The Bound Princess (Dark Romance)

Chapter 24

Emma

His lips brushed my ears and a shiver ran down my spine, "Missed me?" He inquired. 

I felt a blush creeping up my neck and heat blasted my cheeks. More than thirty pairs of eyes were staring at us. 

"You know that is never going to happen," I looked at him over my shoulder and said with a broad smile. 

"We will change that," he leaned and placed a quick kiss on my lips, making my heart hammer against my ribcage. 

Even a simple touch from Dawood was enough to set my body on fire. My hand shot up to my mouth and I traced my fingers over my lips, which were tingling from his mere kiss. 

"Can you stop with your fake affection? It's suffocating," I said through gritted teeth in a low voice, trying to get a grip over my emotions that were all over the place. 

"It would be a pity if you die so early," his smile and words acted as gasoline in the fire. 

I tried to get out of his hold but he pulled me to his side and dragged me with him towards the dining table then pulled out a chair for me and when I settled on it he sat on the chair beside me. We were getting curious glances from everyone and I was forced to keep smiling. 

"This is the first time that Dawood pulled out a chair for a girl," Dawood's aunt Salwa commented and everyone giggled at her remark. 

"Can't treat my wife like any other girl," Dawood was quick to respond.

"It's a welcome change," one of his cousins muttered. 

"Tell us, Emma, what spell have you cast on him?" One of his uncle's wives asked. 

"That's a secret no one will ever find out," Dawood replied before I could open my mouth. 

Everyone laughed at his reply and then got busy eating and conversing here and there. I was busy eating when I felt Dawood's palm on my thigh. My eyes shot up to his and I found him smirking. 

What the fuck he was up to? 

I glared at him then clamped down my fork on the back of his hand. Dawood winced but didn't pull his hand away. 

Bastard. 

"Emma, I heard you play piano," Emel asked in excitement, she was practically bouncing on her chair. 

"I do," I replied and sucked in a breath as Dawood's hand traveled upward. 

"I can't wait to listen to you play, we have a piano but no one from amongst us ever learned to play," she told me. 

"It's a pity that such a good instrument is going to waste. I never thought that none of my grandchildren would learn to ever play it. I will ask Ordimez to ship it to Boston, so at least it doesn't fade to dust," Dawood's grandmother said in her shaky voice. 

She was very fragile-looking, I heard she was several years older than Dawood's grandfather. They were cousins and the only child of their respective parents. They had married each other to prevent the splitting of their family fortune. The Ordimez wealth had been passed down over the generations but Dawood's grandfather was the one who multiplied it a hundredfold. 

"That would be very kind of you," I replied politely, trying to ignore Dawood's thumb tracing circles on my thigh over the thin fabric of my dress.

"It was the first gift Ordimez gave me after our wedding," she shared with a smile. 

I never expected she would offer to give me the first gift from her husband, "But.." I tried to protest and she interrupted me, "I would love it if you accept it," she smiled.