Rye

A groan left his mouth as Lucian opened his eyes. His head felt heavy. Raising his head, he rubbed his temples whilst sitting up on the bed. He focused his blurry vision and frowned at the unfamiliar bedsheets.

The notes of wild roses floated in the room, drowning his senses.

"Good Morning," a chirpy voice greeted him.

This made him raise his head at the direction, and he froze at the sight.

Cladded in black, a woman was reclining against the couch. Those brown eyes held a twinkle to them, giving her a hint of playfulness. She exuded elegance and confidence as she got up. However, there was liveliness to her as well.

It stood to reason why Lucian was shocked by Valerie. This was the most emotion he saw in those once lifeless eyes of hers.

Creases appeared between both of his eyebrows.

Was she even Valerie?

She strode towards him and smiled at him.

"What's the matter?" Her tone was teasing.

This made Lucian think to what he was doing here. Wasn't he supposed to be at his apartment? That's when, it had hit him that he had opened the door for the delivery man, and the very next second he was knocked out.

She abducted him?

"Valerie?" he enunciated.

She scrunched up her nose and responded, "I hate that name. Call me Rye."

That made his jaws tighten, and he clenched his hand into a tight fist. Those eyes of his glared at her before grabbing on to her hand and pulling her down. She remained unfazed as she fell on the bed with him pining her down. Unadulterated rage was present in his gaze.

"Who are you?" he questioned.

Instead of responding to him, she raised her hand and ran her hand across his face slowly while commenting, "So passionate so early in the morning, not that I mind."

He grabbed on to her face, preventing from tracing his face and solemnly voiced out, "What games are you up to?"

Removing her hand from his hold, she grabbed on to the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer to her. Her minty breath hit on his neck.

"Games? What do you mean? I am just claiming what should have been mine," she expressed, "from a long time ago."

She softly kissed his cheeks following that.

As Lucian was still trying to process the baffling situation, she placed her manicured hand on his chest and pushed him back. He didn't resist. She then sat up on the bed.

His eyes examined the woman before him trying to piece everything together, especially the name she preferred to be called by, Rye. Just the mention of it was enough to get his blood boiling.

Humored, she chuckled.

"Look at you with that face," she commented, "it's as though you want to eat me up."

Getting up from the bed, she winked at him and flirted, "We can do that later on. Now, we need to get some food for that stomach of yours. You must be starving."

"How long was I out for?" he calmly questioned.

"Approximately twelve hours and thirteen minutes," she responded, "the drug ended up being more potent than what I anticipated."

At least he would be still able to catch the flight.

Rye was about to walk towards the door when she recalled something. Turning back to face him, she informed him with a smile: "And don't worry about that flight. I cancelled it. After all, there is no need for you to leave the country. Now, hurry up. You don't want the pancakes to get cold."

Following that, she closed the door, and Lucian ruffled his hair.

He hated being forced and wanted to leave, but the curiosity brewing inside him prevented him from making that decision.

That name was enough to make him delve deeper into the matter.