The convenient marriage

Chapter 22. An unexpected guest

Waking up to the sound of running water and the distinct warm touch of the sunrays against her skin, Aria slowly shifted her body, already thinking of the difficulty of having to move her belly to her other side. But strangely the struggling feeling that she expected never came.

She frowned as she slowly opened her eyes to check why she felt more weightless than normal, only to see herself with a flat abdomen. Frightened by the loss of the usual image of her protruding belly that she should have seen, she opened her eyes wider, only to become even more surprised. There was no sign of the bed she had been sleeping on, no sight of her room, not even the sight of a ceiling over her head. 

Looking all around her, what greeted her eyes was the sand she had been laying on and an endless sea, an endless blue which reached the horizon blending with the color of the sky. This image for some reason settled her mind down, the ocean blue color of the water reminding her of Zane's eyes.

It calmed her heart, leaving nothing but peace behind. The sunny light rays that fell lightly on her white maxi dress brightening it up, and the slight breeze that ruffled her wavy hair... the wonderful landscape that merged together made her unable to think of anything. 

Standing up from the ground with her eyes never leaving the waves, charmed by the sea she had never gotten the chance to ever gaze at in her life, she stepped with her bare feet on the golden sand, slowly approaching the water.

But just as she came near the beach line, barely reaching with her feet the waves, the slight breeze turned fiercer, removing from her head the wide summer hat she did not even know she was wearing.

Surprised by the sight of it flying towards the sea, she reached with her hand to grab it, only for the hat to disappear as if lost in the horizon. She pondered whether it landed on the water in the second that her eyes had been blinded by the light reflected on the waves, so she inspected with her eyes the surface of the water. But there was not even the smallest of traces of it on the sea that had strangely calmed down into stillness. How could a sea stand still, as if it were a lake? She pondered. 

No, there were still some small changes to the surface of the water a bit further away from her, small ripples in the sea that strangely had appeared frozen some moments ago. Why would ripples only appear in just one part of the sea?

As the curiosity of what could possibly be lurking underneath increased, Aria moved forward a bit  until the water reached above her ankles, while she was still looking at the disturbance. The small ripples turned into bigger ones coming closer and closer to her position, as a head slowly emerged from the water.

Following the head, a slender neck, then a lean torso could be seen, with the person coming closer to her as he walked. The lean slightly muscular man walked with steady but determined steps as he exited the water, until he was only a few feet away from her position.

The handsome man then rose both his hands, running them through his ebony hair, sweeping the wet strands to the back of his head, revealing Zane's face. This particular image coupled with the small drops of sparkling water that still lingered on his body, and the small smile that he directed to her, made the Aria stare with her mouth agape, unable to react in any way.

Even when Zane stood in front of her, standing so close that if he stretched his hand he would be able to touch her, her expression remained the same. She only managed to react when the man did just that, he rose his hand and touched her small cheek.

Feeling him getting closer as he was leaning his face towards her, Aria finally closed her mouth as she gulped in expectation, already imagining the touch of his lips. But just before he approached his lips to hers, she...