Chapter 33 Daniel's Devilish Plan
“Fuck! Ayesha, I’m sorry”, he rambled, realizing that he’d upset me greatly.
I was too fixated on trying to hold myself together to pay much heed to his words.
I only realized that he was still there when his hands came around me, rubbing up and down my arms… but I was too numb with the painful dose of the disgusting reality that he’d given me to feel anything.
Derek’s POV
She stood there, slightly trembling in my arms, I could see her lips quiver as she tried to hold her emotions at bay. I could tell that she was trying so hard not to let out her tears in front of me.
I wanted to fucking punch myself in the face for being the cause of her being so upset and damn near bursting into sobs.
“Please Ayesha, look at me”, I pleaded with her, holding her in place when she tried to turn away from me.
A sharp, haunting pain seared through my body when I reached out a hand to brush her hair away from her face to get an unobstructed view of her but she flinched away as soon as I made contact.
My hand froze in the air, her reaction to my touch shocking me.
“I’m sorry, Ayesha. I just don’t know when to shut the fuck up,” I softly said. Reaching out for her again, I almost sighed in relief when she didn’t try to dodge my touch again.
I tucked all her hair behind her ears. I tipped her chin up but her gaze remained focused on the ground.
I sucked in a harsh breath when I took in the sight of her small face, caressing her distressed delicate facial features with my gaze, afraid that she wouldn’t react kindly to my touching her.
Her mouth was pursed in a thin line as she pressed down hard on her bottom lip with her upper one, just jutting out that delicious mouth of hers even more. The tears hanging onto her lower lid tugged on the most sensitive part of me, making me want to consume all her sorrow into myself and wrench all the misery out of her with a kiss.
But I wasn’t sure if she would necessarily appreciate that.
“Please baby, let me see those big beautiful eyes of yours”, I huskily spoke, my mouth inches away from hers.
She finally lifted her lashes, her gaze locking with mine and stealing my breath away.
“You’re so heartbreakingly gorgeous”, I told her, a slight tremor in my own voice. She blinked at me, her gaze desperate, like she wanted to tell me so many things but couldn’t. She didn’t seem angry…. but rather sad, so fucking sad. And that devastatingly miserable look in her eyes seriously fucking weighed on my soul.
“Daniel, I… I can’t… I want t-to..”, she stumbled on her words, trembling harder in my hands, much to my dismay as she struggled to put her thoughts into words. She started breathing very hard like she couldn’t take in enough oxygen in her lungs. I knew why that was…. it was the body’s way of torturing you when you fought against its instincts. She wanted to tell me things that her brain simply wouldn’t allow her to.
“It’s okay, love. You don’t have to… it’s okay”, I whispered against her mouth, my lips grazing hers. She started to speak again but I swallowed her jumbled words by covering her mouth with mine, my tongue diving into her breathless mouth of its own accord.
To my utter surprise, she responded so fucking feverishly… like she wanted this more than me. Which wasn’t in the least possible.
She whimpered into my mouth as I deepened the kiss, my tongue thrusting with hers as she followed my lead, responding with the same desperation I professed.
If it was too rough for her, she didn’t protest. But I forced myself to slow down anyway…. Afraid that I would scare her away with my intensity.
But it was so fucking hard to pull away from that delicious mouth of hers.
I moved one of my hands to her neck, caressing the delicate skin there as I leaned into her to get a better angle, never breaking our lip's connection.
Her mouth tasted like stingy lemons, bittersweet on my tongue with a hint of sweet cream. Mixed with the essence of those luscious lips of hers, I felt like I was tasting the sweetest thing in the world.
I couldn’t help but groan out loud when she bit down on my lip… her boldness turning me the fuck on as she pulled my bottom lip into her mouth, caressing it with her tongue and I let her, feeling intoxicated with her rosy aura engulfing mine.
I moved my hand up from her neck, tangling it into her silky hair, feeling the soft waves against my hand.
Moving my other hand from her upper arm down to her waist, I pulled her closer against me, holding up her petite frame.
She got even bolder and brought her hands up and placed them on my abs, hesitating in feeling them. I couldn’t help but groan in appreciation, giving her the necessary push to let her explore me as willfully as I did her.
I wanted her to feel like she had as much of a right on me as I did her. And I wanted her to exercise it very physically… much for my benefit than hers.
“Does this feel wrong?”, I breathlessly spoke, finally breaking the kiss. She whimpered in protest, trying to bait me into kissing her again.
But I, with grave difficulty, stood my ground, resisting the urge to plunder that mouth of hers again.
She fixed me with the hottest glare,” Daniel, the only thing I want to be feeling right now is your tongue shoved in my mouth!”
I gaped at her, speechless.
Like a buffoon with no sense of will, I bowed to her command almost instantly, crashing my mouth against hers.
With that burning, needy look in those big eyes of hers…. she could have me on my fucking knees.
She responded to me with wild enthusiasm as her tongue danced with mine and we kissed until she was all I could taste. And it still wasn’t enough.
I knew that she was desperately trying to bury those emotions of hers in our kiss and wanted to just for a moment… escape the reality that she thought was true. She wanted to feel something good for a second before it all went horribly wrong and there was nothing but misery left in her life.
I wanted to tell her how wrong she was but couldn’t.... so I poured my desperation into the kiss, turning it rougher as I kissed her even more fiercely.
I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay and my uncle was not going to get his hands anywhere near her… ever. But she wouldn’t believe me if I told her so… it didn’t matter how many assurances I gave her.
And even if she did believe me…. I didn’t have it in me to tell her that there was still going to be a wedding and she would be the bride just as before…. only difference was that I was going to be the groom. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to take it lightly once I made her understand I was being serious. She hadn’t taken me seriously when I told her the first time, she was probably too frustrated and at war with herself to pay any heed to my absurd plans which sounded plainly ridiculous even in theory.
Also, I couldn’t handle the rejection…. she’d hurt me enough to let me know that her refusing to be my wife would absolutely destroy me…. and in turn, I would destroy everything else in trying to rein in my anger.
But if I kept the truth to myself just until the day of the wedding and she was thoroughly horrified with the dawning of her reality on her… I was sure she would gladly accept me as her husband without question.
I wasn’t wholly good… but at least I was the lesser of two evils.
Did it make me the bad guy for tricking her into a marriage with me instead of just saving her from one… perhaps. But as long as the endgame was her belonging to me for the rest of my life… I could not give less of a fuck!