Chapter Twenty Seven

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The next morning, I decide that taking a pick to the ice around my husband's heart had gotten me thus far. Now, I was going to melt it. I wait for the exact second I know my husband steps out of his room.

And I step out at the same moment.

He pauses in the act of pulling on his jacket on as he sees me walk up to him. I catch my fingers on the lapels of his jacket and tug it over his shoulders. I run my palms down the sides of the jacket to smoothen it out where it lay over his shirt.

I lift my hands to curl around the collar of his jacket and iron the folds down with my fingers so that they're crisp and flat. I then, lift my arms and rest them over his shoulders and raising onto my toes, lean into him. I let my eyes close and press my lips to his.

He remains stiff under my caress, but he doesn't push me away. And I don't let his lack of response deter me.

When his lips remain unmoving under mine, I kiss along the top edge—that beautiful cupid's bow that had caught my eye from the second I had met him—then both corners of his lips and trail my lips over one side of his jaw.

Then, I lower myself to the ground, my arms cupping the nape of his neck. I remain pressed against him and smile up at him.

"Good morning baby." I whisper and because I can, I lift onto my toes again and brush my lips against his once more.

When I lean back I see his lashes lift.
His gaze meet mine, glowing but not swirling.

I smile up at him as if he had kissed me back and wasn't standing stiff as a board in my arms. I think he realises that without a response, I wasn't going to remove the fingers I had playing along the heat at his nape...or step away.

"Good morning, Alanna." He says.

I smile sweetly and step away, trailing my fingers down his chest as I lean away. His eyes narrow infinitesimally as if he saw my intentions clear as day. I just turn to start towards the revolving door and head towards the kitchen where I hear Hrei already at work.

I feel the heavy weight of my husband's gaze at my back, but pretend to remain unmoved by it as I enter the kitchen with a bright smile the Hrei returns. I quickly make a cup of coffee for me and my husband.

When I take the cups over to the breakfast counter, I place mine down first, then drop my free hand on his shoulder as I place his in front of him. I may also have leaned into him a little.

I sit down beside him, engaging in easy conversation with Hrei. She offers me some tips and tricks in cooking that I catalogue in my mind and decide to write down as I'm bound to forget. When I sense my husband has finished his coffee, I turn at the same moment that shadows swirl around the cup, wash and replace it.

When he stands, his eyes are on me. Wary.

I stand too.

I catch his jaw in my fingers and raise onto my toes once more and press a hard kiss to his lips.

"Have a good day baby." I murmur, then pull away and drop back down onto my seat and continue my conversation with Hrei where I had left it.

Hrei almost takes a whole four seconds to recover from what she had just seen and turns away with a secretive smile before answering my question. I don't look to see the look on my husband's face for the few seconds that he remains stock still where I had left him.

He leaves then and only after the door closes—something I catch sight in my peripheral—do I let out a small breath. I realise my relief was because I had prepared myself to be rejected by a step back or a head turn or by his hand pushing me away.

I lose almost a whole minute of Hrei's words in the hard beat of my heart.

Holy Heavens. He had let me claim two kisses. One in private. And one in company.

I hadn't essentially done it with those two spaces in mind, but ..the prospects of his having allowed me to do so...

A wide smile spreads my face.

——

-

My gaze caught on the clock. It was time for my husband to return. Each tick of the clock was like a kick of to my heart.

"Where is he?" I ask Houston.

"He has arrived, Mrs. Kri."

I'm on my feet before Houston can finish speaking. I walk swiftly up the path and follow it to the door just in time for it to open. My husband freezes the moment he sees me walking towards him. I smile at him and wrap my arms around him and tuck myself into his heat.

"Welcome home, baby." I whisper.

He remains still. One hand still on the door and the other at his side. I lean back and turn to walk back to the sofa as my husband slowly closes the door and watches me. I drop down on the sofa and grab the remote.

"Want to watch a movie?" I ask him, flicking through our options.

He walks the path behind and above me and I feel the heaviness in the air from the weight of his gaze and thoughts. He steps down the path and into the living space. He comes to my side and sits, pulling his jacket off and laying it over the arm of the sofa. His tie comes off next. Collar button, then sleeves.

Like clockwork.

I keep my smile to myself as I choose a random action movie and click play.

Twelve minutes into the movie, I'm staring at my husband, eyes caressing the profile of his sharp dark features.

I swallow, my fingers clenching. The room was dark for the screen that played gunfire scenes and gore. I hadn't paid a single speck of attention on it.

When my husband turns to look at me, I want to lean over...but I hold myself in check.

My heart beat is in my ear. My heart in my eyes.

Kri's eyes flick between both of mine.

"Do you mind?" I whisper, looking for the truth in his expression, "I've always wanted to kiss you goodbye and hug you welcome."

Something flickers in his eyes and he shakes his head once, no.

Just when I think to lean closer, he turns to look at the screen once more and I can all but feel the wall that he had thrown up in between us. I stare at him, confused. I think then that perhaps he hadn't sensed my intention...

But for the rest of the movie, he remains stoically staring at the screen. I know for a fact he isn't watching. His fingers are clenched and so is his jaw. He was shutting me out. I grit my teeth and ride the wave of fury.

I shut the movie off and stand and round on him.

"What's your problem?" I ask him, my voice not raising a single octave even if I wanted to scream and beat my fists against the walls he had up against me.

My husband slowly stands and suddenly the air is sucked out of the room as my head tilts back and Kri's larger, stronger form hovers over me.

I remain standing where I am. His eyes glimmer with his own withheld words as he looks at me with restrained patience, as if he were putting up with me.

My expression smoothes out and I seal my hurt and pain and anger inside me. A thousand words form inside my mind and urge to push itself out my lips. I want to rile him up, make him go as crazy as he makes me. He can't surely do this to me with nothing but half hour of ignorance.

But somehow it does. And it's almost as worse as seeing his damn ex standing behind him with her fingers curled around his arm.

I decide to take a different route to the whole situation. Drawing on all my patience and faith and hope, I moderate my tone to its most calm and stable.

"I confessed something to you yesterday." I say, "Something very very important."

His eyes remain focused on me, but otherwise I see not a flicker of reaction on his face.

"What do you have to say about that?" I ask him.

"Why don't you tell me what you want me to say?" My husband asks. "That way, we can save ourselves an argument."

I just stare at him.

Then, drawing in a breath, I hold it, closing my eyes. And let it out.

I do it one more time.

Then I open my eyes.

Then, I turn straight around and leave.

I walk through the revolving doors and into my room.

I don't come out the next morning to wish him goodbye.

I return into my room when it was time for him to come home.

I do this for two days.

Almost.

On the night of the second day, I hear a loud crash.

My heart explodes in my chest into rapid beats and I launch myself out of my bed, toppling my laptop over as I rush to the door. I step out of the room the same time the Hrei rushes past the revolving doors, her eyes wide and swirling with emotion. Both of us look at each other then our eyes shoot towards the door of the office room.

Gasping out a breath, I'm rushing toward the room. Hrei is faster than me—Yade genes—but the door doesn't open beneath her fingers. I remove her fingers and place mine over the knob. It clicks beneath my fingers and opens as it did the last time.

I see my husband standing beside his mahogany desk, profile facing me and my heart trembles in fear at the large gash above his forehead that leaked deep purple into the crisp white of his shirt. The smell of smoke assaults my senses and my eyes slowly trace over to the standing screen on his desk that had exploded and sent debris around the room. One large piece having scarred his forehead in its path.

My limbs and fingers and heart...everything goes numb as I stand where I am at the entrance, staring almost unseeingly at my husband. He glares straight ahead, hands fisted by his side as Hrei rushes out of the room.

I look at the screen that was charred and blown apart...and back at my husband.

He slowly turns his head to look at me. And when he does, his eyes are two orbs of angry glowing ice. Hrei rushes past me in a flash of wind and colour and ushers Kri toward her.

When he doesn't listen, she physically tugs him over to stand before the desk.

He crosses his arms and leans against the desk as Hrei muttering something that I can't hear over the ringing in my ears, dabs something onto a piece of cotton. My husband's eyes are still on me. But now the anger had cooled into something else.

When Hrei reached an arm towards his forehead, he leans his head away a little, eyes on me. A small smile lifts his face.

Hrei tries again. Kri tilts his head away.

Flecks of purple drip into the carpet.

Hrei turns to look at me and back. I see her lips twitch as she walks over to me and holds out the ball of cotton in her fingers to me. I take it from her unseeingly as she leaves, closing the door behind her with an almost silent snick.

I walk over to my husband and when I reach over to his forehead, he leans his head closer to facilitate my reach.

I swallow, my heart pounding, but I keep my gaze firmly fixed to my task even though I can feel his burning into me.

The gash had closed faster than I had thought possible as I spread some salve gently onto the repairing skin.

Apparently swift healing were one of the Yade's many abilities. I drop my hand away, throwing the cotton in a little compartment that had opened in the wall to aid in the safe disposal of the cotton. I clean my hand swiftly with sanitised wipes and toss those as well inside the compartment—which closes away once I'm done.

I let out a breath and turn away, walking towards the door.

"Would you be willing to make me a cup of coffee?" He asks my back.

I still, shutting my eyes. I turn around and stare at him with all the anger and frustration I felt.

When he doesn't react to my gaze, I whip around and all but speed-walk to the kitchen. In record time, I whip up a cup of coffee for him—working around a Hrei who remains almost stuck to her spot on the floor, keeping out of my way.

But even in all my blinding rage, I'm careful to make the coffee like the way I know he likes it. Even in my anger, I'm blinded by my love. And it sends me further seething.

I walk with controlled rage this time, keeping the coffee from sloshing over the rim. I walk into his office with a smooth expression on my face. He watches me, turning his head to trace my movements as I place his cup of coffee beside him on his desk. All this he does with a small smile on his face.

I don't react, taking a step away to turn around when he catches my arm.

I don't have time to react, before he's tugged on my arm, tipping my balance and having me collide into him. My head snaps back and my eyes widen up at him in shock. He's just smiling almost gently down at me, but there's a heat to his gaze that does something to my insides.

Anger at his very blatant manipulation has my trying to rip out of his hold. He catches me easily around my waist and spins me back around and into his arms.

"Let..me..go!" Each word is punctuated with me trying to pull out of his hold, my hair flying as I twist and tug fruitlessly.

He catches my jaw easily with a free hand and tilts my face up and—

I gasp against his lips, my eyes closing of their own accord as I shudder into the caress. My head falls back into his waiting hand and my lips part. Then, in a snap of memory, I'm twisting away from his hold and I know I only escape because he lets me.

I press the heel of my palms into my eyes, trying to control my breathing and heart and...

I count backwards for almost a whole minute, breathing deep to control my racing heart. When I drop my hands, my husband remains where he was, sipping on his coffee with his icy icy eyes on me.

I don't let the relish I see in his eyes in reaction to the coffee get to me.

"Kri," I say with an almost even tone, "It's like you're two people."

Kri catches hold of the rim of his cup and places it on the desk behind him. I swallow, ignoring the flex of his muscles tightening the shirt that hugged him like—

I snap my eyes to his. If I didn't speak now, I would never have a marriage with him. I would never truly be his wife. That snapped my heart and mind and hormones straight back into line.

"One of you likes me and the other...doesn't" I say, finally.

His hands tighten around the edge of the desk where he had rested them on either side of him.

"And this back and forth you do between the two sides of you..." I rub a hand down my face, "It's ...exhausting."

A long breath leaves me with that final word as if I had released a burden along with the truth. But... along with the unburdening of my emotions, comes the tears. I don't even have the strength to wipe them away or care about them.

My expression crumples, "And I...I can't Kri." My voice breaks.
Seeing my face, my husband's expression wipes clean and he's striding towards me, only freezing when I hold up my arms as if to ward him off. It breaks my heart that I had to do it...but...I just...can't.

Sobs climb up my lungs and crush them. I shake my head, tendrils of my hair sticking to my damp cheeks.

"I don't—" I have to wipe at my face and draw a breath to compose myself and be able to speak, "I don't know what I did...for you to feel the way you do."

"The part of you that wants to hurt me....I don't know what I did...but God, I'm so damn sorry for whatever the hell it is."

"Just please..." I can't anymore...so I turn and leave, slapping a hand over my mouth to muffle my sobs. I step into my room and turn around to close it when Kri's large shoulders block the way and he's pushing inside my room and the door shuts behind him. I forget to cry, shocked and I'm taking a careful step back, staring up at him.

My heart pounds as I watch him remain exactly where he is, at the entrance of the room, but somehow his presence has made the whole room seem thousand times smaller...as if I were stuck inside a storage closet and not a whole room with a walk-in closet.

"Come here, Alanna." He says in an even tone.

I fist my hands and tilt my head up stubbornly. I'm staring mutinously at him, my eyes reflecting my rebellion. Seeing me...something warms in his gaze. Warms...then heats.

My heart stutters.

"Alanna, come here." He says, his voice infinitesimally softer as he holds a hand out to me, palm up.
"Why should I?" I ask.

He keeps his hand stretched out between us, "Because I haven't touched my wife in two days, another moment might be just too much."

My limbs soften and my fists loosen.

"What about ...what I told you the other day?" I ask him.

He tilts his head, fingers still stretched out for me to take, "Your dreams?"

My heart kicks into my ribs as I nod, my gaze on his face.

"Come here and I'll tell you."

I look at his hand and up into his eyes. "You're playing me." I say.

He doesn't say anything to that, hand out and waiting. I take one set forward. Then another. Then, he's hauled me to him and against him.

I'm staring at up him as he drops one hand to my lower back and the other around the nape of my neck.

"I believe you."

That's all he says, before he's bending his head and drawing me in for the most demanding of kisses. I'm pushed back at the force from the want of his kiss and I stumble back a step, then continue walking backward, staring up at him as he stalks me.

"Did you miss me?" I whisper in question as the back of my knees hit the edge of the bed.

He's right before me before I can blink, his front against mine—a very special kiss of its own.

"Did you?" He asks me, his eyes burning into the both of mine.

In response, I wrap my arms around his neck and draw his head lower. He bends, his eyes open and on me as I part his lips with my own and press up against him. When I sink my teeth into his lower lip, his lean powerful body shudders in my arms.

Then, I'm falling back and my husband has positioned himself over me, one hand buried in my hair and the other bracing him so that he didn't weigh me down. I wouldn't care if he did, as I sink my fingers into the silk of his hair and surrender to the pleasurable torture my husband bestows on me

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