Aurora

It has been exactly one week since the last time Aurora had seen Matteo or his sister. She had to admit, she missed seeing Matteo even if he had a permanent scowl on his face. He was still one pretty man. It had also been a week since she has last eaten. There were just a few more days left before Aurora would receive her pay check and she would be able to buy her some groceries.

The only thing that was keeping her on her feet was the glasses of water she was able to drink. Even though she was starving, there was nothing a glass of water couldn't fix. It didn't make up for the immense hunger she felt but the water kept her refreshed and got her through the week.

It was late evening when Aurora had to lock up the cafe. This was her turn to work the late shift and had to stay longer than the others. She waited until the last customer walked out of the door and she made sure everything was in place before she left. She locked up the cafe and carefully made sure that she kept the keys safe in her bag.

It wouldn't be nice to lose it since she was held responsible.

She sighed as she looked at the road ahead of her. The way back to her apartment was still a long way and she couldn't afford to pay for the bus, so she decided on walking home. There was nothing she could do since she didn't own a car and there was no one around her that she knew to give her a lift.

Hardly anyone knew about her situation.

But it was okay. She couldn't burden anyone with her troubles since she didn't want to be a bother and cause unnecessary stress for others.

You told Matteo all your personal problems.

She giggled at her thoughts as she had to agree with it.

Aurora began to hum a tune that was stuck in her head ever since the day she had watched this movie. It was the tune that Coraline's other mother always hummed in the movie, a melody that Aurora became addicted to. She could understand that others would think she was weird humming this tune, since it was a scary children's movie and the song was creepy.

For her, it was beautiful piece. It brought her comfort whenever she would hum the song.

As the song progressed further, her steps slowed down as her head swung a bit to the left and then to the right. Her movements were a bit wobbly and unstable, her vision suddenly clouded by a blob of blur. She could hear her faint breathing starting to become irregular as she stopped and stood still.

She was starting to feel a bit lightheaded. The aftermath of not eating now took a toll on her body as the aching in her stomach had started to become worse. It growled at her as if demanding for just one bite of anything, and her head starting to feel heavy as if she could fall over at any moment in time.

Her body swayed to the front and Aurora let out a quiet whimper. She tried to gain all the strength she could to fight the drowsiness that began to take over her body. The tiredness and hunger became overbearing but she had to move. It was dangerous for her be alone in the middle of the night. So she forced her body to move and she began taking slow steps in the direction of her home.

All she could hear was the thumping of her heart beat booming in her eyes. Her eyes started losing focus as she empty pit in her stomach grew. Her body swayed even more to the left and then to the right as if wanting to fall over.

She felt herself give in. Dark spots began to cloud her vision as she felt her body slowly fall to the ground.

The distant sound of someone yelling her name was drowned out, as if she was underwater. Before she passed out, she saw the outline of a figure approaching her and when her eyes closed, she allowed the darkness to consume her.

Aurora slowly began to open her eyes. She shut them immediately as their was a lamp on the bedside table, which emitted light that blinded her.

She groaned as she felt her head ache and she felt the need to cry. She was confused as to where she was and not knowing what was happening to her, she started rolling on her side. The bed she was on did not belong to her.

She would know since her duvet was a dirty grey and there was holes in them. But this, was a white color and it smelt clean which gave her a sense of ease for a split second.

She let out a little moan as she clutched her head with her hand, the pounding in her head started becoming a bit overbearing.

"Careful." she heard a voice say.

It was deep and smooth, like rich velvet that had her body shuddering. A voice that she thought she recognized all too well.

She peeked through her lashes as she saw the figure of a man standing in front of her. Her face just reached his clothed stomach as he was standing and she was sitting on the bed. She looked up and blinked repeatedly to get the blur away from her vision so that she could see his face.

Aurora gasped as she locked eyes with dark ones. The ones that haunted her nightmares and was imprinted in her brain.

He stood in all his confident glory with his hands shoved in the pocket of his black trousers. He had on a plain black sweater which showcased all the dark markings on his arms right down to his hands. They were beautiful patches of art as they trailed down to his hands in different writings and patterns.

There were so many of them and it was a pretty sight to not gawk at.

His sweater that he had on was a bit tight against his body, making his muscles stand out of his arms. She scanned his face as he saw him standing with a blank expression, and she couldn't deny that it made him oddly attractive.

He looked really good in what he was wearing.

Dark and mysterious.

She backed away from him and without stopping her arm nearly slipped off the edge of the bed but she caught herself before she could fall.

"W-where am I? Why a-are you here? What?" she said as her eyes frantically scanned the room she was in.

It was a dark room. The walls were painted a dark shade of grey, and it was incredibly large. She would be able to fit her kitchen and bedroom into this one room from how spacious it was.

She was so small compared to the bed she was sitting on. She white comforter looked as if it was absorbing her small frame from how tiny she was.

"Breathe, little lamb." Matteo instructed.

She felt condemned to do so. She listened to him as she tried to calm her breathing and her beating for her heart. She focused on calming herself down as she closed her eyes, wanting to impress him by showing him she can listen to him.

She felt the need to do whatever he says.

Her breathing became steady and so did her heartbeat. She sighed in contempt but the questions were still swirling in her head and she looked at him in confusion.

"W-where am I?" she asked him.

"My house."

His responses were as dry as ever, she thought to herself.

"What happened?"

He stared at her for a while. "You passed out."

She cringed at she thought back, trying to remember what had transpired that night. She remembered feeling extremely faint as her body began to sway profusely at the lack of food and sleep.

She was embarrassed that he had to witness that.

Even though she felt embarrassed that Matteo saw her passing out, she was relieved to know that it was someone familiar that saw it. She cringed as she though about a random person finding her passed out on the street and possibly robbing her.

She thanked Mufasa, the star in the night sky for it being Matteo.

"H-how long was I out?"

"Nearly an entire day." he said.

She nodded as she bit her lip.

There was an awkward silence between them and Aurora avoided his penetrating gaze on her face. He always managed to make her nervous just by looking at her and without even saying anything. He was much too intimidating to focus.

He didn't even speak that much and it was hard to make conversation with him.

"When was the last time you have eaten?"

Aurora's body froze.

She wanted to lie to him and tell him that she had eaten the previous day. This made her think about the disapproving face her doctor had made when he could see through her lies. She couldn't lie to him but she couldn't also tell him when was the last time she ate something.

She gulped. "Yesterday."

"Don't lie." he said, a light growl soon followed.

"A week ago." she said as she hung her head down in shame.

"You haven't eaten in a week?" he asked her. She thought that she detected a hint of anger in his voice but thought nothing of it.

She nodded and looked at him. He had his jaw clenched and was breathing hard through his nose. She didn't understand why he looked so angry when she had answered him.

"Get up. You're going to take a shower and put on some clean clothes. After that you are going to come down to eat, okay?"

She had to admit she was a bit startled by his sudden change in demeanor. He had this aura of dominance radiating from his body, the order in his voice held no room for arguing. Aurora couldn't disobey him when he spoke to her like that, a voice so demanding and deep.

The more shocking thing was that he spoke more than he usually did. She had always wanted to hear more of his voice but was not expecting his commanding tone. She couldn't deny the way her insides churned at his pleasurable voice filled with dominance.

Aurora had a very few encounters with men and Matteo was by far the most mesmerizing male she had ever come across.

At this moment, she wanted to be good for him.

"Okay." she whispered.

Hey hey hey!

This was a very short chapter but I hope you guys enjoyed it.

What a turn of events, am I right? I drooled as I started describing what Matteo was wearing, gosh.

Thank you all so much for giving this book a chance, I am truly grateful for all of you <3

Bye-bye