Contract Marriage starring Love and Revenge
Chapter 20. Keeping the Enigma.

Chapter 20: 20. Keeping the Enigma.

"Rise and shine Mr Grand, you know what day it is today." I say with a knock on Duke’s door.

The door opens and a half naked Duke is standing in the doorway. Messy hair, bare chested, bare footed, with a sleepy gaze.

It’s a sight, I’ve been made to behold in the mornings of almost two weeks that I’ve been Mrs Grand. But it’s a sight I don’t think I would ever get used to. He’s so hot.

"The day I get to flaunt Mrs Grand for the very first time?" He says in that oh so deliciously deep morning voice of his. Don’t blush, don’t blush Champagne, don’t blush!

"Wrong, Mr Grand. It’s the day I begin to taste the revenge you taught me to desire." I wittily reply and he tilts his head backward as he smirks and groans with his eyes closed.

And that groan just now, that smirk, in fact his entire gesture just now felt lewdly like a man receiving pleasure and for some equally dirty reason, I feel so hot. So hot that it’s driving me crazy. God take away my dirty mind.

"That means no slacking for you today." I simply say.

"I’ll be down in 20 minutes." He says.

"15." I counter and swiftly turn without waiting for his response.

"Good morning Signora Grand," Giovanni; the butler who hates being called a butler greets me as I climb down the stairs and head toward the children’s room. For a second, my eyes stop at the huge clock that’s on the wall facing the wall with the cockatoo portrait... 7:30.

"Good morning Gio, and how long will you keep calling me Signora Grand?"

"It’s either that or Madam. And you hate Madam, madam." He says.

"Gio—"

"See, you hate madam. So Signora Grand, it is."

"Why won’t you just call me by my name?" I have tried many times to make him call me by my name but this fifty something years old man refuses to budge!

"If I may, Signora Grand, in what normal universe have you seen a servant, an employee, a worker, addressing his masters, his employer, his boss, by name?"

"But you were employed by Mr Grand, not me."

"Sì, but you are the wife of Master Grand, that automatically makes you my mistress..." He pauses and adds, "That didn’t come out right, did it?" I just shrug and I can see he’s holding back a smile.

"The point is, you are my mistr— you are the Madam of this house, therefore I shall never address you by name for as long as I shall work here."

"I give up." I say with my hands dramatically in the air and he bows and walks away. "And he says he’s not a butler." I mutter to myself as I open the door to the children’s room.

What I learnt as I began to live here is that the twins hate being away from each other. That’s why they share the same bed.

And also, they roll endlessly when they are asleep. That’s why their huge bed has wooden bars around it. At one side of the bed, among the wooden bars is a door that can easily be locked and unlocked by themselves.

Beneath the door is a mini wooden two step attached to the bed so the children can unlock the door and climb out of bed easily.

Realizing that they’re still asleep, I tiptoe toward the bed, carefully unlock the door and while Sherlock is curled up at the far end of the bed, Irene is laid with her legs and hands spread apart at the head of the bed.

"Good Lord, they are so cute!" I mutter to myself as I quickly bring out my phone and take pictures of them. This has become my daily routine. My phone is now filled with images of the twins. I just can’t help it! They are cute.

I still can’t believe these little lovely creatures call me mummy! And they do it without any form of hesitation!

I know I might sound too forward, but I already love them so much!

After quietly taking a few more shots, I step out of the room and leave them to sleep some more. It’s not like they have any job that they have to go to.

"Buongiorno Giovanni," I hear Mary’s voice as I step out of the room.

"A good morning to you too, Mary."

"Are the kids up yet?"

"Considering the house is still this quiet, no, they are not."

"True."

"Good morning Mary." I say as she instantly turns around and envelopes me with a big hug, nearly squashing me with her very big bossoms.

"Champagne, dear Lord, you are looking fine this morning."

"You think?" I ask.

"I think? Honey, you are looking so fine like fresh golden peaches, newly harvested. And dear I say, you are looking a lot better than when you were with that son of a bitch."

"Mary! Let no corrupt communication escape your mouth! Don’t forget the Lord’s teachings, now." I remind her as I walk past her to the kitchen.

When Mary first showed up as the twins’ nanny, shock was beyond what we both felt meeting each other in this house.

I always knew Mary worked as a nanny, I just never knew who she worked for because she always said it was part of her contract not to speak about her employers. All I knew was that she was working for a very rich family.

Who would have known that my Mary was the same Mary; nanny of Renny and Shelly!

I couldn’t hide my situation from Mary, so I told her every single detail and she empathized with me and cursed Rowan endlessly. I was really happy to have her around.

"Oh, Champagne, God will have mercy on me for this one. Every time I think of what they did to you, I just want to sit on their heads and suffocate the life out of them for hurting someone as sweet as you."

Thinking of Mary and how big she is, sitting on Rowan or Alicia, indeed, she would suffocate them, hah.

"Since I can’t do that much, please give me the liberty of cursing that scumbag out loud, while the kids are asleep."

I laugh as I butter a slice of bread, "Wait, they are asleep, aren’t they?" I nod and she lets out a sigh of relief and goes on to curse Rowan, "That blind, good for nothing son of a bitch. He’s going to regret it, I tell you. Especially when you are with a man like Mr Grand."

"Mary, haha."

"I agree with Mary though." I hear his voice and I turn around to look at him while chewing on my bread.

"Mr. Grand, good morning to you." She cheerfully says as he walks into the kitchen.

The early morning voice is gone, the messy hair has been straightened and gelled handsomely, his chest and feet are no longer bare. And for some weird reason I think our gray suits are matching... Or is it just my imagination?

My eyes shift to the clock again, and a smile curls up my lips as I see the time, 7:43

He followed the time I set.

"Morning Mary." He says as he makes his way to me.

"That fool was indeed blind to not see such an Enigma standing right next to him all these years." This sweet talker.

"But I see it." He says, and his hand reaches for my face. I take a step back, but then his other hand wraps around my waist and pulls me close to himself again.

Slowly, his thumb touches my lips and draws a straight line there as he says, "And I plan to keep it." He takes that thumb from my lips, there’s a little butter there now and he takes that thumb to his mouth and licks it.

Again, he’s insane!