Bound by Tension
31

"Thank you so much, I received it earlier today and I'm damn grateful." Lila said from the other end of the line. "It's nothing."

"Are you kidding me? Another $10,000?! I'm certain it's got something to do with your boss, let him know I'm very grateful. The Doctor has assured me that Mom's surgery would be great and she'd be fine on or before next week." "Really?" A grin appeared on my lips.

"Yes. And I can notice the improvement in her health, she's doing really great and it's all thanks to you and God. Our Mother would be fine soon."

"Wow, I'm super excited!" I squealed, feeling the greatest form of joy building up in my belly. I was beyond exhilarated. I really wanted to jump on the couch and scream my internals out to express this triumph.

"If it's got anything to do with your boss, please thank him a million times and give him a chance. I'll call you later. Bye."

Whether or not I had admitted it, I had been so scared of Mia dying. She was the only family I had left except Lila, a very precious mother I couldn't bear to lose.

Hames strolled out of his room, pulling his travel bags with him then kept them beside mine.

"What's with the grinning face?" He drew his eyebrows together.

I didn't realize what I was doing immediately but I threw my arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. I knew I had worked for the money he had given me but I was glad I was able to get them from him by doing simple things, and Mia was going to be fine soon through the help of the money, so of course he deserved a hug.

"Thank you, thank you so much." I tightened the hug. Tears of joy leaked from my eyes and I couldn't control, I think it got his shirt wet.

"Are you crying?" He returned the hug.

I didn't reply to him, still hugging him really tight. "Thank you, she'll be fine soon."

"I'd love to know what's the reason for it but you need to know how great and fulfilled I'm feeling right now as you're hugging me. And it happened voluntarily, I didn't force you."

I pulled apart from the hug, wiping my tears of joy away from my face. "Sorry about that." I chuckled. The grin I was wearing couldn't leave my lips, expressing the extreme excitement bouncing in and out of my internals.

"Sorry? Are you kidding me? You've given me a wonderful gift and I'll definitely smile all day long."

I chuckled.

"May I know the reason for the hug?"

"You don't have to." I laughed.

"Okay, no problem. As long as it makes you hug me and might probably lead to a kiss from you, I don't need to know."

I laughed again, though it wasn't so funny; everything was funny to me at the moment and deserved my laughter.

I was blissful; Mia was going to be fine soon. I had been so worried about her health. I didn't want her to die, she hadn't enjoyed the reward of her labour on me and Lila yet.

"Can we leave now?" He asked.

"Sure, why not? What are we supposed to do? Not leave and live here?" I laughed again. It was crystal clear that my joy knew no bounds.

"We can if you want."

"Nope. Let's go." I attempted to hold my travel bags but he stopped me.

"Someone would take the bags. You should instead take my hand." He took my hand from the bag, intertwining our fingers. It was definitely an action I'd have yanked my hand out of immediately but I couldn't seem to do that right now, everything was suddenly beautiful. And yeah, his hand was smooth to touch and it made a relaxing spark occur in me.

He looked both surprised and glad that I didn't retrieve my hand then began leading us out of the room.

"Once again, thank you. Mia, my replacement mother has been sick for a while and Lila needed money for her surgery. Thanks to the $20,000 gotten from you, she'd be fine. Thank you."

"Whoa, I didn't know it could be of such great use. I'm glad I could be of help and make you smile so hard, I love it. I love you too." His words didn't make me feel like cringing this time. Instead, they made me feel myself blushing. "It was definitely of the best use."

He opened the elevator door with his free hand then we stepped in.

I wanted to take my hand from his but he stopped me. "Not yet, please." He pleaded.

I stared at him in wonder. "What's so special about holding my hand?"

"Everything is." He smiled.

"Will we receive our bags at the airport?"

"No, they'd be delivered to your house. You don't have to worry about them, they are safe." Why couldn't we just have them with us or something?

"Oh. How about Kade and Jovi? I don't see them yet."

"Kade already left with his private aeroplane, we're leaving with mine."

"Oh, okay." I nodded.

***

I strolled down the stairs of the aeroplane with Hames behind me.

After I set my feet on the ground of New York City once again, I turned to Hames then waited for him to stand beside me, remembering he had said he didn't like walking behind people. "Jeez, we're finally back." I smiled, feeling eager to see Mia, Lila and Nikita once again, mostly Mia.

"Yeah." He nodded, scanning the entire place. "Let's get going, I'd have to resume work." He started walking.

I sprinted to catch up with him, standing beside him and walked with his pace.

"Resume work? Don't I have a 2-day-break anymore?"

"You still do, but not for me. You'll get breaks and things like that but I have to work all day and night long."

"Do you ever have time for your life, your family and friends or you're always working?" I knew I wasn't supposed to be interested in things related to his personal life but I was curious.

"I do." It didn't seem like that to me.

We remained silent as he continued walking till we stopped beside a car.

Hames was gentlemanly enough to open the door for me to get in which I did after a small, "thank you." Then he got into it too, slamming the door shut.

"Take her home first." He said to the driver who simply nodded and started the car. Wait, he didn't know my home address, did he?

I ignored that and turned my head to gaze outside the window, watching as the places seemed like they were moving slowly at first, though it was the car moving slowly as the driver tried to find his way out of here. After a while, the buildings, sky, and trees around seemed to be moving pretty fast, confirming that he was driving with high speed.

I continued gazing at the window, imagining the sky as a body of water as it seemed to be moving really fast.

After a few minutes, I got pretty bored and shifted my gazee to Hames. He was typing away on his phone.

He ought to have noticed I was staring at him, through his sideways glance, but he was so intense in what he was doing on his phone.

Hames Hendrix, CEO of HamIX International, rich, admitting to only myself hat he was very handsome (definitely the type of hot men Lila and I had always dreamed of marrying since we we were teenagers), smart, hardworking, intelligent, stubborn, grumpy, cold, weird, sometimes seemed caring. Okay, how could a man with all these qualities be in love with me? It made no sense so I let out a chuckle.

Hames raised his head from his phone, glancing at me with a blank expression. "What?"

"No reason. I have every right to chuckle, right?" I shrugged.

He shot me a skeptical glance then returned his gaze to his phone.

I also returned my gaze out the window.

After about a billion years later (just kidding, it was about an and a half later) of a frustrating boredom, the car began moving slowly in an extremely familiar area. Oh my God, I was almost home!

A few minutes later, the car was brought to a stop in front of mine and Nikita's house. Jeez, finally. I missed being home.

"You're obviously excited to be back home, judging from how you're grinning so hard." He smirked. "Don't think it's the end of the road in my attempt to have you."

My grin automatically slipped as he held my arm, leaning his face closer to mine. Before I could prevent it from happening, he smacked his lips against mine.

It wasn't so expected so I was quite shocked. His hand gently stroked the bare skin of my forearm, causing me to shut my eyes as it rolled all the way to the back.

The movement of his lips against mine was sending a series of sparks to infest my internals, and made my brain do a backflip.

I was lost; lost of control of my mind, lost of my breath, lost of what to do.

His kiss was possessing me. I could've moved backwards to break apart from it but the intoxication of his kiss was beyond explicable.

What was this? Who could've known kissing this demon of a boss could be so... Should I say, amazing? Yeah, definitely the right word.

He broke apart from the kiss. Oh no, I didn't want it to end yet, it was too good to end so soon. Wait, what? Was I crazy?

He let go of my arm, making it seem like something great just detached from me. Okay, I needed to have my brain checked? Something great? What was happening to you, oh poor brain?

Hames leaned back in his seat, throwing his head back. "Gosh, it was amazing." He commented.

I gazed at him with a straight face, not saying a word. How on Earth could this dude love me? It made no sense. For almost two years? Unbelievable. Could there be any bit of romanticism in him, or sweetness?

'You'll never know if you don't try to figure it out and give him a chance to express it.' My inner mind (if that's a thing) said to me.

He raised his head to me again. "Won't you get out of the car?"

I still gazed at him, squinting my eyes, for a while. "Hames, do you seriously love me?"

He drew his eyes in askance, glancing around like a confused turkey for a while before he returned his gaze to me. "Are you kidding me?" He chortled.

"It's a question." I was in serious mode right now.

"I'm madly in love with you. Do you know what TWO YEARS means?"

"You said it's almost two years, not two years." I reminded him of that.

"It doesn't matter."

"In a way, it does."

"Whatever. I'm madly, crazily in love with you. I don't know how it happened but the first glance at you on the first day I saw you, my brain melted in my skull and I wanted you right that instant. Every time I have a dream, it's always about you. I think of you every single time. You're the only woman who has this effect on me."

"Then why didn't you let me know this earlier?"

"It's clearly because I don't express my feelings directly. I tried to express it in other ways."

"By being cold, grumpy, annoying?" I still maintained a straight face.

"No-well, not exactly." He half-shrugged. "Mom, Kade, and everyone else who's friends with me know and understand that I never express my true emotions for quite a while. It took about five years till I let my mother know something very important. Now, I've expressed my feelings to you, you're hurting me by rejecting me. I'm a very sweet person to the ones I care about and I'm willing to change for you."

I could either follow Nikita's advice to date him for his money because... well, I wasn't such a good or innocent person. Or, I could follow Lila's advice to give him a chance. Oh, perfect thinking; I could do both.

"Hames, I think I'd give you a chance."

His jaw dropped. "Really?!" He uttered in patent disbelief.

"Yes. You might have your good side which you should 'prove' to me."

"I'll definitely do that. This is so amazing, thank you." He sounded and looked genuinely glad.

"Goodbye."

He held my hands, pulling me close to him and connected our lips. Once again, my brain went numb, thought the kiss only lasted for a second or two.

"I'm so excited, I should throw a party for this. I'd come over to your house tomorrow to take you to the movies or somewhere romantic enough." Oouu, the movies. "No, not tomorrow. The day after tomorrow is the second day of my break, that'd be perfect."

"Sure, I'll be glad to do that." He held my shoulders. "Thank you so much, you've made me the happiest Man in the world, and I promise to love you more."

I didn't say a word but only opened the car door, waved at him then stepped out of it.

He was grinning from ear to ear; a happy expression I had never expected to see him make.

Was I making the right decision by giving him a chance? Well... there was no harm in chances and trying.

I turned around the car and to our house, ready to have a nice bath and dive into a 24-hour sleep, if that was possible.