Fifty-Eight

ARIANNA was staring sightlessly at the wall when she came inside her room, and she was aware when Tommy tried to open the door but their mother pulled him back, and there they argued in whispers outside, in the corridor.
When Eric’s voice got mixed with their voices, she took a deep breath and turned her head to look accusingly and tiredly at the closed door. Did they have to do all that right behind it, where she would strain to hear what they were saying?
Didn’t she say she wanted to be alone?
Yet, Yna found herself standing up from the edge of her bed’s cushion to quietly tiptoe to the door to try and hear them more clearly.
And she heard everything since then.
Her eyes even shed a few tears.
But it was all words she had heard before and knew already.
Those three loved her to death, she knew all that. She also knew they would not so easily let her be.
Especially Eric, who owned the hardest skull of all.
Her mother and Tommy went down the stairs and left Eric there, and she could hear him settling right behind the door, his back sliding down the wood as his butt hit the floor.
*What is he doing? Is he just going to stay there and wait for me to come out? I said I wanted to be alone, and he stayed there making it seem like I am ‘technically’ alone, and yet not. What more if he becomes my husband?*
She didn’t want to talk to him yet because she knew exactly what he would propose them to do. She loved him with all her heart, and she would do anything for him, and probably marry him…
It’s just she didn’t know how that would help their situation.
Marrying Eric wasn’t just marrying Eric… she would be marrying his family—his father he didn’t mind, the hacienda, and other Erics as he was to other people she never even met—his companies, his employees, people who considered themselves his friends and his circle… and so many other things she still didn’t know about him because she had no time to learn them.
She grew up and lived in a hut on the edge of the hacienda, unknown to him for years until that night. She knew nothing but the life she had with her family and whatever she’d learned in books.
How was she going to organize everything that Eric was in her head?
How was she going to perform as his wife when she hadn’t even been given time to get herself ready?
They were going to persecute him for marrying someone like her.
They were going to think his father was crazy for putting to jail Eric’s mother and his ex-fiancée to defend someone worthless like her.
Eric wasn’t seeing this. Papa Sylver would just laugh it off. She had meant to go to college, live in a city, and study hard so she could somehow stand beside him as his fiancée.
How was she ever going to work on all that when she was married to him? The most that she could expect was he’d always keep her in his sight, and she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere without a bodyguard, just like those protected mafia wives in books and movies do.
Yna turned and slid down to the floor on her side of the door, too. She knew he heard her, she heard his loud sigh.
“I didn’t hear it. Sigh a little more loudly,” she grumbled loud enough for him to hear.
She heard him shift, as if he had turned his body so he could face the door. “Baby, what do you want me to do? You know that marriage is a done deal. We’re busted. I can’t stop being your lover any more than I can stop breathing.”
“You’re so melodramatic.”
“Try me.”
She gulped. That voice, in that tone…
She shook her head while sighing.
“I’m here to let you know you can impose conditions. Whatever you want, anything as long as it doesn’t put you in trouble—”
“Does that mean I’m going to get guarded when I get married to you? Or that I can’t go anywhere without you or without you knowing? Will I stop being myself? Will I lose myself, Eric?”
He was quiet behind the door.
“When I go to college, will people know I’m married to you? They’ll all love you and they’ll see me, and they’ll know I’m not up to standard. Will I be attending functions where your wealthy friends would see me? You can’t prevent what they will think of me. I am young and maybe pretty, but they’ll all believe that’s just how you got me, and that you probably got forced to marry me. They can make up so many stories except the fact that we’re in love, that we love each other, because I can’t justify being the woman who could be your wife.”
She could hear him scrambling to stand up behind the door, and she did the same and faced it.
“You can’t protect me all the time, Eric, like you would want to. And it’s going to eat at you. It’s not going to work.”
“Step away from the door, Arianna.”
She reached for the doorknob, remembering it wasn’t locked. “don’t you—”
But he had turned it, and the door opened a slit, then steadily pushed her aside as he continued to open it.
The next thing she knew, she was in his arms.
And she just melted to him. Like she had no energy left.
She closed her eyes and buried her face in his chest, only to feel his heart thudding like crazy. She raised her head so she could look at his face, and he raised his head from her hair when she moved.
His face… she had never seen him look so worried that it almost seem he was… afraid.
Her hand went up to his cheek to caress him. “He, it’s not that I don’t want to be with you…”
He nodded, then he pulled her back to the tight embrace again, and she frantically retraced to her outburst and tried to find what could have spooked him.
“It’s not going to work.”
Oh.
*Oh.
Idiot.*
“I’m so sorry… I’m sorry…”
“Okay. Let’s not marry. Not right away. We’ll wait,” he was saying. “Just don’t ever say that this is going to stop.”
“I didn’t say that,” she denied, her eyes stinging with new tears.
“I wasn’t aware you have all those concerns. We’ll work with them one by one.” He raised his head again and his hands cupped her face, and he looked down at her as he talked. “I’ll work with you on them. We can do it, baby,” he said.
She nodded. “But we can’t have sex anymore. We can only be together like that if we marry. As you’ve said, we’re busted.”
He blinked. And then he reluctantly uttered, “I can… I can wait.” Very reluctantly.
“Oh, my…” And then, Arianna was laughing.
He looked confused. “What’s wrong?”
“You really will?” she asked.
Flirtatiously.
He blinked. “What—”
Her hand had reached for the door and she locked it. He heard the distinct sound of the click, and his eyes widened at her.
“Arianna…”
“I always loved it when you call me while you’re inside me.”
His breathing caught. Loudly. “What are we doing?”
“Testing how long you can wait.”
“Baby… I—”
She stood on tiptoes and carefully kissed his lips, and then he was kissing her back despite her cut there. And she realized it didn’t hurt that much because it had healed a lot anyway, and she just had a pain medicine. And she just really want to kiss him right back as excitedly as he kissed her.
He raised his head with a pop of lips. “You’re killing me.”
“We can’t take all our clothes off,” she whispered. “Good thing I’m wearing a skirt.”
“Yna, you know I can’t. They’re probably just outside the door.”
She shook her head. “There’s a step that makes a sound whenever someone comes up. Hasn’t made a sound so you better hurry up.”
“But—”
She stared at his tense face. “Are you telling me you can’t?”
“Won’t. I’ve already disappointed Tommy and your mother. I can’t unless we’re married.”
She nodded. “U-huh. But I knew it was wrong to have sex with you after that first time because of this honor thing people are suddenly concerned about, and I still did it. what about that?” she asked him as she stepped back, bent down and raised her hem, and started sliding her panties down…
“Oh… fucking… god…” he groaned out as if he was in great pain as he watched her.
She threw the small cloth in the back without even looking. Then she raised an eyebrow at him like saying ‘what now’ without a sound.
He closed his eyes tightly as if praying. His whole body was so taut.
He opened his eyes as if he was about to cry. “God… I’m so weak!” he groaned.
She laughed softly when he pulled her to him tenderly to kiss her again, his hands sliding down her body to pull at her short day slip dress until she was exposed from her waist down.
Then he pushed her to the bed until she was lying down, and he was there with her, his hands expertly loosening his button and zipper, loosening his hard cock out.
“Quick,” she whispered near his ear as she opened her thighs for him.
“Marry me,” he whispered back at her, his eyes focused on her face.
She smiled at him and nodded. “Okay.”
His eyes widened for a moment until he realized she had always meant to say yes. That she was just grumbling a bit. And he smiled.
“I want you inside me now,” she told him… almost begging. “But we’re going to talk about those conditions later.”
He nodded. “I love you so much, baby,” he whispered to her as he held his cock in place before he slowly thrust in.