Chapter 28 Daniel's Audacity
“Hello there, what’s your name gorgeous?”, Daniel asked, directing his question to Rosalind when I didn’t respond to him. I stared straight ahead, his sudden appearance had me dumbfounded.
I glared at Rose in contempt as she blushed under the pretentious, domineering gaze of Daniel. He’d never acknowledged her presence…. he’d probably brushed her off when she tried to talk to him like he did all the other girls…. but still just one compliment from him had her swooning like she was on the friggin moon.
I tried to catch her attention but she had eyes only for the towering Daniel Kane.
“Ro… Rosalind”, she stumbled on her words, making me roll my eyes at her as I shot her a ‘are you for real’ look… which she completely ignored.
“Well, Rosalind, would you be a doll and leave me alone with Ayesha here for a minute, I need to talk to her”, he ‘requested’, sounding more like he was demanding that she leave in the most polite way possible.
Rosalind looked from me to Daniel who was hovering behind me, next to my seat. I could feel the heat of his presence as the back of my left shoulder accidentally brushed against his hand with which he gripped the back of my seat. I felt a shiver run down my spine as I quickly leaned forward, giving Rose my most desperate look… I was prepared to cry silent tears and bawl my eyes out on the floor right here in front of everyone to beg her not to leave me here alone with him.
Yes, I was that desperate and paranoid.
It seemed Rose’s hesitance had grated on Daniel’s short-fused nerves…. so used he was to people obeying him at the flick of his fingers.
“My dear Rosalind, I don’t generally like to threaten people the first time I meet them… especially girls… but if you don’t leave right now, I will have you rusticated from Harvard, and I’m sure you don’t want that now do you?”
Rose gasped in horror as my mouth hung open in shock.
I finally turned around and looked up at him, shooting him the most contemptuous look I could muster. The bastard had just threatened to get her thrown out of college for such a frugal matter…. and he’d done it with the most polite smile etched on his face… like we were discussing the friggin weather.
Rose shot me an apologetic smile as she got up. “Sorry Ash, but disobeying Daniel Kane is not worth getting thrown out of Harvard”, she whispered to me before leaving as I shot her a ‘trust me, I get it’ look.
I shook my head. It wouldn’t be fair to get Rose in trouble for Daniel’s own personal vendetta against me.
“What do you want?”, I asked him, stony-faced as I clasped my cup of coffee with both hands, trying to warm them, my body suddenly went cold for some reason.
“Now now, there’s no need to be rude”, he started, grinning at me like an idiot as I shot him a ‘what the fuck’ frown.
He picked up the untouched blueberry muffin from my plate and took a bite, and then another and about 10 seconds later, he’d practically inhaled the whole thing.
“To answer your question, what I would like is another one of these blueberry muffins”, he told me, grinning from ear to ear.
“What’s gotten into you?”, I asked, a bit freaked out by his unusual sunniness. Grumpy and brooding was his usual memo… not this bubbly creature.
As he ordered himself some muffins for me and him (without asking me if I even wanted them of course), he spoke again, ignoring my question,” And what kind of name is Ash? You have such a beautiful name… why would Roseanne butcher it with a childish gen-z name like Ash? Absolutely nonsensical this generation is.”
“Her name is Rosalind, not Roseanne. And are you calling me nonsensical?”, I arched a brow at him in vehemence, trying to hide the fact that I was blushing furiously hard at his comment about my name as I lowered my eyes and sipped on my coffee, not maintaining eye contact. My probably dilated, dreamy eyes would be a dead giveaway.
“Firstly, I do not care what her name is. And secondly, you belong to me now… and things that belong to me cannot be nonsensical”, he said it so simply like lit made perfect sense. Like he genuinely believed I would agree with this absurdity of his.
Getting over my lapse of lust, I put the cup down and looked up at him in utmost defiance,” Firstly, I am not a ‘thing’. And secondly, and most importantly, I do not belong to you. And seeing as I’m your uncle’s fiance, it is highly inappropriate of you to call me yours”, I incredulously replied, wondering if was dreaming because this was way out of line what he said… even for him. I was marrying his uncle for Christ’s sake. And he was telling me that I belonged to him? Now of all times?!
What was wrong with him?!
A cloud of anger and frustration took over his sunny mood… making me feel instantly guilty for being the reason for his now dampened mood.
I realized for a painfully long second how beautiful his smile was… I hated myself for realizing it only now that it was gone. I wanted to do anything I could to get it back on his spectacular face which was now marred by a frown.
“If I wasn’t clear enough for you yesterday, let me be crystal clear now…. I intend on marrying you. Not Natasha or any other woman. And you will not be marrying my uncle, I can promise you that. I know I said that I would only save you from getting stuck in a marriage with him but now circumstances have changed as I told you last night and I need a wife crucially. I chose you. Whether you like it or not or whether my uncle fucking likes it or not, I don’t fucking care because you belong to me now.”
The painfully heavy conviction in his coarse voice almost made my heart stop.