The Artist's Wife (BWWM)

Chapter 28~ As

Listen to 'In Common' by Alicia Keys.

The rented, silver Jeep raced on the straight road and I bit my lip as I stared at the green, widespread grass wondering how a place could seem this peaceful. The wind blew at my face, blowing my black curls all over the place and I resisted the urge to just stick out my tongue and let it loll in the air.

Like a big dog.

When Gerard had given me the offer to travel with him to England, I was apprehensive at first but with the fresh, cool breeze of the outskirts of Bath hitting my face; I was happy that I had agreed. He had convinced me that it was good for my recovery too and I knew he was right. It had been almost three weeks already since the incident.

My eyes went down instinctively to the single plaster on my left forearm, the only remaining evidence of my attempted suicide and I leaned back into the Jeep's expensive, leather seat. The long flight was starting to take its toll on me but a glance at my Jade-Eyed husband at the wheels showed he was not the least bit affected by it. At least it wasn't showing.

"How come you're not exhausted too?" I asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had built up between us for the past hour or so since we've been on the road. I resisted the urge to grin at our similar choice of clothing for the umpteenth time; we both had on jeans and black sweatshirts. Coincidence. I picked this choice of clothing because it enabled me to roll my sleeves up and down comfortably, plus sweats were always a go.

"Well," he began, without tearing his eyes off the road. "It might have been due to the fact that I was smart enough to sleep through the whole flight." His tone was light and teasing like he was making fun of me. He had fallen asleep on my laps, he had admitted to being able to sleep a lot more lately with my presence. I was just glad that I could help out with his problem.

"And I was what? Dumb?" I pouted, playing along even though I knew he was right. I had spent the whole flight video calling Lance and Miah, Lance had travelled to Canada to see her and his older brother, Lee. Those two had fought throughout the whole call with Miah repeatedly arguing with Lance. Gerard had woken up at some point and appeared on my screen making Miah scream out her lungs, apparently, her crush was a big fan of Gerard and she had only allowed him to leave after he had promised to speak with the boy when next she called.

In general, it had been an interesting flight.

"You said it yourself." He shrugged, taking a turn away from the main road and heading further into the outskirts.

"You're mean." I packed my hair into a loose ponytail using the flowery scrunchie I wore on my wrist. "I so hate you right now."

"Your voice goes about two octaves lower when you lie," he stated, sounding smug with the indent appearing on his right cheek.

"How do you know that?"

"You're not a very good liar."

"That's not true," I protested. "You're just oddly observant, noticing changes in the octaves of my tone."

"True," he admitted. "But I like every octave, you sound very cute."

"Look who's going all sweet --" I sat up, smiling when I caught sight of the looming castle we were approaching. Yes, castle because that was the only proper term to describe the enormous, Victorian-looking buildings surrounded by thick, evergreen forest trees. This place looked like it was brought straight out of a fairytale.

"This is where we're going? Aunt Evie lives in a castle? You grew up in a castle?" The questions kept tumbling out and it took me a moment to realize he had parked the Jeep and was now staring at me.

"Which of your questions am I supposed to answer first, love?" He blinked, staring at me lazily his eyes dancing with concealed humour. His British accent was back.

I gave him the look. "All."

"Yes, this is our destination. I lived here with aunt Evie till I finished high school. I grew up here," he sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Happy now?"

"I'm never happy," I murmured, knowing this statement was completely true. "So when did you actually return to the States?"

He was quiet for a moment, processing my question. "Well, after my high school here, I was around about two years here, not really sure what I was going to do with my life. Later, I got that admission to Japan and studied fine art a bit there, then I went to a lot of schools abroad after that. I settled back in NYC about a year and a half ago, I think."

"Wow." I stared at the castle. "So you really grew up in this big castle?"

"Yeah." He paused. "Maybe when I'm free I'll show you around here, I can even take you to the schools JT and I finished from."

"Y'all went to the same schools?"

"Yeah."

It was refreshing, him telling me all these things because I knew close to nothing about Gerard's childhood except for the fact that he had lived with his mom's eccentric younger sister, the reason for this, I still wasn't aware of. Gerard had postponed the Duchess's work because of me and I knew that project was going to occupy most of his time here, giving me the perfect opportunity to snoop around.

He was as depressed as I was and finding out why seemed to be my only goal now. Plus, he seemed more open lately but he still closed up whenever I tried to bring some topics up.

"Rina." His sexy baritone voice broke my self induced trance. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head, trying hard not to get into another trance by his beautiful eyes. "I'm fine. Why'd you ask?"

"Because you were quiet." He frowned. "And you're never quiet."

I ignored his not-so-funny joke and leaned in to face him, our faces only a hairbreadth apart and lips almost touching. I could feel my lips tingle in excited anticipation at contact with his.

"Why?" I breathed out.

He raised a perfectly arched eyebrow before reaching for the back of my head and pulling me closer. His lips traced feather-light kisses down my neck and I gulped in both fear and excitement. His initial shyness and apprehensions had started waning, I wanted more than just the sensations his lips gave me. I wanted to actually feel him inside me but wasn't going to rush him into it, I wanted him comfortable at his own pace with me. Even if that meant a lot of self-denial and control. Plus, I enjoyed kissing him a lot.

Kissing never felt dangerous or this exciting until I met him.

"Why did you move back to New York?" He caught my earlobe between his lips and pulled softly. "Why do you have that ugly scar on your back?"

I was trembling now as his large hand carefully traced out the cupid bow of my lips and my next question came out after a lot of difficulties. "Why do you always wear that old ring?"

The moment this question came out, his lips found mine and soon enough, we involved in a heated tongue battle with my hands running through his hair and completely messing it up. We ended the kiss breathlessly, both of us breathing heavily as we stared at each other with passion-filled eyes. I couldn't mistake the desire beneath those tired, insomniac eyes.

He wanted me. I wanted him more.

Yet, for some reason, he was doing nothing about it.

"We should probably get going now," he whispered huskily, his voice even deeper than normal and making my heart do abnormal flips within its confines.

I nodded in agreement, knowing I couldn't form any words even if I tried. As he started the silver Jeep and it roared to life, I realized one important thing;

He had skillfully avoided all my questions.

Gerard was definitely hiding something.

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