Red Princess

48. Tough Love

Ariel

I grazed the surface of his laptop. It was still warm. I gently opened it, and a picture from one of our picnic trips last year greeted me back. It acted as his lock-screen wallpaper. I tapped a key, and the screen prompted me for a password.

I wasn't particularly fond of sniffing around, but I knew that little runt was looking for something here, and Kaidon helped stall me. He crossed the line when he mocked me, and I wasn't letting him get what he wanted from my boyfriend, ahem, fiancé. The words should be interchangeably used once you get engaged. Anyway, I was curious. I was eager to know what was there on his laptop, which was so precious.

"Ari darling, can you pass me my shirt?" His voice echoed from the shower, which made me jump.

"Get it for yourself, Sey! I am not your maid."

"So you don't mind me walking out naked in full glory to go fetch it? Because I definitely am willing to do that." He responded in an amused voice, and my ears turned red. I hurried to the cupboard to fish out a shirt of his and sprinted towards the bathroom before he made true to his words. I did not doubt that he was very much capable of doing it.

"Take it before I change my mind, " I waved his shirt in, but instead I felt a strong grip around my wrist which pulled me inside and then I had a solid mass of muscles backing me against the wall. Before I could react, he smashed his lips down on mine, his hands firmly wrapped around my waist and back, supporting me, and all I could do was curl my arms around his neck, relishing the feel of the kiss.

His teeth lightly grazed my lips, tugging them for me to open up to him, and I did. His tongue danced along with mine as he tightened his hold on me.

I grew weak in the knees, and at that moment, I was grateful that he held me so tightly. I whined as his lips left mine, only to travel down my throat to my collar bone, gently kissing and biting.

This was new for me, for Sey to be so forward. Given the way he acted like such a tease, I expected him to be wild in the bedroom. But all he ever gave me were chaste kisses.

"S-Sey, " I moaned his name as he pushed me to the wall and instinctively, I wrapped my legs around his hips.

"That's right, Ari. I am yours, and you are mine, " he whispered to me in that 'oh-so-seductive' tone of his.

"When have I ever claimed otherwise?"

His lips stopped tormenting my ear, and he pulled away to gaze at me, his eyes filled with adoration. I forgot how to breathe at that moment. The awkward position we were in wasn't much help either. If he pulled back this time, I would probably smack him so bad; he'd go into a coma for the next two weeks.

But he didn't look like he wanted to hold back this time. It was as if some kinda string binding him had broken off.

Can I make a wild guess to what caused this kind of transformation?

"If I knew it'd only take a love rival to get you all riled up, I would have gotten one, months back."

The act his annoying cousin and I pulled back on the stairs played cupid here.

A sorrowful smile tugged across his lips. "It's much more complicated than that."

"Try me." I challenged. I didn't want to feel like an outsider. When I woke up from my slumber five years back, I felt exactly that. I didn't want to anymore. I wanted in on all secrets.

He sighed as I climbed down his body to place my feet back on the floor. He did loosen his hold on me but didn't let go.

"Do you love me, Ari?"