Coerced

Chapter 14

Mara's POV

The whistle of the pressure cooker brings me out of my ludicrous thoughts about Shannon. His kisses, his looks, his smell and his feather light touches on my skin….everything about him enchants me and gets me all heated up. 

Yesterday I brought all the essentials from the market to prepare the Chicken fried rice for him. I am a vegan but to see the glimmer in my boyfriend's eyes, I can even cross the five oceans of the world.  

"Hey!  What's special today sissy? You seem to be all smiling preparing chicken in the house when you don't even have a spoon?" My brother asks me while entering the kitchen to have his breakfast.

"Today is Shannon's birthday. I want to surprise him by preparing his favorite dish."  I told my little brother excitedly. A mischievous smile plays on Vance’s lips eyeing me surreptitiously. I very well know the outcome of that smile. 

Squealing, I tried to escape him running out of the kitchen but it was too late. "Going all beloved for your boyfriend?" He tickles me while I erupt in giggles. "Introduce him to dad before it’s too late." He enacts the belly of a pregnant woman and winks running away, locking the door of his bedroom before I catch him.

I can read behind the lines and understand what Vance was trying to enlighten me. Beginner's forth, I am not gullible to miss the caution in his eyes. Tomorrow I am planning to introduce Shannon to dad and tell him everything about my parent's accident and my reason for seeking a job in his firm. 

My family had been a delicate issue to me all the while and I had avoided the topic with him as best as possible but I knew he was not ingenuous and not able to understand me. Shannon is very smart and gets things done by his choice, no doubt he is a renowned very successful businessman today. I could skip the matter about my parents with him because he allowed me to do it. He is giving me the time to accept him in my life and disclose the truth to him step by step and I am very grateful to him for that.

With the year end approaching and the targets to be met, Shannon is very busy and tense with work yet he always makes time for me. His way of gifting me things is invariably unique, unlike the usual teddy bears and chocolates of a standard boyfriend. 

I am not into money and he knew that. He wouldn’t mess up bringing costly jewelry or pricey dresses. Last week he took me to a carnival and I became a ten year old girl jumping and clapping enjoying all the fun rides. I wonder how he knows everything so deeply about me.  With a single look into my eyes he would sense everything that goes in my brain. Am I so easy to read? Regardless, he is a very sharp man. Thus though unwillingly, I have to accept the truth, I am an open book to him.

I am still amazed recalling the fact of how he could get the truth extracted from me like a waterfall about Mr Brad when we were not even close friends. It didn't take him a bat of an eye to fire the man who was even the prospective COO of the firm with more than a decade of experience in Clandevis industries. 

However, if my sixth sense is right, I think he had feelings for me long before that.

"I don't tolerate disrespectfulness towards women." - It was his simple statement yet a weighty one which tells volumes about his character, the respect he holds for a woman. He enamored me with such simple lines which still brings goosebumps in me whenever I recall them. 

Last week when he took me to his parent's house, I was paranoid about many things. One of the most important reasons being, whether his parents would accept me. I'm a simple middle class girl much lower to their class  to be their daughter-in-law. But by heaven's grace his mom and father are very friendly and kind hearted people. They welcomed me into their house with an open heart.

I was shocked to see Shannon was completely a different man in the house. He would make small talk with his father and sometimes get jovial with his mother but I could observe the corners of his eyes were mindful about me all the while. 

One of his hands always rested on my shoulder holding me close to him or staying delicately around my waist in a feel of intimacy.  Whenever he felt me getting tense he would take my hand in his and rub his thumb soothingly in circles on the back of my palm - an action that is so inconspicuous yet with an intense love that penetrates the crevasse crease of my soul. 

Every movement of his is refined, absolute, finely drawn that anyone would hardly notice it but for the person it is subjected to. His casual gestures give me blue eyes with an effect of long cherished attraction accompanied with imperial joy.  Those little things of care and tenderness shown by him bring in me the power to face any kind of challenge in life. 

With many awaiting thoughts, I step into the building of Clandevis Industries, a perpetual smile playing on my rims. Settling myself on the chair, across the table, I bring out the lunch box from my bag and place it beside the files on the desk. A smile automatically etches my features as I think of his reaction after seeing his favorite dish prepared by me.

Anybody would consider me an infatuated puppy of my boyfriend but I am not going to mind it. Today I will feed Shannon with my own hands and savor his response all my life when he tastes the first spoon.

In quick, exciting steps I knock on the door of his room and twist the knob to enter inside. The room felt dark and gloomy that I have never seen in before. It was weird because Shannon is a hardworking and punctual businessman. 

As if on call Rita stutters behind me. "Mara, the boss hasn't reached the office yet. I tried to call him several times regarding the meeting with Japanese delegates that is going to take place in an hour but the call always enters the voice message."

My spirit was striking notes of warning. I pick my phone and handbag and take the cab giving the address of Shannon's penthouse. Pressing the code that I was given by him last time I entered the beautiful mansion, I walked inside. My hair goes up on my skin petrifying me of something dire about to happen when it is now ill lighted like never before. 

I dug out the phone from my handbag and called his number for the nth time. I could hear it ringing a few steps ahead on the dining table. I dialed his parents and met with another sterile result though I didn't give them any hint of his absence.

What happened to him? Where did he go? Is he safe?

I clean the small droplets of sweat appearing on my forehead with the handkerchief looking around his house getting more and more befuddled with the passage of time.