Contract Marriage starring Love and Revenge
Chapter 38. Can I fall for you?

Chapter 38: 38. Can I fall for you?

"Hah," I let out a breath as he breaks the kiss for a second only to entrap my mouth again.

This is too much.

This is nothing like my first or following kisses.

This is hotter, far more hotter than all the kisses I’ve had before. When I first met Rowan, I thought he was a skillful kisser, but I must have been dumb, real dumb.

I must have been delusional to think so because right now, the other kisses I’ve had are starting to fade away from my memory, feeling and all... This kiss, this kiss with Duke is overriding it all.

The more his tongue twists and turns inside my mouth, the more I want from him.

The bitter taste of alcohol in his tongue is evident and yet beneath that bitter taste is a sweet nectar that I didn’t know could exist in a person’s mouth. It’s just a kiss and yet, it’s not. It’s something more...

His hand behind my neck is holding me so firmly, not allowing me the chance to escape him even if I want to. I need to breathe and yet I don’t really want to if it means this will end and—

"Oh_my_goodness! There is a room for you two!!" I finally force myself to break the kiss, or maybe I didn’t break it. I think he let me break it.

"Alan!!" I say in shock as I see him standing some feet behind Duke. Did he just come in from outside? "I_ I thought you were asleep?!"

"I went for a walk." He says while eyeing us both.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go to sleep now." Duke says as I bury my head in his shoulders with embarrassment.

"Just remember, you’re not the only ones in the house." Are the last words I hear him say. I can hear his footsteps, they are getting lighter and lighter, then I hear a door open and close.

He’s gone into his room.

Oh my gosh I am so embarrassed!!! I can’t believe that just happened.

More importantly, did I really just kiss Duke?! Like a real kiss?! Champagne, you really have done it. You really have done it this time!!!

"Are we going to just stay like this?" His hot whisper next to my ear causes me to shiver foolishly, but I still don’t raise my head. I shut my eyes tight and clench onto his shirt because I just can’t bring myself to move away from this position.

I’m certain my entire face will be extremely red now. I don’t want him to see that. Oh, Champagne, you are just something!

"Hah!" I flinch as I feel something tickle my side. But by the time I realize what he’s doing, I’ve already become a laughing mess.

"Please, please stop. We’ll wake Everyone. Haha." I squirm and wriggle in his arms, laughing and almost crying at the same time as he tickles the life out of me.

"D_Duke please, my stomach hurts, I can’t laugh anymore." I beg, I’m saying that but I’m still laughing wildly. I tried to control it at first, but I just can’t help the laugh when he won’t stop tickling me like a child.

"Duke," I call him again and it seems this time he has mercy on me and stops. Now I’m heaving heavily, trying to return my breathing to it’s normal pace, while still having a wide grin plastered upon my face and somehow, I don’t feel too embarrassed because I think it mirrors the one on his face too right now.

Slowly, his hand reaches up to my face, and his fingers seem to trace the lines of my face and my big grin slowly begins to shrink. He picks some strands of my hair that fell in front of my face while we tousled and tucks them behind my ear.

"Do you know?" He suddenly asks. "You have a bad habit." I open my eyes to stare at him. When did I close them again?

"What?" I ask in a soft breath.

"Whenever I stare at you, whenever we stare at each other like this, you either close your eyes or look down, or look away. That’s a bad habit."

Did I always do that?

"See you’re doing it again. You’re looking down."

Did I just do that? I don’t know. I don’t know if I did, and I don’t know if I usually do that, but how can I possibly stare into these eyes without looking away.

In the face of such beautiful eyes, I’m ashamed to stare back at him with my eyes that are just plain. Rowan always said that most men preferred girls with lighter shades of eyes. Mine is not even brown. It’s black. Thick black!! Why couldn’t I have gotten a special eye too? I wish I had pretty eyes too.

"You have lovely eyes, Dearest." He suddenly says and I lift my lashes and stare at him. Sometimes, no, most times, I feel like this man can read my mind.

Again, my lashes sweep over my eyes, shading them from him. "You’re lying. You’re just saying that. I know that most men find lighter eyes more pretty."

"And who told you that?" He asks, "That dumb thing you once called a husband?" I hold back a laugh, can’t believe he just called Rowan a dumb thing. But wait, how did he guess it was Rowan?

"Dearest, you should know by now that every word that scum of a bitch told you was a lie." True, I should, but I can’t help dwelling on them. "Do not hold onto his words anymore, they’re all trash anyway."

He takes one of my hands from his chest, casually playing with my fingers as he says, "From now on, only listen to me." He takes my index finger to his lips and places a kiss there, "believe only me," he kisses my middle finger, I try to retract my hand from him because those soft kisses are starting to stir up some things inside me, but his hold is strong. He won’t let go. "Because I’m starting to get jealous of all the foolish ideas, beliefs, and opinions he put inside your head." He kisses the middle of my palm and it’s ticklish in a sensual way.

"When I tell you, you have lovely eyes, I mean it. So believe it."

"But they are just ordinary eyes. Nothing special about my eyes. Just black empty eyes... Ahh," I yelp as he flicks his finger on my forehead. "That hurt." I pout while rubbing my head with my hand.

"It was meant to. And technically you don’t have black eyes. They are just a dark shade of brown. A very dark shade, like a Doe’s." His palm cups the side of my face and his thumb strokes the side of my left eye, "They are like the deepest parts of the ocean which hides so much mysteries inside it. And one by one I want to unravel them."

"Duke—" I call his name when I don’t even have anything to say.

"They’re not empty. Right now they are filled... with me."

This man...

This man who knows how to say the most raunchy things one minute, the sweetest things the next minute... This man who I just can’t help but be drawn to... I don’t know what to do with this man.

"Duke,"

"Yes?"

"On the day I caught Rowan with Alicia, she said something to me. She said I am an easy woman. The kind that easily falls for the first person who shows me kindness in times of trouble."

I lift my eyes and stare at him, "You must think that way too."

"Pagne that—"

"Because it has only been two weeks since I left my previous husband, I mean I still cried over him three days ago and now here I am sitting on your lap like a stupid teenage girl begging for your kisses."

"Pagne don’t—"

"She was right, Duke. Alicia was right. I am an easy woman. My heart just works that way, I can’t help it, it always just happens. And you have been so kind to me, so kind that it’s terrifying at times, and you’re still being so kind trying to help me build my self-esteem."

"Listen, I—"

"So since you’re the one showing me all this much kindness and I’m the kind of easy woman who falls for the first man who shows her kindness... Is it alright if I fall for you?"

The crackling sound of wood burning and turning to chars fills the room once again and there’s that creaking sound coming from the roof. The wind is whistling beautifully too.

And above all these sounds, above the whistling wind and the creaking roof, above the crackling wood is the sound of my heart beating against my chest.

It’s beating so loudly that I’m certain he must hear it... he must.

"You are such a great person while I’m a flawed woman who needs so much work and maintenance, so is it okay to fall for you?"

Silently, he stares at me, as if processing everything I’ve said. Was I over thinking things again? Was I expecting too much? The kiss we just shared, what if to him it was just something done in the heat of the moment?

For a moment, his eyes move from my face to something behind me.

"Pagne,"

"Hmm?"

"Merry Christmas." He says, "It’s past midnight, so Merry Christmas."

Dear God, this man you brought into my life is quite different, isn’t he?