Renewed Passion

Aubrianne Ivanov

Aubrianne lay in bed after a long day, and falling asleep took her less than a minute.

She had gotten help from Daniel to bring in her bags, and after bidding him farewell, she undressed and headed straight to the bathroom.

While she showered and dried her skin, she replayed today's events and smiled.

Today started off interesting. Mr. Grey's almost heart attack replayed in her mind, and more and more, Jada's words rang loud and clear.

Aubrianne was looking forward to her meeting on Thursday and, at the same time, was still determining if she was ready to face reality.

She was still determining if she was ready to hear from Mr. Thornton and learn his reasons.

She immediately tried to call Jada again, but to no avail, and this time it went straight to voicemail. Her phone was off or dead.

Aubrianne yawned and stretched. She decided to spend her day unpacking all her luggage tomorrow, as Aubrianne had been living out of her suitcase since she arrived. Not getting the time to unpack and fully settle.

'Tomorrow, I will unpack, take a tour around the house, and check out the backyard.' That was the last thought Aubrianne had before she fell right to sleep.

Sometime during the night, unbeknownst to Aubrianne, someone was watching Aubrianne's sleeping form.

The Intruder had walked around Aubrianne's home, looking for an easy entry. To the Intruder's dismay, none was found. This house was like fort knox, fully secured.

You had to be let in. Breaking in was not an option. Not without alarming someone. The Intruder was getting agitated, but it did not matter. This was a minor roadblock for him.

He returned to the back, and upon closer inspection, to his surprise, through a slit in the blackout curtains where two joined, the light from the bathroom allowed the Intruder to see Aubrianne's form resting comfortably on the bed.

He inhales as if the very sight of her breathes new life into him. He leans his hand and head on the glass wall while peeking in. Relief washed over him at the site of her.

Merely seeing her so calm and peaceful was everything to him. He suddenly wanted her in his arms and remembered why he was there.

He could not wait to have her in his arms, and he wanted her to feel relaxed and be as comfortable as she was right now with him and only him. Always.

He did not want her to fear him and knew he had a long way to go in making it up to her. However, he was convinced she would give him a second chance.

That is all he needed, a second chance to prove he could be the man she needed. Aubrianne was special. She was different from any other woman he had met in his life.

Even though it took him all over the world in his previous line of work. He did not have the time for relationships, or even the thought of starting a family ever crossed his mind.

But with Aubrianne, he had started to have all kinds of thoughts, thoughts of a family, of claiming her and making her his, consuming every bone in his body. He ached with the need to touch her and be touched by her.

To sink into her, to make her melt in his arms after he pleasured her repeatedly.

With a renewed passion, he returned to the garage entrance thinking he may have missed something.

However, he was sadly interrupted when a lovely neighborly couple decided to go for a stroll in the park at this time of night. How odd? Seriously?

And they were heading to the dead end where Aubrianne's house was located.

The Intruder left his task of getting in via the garage door and closely observed the couple.

When suddenly, that said couple decided they wanted to run, and so happened to choose the path at that dead end that led to the back of Aubrianne's home.

To the front of the house now, he ducks down low and crawls, trying to stay unnoticed as he aims to get a closer look at the couple.

Looking closely, the Intruder confirms they were indeed heading toward the back of Aubriannes house.

Damn it, f**k, f**k, f**k, he cursed. One thing he was sure of was that he did not want to alarm anyone before even getting his hands on Aubrianne.

He feared if that happened and she felt unsafe, she would no longer be alone, making it a bit more difficult for him to get to her. She might even move again, which was a chance he was unwilling to take.

Right now, she felt safe, and he wanted to keep her that way, feeling safe and unguarded. He did not wish for any neighbor, or anyone for that matter, to see him and spoil his plans by even hinting at or suggesting anything to Aubrianne.

Soon they were coming around on the Intruder's side, and the Intruder quickly sprang into action, running and jumping Aubrianne's fence at the back that leads into the forest behind her house. He went high, tailing it towards his vehicle parked a long way out.

Aubrianne's lovely neighborly couple went around her house, sniffed the air, and followed the trail of the Intruder, ensuring it was no longer close by.

However, they quickly returned home, not wanting to leave their duties unattended for too long. Their job was to keep their eyes on that house, not trail anyone.

They reported what had just happened and continued surveillance.

********************************************

Aubrianne woke to the sun peeking into her room. The ray of light hit her directly in her face, 'how annoying,' she groaned while stretching and opening her eyes.

The eye she gave that blackout curtain was deadly. If looks could kill and that blackout curtain was alive, it would have withered and died.

Aubrianne saw the light was where the two joined and realized she had not pulled them back flush together when she had looked out in her backyard the day before.

Putting it behind her, she stretched again, grabbed her phone, and tried calling Jada again.

Still no answer.

She decided to get up and get cracking with her task of unpacking her luggage and packing away the purchases she had made.

Aubrianne also wanted to go through her mom's things. That box was now on her mind. She had the weirdest dream last night, only it felt like a memory, or was it a dream she had dreamt before? She did not know.

She had dreamt of her mom. They were back in their apartment in Clifton Hill, and her mom was urging her to wake up after telling her she was on the right path. Nothing made sense in the dream; however, she woke up with the box on her mind.

Aubrianne got off her bed, brushed her teeth, and got busy.

Two hours had passed, and that mystery box was still on Aubrianne's mind, but she wanted to power through because of the fact that she had been putting off unpacking.

She needed to feel like she had accomplished something on her own. Because since she arrived, everything has been handed to her.

'The least I can do is unpack my own things, and that is exactly what I am going to do,' she had argued with that voice in her head, screaming, the box, the box.

Darn it, fifteen minutes passed, and that box was still there, just literally dancing and twirling around in the back of her mind taunting her. Making little monkey faces at her, saying, 'come and get me' or 'you cannot catch me.'

Sighing and huffing, she packed away the pair of jeans she held in her hands. Ok, that's it!

Aubrianne decided to go to the storage room and look for this mysterious box. She remembered she packed it away with the items shipped before her arrival.

In the storage room, she looked around for the brown boxes that were taped up. There were several. She recalls storing that black box in one of them.

After eagerly opening about five boxes, there it was, the black box. Aubrianne's eyes widened at the sight of the box, and she stayed a good while eyeing the package suspiciously.

Eventually, she tentatively reaches in, gently grasping with her fingertips, getting a good grip below. She lifts the black box out.