must be exhausted!” Lilah said, as she quickly hugged Jude. She said it as if we’d been traveling all day, instead of the measly forty-five minute trip it had been.
One of my least favorite things about coming and staying at Lilah’s was the fact that Jude and I had to share a bed.
At home, I had my own room with my own bed. Jude didn’t like to share the bed with me unless we were having sex. And once we were done, it was expected that I go to my bathroom and clean up, before sleeping in my own bed. I’d begun to feel like nothing but a rag doll for him to throw around and fuck.
What a lovely life to live.
I probably thought up to a thousand times a day about how this couldn’t be my life. How this had to be a dream, and I’d wake up any moment. My father would be alive, Lilah would be back in hell, and Jude would be in Rhode Island, still under his father’s thumb. He’d only escaped because of our marriage.
You’re welcome for that by the way, douche canoe.
I wasn’t asking for my life to be a fairytale. But hot damn, I’d take an average, normal, boring life over this one.
I followed Jude up the familiar staircase and up to my old room, which had been stripped of any personalization. Lilah had put her own dull, modern spin on it. The walls that I used to paint on in my spare time, more as an adult than as a child, were now painted over with a mute gray. It was as if I’d never been here at all.
“I love what you’ve done with the place Lilah,” Jude complimented. “It looks like an entirely new space.”
Of course you’d love it.
Jude’s house was full of dull and muted colors. It was as if every shade of black, white, and gray had thrown up on it. Don’t get me wrong, those colors have the ability to look amazing when done right. But inside the four walls of that house, it just felt like a prison.
“I’m going to shower before dinner,” Jude announced, undoing the first couple buttons of his dress shirt. “Make sureyou freshen up and look presentable beforehand. We’ll be having guests tonight.”
He said it as if this washishouse, and they werehisguests. But I knew better than to correct him. Before I could bother responding, he had already made his way into the bathroom and turned on the shower, drowning out any possible response.
There was a time when I’d had joined him in the shower, begging for a quick fuck before we had to go somewhere, but the thought of his skin on mine now repulsed me.
But he still loved to make me beg for him and feel so insignificant and small while I did it.
I made my way over to my suitcase and unzipped it, pulling out my makeup bag and my hairbrush, along with my curling iron and a simple black dress. I wore makeup so often that I almost forgot what I looked like without it. Like the light dusting of freckles underneath didn’t exist, or the woman for that matter.
After touching up my loose curls and makeup, I slipped into the dress and strapped my heels on.
I walked over to the mirror and peered at myself, running my hands down my dress and smoothing it out. I took a moment to take myself in as the water stopped running in the bathroom.
I’d changed so much in recent years; life having dulled my shine. But damn it if I were to deny that I cleaned up well.
The bathroom door opened and steam billowed out as Jude walked towards me with a towel wrapped around his waist as he dried his hair with another.
Seeing him half-naked did nothing for me anymore and tempted not a single sexual spark in my body.
