Chapter 27

She went still after that, and when she lifted her face away from his chest with his hands still wrapped around her waist, Nadia had a pout painted on her lips as she rolled her eyes at him, looking up at his face. "You shouldn't have said that," she said, trying to peel herself away from him and he let her go. Because he knew, if he tried to hold onto her a little longer than how she wanted to be held, he might destroy the perfect ambiance they had created.
Hussain only smiled as he walked to the sofa and sat, putting the key of the room in his breast pocket. She stood there looking at how he leaned his head on the sofa and closed his eyes, clearly not asleep but one could tell he was. But they couldn't sleep on the sofa, she knew. It was always a bed or at least when they lay down, but never while seated.
But as she stared at him, she found how from a pretense to get away from her, his body was relaxed and she studied the way his breath was coming, which was evident enough that he had fallen asleep. But...she began to think of how it was impossible for Hassan to ever sleep while seated no matter how tired he may seem but then she thought, Hussain was a different person and he could have a different personality.
She went to the sofa and stealthily sat beside him, trying as much as she could not to make any sound or any movement noticeable to him. She wanted to take the key out of his pocket so she could leave because for the days she had known Hussain since when he purposely became her 'husband' without her knowing, he might suggest they stayed there together. But she got to pack her clothes and follow Mama tomorrow while she went back to Abuja.
Slowly, trying to nibble on her lower lip to ease herself from the anxious feeling, she put her hand in his pocking, which before she achieved that she had to lean so close to him that if someone walked in on them at the moment, one could think she was laying on his chest, but she was trying so hard not to. She got the key and while a triumphant smile graced her lips as she tried to pull it out of his pocket, he held her hand and lazily opened his eyes.
Nadia cursed at him under her breath. "I thought you've already known that I can't fall asleep while seated, Singleton." She rolled her eyes and watched as he skillfully had her remove her hands from the key before he pulled her hand out, and instead of him to let it go, he placed her hand directly on top of his heart and covered it with his.
"What do you think you're doing, Hussain? Let me go, give me the key or open the damn door, I have a lot of things to do. I can't stay here in the room with you while I have over a thousand of things to do." She spoke in one breath and he was still reclined on the sofa when he flashed her a lazy look she had known so well from Hassan that forced her to take her eyes off him.
"We're having the whole day to ourselves. Hajia asked us to make a decision, remember?" She rolled her eyes at him. She hated how he managed to stay calm every time she was trying to do something or say something that will certainly irk him but he had never shown her his anger. Atleast, yet.
She forcefully dragged her hand away from him and stood him, that kind of proximity with him was the last thing she wanted. She didn't know what she had to do, first, whatever it was she had to get out of his room now. "We have no decision to make, I'm going to leave with Mama tomorrow and you're going to divorce me sooner or later, why not now?" She knew they were never compatible. And this, what was going on between them was nothing more than the product of lust and she was certain it will vanish in a very short period of time.
Hussain sat upright and stared at her, gulping down the words he wanted to say to her, "Why do I have to divorce you ever in my life?" He said instead, because he couldn't have imagine a better reason for him to divorce her ever in his life. Why would he? Was it because she had predicted that he had gone crazy in the future and divorced her? Or got into drugs that he would divorce her while being inebriated even though he knew he would have to regret that for the rest of his life and would certainly even bring her back. Or perhaps, someone told her that he would be under a spell that would force him to do so? He just can't get it.
She sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, that way she could see him clearly without being that close to him. She sighed to calm herself down not to sound as the angry wounded woman she was and have a peaceful conversation with him since it proved that he was in no way interested to fight with her. "I thought we had this conversation someday, Hussain? It's never going to work between..." He cut her off, and at the edge of his voice, she had sensed annoyance.
"Why do you have to keep saying that, Nadia? I'm just as tired of hearing it over and over from you, can't you atleast ever be positive and have the nerve to make something work out of this?" She scoffed and sighed dramatically to show him how tired she was of having this conversation.
"We aren't meant to be together..." He cut her off again, and this time, clearly annoyed that he wasn't even trying to hide it in the folds of his words.
"And who told you that? The last time I checked, you aren't a fortune teller, Nadia."
She stayed silent for a minute, well she obviously had no evident to backup her words and so she pouted instead while she looked away from his face. They both knew she was only trying so hard to stay other words even though she had no apparent reason to. He almost chuckled at the lack of words he saw on her face but with no apparent will to accept defeat anytime soon.
"How about we do this?" He began and she turned to his face while he tapped the space next to him, "Come and sit here, then we will make a few agreements." She glared at him that no matter how Hussain wanted to act serious in this matter, he couldn't. "No touching, you don't even have to say it, I could see it from your eyes."
"I'm not sitting anywhere near you ever again in my life. You have to get me out of this room, I haven't committed a crime to be prisoned this way."
"We're going to spend the whole day to ourselves and make a decision. And ever again in your life? Come on, Singleton, aren't I your husband? And has it occurred to you that your decision will only be accepted by our mothers if we both have the same decision? Come and sit here, let's talk like a husband and wife should." He got her at the first sentence until the last and wherever he referred to himself as her husband. He clearly understood how it irked her and he was trying all he could to make sure it continued that way until she got used to it.
Begrudgingly, Nadia walked to the sofa and sat at the far end where before he could lounge his hands on her, she would see him clearly. He chuckled at that and shook his head, he wasn't still going to fight. They were now facing each other and she began, "What is it that we do?"
"Live for three months together. Let's live for three months devoid of all negativities and whatsoever bad feelings we have about this. Like the real husband and wife does, we're real too anyways, but we have a circumstance here, right?" She slightly nodded her head at him, urging him to continue with her eyes, "And after those months, whatever we feel will be accepted and be presented as our final decision to our mothers."
She stared blankly at him for some minutes, clearly thinking about the whole thing over in her mind before she sighed and nodded her head. She knew getting out of this marriage at this time would be impossible, they would just have to do as he said and she was certain they wouldn't even get to the second months without them deciding to get separated.
"Okay, let's do that, but I have some rules."
A grin broke out on his lips as he nodded his head, "I didn't say I don't have any myself."
"I can touch you anytime I want." "You can't touch me." They spoke at the same time and stared heatedly at each other. Or rather, she glared at him while he stared at her wondering where had gone faulty in her mind.
"No, you can't mean that! How am I meant not to touch you for the whole three months? I can't, no caps about it, Singleton."
"I've always told you to stop calling me that. And why would you touch me? That's practically you deceiving me because..."
"You can't resist my touch and then you'd have to accept whatever decision I make at last?"
Despite rolling her eyes at him, she nodded to the truth he mentioned and that somehow gladdened his heart. "But I'll never take advantage of you. And besides," he cleared his throat, he had to make her feel safe and sure about this and in order to do that, he had to let at least one truth out. "You aren't the only one being affected, Nadia. I practically loose all my senses whenever it comes to you. So, it's safe to say we're both risking ourselves into this. But I can't not touch you." He made a stern face at that and his voice was laced with a tone of finality that irked her but she had to relate with the reality of everything.
She rolled her eyes, "Okay, you can touch me but there should be a limit of how much you can do that. And also..." He softly cut her off, lifting his hand to stop her from having more rules.
"Before we get into another, a limit? Girl, I'm your husband..." She cut him off too with fire on the tip of her tongue.
"I know, that's why I said you can, but there certainly should be a limit to how." She was firm on this and was in no way trying to compromise and he begrudgingly nodded his head.
"What's the limit?" He dreaded what she would say, even though they both knew what that would be.
"We can't be intimate in those three months, after that, if we both feel we could go on with the marriage thing, we could." With the way he was getting accustomed to touching her and doing all sort of things to her, Nadia knew she had to lay a rule about this and she did. Unless he wanted to be stranded with a desire swarmed body with no aid, he should better know when to stop when it came to her.
"What if you change your mind about it later?" Or I make you change your mind, he softly mused to himself but he knew better than to voice it out.
She rolled her eyes, taking them off from his. "I won't. The second rule is, you can't stop me if I want to leave after those three months, agreed?" What game was she trying to pull, nevertheless, he nodded his head. "Your turn," she said, after making sure all her points were made clear and accepted.
"I haven't thought of any, but later on, I will." She nodded and motioned at the door for him.
"I need to feed my child," she said, trying to get to her feet but he swiftly stopped her by holding her wrist and pulling her himself. She thought she just said no touching?!
"He'd be taken care of tonight, the rest of the day is for us and what do you plan on using it for? We can't get out of this room today, Nadia." She wanted to smack his head but she also knew when an argument with Hussain was pointless, this time was that time.
"I should sleep then..." She was abruptly forced to shudder when she felt his warm lips on the tip of her cleavage as he softly kissed her and wondered what the hell was wrong with him, "What are..you doing?" She stuttered, trying to push him away but instead, her hands got into the silky bunch of his hair.
He looked up at her face with her heart that was pounding so hard, his eyes had already turned red and he didn't have to speak for her to know that he was swarmed with desire. "I'm trying to see how far I could go and still be able to control myself."
"Hussain!" She shrieked when she felt him pulling her zip down and her entire chest was shown, delicately cupped by her bra. He looked up at her and chuckled lazily, the sound of his laughter alone was enough to send her into the world full of ecstatics.
"You won't have a child to feed today, won't they pain? I'd ease you of the discomfort." She abruptly hugged him before he made his next move, knowing both what the next move will be. Hussain closed his eyes when he felt her on his body and he wrapped his hands around her, resting his head on her shoulder.
"Singleton, please," he whispered into her ear, and Nadia knew sooner or later, she might break the rule she had made herself.