Arranged marriage : Married to an unknown man

Xavier Knight

The moment my lips touched the soft, delicate skin of her forehead, I knew I was in trouble.

My heart was pumping blood furiously, making it beat at an alarming rate. I didn’t know why I always felt that way when I touched her. For haven’s sake, that was just a kiss that too on her forehead but still, it felt like it was not just a kiss on her forehead. It felt like, like…Damn! I couldn’t even explain it to myself. I didn’t know what it feels like. But it felt different.

My plan was to walk out of the penthouse after I had given her icepack, but I didn’t know when my feet involuntarily walked me to her and when my lips involuntarily made their way to her forehead. And I kissed her…I fucking kissed her forehead. Damn…Why? Why? Why?

I closed my eyes to calm myself down but as soon as I closed my eyes, her face with that red handprint flashed before my eyes, making my body fill with rage again.

That bastard… Andrew Smith… How dare he hit her? How dare he hit a woman.

I abhor men who hit women. Actually, they should not be allowed to be called men. These kinds of people are a fucking coward, fucking scumbags not men. Because…

‘Real men don’t hit women’

I always hated Andrew with all my guts. He was very obnoxious, disgusting, and evil. He was not respected in the business world. I never regarded him and the act he pulled by hitting her made me detest him even more.

And her mother! How could she allow anything like this to happen to her own daughter? Andrew was her stepfather but Jade? She’s her biological mother.

If anyone dares touch me in front of my mother she would kill that person with her bare hands. Okay.. not kill .. but will surely make that person regret the decision of laying hand on me.

And her mother, she didn’t even utter a word? How could she do that?

I thought she would want to meet her mother since she hadn’t met her since our marriage but I had no idea that her mother had problems with her. I had no idea that Andrew would slap her. If I knew about it, I wouldn’t have asked her to attend the party.

I had no idea what exactly happened there. I just knew that she was slapped for a highly excusable act. That is what she told me and I knew she didn’t lie about it.

I even asked Finn about what happened at the party because I gave him the responsibility to drive her there and bring her back safely since he’s my trusted driver and bodyguard.

He was hesitant because apparently, he had promised Ariana that he won’t tell anyone so I had to threaten him to open his mouth. And then he told me that within fifteen minutes of going into the party she came out crying.

I had known her for a month now. She had been living with me in my penthouse and had been working with me for a month now, but I never saw her crying. The hurt I saw in her eyes this morning, I had never seen that before, even when I said many bad words to her, she remained emotionless.

She must be hurting a lot emotionally. I knew it because her eyes conveyed it all, she didn’t have to speak, her eyes spoke for her.

I just wanted to relieve her pain, except agreeing to marry me she hadn’t done anything bad to me so I didn’t want her to cry anymore.

I would not let her go that place again, I’d make sure to keep her away from those vile people …at least.. till she is with me.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Daniel and Sean entered my office.

“Hey man, where’s Ariana?”

“Where is princess? She isn’t in her office.”

I sighed silently. No greetings, no good morning, nothing, just where is Ariana! They had developed this new habit by now. They would not acknowledge me but would ask about her.

“This is workplace Daniel, you can’t call her with endearment here and for your information, she has a name,” I grumbled.

“You are snappy this morning. What happened? Fought with someone?” Daniel asked, frowning his eyebrows. He and Sean sat on the chair placed across my desk.

“Nothing happened to me. And I didn’t fight with anybody.” Well…I wanna fight with Andrew though.

“Say this to those who don’t know you,” Sean replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Why are you both here anyway? As far as I know, you are not here to talk to me.” I asked as I placed my elbows on the desk, leaning forward.

“Who said we don’t want to talk to you?” Daniel asked.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“Well, this is the routine of every morning for a few weeks now.” I furrowed my eyebrows. They both averted their eyes.

“See? You guys are not even denying it. In the morning you two only enter my office if you don’t find her in her office.” I grumbled.

“Well…Ariana is handling our work too. So it’s obvious that we will ask for her.” Sean casually shrugged his shoulders.

She had indeed been handling their work too since they had engaged their Personal Assistants in other businesses they owned. So, basically, my P. A was their P. A as well for a few days now. She was handling a lot of work.

“So, where is she?” Daniel asked impatiently.

“She isn’t coming today. She has a day off.” I replied nonchalantly.

“Why?” They both asked in unison.

What should I tell them? I couldn’t tell them the truth. If I’d tell them the truth about Andrew hitting her, they would become furious as they hate Andrew too and most importantly they considered Ariana as their sister. They had started acting like overprotective brothers towards her.

I have to come up with something…

“She had a headache this morning so I gave her a day off,” I said cautiously so that they won’t suspect anything because they act like detectives sometimes.

“Headache? What happened? Is she all right? I think I should call her and ask her.” Daniel said, taking out his phone from his pocket.

“No… it’s not necessary. Um, she might be sleeping at this moment.” I said hurriedly. If he’ll talk to her he’ll know the truth.

He eyed me suspiciously which forced me to avert my eyes. I can’t even look into their eyes. These two can fucking read my eyes. They know me more than I know myself.

“You are right. I should not disturb her.” I sighed silently. He’ll not question anymore.

I looked at Sean only to find him staring at me. I raised my eyebrows at him.

“What?” I asked. He shook his head lightly, he had a hint of a smile. What’s there to smile?

“So, Ariana had a headache….” He trailed off, pinning his eyes with mine. Didn’t he hear me before?

“Yes,” I said. He glanced at Daniel; both of them shared a look that I found suspicious. Both of them turned their attention to me.

“And you gave her a day off?” Sean asked, smirking. Daniel was also smirking.

“So?” I asked, cautiously looking at both of them. What’s going on in their mind?

“You know… her headache may have gone by having medicine and she could have been present here, working… without any headache?” Sean said, his eyes are showing amusement.

“Your point?” I asked Sean but he didn’t reply, instead, Daniel replied.

“What he means to say is… There was no need to give her a day off. Besides, you never gave a day off to any of your P. A before.”

“I always make sure my employees are well so that they can work properly. I am not a cruel boss.” I snapped at both of them.

“And I don’t know why are we discussing all this. If you don’t have anything productive to say then leave.” I narrowed my eyes. But instead of getting up and leaving, they started grinning. They fucking started grinning.

“Here we go again, avoiding the topic! Why don’t you accept one thing.” Sean asked, drumming his fingers on the desk, grin not leaving his face.

“What?” I was getting irritated now.

“That you, my brother, have started caring for princess,” Daniel said, grinning ear to ear. Sean laughed and I glared at both of them.

What the hell?…

I rubbed my face with my palms to calm myself down. Calm down, Xavier… They are your best friends. You don’t have to kill them.

“So…have you?” Daniel’s teasing voice reached my ears.

That’s it. I picked up a pen from my desk and threw it at him.

“What the fuck? It could have hurt me.” Daniel snapped getting up from his chair.

“It was meant to.” I snapped back. Sean laughed loudly. We both glared at him making him suppress his laugh.

“Okay, on a serious note, how are we gonna manage today? Ariana is basically managing three of our work. And I gave some documents to her yesterday. I need them now.” Sean said.

“Well, same for me. I gave her some files to review. And she is not here now, so how am I gonna get them?” Daniel asked, sitting back on his chair.

Shit!! Why I didn’t realize that before. I also wanted my schedule for the day. How was I gonna work without her? I shouldn’t have given her off. But that was necessary. I couldn’t let her roam in the office with that bruise on her face. She needed rest.

What to do now? Should I call her and ask to work from home? Would it be right?

“Hey, hey…I got a mail from princess.” Daniel said, looking into his phone. What mail?

“It seems like she is a responsible employee. She has sent me an email saying that she has already completed reviewing the documents and has asked Mrs. Miller to send the files to my office.” Daniel replied, looking up from his phone.

“Indeed she is. She sent me an email too. And I wanted some statistics files from the accounts department, she has asked them to send them to me.” Sean replied, checking his phone.

“Why don’t you two give your work to your P. A. instead of giving to mine.” They both were getting dependent on her. They were giving too much of their work to her.

“You know it, Xavier… Our other business needs our attention too. And both of our Pas are handling that workload. I know it’s not good to give Ariana our workload but it’s just for a few days. But I feel bad man… I think this is the reason for her headache.” Sean said the last statement with a little regret in his voice.

“Yeah, man… I feel bad too. We are the reason for her headache.” Daniel said sadly.

Goodness, they don’t know that I lied to them. I’ll be dead if they would get to know the truth,

“I’ll apologize to her when I meet her,” Daniel said, getting up from his chair.

“I’ll do the same,” Sean said as he too stood up from his chair.

“Come on Daniel, we should get back to work now,” Sean said while patting Daniel’s shoulder.

“See you later Xavier.” They turned their back at me and started walking. But after a few steps, Daniel turned around.

“Hey bro… I forgot to say something.” He started grinning. “I wanted to say that… No one is taking her away from you… She is all yours.” He and Sean laughed loudly.

The moment I realized that he commented this on my words of saying her mine. I instantly picked up the paperweight and threw it at Daniel but before it could hit him, they both ran out of my office laughing loudly.

By mine, I meant my P. A, not anything else. I don’t consider her mine.

“And you don’t have to tell us, we both know you have started caring for her,” Daniel shouted, peeking his head in my office, and before I could find something else to throw at him, he ran away shutting the door loudly.

I huffed, finally they are gone.

They had gone mad. A little bit of concern tends to happen when you live with someone under the same roof. Right? Yes, that’s why I did that for her. These two friends of mine have lost their minds. They were just seeing unusual things.

I turned my attention back to my laptop and checked my emails. I too got an email from her. She had sent me my schedule of the day and had also written that she had sent mails I asked her to send. She also wrote that she could help with any work which didn’t need her presence.

That surprised me. She did all the work she was asked to do while sitting there when she knew she had a day off.

I read my whole schedule and found that I had to go to a party tonight.

“No man! I don’t want to go to any party.” I muttered. I was in no mood to attend any party. But I had to attend that party because it was an important event, many business associates would be present there.