chapter 17
Iselyn
I’m sitting on my bed, staring at the door, my cortisol level rising as I overthink how I’m going to face Matleon.
Last night, I was riding high on anger, and I kissed him back, giving myself a “I will be selfish from now on” TED talk, something that’s not even close to my nature.
I can’t just kiss him while hating him. Thank God I didn’t do anything more than kiss him, because I don’t even want to imagine how I would have looked in the mirror after waking up.
I get out of bed. “Just behave like nothing happened. One kiss means nothing,” I mutter to myself. I’m never going to repeat it again.
I open my door quietly and walk out. He’s sitting at the dining table, eating his breakfast. I move toward it and sit down silently, serve myself, and start eating. I don’t even glance at him until I finish my breakfast and he speaks, amusement thick in his tone, “Feeling shy?”
I look at him with pursed lips. “I will marry you, but I have a demand in return.”
He nods with a smile. “Go on.”
“You can’t touch me.”
He raises one brow. “Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure your actions last night were quite the opposite of your words.”
Heat rises in my cheeks. I shake my head. “That was just a mistake. I’m sure of what I want, and I want you not to touch me.”
He leans back in his chair. “Alright. I won’t touch you.” Then he smirks. “Until you ask me to.”
I narrow my eyes. “I will never ask.”
“We’ll see,” he says with the same smug expression, then gets up. I watch him approaching my chair, alert and cautious.
He bends down, grabs my chair from the base, and turns it around. He places both hands on either side of the chair, resting on the table behind me. His face hovers just an inch away from mine.
“What are you doing?” I breathe.
“Watching you,” he says, his eyes locked on me with an intensity that could melt anyone. And I’m no different.
He stays there. Technically, he isn’t touching me, but it’s no better. I’m still breathless, and a dizzy whirl has begun in my skull. The look of satisfaction on his face tells me he knows exactly the effect he’s having on me.
“Get away. I need to go.”
He tilts his head, considering it, then shakes his head. “Why would I? What will I get in return?”
I frown. “You just agreed that you wouldn’t touch me.”
He smirks. “I’m not touching you. I’m just making a transaction.”
“You’re being an asshole again, Matleon. You’re abusing your muscle power here.”
Arguing with him this close reduces the impact of my words significantly. I press on his chest to push him away, but he doesn’t budge an inch. He is a human bull. I groan in frustration.
“Alright, just keep standing like this,” I mutter through clenched teeth, crossing my arms above my breasts.
The movement catches his attention as he looks down.
I follow his gaze, my breasts press together from the crossed arms, my t-shirt dipping into my cleavage.
I open my arms and sit still, turning my face to the side.
He finally moves away. “I’m going to abuse my muscle power a lot, Angel.”
I look up at him. He gives me a sweet smile. “Just telling you in advance.”
Matleon could give you twenty types of smiles, and none of them would ever make him look harmless. Instead, each one makes him look scary in a different way.
???
Finally, it’s time to say goodbye to New York, with a “we’ll never meet again” note. My gut clenches in that familiar way at the thought. There could be a goodbye for New York, but not for America. I’m going to come back very soon.
Matleon is the director of Valante Corp, and its head office is in San Diego.
He has many companies under him, and one of them is his automobile company Higtwin, which is based in New York.
He only stays in New York for a short period once or twice a year, but in the past month, he stayed here to take care of me.
This was the explanation my papa gave, another reason for him to see Matleon as a hero, a man who has zero time to waste and is still choosing to spend it on me.
He was overjoyed when I agreed to marry this lovely man the next day, after Matleon had blackmailed me by threatening to kill Dex.
Dex’s medicine is prepared, and the test was a success. I spend my whole day with him and his girlfriend today, and tomorrow I will leave for Vladivostok.
Now I’m roaming around the area I’ve come to fall in love with.
There are a few cafés and restaurants here, big parks, and some residential complexes.
Thanks to the air filters installed throughout this whole area, the air is not as bad as the rest of New York.
I guess I’ll miss my evening walks along this road.
And then I see him. Leaning against a tree on the footpath, arms crossed over his chest, clad in a long black coat over his formal attire, hair perfectly combed, he looks exactly like what he is: a prince. The prince of the underworld, the Satan who walks among mortals to rule them.
He’s watching me with that handsome smile. I don’t know why he smiles, because I’m certain no one would mistake him for a safe and sweet man just because of his smiles. Doesn’t everyone know how much evil he carries?
And just to prove me wrong, the universe sends an old lady near him.
She talks with him, pats his cheek lovingly, and then walks off in the direction he points.
No one knows he is evil, my own parents are so charmed by his carefully crafted kind and innocent persona that they refuse to believe even their own daughter.
He comes toward me. I stopped walking the instant I saw him. I’ve been avoiding him successfully for the past five days, or rather, he has been letting me avoid him. What does he want today?
He stops in front of me and extends his hand.
“Give me your hand, Angel.”
I place my hand in his palm, and he slides a ring onto my finger. A simple but beautiful gold band, with no diamond on top. I stare at the exquisite piece of jewelry, feeling a jolt of emotion I can’t control.
“You said you don’t like diamonds, so this is for you to wear every day. On our wedding, I’ll have to give you a big-ass diamond ring, you know, show off is important, or people will question how important you are to me.”
I had mentioned that I don’t like diamonds many years ago.
We were attending a wedding of his father and my father’s common friend’s daughter.
We were sitting close together. Back then, I used to find excuses to be near him for a few minutes, and that day I got the luxury of sitting close to him.
I talked a lot that day, spilling unnecessary details, and one of them was that I don’t like diamonds.
With the way he was sitting, watching me without any expression or interest, I was sure he hadn’t listened to any of my babbling.
I pull my hand back from his and look at the ring. “I didn’t know you were listening,” I mutter.
“Why wouldn’t I? I had to trick Zo and Kaz so I could sit near you. It would have been a waste of effort if I hadn’t listened.”
I look at his face in surprise. My heart drops before leaping again, and now it doesn’t know how to calm down.
“Why?”
He looks away and sighs. “I don’t know… it just felt good.
” He glances back at me, his expression serious.
“Watching your smile, the flush on your cheeks, the shine in your eyes… it felt good.” Sadness flickers across his features, but only for a moment before he masks it with one of his smiles.
I realize this smile is meant to hide what he’s truly feeling.
“Why do you smile so much?”
His smile shifts, and this time it’s real, reaching his eyes.
“Smiles keep people guessing. I like it when people are confused around me, when they don’t know if I’m serious or not, or if I’m their friend or enemy.
Sometimes I smile because people are stupidly entertaining.
Sometimes to hide the real emotion,” he adds, bending down slightly, his eyes roaming over my face.
“And even fewer times… when I find something truly adorable.”
I clear my throat and look away. He straightens, and we resume walking toward his apartment. He walks very close to me, but not close enough to touch.
“When do you want to get married?” he asks.
“Like my opinion matters,” I scoff.
He sighs. “How about March? It’s neither too cold nor too hot.”
“You’ll regret marrying me,” I warn.
He chuckles. “We’ll see.”
I glance at him. “I’m going to hate you forever.”
He meets my eyes. “Forever is a long time.”
I roll my eyes at his smug confidence. What is it about him that makes him so sure of everything?
Silence falls between us—thick, tense, and utterly uncomfortable.
As we near the building gate, he stops. I halt too and look up at him.
“I have to leave for DC tonight. I had planned to go with you to Vald, but something unavoidable came up.”
“You don’t have to explain, and honestly, I’m happier traveling alone,” I reply.
He steps closer. “Won’t you give your fiancé a goodbye kiss?”
I raise an eyebrow. “You mean the ‘forced fiancé’ I only want to kick?”
He chuckles. “People even give goodbye kisses to their enemies.”
“I’m not among those people,” I reply, giving him the sweetest fake smile.
He inhales slowly through his mouth. “So you’re going to keep me waiting for four months?”
I shake my head. “The whole life.”
He laughs. My mouth twitches as I try to hold back a smile.
His laughter fades. He stares at me, his intense gaze sending a shiver of unease from my head to my toes. In a thick, low voice, he says, “I will miss you.”
I want to say, I won’t miss you, just to mock him, but I’m not the kind of person who hurts someone’s feelings, especially not by lying. I’m better than Matleon. I can’t toy with his emotions.
I nod, then turn, leaving him standing there.