Moment of Truth 1

Meanwhile, inside Holden's bedroom, someone was sleeping soundly, occasionally sniffing the pine scent that enveloped the room.

For some reason she couldn't explain, Stellar's hand wandered between her legs. She cupped her mound and took a sharp inhale at contact.

The refreshing citrus and woodsy balm pervaded Stellar's nose and an image of Holden flashed in her head.

Imagining it was his hands touching her, Stellar unbuttoned her jeans and slid her hand under her panties.

Using a single digit, she rubbed her slit, and she gasped when it drenched with her own juice.

"Why am I so horny?" Stellar murmured with her eyes closed. Was this the product of her reading erotica at night?

However, cold sweat broke out from her skin in pellets and her breathing labored as she teased the bundle of nerves between her slick folds.

Stellar was tethering at the edge of her orgasm and she was tempted to thrust a finger inside but was too scared to do so, so she just opted to circling her finger on her clit and cupping her breast.

Her mind lusted at the image of Holden doing dirty things on her body.

As if her lewd imagination wasn't enough, her ears suddenly played tricks on her and she could hear Holden's voice in her head.

"Who are you wet for, Star?"

"You," she drawled, pressing her finger harder on her sensitive nub.

"And what do you want me to do?"

"Play me… fuck me senseless..." Stellar's knees parted farther apart as she begged for her release.

Her hips rolled, crumpling the sheets. When the pressure in her clit wasn't enough, she slid two digits between her folds.

Up and down. Up and down. She imagined Holden lapping her cunt with his tongue and her toes curled every time her fingers nudged her slippery tight hole.

The closer she tipped on the edge, the heavier the weight in between her legs got.

Chanting Holden's name in a whisper, hoping the image of his head in between her legs would hear her reverence, Stellar then cried a curse as her juice pooled in her hand.

Catching her breath, the balmy aroma of pine roused Stellar from her psychedelic trance.

It felt familiar to her and foreign at the same time. For sure, her room didn't smell like pine but lavender.

Stellar saw to it that her room had a hint of fragrant herb at all times, courtesy of the fresh bunch of purple blooms she would place in a vase and change every ten days or until it wilted.

Stellar chuckled. How could she not be in her room when she was celebrating her housewarming dinner with friends in her penthouse last night?

"Yanyan?" she croaked with her eyes closed, calling out for her friend, but guessed she must have left already since that's how Yanyan usually operated.

Yanyan, most of the time, would leave Stellar the moment she deemed the latter was home and safe.

Plus, she had a job that she wouldn't dare be late to, so Yanyan probably already went home that same night.

Rolling on the bed, Stellar buried her face in the pillow and swiped her hand on the mattress, drowning herself in the fresh pine aroma that the movement emitted.

What the F? Nope. Definitely not her bed.

Rolling again with her back now resting on the mattress, Stellar chanted, "I'm in my bedroom. I'm in my bedroom. Please let me be in my bedroom."

She wished that it was really the case, although her senses were alert and telling her the reality that she wasn't.

Darkness swallowed Stellar's vision as her eyes slowly opened and adjusted to her surroundings.

She found herself laying on a bed in the center of the room, painted in muted gray and beige.

The color palette felt oddly familiar to Stellar. Was it the same room that she toured in the penthouse suite with Aunt Lotus and Cooper?

She remembered the skylight windows on the first floor bedrooms, and she almost picked one of those rooms but her clothes wouldn't fit in the closet so she was forced to stay in the master bedroom.

Maybe she passed out and didn't make it to her room and slept in here instead?

However, something about sniffing Holden's pine scent in the proximity did things to Stellar's stomach.

Was she in Holden's room or her nose just needed a deep cleaning?

After all, last night, Stellar and Holden were sitting next to each other and their only time away was if one of them took a bathroom break.

Truthfully, she had been inhaling this scent all night, and she wondered if it was embedded in her skin with how she kept sniffing him by accident or secretly because Holden did smell so warm and inviting.

Turning her head to the left, a floor to ceiling bookshelf filled with hardbound materials intimidated her.

In a split second, she ejected from the bed and dug her hand in her pocket. Lucky for her, she felt her elevator card.

Did she just masterbate in Holden's bedroom???

Her eyes scanned the room, and she let out a sigh of relief when she confirmed that she was alone. "Okay. I'll just send him a thank you message later. Now… let's escape first."

Embarrassment washed over her when she couldn't come up with a reason why she had to sleep in Holden's room when they were celebrating in the penthouse.

Slowly opening the door, Stellar saw the elevator doors to the left side of the hallway and so she sprinted towards it, celebrating her good fortune that it parted open for her right away.

Her body collided in the cold steel walls, and her hand held onto her heart as it pounded painfully in her chest. Confusion distracted Stellar like the patterns inside the kaleidoscope.

Automatically, the elevator brought her to the lobby when she pressed the close button and forgot to beep her card in her panic.

The momentum inside the elevator car tickled Stellar's belly as she was lifted up to the penthouse after swiping her key card.

"Can't be late for work," Stellar chanted in her head.

Dragging her feet in the place she now called home, she greeted Manang Juliet, who was in the kitchen, a good morning, and asked the old lady if she could whip up the same sandwich she had been making.

"I love your sandwiches, Manang, but no pickles please."

"Oh, I have your sandwiches here, Young Madam, would you like me to toast it up a bit?"

"Yes, and ginger tea, please? My hangover is bad. I'll just take a shower and be back in ten. Oh, has everyone left already?"

"Yes, everyone left. Young master and the two ladies were gone before sunrise," Manang Juliet responded with a nod and her eyes flitted to the triangle slices of BLT on the plate which Holden had made earlier.

He explicitly told her that the one in the purple plate was for Stellar, and the one in the blanca plate was for Cooper

She watched as Stellar climbed up the flight of stairs. Anxiety crippled her the higher Stellar reached.

Sliding a drawer open, she dialed Lotus's phone and updated the madam with the latest happenings.

This was the moment of truth. There was no way Stellar and Holden wouldn't figure out that they were living under one roof.