Zayn watched Rina as he pulled herself up from the couch, clutched her heels in one hand, and mumbled something about needing a bath. He sighed as he let her go, accepting that he had lost the argument at that moment.
Rina was probably right, he thought to himself. Their contract which was yet to even begin, was only meant to last for a short time. What happened the minute he left? Zayn hadn’t thought that far into the future, but the fact that he had almost made a damning promise never to let go snapped him back into the present, shoving the crude circumstance they were in into his face.
He reached for the glass Rina had been using, filling it with more liquor and placing it against his lips. He took a sip and closed his eyes, relishing in the solitude of the cottage.
Zayn couldn’t hear anything from beyond the hallway, but he knew Rina was in there, perhaps, bawling her eyes out again. It was the first time he had seen her cry, other than the forced tears that had graced his screen when she was still a star in the industry.
And all through the ride back to the cottage, Zayn had had to suppress his fury, gripping the steering so hard he feared he might need to send the car to the mechanic after today. His eyes fell on the cracked glass cup, and he sighed for the umpteenth time.
He had gone into the hallway to stay away from Rina, and to squash the compelling urge to pull her into his arms and whisper soothing words in her ears. They were all foreign feelings to him, and Zayn didn’t want to have to go through that. He had never been a fan of love or any affection at all in the slightest.
Apart from the fact that they are usually nonexistent, they tend to mess things up a lot. Zayn had only been in a relationship once in his entire life, and that was where he had made the analogy that feelings were always the culprits in ruining beautiful associations.
So instead, he had flings all around and had never bothered with how they felt about him. In fact, he treated them with so much indifference and insignificance that they didn’t dare talk to him about emotions. They knew their place in his life, and Zayn was great that way.
But this? This was new.
He had been staring out through the arched window at the end of the hallway when his phone rang. The Private Investigator he had put in charge of Rina reached back to him with the details of the meeting she’d just had. Fury gripped every inch of him so much that the glass had to suffer from his assault.
It wasn’t helping that Rina didn’t want him to do a thing about it. But at least, she was learning fast not to ask where he got his information from.
Uneasy and with an annoying heavy weight on his chest, Zayn rose from the couch and continued his tour of the cottage. His eyes fell on the tulips in the clear vase, sitting in the center of the dining table, and at once, his face lit up in satisfaction and pleasure.
Suddenly, he heard a scream from down the hallway. Zayn didn’t even hesitate for a second as he whipped his head in that direction and took to his heels. He pushed every door in the hallway open on his way, until the one at the end finally budged.
His eyes were frantic as he raced in, and without thinking, pushed the door to the adjoining bathroom open. A high-pitched scream resounded in the cottage again, but this time, it was borne out of shock.
Rina stared at him wide-eyed, huddled in the bathtub with her knees against her chest and her hands wrapped around them. The scented shower gel wafted over to him, and Zayn shook his head, clearing out the heady feeling that had attempted to overtake it.
He took in the scene in a swift glance. Rina wasn’t in any danger. There was a tablet on one end of the wall, lifted above the water with a wooden frame. It showed a horror movie, the dark sinister sound giving the genre away.
“What are you doing in here?” Rina screamed, pulling his attention back on her. He swallowed when he took her bare face in, devoid of the makeup that made her look fierce earlier today. Now, she looked like a stunning and naive young woman trying to navigate through the throes of life without a backup.
Exhaustion lines streaked on her beautiful face and almost unconsciously, Zayn made a mental note to send a ride over to get her sometime this week for a day at the spa. She needed it, with all the running around she’d been doing since the start of her scandal. He doubted Rina had allowed herself a second of rest, consumed with the innate need to make a comeback in the entertainment industry.
Watching her this way, Zayn realized how hard it would be to keep his promise. Zayn Graham wasn’t used to watching on the sidelines. It made him feel helpless and stepped on, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt that way.
“Why are you still here?” Rina screamed again, her gaze on him, almost pleading with him.
“I heard you scream!” Zayn muttered too calmly, a contrast with the way he actually felt inside. “I thought someone had followed us home and climbed through the window to attack you.”
Zayn knew it was high time he left the cottage and returned to his house, but for some reason, he couldn’t even move his feet.
“I was seeing a horror movie,” Rina explained, pointing to the screen. “And I didn’t even think you’d still be around. Why haven’t you seen yourself out?”
Zayn swallowed, ignoring her questions. He tried so hard not to stare, but it was practically impossible since she had pulled his attention to it herself, albeit unknowingly.
When she pointed at the screen, she had forgotten she’d been trying to cover her body, and Zayn caught a peek at her perky boobs. He thought he was going to combust in flames.
“Rina…” he started to say something, then stopped suddenly and turned around, walking out of the bathroom and the cottage.