(Free Book): Will You Marry My Groom?

17

~ TRISTAN ~

Thanks to excessive work I had bombarded myself with to stop myself from going crazy— craziness from Hazel, else I would’ve been dead from frustration.  

It had been a whole damn week but she was still so cold and annoying towards me, always ignoring me, not responding to me or anything. So frustrating!!!

She walked into the hotel, coming from nowhere I knew of. She was always going out without my consent. I didn’t bother to stalk her for her privacy but she was taking things too far and it had to stop. It was almost midnight and she was just arriving. 

Constantly raising my head from my laptop to stare at her, I noticed she was arranging her clothes into the travel bag. 

“Where have you been?” I gathered enough courage to ask her. I had never been hesitant to talk to anyone in my life but this woman could make me do things I didn’t want to do.

Of course she didn’t respond to me. 

I couldn’t take this anymore, I was beyond frustrated. 

If it were anyone else, I would’ve easily left out of anger but her rigidness was making me feel weird, I was feeling guilty, feeling like I was losing a part of me. 

She hadn’t slept on the bed with me. Believe me, it was making my body go crazy. Though there was nothing between us if we slept on the same bed, the feeling of her skin brushing mine at short intervals had always made my body feel a sensation of calmness. 

I had never felt this way for any woman in my entire life, not even Lucy. What was so special about Hazel that had this much effect on me? 

I couldn’t bear to see her with another man, not even in my worst dreams. 

Hazel started walking towards me— wait… was she really approaching me? I had always believed that there was nothing but a stone in my rib cage, but as she was approaching me, I was feeling something I hadn’t felt in a long time before the past week —the beat of my heart— my heart was beating crazily at the fact that she was approaching me. Was she going to finally talk to me? She claimed to love me so maybe this was all an act and she was tired of being so stubborn?

She only walked past me, raising my fury beyond its peak. 

“Hazel!” I exclaimed, grabbing her wrists.

She was clearly startled because she flinched. 

“You can’t keep on ignoring me this way. I’m going crazy, you don’t know the millions of thoughts running through my head. It’s so hard to be away from you while being with you. What are you trying to achieve, uh?” I raised my eyebrows, letting go of her. 

“You still don’t think you did anything wrong? You’re not worth my time.” She shook her head and walked away then to her travel bag, taking out her clothes from the wardrobe and into the travel bag. 

“What the heck do you think you’re doing?” I stormed to her with clenched fists. 

“I’m leaving.”

“Where to?” I stopped behind her, frowning really hard. 

“I don’t know, I just don’t want to be with you.”

“Why not? I want to be with you.” I couldn’t believe I just said that but at this point, I was desperate, I could do anything to make her stop being this way to me. 

I turned her to have her face to me, placing my hands on either side of her, locking her against the wardrobe.

Her hazel eyes were emotionless, her beautiful lips were plump, begging to have mine of them. I was hungry for her touch, imagining her arms around my neck… 

“I can’t get you out of my head, I don’t want to love you, maybe you’ll be out of my mind if I just…” I didn’t even know what I was saying anymore, I only wanted one thing at the moment and that was to have her stop acting this way. Maybe a kiss could restore her feelings for me— I thought, leaning my face to hers and lowered my hand to her waist. 

“I’ll give you anything you want; money, an entire beach, I just need to feel your touch, maybe it’ll get you out of my head.” 

She turned her face away and my lips landed on her neck. 

“I’m not a p********e, Tristan, you can’t just offer money for a kiss or a one-night stand.” Her hands crawled up to my chest, gently pushing me away. 

It was just a touch but my heart was beating crazily. What magic did she possess to affect me this much? I wanted to be away from her but could I really bear it? Definitely not! Oh no, was this emotion I had vowed to never accommodate with returning?

“Let’s return home tomorrow then we can get a divorce.”

“Are you mad?” I frowned. 

“I’ve been thinking about it and I think it’s best if we go our separate ways. You clearly don’t want this marriage and I don’t want it anymore. I’ve always learned that I never have the things I want, I can’t have the happiness I desire and my stupid fantasies from movies and books can never come true.” 

I thought she had uttered divorce last week because she was drunk.

“Are you out of your mind? Do you know how hard it was for me to convince the internet that we are a real couple, now you want to break it?”

“I’m not interested in those internet lies anymore, and neither am I a slut to satisfy your greedy desires because I’m poor. I’m human too, I also deserve to be treated right, not to be downgraded like you do to me.” Though her voice was calm and emotionless, I noticed tears forming at the corner of her eyes.

It was clear that I had hurt her more than I had imagined. My false words had affected her mentally and emotionally. 

She turned to take her clothes from the wardrobe, left for the bathroom.

Was she really going to divorce me? My hands were starting to shake. What the hell was this? I wanted this, right? I didn’t want to be with her but from the attraction I was having towards her, was staying away from her going to be possible?

After a few minutes, she returned in a sexy bikini. All of my worries were washed away at the beautiful sight of a goddess in front of me. Any man would consider himself the luckiest to have such a curvy and excessively beautiful wife but I wasn’t appreciating the fact that I was that man.

My admiration for her body was cut off after she wore a robe.

“I’ll be in the pool.” She said, grabbed something from the bed then left the room without another word. 

I badly wanted to apologize but didn’t know how to. Apologizing to her was going to mean that I truly had feelings for her and didn’t mean anything I had said. 

I didn’t want to make things escalate between us but… could I possibly bear being away from her? It had only been a week since she had been acting this way but every part of me wasn’t liking this. 

Not being able to bear her silence, not feeling comfortable about a person’s coldness towards me, feeling the beats of my heart again, feeling bad and the need to apologize for saying mean things to someone; I knew this feeling, I had experienced them before.

I had had feelings for her but I didn’t want to experience the trauma of falling in love once again. 

I didn’t want to give my everything to someone then have it crushed once again. With my feelings for Hazel, it could expand to love in a short period, that was certain.

Remembering Hazel was thinking of divorcing me, it felt like I was electrocuted with a high current of fear. I had to fix this immediately. 

Without wasting any more time, I switched into my trunk and wore a robe over it. 

I had to sort things out with Hazel before it was too late. I was only hurting myself.

~ HAZEL ~

I had been feeling extremely despondent lately. I had thought Tristan was going to apologize immediately but I clearly meant nothing to him. 

No one could ever insult someone you had feelings for this much. He didn’t care about me at all and I had to stop being desperate for love. I had always learned that I never had what I truly wanted— how could I even dream of having Tristan?

I rested my head against the edge of the pool and shut my eyes, hoping my sorrow was going to swim away in the hotel luxe pool.

“Hazel,” I flinched and opened my eyes at the sound of Tristan’s voice.

He was storming towards me, clearly still going to say the same stupid things for me to stop acting cold (like he was a god or whatever that no one could ignore). 

He got rid of his robe and got into the pool with me. 

I could feel my eyes become bigger at the sight of the wonderful piece of creation in front of me. Strong biceps, well-defined muscles, detailed abs, completely naked for my view. 

“You like what you see?” He smirked. 

I averted my gaze from him, swimming away and resumed resting my head on the edge of the pool with my eyes shut.  

“I don’t like being ignored but this is different. Your silence feels like my heart is being pierced. No matter how hard I try to stay away from you, it only makes my feelings for you increase.”

He ADMITTED that he has FEELINGS for me!

“I said you mean things to me, but I only said them because I wanted to convince myself that I don’t feel anything for you, they were all lies. You can’t possibly mean nothing to me if you affect me this much, I miss your touch, whether or not it’s an act for the public. I admit I’ve hurt you but I’m— I’m sorry.”

Oh. My. God! Tristan Shane Hendrix just apologized? To me?!

I re-opened my eyes with a small smile. “So what do you want now?”

“I don’t know, but definitely not a divorce. I hardly ever apologize to anyone and I just did that to you so it means I’m genuinely sorry. I don’t know what I want right now, I’m having a serious mental disorganization: I admit that I have feelings for you but I don’t want to, yet I’m unable to be away from you… maybe— at least, we can be friends first, right?”

I didn’t give him any response, only blinking at shorter intervals than normal while he looked extremely worried and eager to hear me speak.

“Who hurt you?”

“Uh?” He quirked an eyebrow in puzzlement. 

“Your current attitude is definitely due to your past pain. Who hurt you?” 

“Nobody.” His worried expression transformed to his usual frigid gaze. Here comes the mood swings.

He admitted that my touch affected him so maybe it was going to have an effect today. 

“Let’s settle things right now, let’s share each other’s pain.” I swam to him and cupped his face. “Who hurt you?” 

“No one… everyone.” He let out a sigh, swam to rest against the edge of the pool again. 

“How? I’m interested in knowing everything.” 

“Well… I haven’t shared every part of the story with anyone…” he scratched the back of his head. “At first, Indy and I loved each other very much but she cheated on me in high school, and she was making fun of me behind my back. I was hurt and my feelings for her crashed completely. My wealth and fame have always been a big problem because most of the people close to me were and are only interested in my family wealth, even my ex-girlfriend, Lucy.”

Lucy… I desperately needed to know more about her. 

Swimming to rest against the edge of the pool beside him, I nudged him to continue. 

“Okay, this is weird.” He cleared his throat and continued, “Life had always seemed like a mess to me but I eventually had feelings for Lucy then fell in love with her; she was my greatest joy. To cut the long story short, she told me she was pregnant and wanted us to get married, knowing fully well that I love children and had always dreamed of being a father.”

Tristan loves children? That didn’t go together. 

“I had no problem with getting married to her, she was my world. I had and have never loved anyone as much as I loved Lucy, she was the best.” Ouch… that made me feel quite weird. 

A small smile appeared on his face. “Our love was so perfect, I was beyond glad to be a father, but my entire dreams and joy crashed when she eloped with her true love, the father of our baby, at our engagement ceremony, with the diamond engagement ring and a lot of my money. I was and still am very broken. 

Our love seemed perfect, unconditional, unbreakable, I had submitted my whole life to our love but she broke my heart, crushed my soul. Words can’t explain how much pain she caused, the pain still resides in me till forever, I can’t ever trust love anymore, it ruins me.” He was looking angrier as he explained. 

“Everyone keeps betraying me. All because of my wealth? Life is more than money, isn’t it?” 

“It definitely is.”

“Then you came into my life, I didn’t want to but I developed feelings for you, I don’t know how or why. 

On our wedding day, I was glad at first to see you but different thoughts ran through my mind, the fact that Indy paid you to do this… you even admitted to it, you ruined me.”

I didn’t realize my outburst of frustration could cause this much misunderstanding between us.” 

“I didn’t mean anything I said. Everyone was blaming me excessively till the point of frustration and I just said anything I could. I can’t betray you, money can’t make me happy, I’ve watched how it has ruined the lives of many people around me, including my aunt.” 

“My feelings for you are expanding. I can’t control my emotions anymore. I don’t want to be hurt.”

“I won’t hurt you, Tristan. I— I love you. I only married you because I love you. Indy lied to me that you agreed, that’s the only reason I agreed to marry you. Everything in our marriage is just a misunderstanding.”

We stared at each other in absolute silence for a while, like we were both letting our minds drive through everything about ourselves.

“Can we just start afresh?” I broke the silence.

“Can we begin with friendship first? I really don’t want to jump into anything so quickly. If I know you better, I’ll understand you more and the same goes for you.” 

“Friendship.” I giggled, pulling him into a hug. “I promise I won’t hurt you.” 

Quick A/N:

Hi, lovelies.

Sorry for not updating for so long. I actually feel quite terrible for that but I’ve been really busy recently— the hours in a day feel like 10 hours rather than 24 hours.

I’ll try to update a few chapters during weekdays as well but main updates will be Fridays or/and Saturdays or/and Sundays.

I hope you’ll bear with me and please please please, leave your comments on the book.

You can always follow me to chat with me on Instãgram to talk about just anything at all: @giftodulesi (I think I need a few friends in my life)

Adios, mi amigos!