Chapter 86: Chapter 86

Married to Mr. Arrogant

Subtitle: Getting to know him

Written by : Marvy Hyacinth

The room she waited in was warm, large, had huge portraits of red roses hanging from the walls, and was eerily silent. One would never guess at the forbidden sounds the walls would hear a short while later.

The sinking soft bed she slept on would still be too big if her small body was six times bigger than it was. She wore lingerie of black, soft see-through silk tied about the abdomen by a red butterfly bow. A maid had given it to her when she arrived, “courtesy of the Burke family ”, she had said.

Her skin was as white as milk; flawless and supple, and it glowed in the low light of the golden chandelier hanging above the bed.

The said lady in black silk lingerie had a blindfold of black gauze tied about her eyes. Her hands, two shaky pairs, were tied before her with silk quilts so she looked like an offering to satisfy Zeus in heat.

Suddenly, the fragile silence in the room was broken by a click sound. The door creaked open, and the woman let out a soft whimper.

Whoever came inside made no sound save for the squishy noise of feet trampling the thick rug covering the floor.

Alicia turned pale with fright; her heart beat faster with every second spent in that dreadful silence. She froze when she felt the warm, rough tips of fingers brush her soft cheeks.

She shook like a reed on water. Alicia’s lips parted when the fingers left her face, and she let out a soft sigh.

“Please,” she said in a shaky voice. “Please… let me go.”

“Let you go?” said the visitor. The voice was a deep, commanding male baritone; strong, cold, and demanding all at once. He chuckled. “Regret agreeing to this marriage already?”

The voice betrayed no emotion; neither joy nor anger could be heard in it. There was no excitement, just a cold steely inquiry issuing from a robot with blood, bones, and stone for the heart it seemed.

Alicia’s body trembled under the chill of that voice.

She should never have been in that room in the first place, but that night, she was standing in the place of someone else; her half-sister, Diana West.

The Burke and West families had a marriage agreement between them. Diana, Alicia’s sister, was engaged for marriage to the Burke family. But there was a body checking rite and Diana did not think she was clean enough to pass it. At least, that is what Alicia had been told.

A bodyguard, gardener, or someone from the lower class of the Burke family was to examine the body. Alicia never wanted to show up, but her life stopped being hers to preside over a long time ago.

However, Alicia was not the only one who didn’t want the marriage. The Burke family was also against it, and it was why they deliberately made such a request to humiliate the West Family.

The West Family saw the humiliation in the Burke family’s action, but they wanted to climb up the social ladder, and a union with the Burke family would give them just that. It didn’t matter what cost it came at, whether they needed to jump into a pit of fire, or swim across an ocean of dung.

Alicia was the sacrificial lamb sent, and she was not prepared for this at all.

“I… I’m afraid,” she said, quivering. Her eyes were still blindfolded, and save for the perfume that invaded her nose, she could sense nothing of the intruder. “Can you give me some more time?”

“More time?” the man asked, a mocking edge to his voice. He grabbed a cheek between his fingers and pinched it. “No one gives me conditions. You knew what you were coming for, did you not?”

The finger traced the side of her face down to her chin.

Even though Alicia couldn’t see the man, she could feel his aura; almost as though he was a king, and she, his subject. She felt his breath on the side of her face; warm, with the faint scent of whiskey in it.

“No…” she whimpered as his nose brushed the lower parts of her neck. She squirmed, struggling to pull away from him.

He growled. “Do you think it is in your place to say no?” he asked in that indifferent voice of his. “Know your place, Miss Alicia.”

Once again, she wiggled away from his touch. She could hear the contempt and disdain in his voice, almost as though he was a judge accusing her of some carnal sin.

“Do you feel aggrieved?” he said, pinching her cheek again and this time, he pinched harder than he did the first time.

“If I could choose, I definitely would not come here,” she said, gritting her teeth.

And that was the truth. When Alicia was just a helpless child, the West Family adopted her and took her in. It was why she was in so much debt to them, so much that she would stand in place of her sister for a rite as humiliating as the body examination - to check if she had been defiled by another.

Alicia heard the man chuckle again; it was cruel, cold, unfeeling, and almost sinister. She hardened her face when he brushed the side with his hand.

“Don’t act all innocent now,” said the man. “You and I both know the West Family, your family, are so desperate to climb the social ladder using the Burke family’s standing. It is why you’re eager to make this marriage work. You are not worthy of my time, I assure you.”

There was a low rumble outside, followed by the clap of thunder. Alicia felt as though she was in the rain, only the storm before she was in a human body and sprayed cologne.

"West Family, I will pay what I owe you", Alicia thought in her mind.

He pulled at the ribbon and it came loose causing her lingerie to part slightly. Alicia squeezed her eyes shut even though she was already blindfolded.

“I promise,” he said, as he climbed onto the bed beside her. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

And as it began, she shed a tear.

It had rained all night. The thunders clapped viciously in the black sky, cold fat drops of rain pattered like tiny stones against the window. She knew this because it wasn't any more until dawn before she fell asleep.

The next morning showered in sunlight; bright, yellow, and warm like molten butter. It was almost as though the night before did not happen. Alicia opened her eyes, her lashes fluttering like butterfly wings in the blinding brightness.

Alicia thought the room she was in wasn’t hers, but if it wasn’t, then where was she? The events of the preceding night rushed like floods of a broken dam into her subconsciousness and her drowsiness was replaced with hurt and fear.

She glanced at the space beside her and found she was alone on that large bed. The sheets were wrinkled and rumpled as though a wrestling match had happened. There were red stains on the sheet, and Alicia would rather not think of what it even meant.

She managed to get out of bed, draping her lingerie about her as she dragged her exhausted body to the bathroom.

The glass door of the bathroom was cool against her small hands as she pushed.

Maybe she should have knocked.

There was a man in the bathtub, his body from the waist down was submerged in the lathery water of the tub. His pecs were prominent, firm, and defined, but his face might as well have been carved from ice. The man in the tub was as handsome as a demon and yet as icy as midwinter.

She whimpered.

His closed eyes flew open like the dead just resurrected, and for the next breathless moments, they did nothing but stare at each other.

Alicia had never met anyone with such a powerful aura; he was confident and comfortable in his body. The man had eyes black and hard like the rest of him. She felt her legs wobble like cooked noodles beneath her.

Could he be the man from last night? Alicia Wondered.

She took in a deep breath and retreated one step back.

“Stop,” the man croaked.

“I – I didn’t realize someone was here,” Alicia stammered.

She wondered who he was; the Burkes were certain to have used someone of lower standing for the ceremony. But how many gardeners dared to keep abs? How many spoke with so much authority? Cooks and serving folks were used to taking orders, not giving them.

“Come over,” he said, fixing his eyes on her. It was hard to get a read, to figure out what was going on in his mind. Maybe he didn’t have a mind, maybe this was the terminator.

“What?”

“Don’t make me say it a second time,” said the man.

Alicia swallowed and started towards the man in the tub. When she was two feet away from him, she stopped.

“What do you want?” she simpered.

He scoffed.

Alicia found no reason to hate the man in front of her, she could not help feeling he was the type that decided the life and death of others. Perhaps, he was a high-ranking guard of the Burke family.

The man shot out a hand and grabbed her wrist before she could react. Alicia only managed a gasp before she was pulled into the tub. She could feel the thin material of her lingerie clinging to her like a thin layer of extra skin.

“Sir, what are you doing?!” Alicia cried out in pain.

The man pulled her to himself and stared deep into her eyes. Their faces were only a few inches apart from each, their eyes were locked like missiles on targets.

He put a hand under her chin and lifted her face. “You have come to see me this early in the morning? Didn’t get enough last night, did you?”

“No,” Alicia replied, “I didn’t even know you were here. I don’t even know who you are.”

He tutted and shook his head. “This excuse of yours sucks,” he said.

Alicia squirmed against his hard body; it was like getting trapped between a rock and a hard place. She turned red when she realized she was getting pressed against his naked body; She was in a tub with a strange man.

“I’m not lying, you have to let me go,” she said, pushing against him and thrashing about in the water.

“Really,” the man said, chuckling.

Alicia looked into his eyes and saw the mischievous glint in them. And that’s when she realized that she was not getting out of the tub, certainly not with her power.

“Relax,” he said, spreading her legs apart “Relax.”