Chapter 4 My Dear Pet
Ayesha’s POV
I try to relax but my body refuses to, my stomach tightening to the point that I fear I might be sick or something.
I close my eyes tight shut and wait for the tears to come but they never do. I was all out of tears for today, the thought makes me sad, sadder than I usually ever was…. sadness was something I’d gotten used to but this bleak emptiness, this absence of hope was eating me from the inside out.
I try to block the painful thought out but it comes unbidden to my mind.
4 days ago, Mrs Kane, the witch, called me up for a meeting at a hotel near campus.
The ground slipped from under my feet when she told me that my father had borrowed 120 grand from Mr Kane, his employer, for my college fees. I couldn’t believe my ears because I thought I’d gotten a full ride but then she showed me the papers that my father had in fact borrowed the money and promised to return it about a week ago and he obviously couldn’t come up with the cash then.
And how could he? He worked 40 hours a week for minimum wage and American colleges were so expensive… I should’ve known, I never should’ve come here.
Mrs Kane clearly told me that my father would lose his job and my family’s apartment back in my homeland Pakistan would be confiscated, and they would lose everything unless…
My stomach tightens to the point where I think I’ll actually hurl.
She’d made it perfectly clear that no one was to know about our deal except me and my family and her. She said she would contact my family back in Pakistan and inform them herself and all I was supposed to do was keep my mouth sealed shut and just…. agree to the marriage. And that’s what I did. I could only imagine what my mother was going to go through when she would learn that her only daughter…
Wetness coats my eyelashes but I don’t let the warm droplets fall.
My gaze strays to the boy sleeping not very far away from me. The moonlight makes his goldish-brown hair shine, making the strands look so silky that I’m tempted to run my hands through them.
Some of the heaviness in my heart subsides but I’m too transfixed on the fact that how silky his hair looks or was it just the moonlight playing tricks on me?
I don’t know if I’ve actually gone insane but I realise I actually might be out of it as my feet carry me away from my couch to the head of his bed.
He looks surprisingly relaxed, the lines on his face from scowling all the time have disappeared and he looks so… at peace.
I almost stop breathing when he moves to turn on his side. His hair is splayed out on his forehead, the upper ends long and the lower ones short. His face looked so beautiful that I almost cursed God for making him this way. He seems almost soft I dare say. But his sharp cheekbones do not fail to give him a severe edge.
I lean down toward him without realising it. And then I do the stupidest thing I could have possibly done.
Daniel’s POV
I don’t know when I fell asleep but I’m suddenly awakened by light steps that slowly inch closer. I’d always been a light sleeper.
I mostly spent all my nights in a half asleep half awake straight, drowsy but not completely in slumber.
I suddenly feel her soft, rushed breaths very close to my face and she stays like that for some time.
What is she thinking right now?
I still don’t open my eyes.
Then I somehow sense her lean down and am slightly startled when I feel delicate, small fingers in my hair, hesitant in their movement but still curious to explore.
I grab her wrist in my hand, freezing their movement as my eyes shoot open to meet her dilated ones.
I grip her wrist harder, making her breaths turn into pants as she desperately tries to free her hand.
I find myself grinning up at her as she scowls in return.
“If you were so desperate to touch me, you could’ve just asked, I would’ve let you into my bed. Even though you are a peasant but a pretty one at that.” My grin widens as a blush creeps up her neck.
I suddenly jerk her wrist and she falls on top of me. I can’t help but chuckle when she squeals as I pull her into my side and wrap an arm around her tiny waist.
Just for the record, I’m clearly still half asleep and should not be held accountable for why I’m currently burying my face in the crook of this girl’s neck and inhaling like I’ve never breathed in air before.
She smells like cinnamon and rain.
“What are you doing?” She stills in my hold, giving up on trying to break it.
“I’m doing this for you, you know! Now you can touch me all you want.” I whisper against the skin of the tops of her shoulders, making her shiver as a small smile pulls at my lips. She tenses when my hand reaches out to grab her bare shoulder and turn her around to face me so I can sleep with the sight of her face in my line of vision.
She resists but I turn her around and encase her body in a vice grip, my hand brushes against her exposed midriff when her top rides up, making her go visibly still as her lips part and she looks anywhere but at me.
“I wasn’t touching you”, she squeaks out. Making me raise a brow at her.
“It’s not my fault your hair looks so silky and soft.” She grumbles, crossing her arms and I laugh out loud. Her lips puckered in a pout as she glared at me.
“You’re cute when you’re angry.”
She reddens just as the words leave my mouth.
“Let me go, Daniel.” And she then again starts thrashing against me, getting tangled up in the covers and ending up doing the opposite of escaping. I tightened my grip on her.
“You’re right. I should let you go.” To her surprise, I loosen my hold and let her slide away from me. ”Maybe I should call uncle Benjamin to keep you company, wouldn’t you like that Wilson?” Malice drips from my voice, with every intention of horrifying and scaring her away but the opposite happens.
Before I know it, she’s back in my arms, pressing herself into me, like a turtle trying to go back into its shell.
“What? Wouldn’t you like that? To be in bed with your to-be-husband. I mean, that’s where you’ll eventually be.” She stiffens and in a voice so hoarse, it tugs at something inside me, knocking on the stone cold door of my non-existent heart, she whispers, “Please Daniel.”
Pressing her face into the space just beneath my shoulder, she wraps her arms and legs around me like she never wanted to leave my side.
What is wrong with this girl?
Without thinking I slide a hand down and rest it gently against the small of her back and I think she too unconsciously snuggles further into me, her cheek resting on my left pec.
I say nothing, even though I’d planned to mock her more, just for the fun of it.
But I didn’t need to, she’d already made it spectacularly clear that she would rather be asleep and vulnerable in front of me, I mean me, seriously? She averted her gaze and practically ran away every time I was within a mile of her radius, she avoided me like I was the goddamn plague and she would rather be alone with me in my room than with her fiance.
My mind was fucked, like seriously fucking fucked.
Her breaths slowly even out as she falls asleep. I tilt my head to look down at her when I’m sure she’s asleep.
Her face is turned toward me and her small head rests on my bicep, the palm of my hand curled around her naked shoulder, and her one leg thrown over mine. I almost give her a sympathetic grin… how could she be stupid enough to fall asleep in bed with me without any reservations or any care for self-preservation?
Has she not learnt anything in the past year? She’d practically crawled into the devil’s den and decided to fucking pet it! Was this girl for real? Or had she lost a few screws?
This whole marriage ordeal obviously wasn’t what she wanted… and why would she even wanna marry some slimy scumbag twice her age?
Whatever it was, this marriage was not fucking happening, whether it be a cause for my uncle’s displeasure or my father’s disapproval.
I run my free hand down her waist-length hair and end up cupping her cheek possessively, she lets out a soft moan in her sleep and unconsciously leans into my touch.
All the blood in my body rushes down to my dick, hardening instantly. Well, Well!
Looks like I cannot let go of my pet after all.