Frustrations (1)

Ruth's POV

At the sound of a knock on the door, Caleb made to stand, only for me to shoot up before he could and walk through the den, towards the front door.

After waking up to the sound of something crash somewhere, I had followed the sound bleary-eyed, out of the bedroom and into the den.

The sight of a flower vase toppled over sideways had made anxiety race through me, and I had hurriedly made my way to the poolside area, noticing one of the French doors thrown open carelessly.

Almost stepping out into the cold, gray morning, I had paused at the sight of Caleb's back facing me, his head in his hands, his wide shoulders hunched defensively, as if he was waiting for someone to strike him.

Even though I knew it was unreasonable for me to assume this, but for some reason, Caleb looked lost to me.

Which was ridiculous, of course. Caleb was not the kind of guy who was ever lost by any sense of the term.

But there was something helpless about him, like he was unable to hold himself upright anymore on his own. He looked like he was floundering, searching for a way out and the sight had made me want to call him back.

And so I had.

But it was when he turned to face me, had I realised that he was barely clothed.

Hard planes and defined muscles all over, his body presented a mouth watering sight. Strong legs, narrow hips and corded arms made him look more like someone who regularly did grunt work instead of sitting inside a cabin, like he really did.

Unconsciously, I let my eyes drift down his body, greedily absorbing everything in sight until I reached the part of him that was most affected by my appraisal.

Oh my.

My throat worked, instinctively remedying it's sudden dryness and I felt my body respond to his, completely out of my control.

I swallowed as I imagined vividly what could've happened, had I not spotted vibrant red behind us. And now that I remembered it, I just could not pull my mind away.

I hadn't realised what was it at first, having driven too out of my mind with lust. But I caught on soon enough, the horror and worry droving every bit of lustful haze away from my mind.

After helping him inside and into an armchair, I had fetched some cotton swabs from one of the ensuite cabinets, pressing it against the deep gashes at his soles, before calling the front desk for an emergency first-aid kit to be delivered to our suite as soon as possible.

Now, as I walked back to the den with the box, I avoided his probing eyes as I sat on the coffee table in the center of the sitting area and pulled his feet up on my knees.

"You really don't need to do that," he mumbled in a gruff voice, but I refused to raise my eyes, making a non-committal sound at his statement instead.

He was still barely dressed, and I was determined not to let my eyes drift up and over his body again, afraid of what will happen if I did.

The memory of our recent encounter was still vividly clear in my head and his too, judging by the restless twitch of his toes as I gently cleaned his wound.

"Stop it", I told myself. If he can read my body language from a distance, God only knew what would happen if he detected the shivers that were fighting to run through my body now that we were in touching range of each other again.

Working quickly, I cleaned up the cuts, and to my relief, they weren't as deep as they had initially seemed to be. Using a fresh cotton pad and gauze, I bandaged his foot up neatly, before repeating the whole process with his other one.

He sat silently all through my ministration, letting me do what I wanted without a protest. Once I was done, I stood up, putting the box aside, then paused for a moment, at loss of what to do next.

I looked at Caleb, but he seemed lost in thoughts, his eyes slightly unfocused, not even caring that he was still barely dressed.

I caught the sight of my puffy face and crazy hairs in reflection of the flat-screen, and decided that a shower would be a good idea. Leaving a silent Caleb behind, I went to the intercom, calling up the front desk and asking them to send someone to clean-up the broken glass.

It was when I walked towards the bedroom door did his voice made me pause at the doorway.

"Leo is having a bonfire tonight. You can come if you feel up to it."

He spoke hesitantly, so unlike his usually commanding tone that it took me a moment to come up with a reply.

"I'll be ready by seven."

His shoulders eased at my response and he finally looked up at me with his dark eyes, sparking with life for a second. He let a huge breathe out, nodding once before turning his head to stare at the sky outside that was slowly turning pink and orange with the oncoming dawn.

**

"And why are you not on the next flight out of that demented place yet, Ruth?"

My aunt's voice echoed through the room as I applied a touch of mascara on my lashes, completing my look.

"Because I am not coming back yet," I replied in the general direction of the phone, for what felt like a hundredth time to the hundredth person in last 2 hours.

After taking the shower, I had fallen back to sleep, deciding it was too early to be doing anything else.

As it was, hot showers usually made me sleepy, so I had grabbed some more snoozes before I absolutely had to get up.

Waking up at around noon, I was surprised to see a small food cart parked near the bed with a warm soup, orange juice, coffee, eggs, bread and a glass of water waiting for me.

Deciding to make a fresh pot of coffee in the kitchenette instead of having the luke warm one here, I finished off almost everything else off the cart, before going out to look for Caleb.

Instead of finding him though, I found his message stuck on the coffee machine on a sticky note.

"Out to run some errands. Will be back by 6. Have your meals, I have already pre-ordered them as per doctor's orders. Get a print out of the PDF I am emailing you. Be ready. I'll pick you up at seven."

I sighed at his bossy tone, but went ahead and got about every task he had assigned me done. The front desk graciously provided me printouts, and at sharp 2pm, my lunch was brought into my room.

Vegetable soup, garden salad, an omlette and a fruits.

Who the hell eats fruits with lunch?

Leaving them untouched, I ate the rest, then stupidly decided to return my family's calls.

2 hours and a quick shower later, I was still on the phone as yet another person rattled on about how crazy I was to not come home this second.

I made a few non-committal sounds randomly in between just to show that I was listening, as I left my phone on the bed and pulled on a pair of dark jeans with a deep red, long sleeved, flowy top that reached the top of my thighs. Deciding to let my hairs down as much as I dared to, I fastened the front parts with a hairclip and let the rest flow down my shoulders.

"You didn't want to marry yet, we agreed. You wanted to work, we agreed. You wanted to work as a measly secretary, we agreed. Don't you think it's high time you agreed to a few things back in return?"

My hand paused halfway towards my lips, as I swallowed the surge of anger. Lipstick in hand, I turned and strode back to the phone, lifting it near my mouth and cutting the speaker on the other side mid sentence.

"I did not call to strike a deal with any of you. Neither did I call to ask your opinions on how I live my life. I called to let you know that I was fine. You don't need to worry - moot point, as it seems - and that I will be out of town for longer than I had initially planned."

I breathed deep, ignoring the sputtering from other side. I honestly didn't even remember which one of my aunts it was. I lost the track after Aunt Nelly about an hour ago.

Talking over her again, I kept my voice sugary sweet, sure that the venom beneath the words would undoubtedly go undetected.

"Now, unlike some of us, I have some place I need to be, so I'll be disconnecting! Take care y'all! I'll talk to you soon! Bye!"  I disconnected before anyone else can even respond, then dropped my phone back down and sighed.

For some reason, I felt on the verge of tears but I swallowed hard, refusing to cry over this. It wasn't like my family didn't love me. They did, ofcourse, very much. But their controlling and overbearing attitude was just too suffocating to handle at times.

It wasn't that I was against their protectiveness for me. It was just that when they went and undermined me, or my ability to survive without them, when they put me down, or treated me like some imbecile in the name of love and concern, all I wanted to do was just break free from them and run away until not even their shadow fell over me.

Just as I started feeling some semblance of control, the bedroom door opened and Caleb strode in.

He paused when he looked at my face and frowned.

"Are you about to cry?"

It irritated me that he could read me so well. Who the hell did he think he was to barge in and make assumptions like that?

"You don't knock?" I spat through my gritted teeth, suddenly feeling antsy.

"Nope. That makes you wanna cry?" He said smirking, raising his brow in that usual annoying way of his.

So the Cocky Caleb was back. I was both relieved and disappointed, which was confusing. But then whatever about this guy wasn't?

"I could've been naked in here."

"And that's supposed to discourage me from barging in?"

I narrowed my eyes as he continued.

"Besides, I believe in equality. You walked in on me this morning when I was standing in my trunks."

"You were standing out in the open!"

"Tut tut, no good, Ms. Brooke. Each door deserves equal treatment no matter where they open up to."

Winking, he turned around and walked into the ensuite, leaving me standing with my mouth agape.

I swear I would lose my mind, trying to figure this man out.

Finishing my makeup, I left the room just as I heard the shower stop.

As I wandered into the den, my eyes fell on the flower vase he had toppled over, making me think about this morning.

I hadn't had a moment to sit and reflect on what had happened. Even after Sairey nagging me thousand times about how I should not judge the book by it's cover and people by their first impressions, I had always brushed off her words and just done it my way. And why shouldn't I?

I considered myself a great judge of character, and all it took for me to judge someone was one glance. Unlike Sairey, who always insisted on looking deeper and more leisurely, trying to find atleast one redeemable quality in people, I looked at them, judged them into a category, and dismissed them.

It was just my way. And it had always - always- worked. It saved a lot of heartache and time, something that Sairey could never claim to have ever achieved.

But this time, I was confused. Doubtful. Unsure.

"Ready?"

His voice made me look up at him just as he was pulling his eyes away from that same vase and back to my face.

As he looked back at me with some kind of expression I couldn't quite read, I nodded and moved towards the door, my mind reeling with a sudden realisation.

I was used to judging a book by it's cover. But this time, I might have found someone who had a brand new cover for every page of his story.

What remained to be seen was, whether that was a good thing or not.