Chapter 23: Chapter 23
Angelica
I look at him with my eyes wide. What just happened? I run my fingers on my lips as my face turns red in rage. He meets my gaze with a smile and shrugs. “I wanted you to know exactly what my feelings are for you and that is why the kiss happened.” Look at the nerve of him to speak such ridiculous things. I could feel myself like a fuming volcano with my ears emitting smoke. “Well Mr Martin I wanted to know this. What is my digit among the number of girls you kissed? My voice edges into a smoulder as I narrow my eyes meeting his chocolate browns.
He felt taken aback. Running a hand on his neatly gelled hair he looks at me and sighs. “Angelica I wish I could revert my past but unfortunately I cannot. Yet I promise you of one thing.” His voice slowly turns cheerful with so much love. “You will be the last woman to be kissed in my life.” The determination in his tone was evident getting huskier with the passage of time which spilled goose bumps inside me. But I control myself. I am not going to fall of him. Hell, I am not going to fall for any man under the sky. I will stay single all my life and be an ideal daddy’s daughter taking care of my dad.
I pull into a sarcastic laugh looking at him. “Oh Mr Martin, but this is going to be very tough job to you.” I shake my head in disagreement breaking into chuckles. “Why are you punishing yourself so much for a simple lower middle class girl like me?” I fake a pitiful look to him. Exhaling a deep breath he looks down to me and places his hands in his pant pocket. “Okay Miss Evans if you are so much stubborn on continuing with this argument then let this thing be clear to you. You are no better a saint. If I would have left you to die in hell with that asshole, you would have soon ended licking his dick and one day cry like your mom.” He speaks to me with a challenge.
My hands ball into fists with my knuckles going pale and yell out with venom. “He was just a friend to me. He gives me a mocking smile. “Is it? But I saw you were having quite a happy time with him.” He envisages boring daggers into my soul but continues. “Let’s make a deal then Miss Evans. I know what you clearly think about me. I have been a womanizer since my college days. I don’t deny the allegations imposed on me. But from today forward you will be the only woman I would look at and have my eyes on for the rest of my life.” He says with determination in his eyes. “If I succeed in winning the bet you will marry me like a good girl with no ifs and buts after one year from today. Is it a deal.....”
I do not let him to continue as I put forward my version. “And if you lose in the bet and found continuing with your flirtatious deeds between the years you will nullify all my dad’s dues towards Sunrise Industries and set me free from this company.” I mark my words smart and crude. “You will never look back and try to re-enter my life.” My stance turns equally combating and serious with a declaration.
He nods his head. “It’s a deal then.” He says and extends his hand for a shake. I smile and meet his hands with mine. Here comes my victory. I was yet to serve Sunrise Industries for another four years but my torture with this man is going to end within a year. Thanks to the deal. I smile giving myself a mental pat for my quirk deeds.
“Don’t think of yourself too much high.” He brings me of my trance and looks consequential. “You are sure going to lose the bet.” My lips wrap into a thin line meeting his orbs. “Mr Martin what do you know about me that you are challenging me on this?” I ask him irritated. “I am not a relationship material.” I tell him and look around the room feeling remorseful. “My parents had a love marriage but after two years that I was born, their relationship ended a disaster. Consequently I became a displaced child. When I had my mom, I wasn’t fortunate to enjoy the love of my dad and when my father was with me, my mother left the world.” My eyes were already welling tears with the eruption of blatant truth of my life. Augustus comes near me and holds me to his chest. With sniffles I continue on my narration to him. I was sharing my inner most secrets with him and it was for reasons unknown calming my heart.
“Had my parents stayed together, my mom would have been saved with the care and protection of my dad and today she would have been with me.” I burst into a yowl. Turning weak in front of Augustus was something that I never wished to happen. But for the moment I wanted to continue and let him see me vulnerable. Somehow it felt right for reasons unknown. He should know my fears. “I don’t believe in marriages.” Meeting his eyes I speak the truth with my words clear and evident. “Relationships are fake and misleading to me. I don’t want my heart to be broken like my parents did. I fucking hate tie-ups.” I yell breaking into another sob in front of him.
His eyes were completely focussed upon me, examining me. He looked at me as though he was peeping into my soul and laid a hand on my shoulder wiping away my tears. But I was resolved to continue. Yes, he is the man, my man. Though I may not say it aloud and we may not be together which I strongly believe knowing his past, I wanted my heart be open to him and allow my inner demons to explode.
“I am not going to marry you.” I meet my red shot eyes with his in resolute. “It is not you and not anyone in this world for that matter. I will stay a virgin and single. Still if I am destined to marry I will marry only on my dad’s choice.” I tell him with perseverance. Wiping away the remains of my tears I face him tenacious. “And you will evidently not be his interest because he hates your family with passion.”
Shaking his head he looks at me in disapproval and tries to voice out his opinions but I stop him ones again. He is my love, the saviour of all my problems on earth and the only man upon whom I fell in love with. But we are like the sky and earth which are never going to unite. I take a step forward. Holding his neck in my hands I angle his head and stand on my tippy toes and then I do the one thing which held a longing in my core since long. Meeting his lips for one last time I kiss him like a hungry cat and then walk away without turning back.