Chapter 9
2166 Words
“Just because he gave you a car doesn’t make him a good guy! He’s the enemy, remember?” She glares at herself in the mirror.
She spent what little sleep she got dreaming about that damn kiss, and now she can’t get it out of her mind! She doesn’t want to marry him! One kiss isn’t going to make her change her mind.
A familiar knock on her door pulls her out of her daydream, and she turns to glare at her door.
“What?!”
“You have a visitor.” Her stupid brother sounds as if he is singing the words, and it’s enough to make her want to smack the smile, she knows he has on his face, right into the next century!
Her anger makes her realize that she’s not making any sense, and she rips open her door to stomp down the stairs.
“Well, well, well, I won’t mind it if you greet me dressed like this every morning, but I won’t like it if you want to go out into public looking this… Shall we say…” Dremon actually seems to be at a loss for words, and Arora realizes that she’s still in her silk nighty.
Turning around on the spot, she runs up the stairs like a bolt of lightning hit her on her bum and slams her door shut. Of course, she had to walk out in her shortest, most revealing nighties she owns!
She put it on last night after wearing the tight dress and boots because it’s just so comfortable, and she felt like wearing something beautiful to bed! Why couldn’t she just think straight and change before she rushed out of her room?
She grabs a pair of her favourite black torn jeans and a red tank top, gets dressed as fast as she can, and pulls her hair into a messy bun before putting on her usual boots and grabbing her purse.
She remembers him mentioning something about doing something today, but all she could think about was her brand-new car… And then that kiss.
Rushing downstairs, she finds him in the dining room with her father and brother having breakfast and laughing. She just knows that they are laughing at her little accident earlier, but before she can make a quick exit, Dremon is up and slips his hand behind her back.
“We are having breakfast with your family and lunch with mine. Then the rest of the afternoon is ours.” He speaks softly enough for only her to hear.
“Ah, whispering sweet nothings already.” Kozor jokes and Arora glares at him.
“Jealous?” Dremon grins at him, and Arora is caught off guard with the way he puts Kozor in his place, immediately silencing him.
Dremon pulls out her chair for her, and she sits down reluctantly while Dremon takes the seat next to her. Strangely, he starts to talk to her father about her father’s company and how business is going, and even stranger, her father seems elated to share the information she never thought he would share with anyone!
She hasn’t even heard him talk to Kozor this way before, and by the look on her brother’s face… Whatever is being said, he didn’t know about it either. He keeps his cool for some reason, and she finds that even stranger.
What the hell is going on here? She knows that if she asks questions now, they will probably clam up, and they will definitely refuse to tell her what’s going on, but now it makes sense that her father wants this wedding to take place.
After breakfast, Dremon excuses himself and leaves a soft kiss on her cheek. I will pick you up at twelve, be here, and please be dressed appropriately this time. The tone of his voice right next to her ear makes her shiver. Something in his voice tells her not to go against his instructions.
After he is gone, she walks to her father’s study to find out what the hell is going on, but as soon as she reaches the door, she hears her father’s harsh voice tearing into Kozor. She can’t help but hang around to try and find out what all this is about, yet her father doesn’t give away anything.
When her father tells Kozor to leave, she runs around the corner to hide and waits for him to storm past her. She knows her father and brother well enough by now to not talk to them at the moment.
She will just be hitting her head against a brick wall… She needs to get into her father’s office if she’s going to find out what’s going on! Looking at her watch, she realizes that she’s wasted so much time hanging around, she might be late if she doesn’t get ready right now!
***
“Mother, I’m telling you right now! If you push Arora about the wedding, we are going to leave. I don’t want any talk about the wedding at lunch.” He confronts his mom when she pulls out the brochures she collected over the past couple of months. She has been telling him for years that Arora would be his wife one day.
She probably planned the wedding years ago already!
He checks in on the kitchen to make sure that the food he ordered for lunch is just right. Lunch has to go off without a hitch or their future is going to be too tough to bear!
Then after lunch, he has a huge surprise for her, hopefully including some shopping if she is up to it. After their last trip, he might have to give her a bit more freedom to choose and not just tell her what he knows she’s going to like.
***
He picks her up in his car and drives her to his parent’s house for lunch. She doesn’t say anything on the way, but she is wearing a pretty dress and some heeled sandals.
Arora rolls her eyes at herself, who is she trying to impress? She is trying to get out of this arrangement! Not work her way further into it.
When they arrive, his mother is positively drooling over her and Arora almost feels as if she needs to take a shower after the woman hugged her! Her perfume hangs around Arora like a thick cloud of dust, but Arora fights and keeps her cool, friendly exterior.
She can see his mother wanting to say something all through lunch, but it seems each time Dremon looks at her, she closes her mouth mid-thought.
After the uncomfortable lunch is over, they say an even more awkward goodbye, and he pulls the car out of the driveway, turning in the opposite direction of where they came from.
“If you are taking me to secretly get married, I won’t do it.” She huffs, folding her arms across her chest and staring out the window.
“Oh, no, Arora, there will be nothing secret about our wedding. The entire magical world will know that you are my wife. No, I have a gift to show you.”
“Your gifts don’t interest me.”
A small laugh escapes from deep within him, and she glares at him.
“You seemed pretty happy about your car.”
“That was a momentary lap of judgment. I don’t want the car! You can take it back! I don’t want anything you have to offer.”
He tries to convince her that the car is still hers, he just changes the colour, but she is as stubborn as always. They pull up in front of the huge gates and a guard opens for them.
She’s already told him that she’s not going to marry him!
“What is this place?”
“You’ll see.” He smiles, and she hates it when he smiles like that!
Cute dimples form on his cheeks, and they make him look even more adorable than any man should! Pulling up to a huge house, she sees a butler standing at the ready.
“Please not more people! Dremon, I can’t deal with yet another party. Can we please just go home?”
But he is out of the car and her door is being opened for her even before she can carry on with her protest. The butler greets them, and it’s only once she’s out of the car that she notices an entire row of staff standing there waiting.
“This my darling is our house,” Dremon announces with his arm waving through the air as if it’s his best accomplishment ever.
“What?” Her head whips around to look in his direction, and she can physically see his chest swell with pride.
He takes her hand and the butler leads them to the staff, introducing them one by one. She hasn’t seen house staff since she was a little girl. After her mother’s death, her father only kept a few of them in his employ. They were not to be seen or heard!
She will probably have to ask these people for their names again as her mind wanders. Once they’ve met all the staff, the butler guides them into the house and in the corner of her eye, she notices a young boy taking a suitcase up the stairs.
The butler, who introduced himself as Giles, takes them on a tour of the first floor, and she can’t help but be impressed when she finds out that there are outdoor and indoor pools! This place is bigger than her father’s house, but of course, it would be. Image is everything to Dremon and his family.
When they walk up the stairs, she can’t help but notice the lush royal blue carpets. None of the rooms have furniture in them except for one bedroom, and the kitchen has every possible appliance you can think of.
She notices the same suitcase in the bedroom that already has a bed and suspects that Dremon is moving in today!
“I thought we could take this afternoon to go furniture shopping. That is if you feel up to it.” He steps in behind her, as he has been doing lately, speaking right next to her ear.
They are standing on the balcony of the main bedroom, overlooking the enormous gardens of the property.
“Dremon, why are you doing this? You aren’t in love with me, and I’m definitely not in love with you.” She turns around and he is right there!
Not even a full step away from her.
“You intrigue me.” He shrugs before turning around.
She notices the table and chairs on the balcony for the first time. There is a bottle of champagne and two glasses, and Giles pours each of them a glass of champagne before discreetly disappearing.
Dremon hands her a glass and stands inside her personal space again.
“You don’t just marry someone because they intrigue you. I’m sure you know about what I did.” She steps away from him to try and get some space and is relieved to find him leaning against the banister.
“Yes, why should that be a problem?”
“Because I’m cursed. Or at least that’s what my father believes.” What the hell is wrong with her?!
She is spilling all her secrets! And to the one person, she vowed to never even look at!
“I don’t believe you are cursed. I think that you are more powerful than they wanted you to know, and they never knew or wanted to teach you how to use that power properly.”
Anger flares up in her eyes, right before the champagne hits his face.
“And there it is! You just want my power!” She storms into the room, but the passage is so long that she has no idea which way to go!
She was so stunned by the size of the house that she didn’t pay any attention to which way they were going!
Turning left, she follows the passage and hears him laugh just a couple of meters away. Opening the first door she can find; she pops into the room and softly closes the door behind her.
“Arora… Arora, please. You misunderstood me.” She hears him walk past the room and breathes a sigh of momentary relief until she feels the door handle move.
The door is pushed open, and he grabs her just in time before she literally falls head over heels.
“I’m not after your power. Or at least I don’t want it for myself. If you give me a chance, I can explain, but you are so damn stubborn!”
She glares at him for a moment, studying him before she nods. She doesn’t have to trust him to hear what he has to say.
- Writer
