Forty

YNA felt as if a part of her heart melted at the tenderness of his voice. “Oh no, he’s using my full name.”
He smiled, then he cupped her face and turned it up so they could look at each other, then he repeated her name.
“Arianna, I love you. I can’t say if it happened that night but I do know and was sure that the moment I woke up, I looked for you. I was so disappointed to find that you were gone. Before I even saw the blood on the sheets I was already excited about looking for you. I was… I was so ready to offer you anything so you will only be with me. If I have to buy you from the bar, I would have, just to make sure you are mine alone.”
He paused, his eyes a whirlpool of dark emotions.
“When I saw the blood and realized it was your first time, I went batshit crazy. I knew who you were before the day was even over. I had Brad go back to the bar and I threatened to file a case against your Madame Venus and shut the whole place down if they don’t give us your identity.”
“Really…?” was all she could say, and it was a whisper. “I never went back there, never talked to anyone from there. Tommy, too. We were so scared that someone will talk and people from here will find out. That it will reach Mama and it’ll kill her…”
“Don’t worry, baby. They’ll never talk. They’ll all find themselves in jail if they do. First of all, you’re a minor. You’re only nineteen.” He pushed a few strands of her hair from her cheek and the touch of his fingers felt like a caress on her skin. “And all of them knew this and yet they let you go. They fooled you. Tommy wouldn’t go to jail, he would only be slapped with community service which might not even happen because that Madame Venus wouldn’t dare file a case. She’s running an illegal business. The police would have informed my father, and if he finds out, he would pay it back himself. You didn’t need to do what you did.”
She stared at him, then sighed.
And even when it had been two months, she still couldn’t think of any words to say about it.
She and Tommy went through hell that night. If it had been any other man than Eric…
The possibility of that still terrified her and she felt her eyes heating up, until tears fell from them and slid down her cheeks.
“You’re crying again… and twice on a day. It’s not your period, right?”
A laugh escaped from her lips and she softly hit his chest with her palm. And then… her hands slid up his shoulders to loop at his neck, and she just hugged him tight.
He hugged her back, almost lifting her from the ground because he was taller.
He kissed her ear because she had her face planted in the crook of his shoulder and neck.
“Hmm… does this mean it’s not, babe?” he asked in a crooning, suggestive voice.
Another laugh escaped her. “Eric… I thought you said we are going to talk?”
He sighed. Then he lowered her back to the ground and took her hand.
He led her to a tree that had fallen down in a storm a long time ago so that the lower part of its trunk followed the ground, then rose up because of an offshoot as it continued to survive despite that fall.
He lifted her up so she could sit on the trunk, then leaned towards her that she had to open her thighs so he could place himself between them as he hugged her again.
Her cheeks felt warm at the position, especially as she was still wearing a dress. But he didn’t even look back, his eyes focused on her face, his arms looped behind her back to support her.
“You said you were terrified of me. Was this before that night or after?”
She shook her head. “They didn’t tell me who it was going to be, so I didn’t know it was you when I arrived here. There wa a possibility it was a guest, because I can’t ever imagine you…”
“Me…?” he asked somberly.
“That you will pay a prostitute for something like that. It’s just… I can’t imagine you having to pay for sex.”
“You didn’t even know who you were meeting up with?”
She nodded. “Yes. But… Madame Venus did say you were… safe. Even the others there… they said if the requirement hadn’t been for someone very new and virtually a… a virgin, they would have easily change places with me. I don’t know if that should even be comforting. But to them it was… like since I was indeed a virgin, it is good I was going to have sex with you for the first time.”
They were watching each other’s faces. And when he pulled at her face to kiss her, then to hug her tight, she knew they were both thinking about the same thing.
That she could have been sent to somebody else.
And it disturbed him too much he also couldn’t say it out loud.
“So… when you found out it was me, where you still scared of me?” he asked her.
“Oh yes. I was more scared than before.”
“But why? Have I done anything bad to you before that night? Anything I didn’t know about?”
Yna raised her hand to soften the line between his eyebrows. “You are the Señorito of the hacienda, and a snobbish brat, too. Yes, I haven’t seen you mistreat anyone and everybody’s saying you’re fair and cool-minded, just really quiet. But you’re this someone untouchable and…” she gulped.
“And?” he insisted.
“And I never imagined you would be like this.”
“This…”
She worried her lower lip with her teeth as she stared down at his handsome face that was turned up to her, listening to every word she said. “A friend… but… not.”
“A lover. Your boyfriend. I never pretended, Arianna. I’m determined to stay until you’ve become used to me, to us. I’ll do everything until you believe loving me is alright. See, my father already adores you. And he already extended that love to your mother and your brother, which, may I say, they both deserved? Someone should take care of you and your family, baby. You all work so hard, love so hard. Don’t you know how much I worry about not doing enough because you bunch are stubborn and full of pride? It’s like trying to help a prickle of porcupines, my god!”
She giggled at that, then laughed some more until she had to wipe a few droplets of tears again because of it.
“Stop laughing or I’ll kiss you again. And then it’ll just be so easy to take you right… here.”
She stopped abruptly.
He sighed again. “You are so beautiful. How can I not fall for you? You are so giving. You feel the same way I do. If it’s lust, then we lust after each other. But, baby, you know it’s not.” His hand caressed her cheek. “In all the times I’ve kissed you, touched you and reached out to hold you, even before we agreed to pretend… you’ve never pulled away. You give as much as I give you, if not more. We’re crazy about each other, and you know it. Admit it now.”
“Admit all that? How can I deny it? You can kiss me now and I can’t stop you.”
“Oh I will… later.”
He lowered his head to her bosom and kissed her skin atop the neckline of her dress. It was a plaid black and white dress… with French bubble sleeves and buttons lining the front, cinched on the waist and the skirt was long.
She hadn’t even actually seen what it was before now. She just took what Aling Bigne handed over and she didn’t care whatever it was, as long as it made her look presentable.
Now she realized how easily Eric could peel it away from her. He only need to unhook the buttons…
And he had already noted that.
His naughty eyes told her now.