The Grand Mistress

When the curtain flew open, a woman wearing the most beautiful white wedding gown Hawk had ever seen appeared. She was covered in a veil but right through it, Hawk could see her honey-colored eyes. For a moment he was amazed by how her estranged fiance suddenly became the woman in his dreams, the woman he longed to have waited for many years. Her aura then reminds him of some old feelings—the one you feel in Somerset village whenever the rain stops and the sun decides to finally show up and give everyone some warmth. It felt refreshing, vibrant and peaceful. 

However, just a second of staring and Hawk's confidence faltered.  There was something in the bride's eyes that made him shiver for a moment. 

No, that wasn't Feather. 

Feather's eyes were full of innocence and sweetness and she smiled at him like he was her everything. But the woman in front of him right then was different, her eyes were deep and full of pride and her smile, cunningly beautiful!

She smiled at him like he owed her a pocket of full gold and that the price for stealing it wouldn't come as easy as returning the money.

Hawk was confused. Upon realization that the one in front of her wasn't Feather, he looked around and realized there was nothing in the room but him and the woman. It was like time froze and that at that very moment they were the only thing that was significant in the world.

"Did you not like what you see?" The woman asked and pulled her veiled up so that Hawk Monsanto could finally see all of her. It was Simione. She looked at him sarcastically and Hawk swallowed a big lump in his throat knowing that she brought hell with her.

"Cat…" He said her name helplessly. 

"Oh so you do remember me," Simione raised a  brow at him. "I thought since you are soon to be a fully committed man, you had forgotten the kitten you raised at the back of your fiancee,"

She was mad and Hawk knew that. They looked at each other as  Hawk tried to find something to pacify the girl while Simione was ready to eat him alive. 

Simione thought how  could Hawk do such a thing at this moment? However she understood long before that Hawk Monsanto wasn't a reliable man and that nothing, not his words and his actions, were something you can rely on.

"Cat...I don't know how to say this but," Hawk was trying all his best to resist her. When he knew what happened to Feather and how she kneeled to fight for their love, some sense went into Hawk. What he was doing behind Feather's back wasn't something she deserved and certainly not something he wished for her. 

Cat however was someone he just met and the very first time he met her, she already knew he had a lover and so he didn't understand then why Cat was furious and why he cared about her feelings. Probably more than she ever cared about it.

"I don't know how to say this...but I have long decided to marry Feather," He tried to put on a face, even though his heart was breaking inside. For him, his feelings and wants do not anymore matter, what mattered for him was that Feather—his fuzzy Cat and the woman he had long waited for. She was then crying and suffering because of his rendezvous with Cat. He couldn't keep it happening especially when Feather was trying to act as if she wasn't hurting in front of him. 

"You know this from the start," He added.

"Of course I know Hawk Monsanto," Simione knew then that despite all her efforts with him, he still chose Feather and that makes her more mad. 

She then smiled as if they were not arguing  and  Hawk's inside twisted, immediately regretting he had said those words to her. It was like, Cat didn't care and that he was the one who's going to lose in the battle he started. 

"I know you are getting married and since the start, I didn't expect much from you. So I don't know why you are explaining," Simione lied and then turned to the full size mirror to look at her beautiful face. 

Lucy said she was the most beautiful woman she had seen in a wedding gown and she only hoped Hawk Monsanto could agree, but guess he was not. She certainly didn't expect him to mention Feather in their conversation right now as she didn't remember a time that he did. Perhaps he was really serious this time and that he was determined to get rid of her. Unfortunately, she's not the type who gives up that easily. 

"Did you think I came here for you?" She added the question.

"So you are not?" Hawk's pride fell at that. He was all feeling flattered knowing that she had gone so jealous about the wedding date that she went desperately to see him and even went as far as dressing up for him. "So what is this? Another coincidence?"

"I don't know... perhaps...who cares?" Simione answered, still looking at herself in the mirror, refusing to give Hawk an audience. "All I know is that my fiance brought me here for some wedding dresses and…." That's the time she turned to look at him. "...And you are stealing his seat,"

"Your fiance?" Hawk's expression darkened at what he heard. Did she just say he got a fiance and that she was here to try out wedding dresses too?

"Uh-hu," Cat gave her a slight nod and turned back to the mirror to watch her herself. Her face grimaced then as if she was not thoroughly satisfied with how she looked so she called for some staff members.

"Hey, can you curl my eyeglass a bit, for some reason they're so disobedient today," She asked gently to the person who came. 

"Yes Miss I can," the staff member replied who immediately proceeded to curl her lashes more.

"And can you check please if the buttons at my  back were sealed. I don't want them to fall down in front of my fiancee. I want everything to be so perfect," Cat continued, ignoring Hawk's clenching fist. At the corner of her eyes he watched his expression turn hard, almost ready to grope someone.

"And Miss, can you also escort that man to his room?I think he was lost or something. My fiance will be here any second and I don't want him to see any man looking at me," She hid a grin when she said that. "He's kind of possessive,"

"Sir, do you know what your room number is?" The girl who assisted Simione turned to ask Hawk, as if he was indeed the intruder of the room they were in.

"This is the room where your staff brought me and even my fiancee was here earlier," He defended, already annoyed by what was happening. "Look they even served me wine,"

"I'm sorry sir. I'll go and verify everything. Please stay here for a while as I look unto it," The girl bowed before she left.

Simione then took over the curling of her brow that in a moment, she missed what Hawk was doing. The moment the staff left, the man however,  paced the room toward Simione, grabbed the girl and pressed her into the wall.

"Who is the man you are marrying?" He asked, mad as hell, that Simione instantly believe if she'll give him a name, that person might end up dead the next morning.

"Why do you care?" Simione pushed him off, as if she wasn't expecting such an action from him when deep inside she knew and anticipated he would. For when was the time he was able to refuse her? There certainly was none! "Let go of me, I don't want my fiance to see you. He might think we had something,"

"But we have something," Hawk wasn't backing off. Whoever that man was, he just hoped he knew whom he was messing with. Immediately, all his concerns about Feather's hurt went away, toppled by his anger and fear that his mystery woman was owned by someone else. "You are my woman. How dare any man lay a claim on you!"

"I am NOT YOUR WOMAN!" She spat at his face giving him the same intensity as he did, or probably more because Hawk almost backed off at the angry expression that went on her face. "You just made that clear to me few minutes ago when you said—"

The intense argument halted with a frigid kiss. Hawk captured Simone's lips and owned it like it was all his. He dug his tongue into her but the girl wasn't very willing to take him in. Instead, Simione bit him. Hard. So hard that in a moment Hawk's lips bleed.

"Ahg," he pulled his lips away and tasted his own blood, eyes fixated at Simione. The anger in her eyes brought not anger, nor annoyance to him but rather a carnal urge. Seeing Simione so mad aroused him, and that even when she was refusing it, he rammed his mouth back to hers and let her taste his bleeding lips.

The second time around, Simione unexpectedly let him in. However when he thought she had surrendered to him then, the girl instead took the lead that in the moment, they battled on  who dominates the kiss.