Just One Orgasm!

The room was quiet when Emilia returned.

She pushed the door open with her shoulder, her backpack hanging loosely from one hand. Rowan was sitting at her desk, with a book open in front of her.

She didn’t look up immediately.

Emilia closed the door behind her. "Hey."

Rowan’s eyes lifted from the page. "You’re back."

There was no particular warmth in her voice.

Emilia nodded. "Yeah."

She dropped her backpack beside her bed and began taking out her things.

For a few moments, neither of them spoke.

Then Rowan closed her book. "So."

Emilia glanced at her. "So?"

"How was your birthday?"

Emilia smiled faintly. "It was nice."

"That’s all?"

Emikia raised a tiny brow at her. She has been trying to get the Rowan she first met back but Rowan had been distant from her since she found out about Adrian.

"What do you want me to say?" Emilia asked her.

"You disappeared for the entire weekend." Rowan pointed out. "And now you’re back looking like you barely slept."

Emilia laughed softly, almost shy. "I slept."

Rowan raised an eyebrow.

"Okay. Not much." Emilia added. She continued unpacking.

Rowan watched her for another moment before speaking again. "I heard Adrian took you to the estate."

Emilia’s hands stopped. She slowly turned. "You heard?"

"Our mum told me." Rowan said with a matter of fact tone. "She told me Adrian brought a...." She casually eyed Emilia from her head to her toes. "In her words, ’Adrian brought a lovely lady home’"

Emilia sighed. "We didn’t know she would be there."

Rowan’s expression changed slightly. "I don’t like the idea of Adrian showing another lady to her." She turned her eyes to her book. "She wants him happy but I doubt she would ever forget what the last woman he brought in almost did."

Emilia frowned. "I’m not her, Rowan. Also, this is temporary." She tried to explain. "I mentioned it last time."

Rowan shrugged. "I’ve heard enough."

Emilia studied her.

There was something strange about Rowan’s expression. Her expression looked like a warning. As if she needed to say more, but held back.

"You want to tell me something."

Rowan looked away. "Maybe."

Emilia sat on her bed. "Okay."

Rowan remained silent for several seconds. Then she said quietly, "Do you know Adrian wasn’t always a Belmont?"

Emilia’s eyebrows pulled together, wondering where this was leading to. "I know." She said softly.

"He was adopted."

Emilia nodded patiently. "I know."

"Do you?" Rowan looked at her.

"I mean... I knew he was adopted, but I didn’t know much about it."

Rowan nodded slowly. "Most people don’t."

Emilia waited.

Rowan leaned back against her chair. "He was twelve when my family adopted him."

Emilia’s eyes softened. "What happened before that?"

Rowan’s gaze dropped to the book in her lap.

"I don’t know everything." She paused. "And honestly, I don’t think anyone does."

Emilia said nothing.

"But I know what happened after." Rowan looked at her. "He kept a bag packed."

Emilia blinked in mild confusion.

"His clothes." Rowan gestured to her hands. "A few books. Some things that mattered to him." She swallowed. "He kept them in a bag underneath his bed. For three years."

Emilia stared at her. "Three years?"

Rowan nodded. "He never unpacked it."

"Why?"

Rowan’s expression became distant. "Because he thought we’d eventually ask him to leave."

Emilia’s chest tightened. "Your family?"

"Yes."

"But why would he think that?"

"Because he’d already learned not to assume people were going to keep him." Rowan said quietly.

Emilia looked down at her fingers with empathy.

Rowan continued.

"He wasn’t waiting for us to throw him out because we’d done something terrible to him. He just..." She paused. "He didn’t trust that being wanted meant being wanted permanently."

Emilia’s throat tightened.

Rowan looked toward the window. "But I think that’s how he survived."

Emilia remained silent.

She tried imagining Adrian at twelve.

Not the man she knew now, and not the man who moved through the world with absolute certainty.

Just a twelve-year-old boy in a new house with a new family, and a new room.

A packed bag underneath the bed, waiting.

"Did anyone know?" Emilia asked.

"I did." Rowan gave a small shrug. "He didn’t have to explain it."

She looked down at her hands.

"Every time there was an argument in the house among my friends and I related to a toy or something, he’d look toward the hallway."

Emilia’s heart sank.

"Like he was expecting someone to tell him to leave?"

Rowan nodded.

She paused, and added thoughtfully. "He never made a scene. Never begged anyone to keep him. He’d just go quiet."

Emilia swallowed. "So what happened after three years?"

Rowan’s expression softened. "He unpacked it." She smiled faintly. "I watched him just walk into his room, opened the bag, and put everything away."

Emilia stared at her. "And he never packed it again?"

Rowan nodded. "He stayed."

Emilia’s smile grew slightly.

Rowan looked down. "Maybe he finally realized he wasn’t going anywhere."

Emilia smiled faintly.

Then Rowan’s expression suddenly changed. The softness disappeared from her face. She closed the book in her lap and looked directly at Emilia.

"But there’s something you need to understand."

Emilia’s smile faded. "What?"

Rowan leaned forward slightly, her elbows resting against her knees.

"Adrian stayed because he eventually learned that our family wasn’t going to throw him away." She paused. "That doesn’t mean he stopped being afraid of it."

Emilia listened carefully.

"He’s better now," Rowan continued. "Much better. But some things don’t disappear just because you grow up."

Emilia swallowed.

Rowan’s eyes remained fixed on hers. "Adrian doesn’t handle abandonment well."

"I wouldn’t abandon him."

"You don’t know that."

The bluntness of the response caught Emilia off guard.

Rowan didn’t look apologetic.

"You don’t know what you’ll feel six weeks from now. Or two months from now. You don’t know what happens when this..." She gestured vaguely between them. "...stops being exciting."

Emilia looked down.

Rowan continued. "And that’s why I’m telling you this now."

"Rowan—"

"No. Let me finish."

Her voice remained unusually serious.

Emilia went quiet.

Rowan took a breath.

"My brother has spent most of his life learning how to keep people from having enough power to hurt him."

Emilia’s chest tightened.

"And somehow, you’ve gotten past that."

She didn’t know what to say.

Rowan’s gaze softened for barely a second before becoming firm again.

"I don’t know what exactly is happening between you two. Maybe it’s temporary, like you keep saying. Maybe you genuinely believe you can keep it casual."

Emilia remained silent.

"But if you ever realize you’re falling in love with him, don’t play with him." Rowan sat back. "I’m serious, Emilia."

Emilia looked at her.

"Don’t fall in love with him halfway."

Her brows drew together. "What does that even mean?"

"It means don’t give him everything one day and decide you want your freedom the next." Rowan’s voice remained calm, but there was unmistakable warning beneath it. "Don’t make him believe you’re staying if you’re already planning your exit."

Emilia swallowed. "I wouldn’t do that."

"I hope you wouldn’t."

Rowan looked away for a moment.

"Because Adrian doesn’t need someone who makes him feel wanted and then reminds him why he shouldn’t trust anyone."

Emilia’s expression softened.

"He has already spent enough of his life wondering when people were going to leave." She looked back at Emilia. "I don’t want to watch my brother go through that again."

Emilia’s fingers tightened together. "I care about him," she said quietly.

Rowan’s eyes narrowed slightly. "I see it. And that’s exactly why I’m warning you."

Emilia thinned her lips.

"And if you do love him..." Rowan paused, choosing her words carefully. "Then don’t punish him for loving you back."

Emilia’s throat tightened.

Rowan stood and returned the book to her desk.

"I’m not telling you to leave him." She added, as she turned back toward Emilia. "I’m telling you to understand what you’re getting yourself involved in."

Emilia nodded slowly.

Rowan held her gaze for another moment.

"He’s my brother. I know him better than most people ever will."

Her voice softened.

"And I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you, or even, talk to me about anyone."

Emilia’s heart skipped a beat.

Rowan picked up another book. "So if you stay, be honest with him." She paused.

"And if you decide to leave..." Her eyes met Emilia’s. "Leave cleanly."

Emilia stared at her.

"Don’t make him beg you to stay." Rowan’s voice dropped.

The room fell silent.

Emilia looked down at her hands, suddenly understanding that Rowan wasn’t threatening her.

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