Chapter 31

SOMA:

He didn’t expect it, no. Because if he did, he wouldn’t be this surprised enough to even gape at me. Thought he was trying to act dominant here before.

I sit upright soon after while staring at him acting all surprised still. Beats me that a grown-muscled man like him could actually be this affected by words that could end up being insincere.

“You didn’t mean what you said, did you?” he asks, which I know was a little forced because he’s trying to compose himself.

“Every word... I meant it.” I tell him, mostly because I have it in mind to taunt him a little. “Haven’t you got no experience in this? You’re acting like it’s your first proper night out with a lady,”

He finally looks like himself once again. The same neutral vibe came exuding from him once more and I bloody love it. “I do have one or two experiences. Just not as—”

“Wild?” I interrupt before he could complete his statement.

“Probably,” he sort of agrees and then adds, “Let’s just say someone not as wild as you are,”

The side of my lips curls up into a smirk. I was going for the creepy vibes and I’m sure I got that already. “And do you still want to play with my fire?”

“I don’t like wildfires, but I’ll make an exception,”

The dude says he will make an exception. Let’s see if he would be able to stand to his decision.

“You know what? I want to know your type of woman. Tell me what spec in a woman immediately attracts you to her,”

He doesn’t say anything instantly. Instead, his expression seems like he’s trying to think through something. My question wasn’t something difficult so he should have the answers all compiled already.

“I don’t know,” he says. “A little carefree, maybe,”

“Elaborate...”

“Let’s see,” he starts to say, “I think I like it when a lady is mostly nonchalant about things going on around her. Does her things without giving a bother about what the world will say. Yeah, that’s my kind of woman.”

Sounds like something that he wouldn’t like. I don’t know why everything about him seems so contradictory to me. Basically everything.

“But you said a little carefree initially. Your description doesn’t give out what I would call out being a little carefree.” I point out.

“I know. Because I just gave more than an explanation of what I like in a woman. Much more than that,”

Well, I might understand what he means. And truth be told, the description he gave sure sounds like me. Could he be indirectly talking about me? He doesn’t even know me too well.

I look at the unfinished meal that I put aside already and then at his that he was about to get done with. Pretty obvious none of us is having any of it again.

Let’s just say the meal wasn’t the concept of being here in the first place. Although I like the fact that he brought me here because I’ve never been to this restaurant before. The location is the reason. Almost a city away from the city the family business is situated.

I suffer recall something I wanted to ask him before so I proceed to ask, “What about your family?”

He was taking a sip from his glass of wine when I questioned him and has to put it away from his lips quickly to say, “Dead...” before taking the glass up to his lips again.

Hearing that has me all sober immediately that I can’t help but feel for him. He truly has been going through a lot. “I’m sorry to hear that—”

“...to me.”

I haven’t even completed my statement when he interrupted me to make that last statement. It has me all confused now because I don’t think I have an idea what he’s insinuating by that but I do know that it has something that has to do with him.

“What are you talking about? Is your family dead or not?” I have to ask, my curiosity all piqued at this very moment.

I watch him as he sets the already drained wineglass on the table. He then looks around the restaurant for a while, making me do the same. Don’t know why he did that but there sure is nothing interesting around. That, I noted.

He wasn’t tensed. I was expecting him to be but he wasn’t. So I literally have no idea what he’s up to now and so have to wait for him to say what he has in mind for acting that way.

“My family’s dead,” he finally says, “just to me.”

Here he goes again with the confusing statement of his like he did initially. Why can’t he just tell me what is really going on here?

“I do not understand,”

“What I mean is that I have no business with my family, which means they are dead to me,”

He wasn’t remorseful about saying something like that about his own family. I could even feel the cold traits from his tone which says how much he detests his family for whatever reason there could be.

“But they are still very much alive, right?”

“Of course they are. And doing whatever they feel makes them happy wherever they are,”

I can’t hold it in me anymore so I just ask, “What makes you hate them this much?”

“Why do I hate them?” he asks, but I’m sure it’s to himself. “I hate them because they were never there for me when I needed them the most. I remember turning eighteen and waiting for my spirit wolf but didn’t get it. Thinking my parents would give me the confirmation as to why I didn’t have one already a month after my eighteenth birthday, I chose to confide in them. But then I noticed their sudden change of attitude toward me. They started bringing up excuses anytime I needed to know what was going on with me. Excuses to not want to have a proper discussion with me,”

The anger in him was evident because he was pulling on the table sheets already.

“You have siblings, don’t you?”

“I do,” he says, sounding more like a growl to me.

“Then why did you not mention then during your explanation. You only talked about your parents, which means you shouldn’t hate your siblings, right?”

I’m here trying to make sense of his situation that I have to fish out everything that would make me understand how angry he is with his family.

“I haven’t gotten there yet, and that’s the reason for not mentioning them. And if you want to know, I hate them just as much as I hate my parents.”

“And why’s that?”

“Imagine having siblings that would be the reason for you almost taking your life. Siblings that had to worsen my sad situation after finding out I could bear no spirit wolf. That was what I went through with my siblings. They made me hate myself by constantly reminding me about my predicament. Even after I became fully ‘cursed’ a year later, they told me I was just a pseudo version of wolflings and that I would never be like them. I fell into depression so bad,”

I could hear the hurt in his words. Even after he was done speaking, he looked like he was going to break down and I could feel a thorn in my heart. His energy was starting to overwhelm me to the extent that I got a whimper from Rainia in my head.

I didn’t think it twice before going for his hand on the table, proceeding to caress it affectionately so he could ease his tension.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all of that. I’m so sorry,” I whisper, fighting the urge not to feel so sad because I am already.

He finally looks up and then shakes his head. “It’s not your fault,” he says. “It’s no one’s fault,”

We both stay quiet after that while I continue to caress his hand. He was easing up the tension in him little by little and it made feel better for him. But I couldn’t see his face to tell how he truly is because he puts his head down soon after he spoke again not too long ago.

“Can we go now?” A minute later, he asks, already better than before.

“Sure,” I tell him. And from there he reaches out to the waitress that attended to us initially.

When she arrives at our seat, he clears the bill with his credit card. But I can’t help but notice the waitress’s reaction to standing next to him.

“Shall we?” Luis says after the waitress has left. He was now up on his feet with his hand outstretched toward me.

I reach out to pick up my mini purse which has been lying on the table all along before taking Luis’ outstretched hand. “Yes,” And with that, he pulls me up and then out of the restaurant.

The cold from the night hits my skin and I almost shake from the impact. Wait, I said I like the interior of the restaurant. The outer part looks superb too.

We were both walking toward my automobile which was at the last end of the lot. I then shift my eyes toward the automobile parked two cars away from mine. It was the ride that Luis brought and he already told me it wasn’t his. I wish it was his, though. Because it did suit his style — Cold.

I don’t know if this was the right timing, but just as we get to my car, I’m suddenly dying to do what I’ve been dying to do all night. I proceed to do it anyway.

It was quick from me as I push him to my car and then stand on my tippy toes before smacking my lips on his. The sensation that came with it was so unexpected that it has me going into ecstasy mode immediately.

It takes a while but he starts to kiss me back without touching me. I didn’t mind... until he pulls away from the kiss.

Disappointment overwhelms me that I can’t help but ask, “Why?”

“Don’t you think we are going too fast?” he asks almost inaudibly. “And aren’t you bothered that it’s you making the first move instead of me?”

“Let me be the one to worry about all of that...” My arms were still wrapped around his neck, so I push his head close to me and kiss him again. This time he reciprocates faster and I know he has gotten into it when I feel his hands on my waist.