Hopelessly Addicted

Book 1: A Jealous Ralph

Deep in thought, Ralph went up to his room and took a refreshing shower. Feeling much better, he lay his tired body on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He had broken all his records today. His best friends, Jaxon Craddock, and Gilbert Prescott would be shocked to see his state.

His friends were based in New York, where their headquarters were located. Ralph, too, longed to go there, but he couldn’t convince his grandma to shift. With his dad, Finn Van Halen, living permanently in Amsterdam, and his mom Jennifer David living in Detroit, he and his grandma had only each other as family. He hadn’t met his parents in the last ten years and they were too busy with their own families to keep in touch with her. Both his parents had remarried and were happily settled in their lives. They forgot about his existence maybe, but it didn’t bother him. His granny was the only one he needed in his life. His trusted housekeeper, Jane, looked after his grandma since he had to travel a lot for his business. He didn’t like London much since he longed to live with his friends and enjoy working together with them, but he hardly had a choice.

While Jaxon looked into the designing sector, Gilbert looked into marketing, PR, and Finance. Ralph looked into the Production Sector of their operations worldwide and as such he needed to travel frequently. His life was like a roller-coaster ride with no routine whatsoever. He hardly stayed permanently in one place, but if anyone was home to him, it was his grandma. So, after all his escapades, he always came back to London to his grandma.

Confused by his reaction to Raven, he sighed as thoughts of Raven’s sweet lips invaded his senses. He had so many nights of fun, but they didn’t mean a thing to him ever. He never thought about them, the way he obsessed about those luscious lips and the sudden shy kiss which was targeted at his cheek. At last, he dozed off to sleep, dreaming about Raven and her addictive kiss. What he would give to feel them upon him again!

The next morning, he woke up late when his grandma and Jane shook him vigorously.

“Wake up, Roo, else I’ll pour a bucket of water on you,” threatened his grandma. He used to love the cartoon character Roo and his mom Kanga when he was young, so his granny nicknamed him Roo. Now, although he had grown up, the name was still stuck with him however much he tried to get rid of it. It irked him whenever his granny called him that in front of his female conquests.

He opened an eye and peeked at his grinning grandma. “Five minutes, granny,” he groaned, still feeling exhausted after chasing Raven all night in his dreams.

“Your phone’s ringing for the last ten minutes. Either shut it down or attend to it,” she complained, and Jane handed him his phone. Ralph sleepily looked at it. His eyes went round with horror and he jumped up in shock. It was nine o’clock in the morning already!

“God, I’m late again,” he groaned, jumping out of his bed and heading for the en-suite.

“As if he’s ever early,” his granny rolled her eyes.

“To wake up early, he needs to sleep early,” said Jane, arranging his bed.

“Yeah, he needs a woman who’ll settle him down. Do you know of any nice girl, Jane? We need to get Roo married. He’s twenty-eight already and soon no girl will look his way if he doesn’t marry now. My children were grown-up when I was twenty-eight!” said a displeased granny.

“He wouldn’t like the nice girls, ma,” said the forty-five-year-old Jane, who’d been working with Mila Van Halen, Ralph’s granny, for the last twenty years. She was an orphan and after her husband, who was a firefighter, died in an accident, she found work there at the Van Halen household. Ever since, she has shared a close bond with Granny and Ralph. They too treated her like family.

“Hmph,” fumed Granny. “Let’s now start hunting for girls, only nice girls, mind you. If he doesn’t settle down, we shall cut all ties with him. Deal?” asked Granny.

“Deal,” said Jane with a laugh, knowing fully well that both were impossible feats, getting Roo to like a nice girl and severing ties with him.

The door of the en-suite opened and Ralph came out fresh from a shower. “What are you two plotting against me?” he asked suspiciously. It was the same old story every time he was at home and he was tired of it. Suddenly, thoughts of Raven filled his mind!

“Nothing, nothing at all,” said his granny as he quirked his eyebrows at her.

Jane went chuckling to the door. “I’ll serve you breakfast, Roo. Come down,” she said, leaving the two of them together.

“Roo, you’re getting old. It’s high time you get married and settle down,” said his granny, and Ralph groaned with horror, tired of the topic already. It was his granny’s favorite topic, and it gave him a headache.

“Granny, please don’t start now. I’m already late for work,” he told her, but Granny wasn’t one to listen.

“Fine. We will continue after you return home from work,” she said, leaving his room. Ralph hurriedly dressed, and picking up his stuff, rushed downstairs to get some coffee and breakfast. In ten minutes, he was done, and he started his car and drove towards his office. It was 10:30 already when he reached his office. Should he visit the Production Department first? He wanted to check whether Raven had arrived or not. Then he thought against it. He would first check up on the emergency situation with Anthony Baker and then see Raven when he was free.

The whole morning he was busy looking into the delay in the production of the Spring Summer collection. One of the machines they used had stopped functioning, which was holding up the production process. The whole morning, he was busy conferencing with his partners. It was around 3 o’clock in the afternoon when the problem was resolved and he and Anthony could take a breather.

Ralph went back to his office and started the CCTV to check what Raven was up to. To his surprise, he saw that Raven wasn’t in her cubicle. Where was she? Had she not come into the office today? He had already shifted Charlie Gardner to another department yesterday. The guy was getting too close to Raven. In his place, he had appointed Emily Brookfield, who was very dedicated and professional. He decided to take an update from Emily, but before he could call, Ralph saw Raven. She was walking into the room with the guy who sat next to her, Thomas Edson. His blood boiled, seeing them sharing a joke. Did they go out for lunch? He was very restless thinking about them together. Thomas handed her a slab of chocolate and she shyly accepted it. What was going on? Ralph watched them like a hawk, intense jealousy coursing through his body. Absent-mindedly, he broke the wooden paperweight that he was fidgeting with. No, this had to stop. He wouldn’t allow Edson to whisk Raven from under his nose!

He called Emily Brookfield and asked her to summon Raven to his office as soon as possible. “Yes sir,” said Emily, scared for the young trainee. She rushed towards Raven’s cubicle, tensed and worried.

“Ms. Porterfield, Sir, has summoned you to his office immediately,” she informed her. Raven’s eyes widened with horror. Now, what did he want? His threat last night still rang in her ears,

Wake up or I’ll kiss you again.

Did he really mean it? Would he have really carried out his threat if she hadn’t woken up? Flustered, she rushed towards the elevator and went up towards Ralph Van Halen’s floor. The doors opened, and she walked out of the elevator towards his office with dread. She knocked and waited for his permission to enter, but there was none. Confused, she pushed open the door as a feeling of dread clutched at her heart.

She saw him standing beside the large bay windows of his office. He seemed furious with something or someone. Maybe her? Well, it was nothing new. He was always displeased and angry with her. She somehow brought out the worst in him without doing anything!

“Good afternoon, sir. Did you call me?” she asked bravely, walking up to him. He turned to look at her with his hands balled into fists and his face flushed with anger. What had she done now?

“Yes, what about the files you sorted last night? Who’ll arrange them in the cabinets?”

Raven’s mouth hung open with surprise. Did he expect her to drop by and ask for those files and start arranging them? “Yes, sir, but you have to tell me where I need to arrange them,” she asked courteously. He seriously needed a PA.

“Come here,” he said suddenly as she turned to pick up the files.

“What, sir?” she asked him in confusion.

“Come here, Raven,” he repeated with a sigh. Who was he bluffing? He had wanted to see her so badly since the moment he arrived at his office. Raven walked up to him with a puzzled expression, standing at a good two feet distance from him. Ralph rolled his eyes in disbelief.

“Closer, Raven,” he ordered. She went two steps closer to him, more confused than ever. He lost his patience. Taking a long stride, he covered the rest of the distance between them, till they were inches apart.

“Are you afraid of me?” he asked her softly, staring into her wide eyes, inches from his. Raven nodded and then shook her head in confusion. He stretched his hand and his thumb touched her lips, wiping the chocolate away from her bottom lip. She closed her eyes as a shudder ran down her body at his touch.

“You shouldn’t accept chocolates from everyone, you know that, don’t you?” he asked in a husky tone, his eyes focused upon her lips, so soft, so plump, so red. Only a dead man could stay away from them!

“I, umm, what are you doing, sir?” she stammered, too confused by his touch but more by her own reaction to him. With his thumb continuing its torture upon her lips, she couldn’t think straight.

He removed his hand, and she blinked, realizing what he had just said. How did he know she had accepted the chocolate Thomas gave her on behalf of all the trainees as a welcome gift?

“You started it, Raven,” he told her huskily, his eyes drawn towards her lips like a bee to its honey.