Contract Marriage starring Love and Revenge
Chapter 88. SHACKLED.

Chapter 88: 88. SHACKLED.

After our meal that ended up being rather steamier than we had both intended, I finally took a shower and to be honest, if Duke hadn’t forced me to control my urges it would have happened in the shower too.

I mean I always knew I liked making love, but I didn’t know I was so crazy for it. Duke has made me realize this side of me. Or maybe it’s not actually the act of making love I want, maybe I just love Duke so much that I can’t help but want him every time of the day. Even when I’ve just had him. Even when my thighs are trembling, my back is aching and my core is swollen. I still want him.

I’ve heard some people say that when you love a person romantically the lust for that person is uncontrollable. With Rowan, of course I wanted him, but not with as much desire as I have for Duke. Not even half that much.

Does it mean I love Duke more than I’ve ever loved anyone romantically? Even though I’ve known him the shortest.

Well, I guess you can say that. I do love Duke. And the more I love him, the more I lust after him.

It’s like I’m using our love making to reaffirm the fact that the man belongs to me. At every point in time, I just want to confirm to myself that Duke Grand is wholly mine. It’s like somewhere in my brain, I’ve formulated this idea that the more of him I take, the more of him I keep.

He’s such a big man and yet, sometimes all I want to do is hide him in my embrace and lock him there forever so as to not share him with the world or any person within it.

It’s selfish and crazy of me, I know. But he did tell me to love him selfishly and crazily, right?

After showering and cleaning my teeth, I change into another of Duke’s clothes. Now I regret not leaving some of my things behind when Emily advised me to. But it’s okay. At least I get to smell like eucalyptus.

"Let’s go for a walk by the beach?" He walks into the room and asks me.

"Like this?" I ask, indicating that I’m only dressed in his round neck shirt. No bra, and all I have as underwear is one of his boxer-briefs I stole, which he doesn’t know about yet.

"No one will see you. It’s just you and I here." He reminds me.

It takes a little more cajoling, but I give in eventually and after borrowing one of Emily’s slippers, we step out hand in hand.

...

I like this.

Maybe I like it a little too much.

Our hands interlocked, our legs moving in sync, making dents in the half-dry, half-wet sand, the waves moving so calmly you would think the sea is asleep. And the cool soothing breeze that you can only get when you’re standing close to this huge body of water.

I like it all.

However, I like the person I’m here with even more.

"How are you?" He asks.

I look up at him and I’m wondering, "Why do you always ask me that?" I ask the question that has occasionally been on my mind.

"What?"

"How are you... You always ask me that, why?" I ask again and he’s looking more confused than when I first asked the question.

"I mean, most people ask questions like Are you okay, or are you alright but you, even in situations where you could ask either of these questions, you mostly ask me how are you." I explain.

"I don’t know, I guess I just always want to know how you are." He shrugs, "And most times maybe it’s because my head goes blank for any other words. Most times all I can end up thinking and wondering is how you are feeling, and every other thing wipes out of my brain and I end up asking what I’ve been thinking. I bet it has become a habit, a very strong one too for you to have managed to notice it."

"I see."

"T_the truth is that sometimes, I just say those words as a means to start up a conversation with you because I don’t know how to start a normal conversation with you at times."

What? Duke? Lost for a way to start a conversation with me? Who would have thought! "You?"

"Yes me. I’m only human Pagne, I also get nervous when I’m with the woman I’m madly in love with. I also spend a good amount of time thinking of new ways to approach you."

What?!

"Even though you’re already married to me?" I ask as I stop walking and move till I’m standing in front of him and just like earlier today, his ears are red.

So he’s not lying. He’s not joking? H_he also gets nervous around me? To the point where he’s blushing? Duke?!

How did I not notice this since?

He turns his head to the side for a minute and that’s when I notice his neck too is red. "Pagne," He faces me again, "being married to you doesn’t erase the fact that I feel like a fool in front of you. It only makes it more evident that I love you. That’s why sometimes I spend long minutes practicing in front of a mirror like I have never done before. Not even when I was facing the president of this nation for the first time."

WoW, who would have thought?

"That’s also why I’ve been postponing it."

It? What is it?

"I thought, because I didn’t propose to you in a grand manner in the first place, I should at least make this perfect, but then I kept trying to figure out the best way, the perfect place, the perfect atmosphere, thee perfect words and that’s why it’s taken this long."

He keeps saying it, what in the world is he talking about? And what does it have to do with his proposal?

"But I don’t think I can postpone it any longer. I will make some kind of grandeur gesture some other time but for now—" He deeps his hand inside his jacket and my head is finally doing the math’s properly.

"Pagne," He calls me and my heart is already starting to race like a warhorse and my eyes are growing bigger as he pulls out a small black box and at the sight of it, believe me when I tell you my heart abruptly stops.

And now I’m remembering, indeed, I had been wondering what was taking them so long to arrive. He said he had customized them, but after that he told me nothing more about the update of the rings. He didn’t tell me anything and I didn’t want it to look like I was bugging him for something as tribal as a ring.

But I was truly wondering why the ring wasn’t coming.

"Pagne," he opens the box and inside of it are two gold rings. One is visibly bigger than the other, both styled in the same patter. It’s like a crown of twisted vines that belong on the finger instead of the head.

"This might not be the perfect atmosphere or the perfect pla—"

"It’s perfect!!" The words leave my mouth before I can control them. Tears are welling up in my eyes and they are blinding tears. "Everything is perfect." I say and he chuckles.

"Then will you do me the honor of being shackled with me? Because if there’s anyone in this world I want to wear these shackles with, it’s you and only you. There’s no doubt in my heart as I say this."

Only a mad woman would say no to this man, and the only mental problem I have now is love. Love for this man, "That’s the most beautiful shackle I have ever seen in my life." I say.

"It has something inscribed on it too,"

"I’m as blind as a bat right now, I can barely see a thing because you’re making me cry." I say and he laughs. "What does it say?" I ask.

"You won’t think I’m crazy?" He asks.

"We both know you are. It’s nothing new." I shrug and he chuckles again and so do I. "Tell me."

"Your’s says, Forever Fettered with Duke." He says, "And mine says, Forever Fettered with Pagne."

"You are crazy." I say as the tears finally fall, "And I must really be made for you because I love it so much I think I’ll choke." I rise to my toes with my hands on his shoulders and place a kiss on his lips.

"Come on, shackle me." I say and put my hand in front of him and I love the genuine grin on his face as I say those words with a grin that matches his own.

He takes my hand and as he places the ring on my finger, he says, "With this ring, I bound you Champagne Gold, already Champagne Grand," I laugh and so does he, "To me, Duke grand, you shall never escape from me because I don’t intend to ever set you free from this shackles."

I take the second ring and take his hand, "With this ring, I bound you Duke Grand, my very own real life Grand Duke to me Champagne Grand for all eternity. You’re so locked now, Mr Grand. There’s no turning back." I say and he sweeps me off my feet in a hug.

"There is nothing behind me to turn back to."

I love Duke Grand.

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