Chapter Thirty-eight
Hazel
With a groan, I slowly open my eyes to the warm morning light creeping into the room. I don’t expect to see Rain beside me in the morning, but I’m wrapped in his arms, our bodies entwined like two missing pieces of a puzzle.
Relief washes over me. I expected him to wake up before me, regret everything, and tell me ‘sorry’ again.
Memories of last night hit me like a tidal wave, and a small smile touches my face.
The way his rough hands worked lovingly around my body. The way his lips handled mine, nearly bruising it. The way we synced perfectly like it wasn’t the first time.
I’ve done it after all.
And I was right about intimacy all along. My body chose Rain because I didn’t have to spend hours convincing myself that it’d be good with him. I craved it way before he did, and it’s as beautiful and connecting as I imagined.
I stare at Rain, at the peaceful rise of his chest. He was so nice to me last night. After our time together, he carried me into the bathroom, changed the sheets and put us to bed, cradling me in his arms. It’s like we’d done it too many times.
I barely spent two minutes with my eyes open, before slumber swept me off my feet.
I attempt to inch off the bed, but Rain’s arms tighten around me, pulling me closer, even though he appears to still be in a deep sleep. I feel safe, protected, and loved. I want to be like this with him forever.
My hand lifts to highlight his features with my fingers, but I’ve barely even touched him before his eyes open as though he was never asleep.
“Good morning,” he whispers, his husked voice sending shivers to my lower body.
I gasp in shock and withdraw my hand. “You’re awake.” I don’t know how he’ll react and I can only hope he’s still nice. “Good morning. Um… I have to go to work.”
“ We have to go to work. But don’t we need to talk first?”
My heart drops.
Do we really need to? I’ll prefer we don’t. I don’t want to hear him rejecting me again. Not after last night.
“What do we need to talk about?” I ask quietly.
He pushes himself up and rests his back on the headboard, the sheets riding down to his waist. His bare chest on display reminding me of what I had done last night. It takes every will to not shut him up with a kiss so we can pick up from where we left it.
I drop my legs and take a small space on the bed, so it’s easy to run out and save myself from another embarrassment.
“Why did you stop talking to me? For two days, eleven hours and thirty two minutes approximately.”
My eyes double in size as I stare at him unbelievably. “How did you even get all that?”
“I made the calculations in my head. Answer my question.”
“Well… you don’t want me, and I don’t want to keep forcing myself on you. I have pride too, you know. It’s already bad enough that I look desperate to you.”
“I didn’t think you looked desperate.”
I shrug. “Maybe you didn’t. But I feIt you did.”
Rain’s jaw clenches and his fists curl before his gaze meets mine. “Should we try it?”
My forehead creases as my brows draw together. What are we talking about here? “Try… what?”
He heaves a heavy sigh, shuts his eyes and opens them. He resumes holding my gaze. “Will you try to be in a relationship with me?” he clarifies, his tone husky and low.
My eyes pop out and I feel my stomach dance with thousands of butterflies. Is Rain Dacosta asking me out?
“ Try ?”
His jaw clenches and his next words come out in a passionate rush. “Yes, try. I’m not a perfect man, Principessa . I have flaws, demons, and a lot of healing to do. But I want to try this with you. See where it takes us. You can’t say you feel nothing from last night, because I felt it, no matter how hard I try to deny it.”
People always say virgins get obsessed after their first night. Well guess what? I’m the virgin, but I’m not the one doing the obsessing.
I bite hard on my lower lip, resisting the urge to pinch hard on my skin, to wake up from this dream. Except it’s not a dream, because my lip hurts. My hands clamp together as I slowly ask, “What if we fail?”
Rain’s face remains impassive, although his body language tells me more. “Then we fail. But let’s promise to give it our all. I’ll be honest and open with you. We’ll set new grounds, work at your pace, reset everything, and start over. This is a big thing for me to try again, but I’m willing to take the risk. If you will too. So, Hazel Wilmer, will you try to be in a relationship with me?”
His words send me into a frenzy of excitement and I open my mouth to give him a positive reply, but a loud hiccup breaks out of my throat. I slap my hand on my mouth.
I release more and wince, wishing for the earth to swallow me. It’s real to have hiccups during confessions? I thought people do it in movies to be cute. I can’t believe I have to experience it firsthand to be proven wrong.
Wrong timing, really.
“Are you okay?” I nod hastily between awkward hiccups. “You haven’t given me an answer. Yes or no.” Can’t he see I’m fighting for my life? I don’t know if I should be mad that he doesn’t care or grateful that he’s overlooking my embarrassing moment. For peace, I decide to choose the latter.
I nod again, rushing off the bed and out the door. But not before I hear him chuckle behind me, as he yells ‘I’m dropping you off at work.’
Yup, he was definitely ignoring it to not embarrass me further.
Thank you, husband.
I walk down the stairs, fully ready for work. My head tilts on its own as I pay attention to the notable changes that have happened in the house within a few hours. I pause on the stairs when I hear a loud familiar hum from the kitchen area.
Wenn Du Mich Liebst by Tobias Weber. (When You Love Me)
There’s only one person who hums German love songs from the eighties and nineties, making the remaining humans in the house randomly hum the tone even when they have no idea what they’re saying.
Angela is home.
Last night when I said the staff were resuming soon, I didn’t know it was so soon.
I rush down the stairs with a wide smile, ignoring the way my loose braids slap my face.
“Angela, Angela. You’re back!”
“ Sonnenschein !” She huffs when I throw myself in her arms. “How are you?”
“I’m fine. Oh I missed you so much.”
I ask about her house, the vacation, and her health.
After she’s finished answering my questions, she smacks me in my arm, and I groan from the sharp pain.
“You silly girl! Why didn’t you text me to stay back for a few days so you both can have it all to yourself?”
My face squeezes as I attempt to fix the puzzle of what she’s talking about. “Who both?”
“You and Rain, who else?”
My cheeks redden from embarrassment and I clamp my lips to hide my smile. “You know.”
Angela rolls her eyes. “Don’t insult me like that. Of course, I do. I got back this morning, and there’s ice cream on the floor, your lamp is on the counter, popcorn is in the theatre. It must have been wild.”
A lump gets stuck in my throat, and I clear it.
“How was it?” I blink at the excitement in her voice. “Was he rough? I’m going to kill him if he was.” She mutters some words in German and fists her hand with a scowl.
I let out a laugh. Not because I can understand her, but because I know she’s saying mean things she’ll do to Rain.
“I don’t want to discuss our sex life with you. Rain is like a son to you.”
“But he isn’t exactly , is he? So tell me, was he mean with it? Are you both going to have a baby now?”
“He—” I falter in my words. A blush creeps up my face at the thoughts going through my head. How do I tell her he was so gentle, he was almost a different person?
I cover my face with my hands. I can’t look at anyone ever again. My coy moment ends when I see a shadow behind me.
“Yes, I was gentle with her. No, we’re not having a baby. Those condoms came in handy.”
Angela chuckles. “I knew you’d need them someday.” she turns to me with a pout and says, “he was always yelling at me whenever he saw me putting some in his drawer.”
Rain ignores her and holds my hand. I glance at where they connect, before looking up at him. “Hazel and I have decided to be in a relationship.”
We’re announcing our relationship now? How come I’m unprepared for everything happening today?
“You’re married,” Angela deadpans, not a bit impressed.
“ Arranged marriage. Now we’ve agreed to start everything over. If it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out.”
“Did you ask her or did you command her?”
“He asked me,” I jump to his defense.
Angela watches us for what seems like a couple of minutes, before she breaks into a smile. She reaches out and cups Rain’s stoic face, and I breathe a laugh at how bored he looks. Maybe I should teach him facial expressions with a white board some day.
“I knew you could do it,” she coos, turning his face left and right. “I’m so proud of you for letting go of the past. And don’t say if it doesn’t work, because it will work. I’ll put a gun in your head if I have to.”
“Let me go. I have to drop her off at work. My first boyfriend duty.”
“Shall we set new boundaries?” Rain asks, while Joe drives us to work.
“Okay.”
“We don’t keep things from each other. We don’t assume things without asking each other for confirmation. I hate miscommunication.” I smile. We’re starting off on good grounds. “No silent treatments—”
“Funny for you to say, when I should be saying it,” I interrupt him with a frown. “No silent treatment. No travels without prior communication. No mean talks. No random switch in characters like a moody psycho.”
A dark shadow crosses his face and he tightens his mouth. “Why are you talking like Kang Su-mi? How did you even meet that woman?”
My jaw drops. Didn’t I just say no mean talks? “Now how about we talk about deal breakers? Bad talks of my best friend, cheating, lies, and complaining about my cooking. You see the orders I place them in? That’s how I rank them. Now how does Kang Su-mi talk?” I fold my hands to my chest and pin him with a look.
Rain’s throat flexes and I stifle a laugh. It’s so fun to threaten him with the same relationship he once avoided. It makes a girl feel special.
“She talks like an intellectual human being.” I can’t hold it in anymore. I burst into a fit of laughter, ignoring his glare. He says it like a bot programmed to say the right words to please me. I’m flattered.
“I know, right?”
He throws me another glare. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.
“Me or Kang Su-mi?”
Joe snickers, although his face is still sticking to the road.
I’m picking sides now? Who knew Rain Dacosta is such a baby when jealous?
“Is something funny, Joe?”
“No, sir.”
He turns his head back to me, seeking answers.
“I don’t want to pick. Buuuttt—” I drawl. “If you want to be above Su-mi, you can do the things she does. If you do it better, I might consider.”
“Things like what?”
I raise my fingers to count. “Firstly, you’ll call and text me regularly—”
“I don’t have your number.”
I cover my mouth in pure shock. “Are you joking? How do you not … I’m done with you.”
“With the relationship? It hasn’t even been three hours yet.”
I let out a tired sigh as the look on his face tells me that he genuinely thinks I’m breaking the relationship already. How does he not know what the phrase ‘I’m done with you’ means?
Talking with Rain is like talking with a three-year-old, you have to be extra clear.
“No, not with the relationship. Really, how do you not have my number? We’ve been living together for almost four months.”
“I didn’t think it was—” He pauses mid-sentence, brings out his phone, and points it at me. “Put it on.”
I take the phone from him and insert my number. “I have to save it because you ‘don’t pick unknown numbers’.” I quote with my fingers before messing with the keyboard, thinking of what to save it as. “My darling wife?”
“Too cheesy.”
I feel a light bulb lighten at the top of my head. “Oh yes, that name you call me. P-r-i-n-c-e-p–” I spell as I type, only to get interrupted by him again.
“It’s an I.”
Without a break in my character, I correct myself. “i-p-e-s-s-a.” I point his phone back at him with a fake smile. “There you go. You’re welcome.”
“We’re five minutes away from your workplace, Mrs Dacosta,” Joe announces.
“I still have no intention of revealing our marriage.”
I feel my chest tighten, but I force myself to understand where he’s coming from. The situation surrounding our marriage isn’t one to be proud of. Plus he’s a public figure, he has to meticulously plan it out with the legal press, before the paparazzi release their version of the story—which isn’t often true.
“Okay, I accept.”
He bobs his head and just in time, I sight a familiar stop close to Eat Right. Joe drops me before making a U-turn for Rain’s work.
Su-mi will be absent at work because she has taken the day off for a model shoot. I drag my feet to work, knowing it’ll be a long day without my best friend.