The Devil's obsession with the Heiress

[Music recommendation: James Malikey - Pulse (Solo Piano)]

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Gavriel traced her ethereal features absentmindedly, noticing how her thick, beautiful lashes rested against her cheeks. Her plump, rosy lips were slightly parted, and the slow, even rhythm of her breathing made her look far more vulnerable than she ever allowed herself to appear during the light of day.

His eyes moved from her face to her long, blonde hair, which was sprawled messily against the white pillow.

Suddenly, he felt the same urge he had experienced twice before.

He wanted to feel those strands tangled around his fingers, to feel the tension as he pulled on them.

The thought alone made his fingers twitch at his side.

Frowning slightly, confused by his own train of thought, he lifted his hand and stared at it, as though it no longer belonged to him. Wondering what it was about this woman that stirred such unrestrained impulses within him.

So far, he knew her as someone fierce and strong, a woman who didn’t hold back when it came to getting what she wanted. It was a pleasant surprise to him as he was used to women fawning over him or falling to their knees if he so much as spared them a glance.

But Aliana was different.

She was defiant, sharp-tongued, and fearless whenever she spoke to him.

It would be a lie to deny that she fascinated him immensely, and that fascination was something he found dangerous.

Yes, it was dangerous because it was making him do things that were very uncharacteristic of him. It was disrupting the order of his life, and he never liked it when something interfered with his control.

Gavriel didn’t see her as much more than a mere human, someone who shouldn’t be worth his time or effort.

Yet, he found himself tangled in her situation, one she had insisted on involving him in.

Surprisingly, he found it increasingly difficult to do the right thing and create the much-needed distance he would have maintained with any other woman.

Otherwise, how else could he explain being here, in her room, when he should be anywhere but here?

Back in the hallway, when he had momentarily paused as Reve appeared, he hadn’t realised she was watching.

He had heard her retreating footsteps, but he never imagined she could actually see Reve, let alone distinguish him from the other spirits.

It had caught him off guard, but luckily, he had spotted the presence of that curious little human, her assistant, who had been spying on them for reasons that seemed to excite him.

Gavriel decided to use the boy to his advantage, using his presence to cover the slip that would have put her on his tail. He could only hope she bought the lie and would let it go.

To ensure this, he ordered Reve to keep the spirits off her back. He hoped that if the hauntings stopped, she would stop seeking him out for a solution. Yet, he doubted she even truly knew what she could possibly ask of him to help her in such a situation.

"Such a peculiar little thing," he murmured under his breath as his hand lifted, reaching to brush away the loose strand of hair resting against her cheek.

But as his fingers neared her skin, he paused, hesitating for a fleeting moment before curling them back and withdrawing his hand.

Taking one last breath of her intoxicating, rose-laced scent, before he closed his eyes and dissolved into darkness.

As soon as he was gone, Aliana stirred in her sleep.

Her brows knit faintly as she opened her eyes and glanced around the still, silent room. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Finding nothing, she turned onto her back once more and slowly drifted back into sleep.

The next morning at the conference, Aliana’s head felt lighter. She felt more energetic than she had in a long time, at least since this whole debacle had started.

That was likely because she hadn’t spotted a single spirit lurking around her all morning, a pleasant and much-welcomed relief she had been seeking for a long time.

Seated at her table in the conference room with her colleagues, waiting for the fourth day of the conference to begin, her gaze kept drifting towards the adjacent table where Cillian sat with the rest of his group.

Yet one person was notably absent.

She wondered if Gavriel was going to skip this session as well, and the thought made her frown.

Did he simply not care about the event at all?

Then again, with Cillian, the CEO was already present; perhaps there was no real need for the chairman to attend. Especially since even her own father had chosen not to come this time.

As she was lost in thought, she noticed Jacob lean closer to her and say, "I heard some news about you recently."

Aliana turned to him and asked, "What news?"

"I heard that... you’ve been meeting suitors during your time here," Jacob said, observing Aliana with his dull yellow eyes.

"Oh." Aliana’s eyebrow rose in surprise, not expecting him to bring it up. She gave a short nod and replied, "Yes, I have. Why do you ask?"

She noticed Jacob stiffen at her answer. "Is there... a problem?" she asked.

For a fleeting moment, something unreadable flickered across Jacob’s face before he masked it with a warm smile. "Oh, no. It’s just... I wasn’t expecting you to be considering marriage, especially when you’ve always been so focused on your work."

"Well, it’s not as though it’s disrupting my work life," Aliana replied, offering a light, almost dismissive shrug. "To be honest, I wasn’t, but my parents want me to get married."

"Oh." Jacob was taken aback by the information, as he hadn’t heard any of this, not even from Alester Vanderbilt, whom he spoke to on a daily basis.

The thought of Aliana meeting men with the prospect of marriage slithered through his heart like snakes.

After all, Jacob had been very careful ever since he started working at the Van Empire. He had made sure to build the best reputation, not only among the employees but also with Aliana’s father.

His goal was to be chosen as the suitable son-in-law to head the company alongside Aliana one day.

He had held this goal in mind since the day he first laid eyes on the beautiful creature before him.

Even though there was a ten-year age gap between them, he believed Aliana didn’t truly care about such things.

When he had dug into her dating history, it hadn’t suggested that she dated older men, but that fact never deterred him.

She simply didn’t seem like the type of woman who would be restricted by such details.

Only he knew how hard he had tried to suppress his carnal desires to have her completely as his from the very beginning.

He was overjoyed when her father had placed her under his wing to be trained as the future CEO of the Van Empire. It was a position he knew would never truly belong to him, considering Aliana was the sole heir.

However, being married to her one day was something he had been working toward all his life. That way, he would not only have this gorgeous woman in his bed every day, but he would also secure his power by being the husband of the Van Empire’s heir.