Chapter 15: Propose Anything Except Divorce
The walls were gray, the furniture was dark, and the sheets were all black. The windows were big but covered with thick, dark curtains.
If there weren’t a large chandelier above her, Kylie would have thought she was standing in a dark room.
Living in such a repressed bedroom, wouldn’t he have nightmares at night? She wondered.
As Kylie recovered from her surprise, the sound of flowing water caught her attention. The door to the bathroom was ajar, and hot steam was spilling out of the door.
“Is he bathing?” she muttered to herself.
For an instant, she recalled his eight beautiful, sexy abdominal muscles. She felt her face flush for an instant. She realized that her nose was wet; she quickly wiped it and luckily, discovered that it was only condensation, not blood.
She quietly retreated, realizing that she should escape, or else that man devoured her. She couldn’t bear the idea of being discovered.
At that moment, the man in the bathroom seemed to read her mind. The sound of flowing water stopped.
While Kylie was opening the bedroom door, the door to the bathroom was also opening. Ethan emerged with clouds of steam around him, which made him appear more gentle.
He was wearing black silk pajamas, and Kylie could see his beautiful trapezius through his big-open collar. His hair was wet, and water was dripping down his chiseled collarbone, and seeping into his pajamas.
The powerful male hormone was approaching. Then, Ethan was standing in front of her.
Kylie became conscious of her dry throat. She stepped back and wanted to get out, but he unexpectedly reached over her and shut the door. Then, he pressed her against the door.
She blinked through her tears and looked at the leaping sparks of passion in Ethan’s eyes.
He pursed his lips, and his gaze swept from her panic-stricken face to her breast and legs.
Where to hide?
Ethan’s handsome face was above her head. She could smell the slight fragrance of bath milk on the tip of his nose. In a panic, her hands began to tremble.
“Well, Lord Ethan… Shouldn’t we spend some time getting to know each other first, or… or, should we sleep apart for some time first? After all, we just met the other day…”
“Tonight is our wedding night.” Ethan suddenly interrupted her. “And with the way you dress, aren’t you trying to seduce me?”
Kylie was speechless. She suddenly felt his hands tighten around her waist; her chest was pushed against his damp body. He was trying to tell her, with body language, that her intention had been achieved.
“Ah! Let go of me… It’s not what you think!” Kylie screamed and punched his chest with force.
“Hmm? What?” Ethan lifted her wrists and fixed them above her head. He leaned his tall, slender figure down towards her, as though he were about to kiss her. But his lips suddenly stopped, just in front of her face.
“What’s that smell?” he asked, in a low and chilling voice.
Kylie thought that he must be a neat-freak! She seized her chance and escaped from his embrace. She took a whiff of her shirt, and said: “Nope, nothing!”
She had performed her scene in the shopping mall earlier that day, had worn heavy makeup, and had smoked a cigarette at the Finch House. Now, she smelled like a fusion of cosmetics, smoke, and sweat. So, of course, she smelled terrible.
“Take a bath!” Ethan said coldly.
Kylie shrugged. “I didn’t bring a change of clothes with me.”
“There are some in the closet.” He pointed at a closet in the corner of the room.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.
How could he have women’s clothes? There were clearly no other feminine things in the house… Plus, wasn’t he gay? With doubt in her mind, she directly made her way to the closet in search of the truth.
Perhaps the answer was in that locked room? Nonsensical thoughts filled her mind as she opened the closet door. Seeing the clothes inside, she rolled her eyes and turned to Ethan.
“You expect me to wear this?”
A row of white shirts and dark trousers were neatly hanging in the closet. There weren’t many women’s clothes and not a single extra pair of pajamas.
“You can choose to be naked.”
Kylie couldn’t bear him, but she held back her anger and picked out a white shirt.
Sure, she could reluctantly compromise when it came to pajamas, but on that other matter…
“I can sleep next door, really! When I sleep, I look really ugly, and I also snore!” She carried the shirt to the bathroom as she spoke those words.
“If you behave yourself, that can be discussed.”
“Really?” Kylie had expected him to object without thinking; she definitely hadn’t expected him to be so kind, but…
“But what do you mean by ‘behave yourself’? Define it clearly,” she responded.
“If you don’t stir up any trouble for a whole month, then you can propose something.”
“Anything?”
“Except divorce.”
“Mm…” she thought, as he seemed to stare right through her. She considered his words and decided that there was nothing to lose. At least this way, she could remain hopeful.
“Deal!” she said.
Ethan’s eyes were dark, and his lips made a fine line. He thought that, even though this woman looked rebellious, it was all a disguise. She was really so pure, and at the time, even a little silly.
He sat on the bed and took up a book, which he pretended to read. But the whole time she was in the bathroom, he imagined what she was doing through the sound of flowing water.
Kylie’s smooth and tender skin… her perfect body appeared in his mind…
Simply fantasizing, his blood began to boil, and his loins started to react.
Ethan quite admired himself. He could always remain expressionless on such occasions. Now one would be able to tell that he wanted to rush towards her and bully her into submission recklessly.
But he was controlled by reason, which instructed him that it was not the right time. He wanted her to become attracted to him, even gradually. That was the most important thing for him.
Plus, there was no rush to take action. He didn’t want to ruin his whole elaborate plan because of one moment of impulse.
Ethan’s body gradually cooled down, and the boiling blood subsided.
After taking a bath, Kylie put on Ethan’s shirt. She tugged it as hard as she could, but she could still barely cover her buttocks.
Now that the shirt was too short to act as a dress, she could merely fasten all the buttons and hope it covered most of her body.
It is said that one of the sexiest things a woman can do is wear a man’s shirt. The shirt was so loose on her that Ethan could easily tell that she wasn’t wearing any other clothes underneath.
His desire welled up once more. He immediately longed to tear off her shirt and explore the secrets underneath…
But the suffering man went on reading, and spoke in the coolest voice imaginable: “It’s really not easy for you.”
His tone sounded weird, but Kylie seemed not to care. She carefully lay on the edge of the bed, her heart beating hard.
She had thought she would sleep with her back towards him. But thinking about it, it was the terrifying option: not to know what he was doing.
Thus, she chose to sleep on her back. She tightly clenched the quilt and covered her entire body.
Even though she pretended to relax, her alert eyes gave her away. Ethan stealthily chuckled.
Every time he changed his position, the bed sank a little bit. Kylie would suddenly open her eyes and look his way with a nervous expression.