CEO’s REDEMPTION

“I must concede that the castle is more beautiful than I surmised. It’s amazing.” I air my candid opinions as we halt our tracks at the swimming pool more than an hour later since Jerol started showing me around this beautiful castle.

I have seen every important room in it, except for the gym. I have had a bang of that cursed room, and Jerol also seemed weirdly disinterested in going to it too. In a way, I was enthralled by his hesitation to walk in that damned gym. All the same, the huge rooms are incredible. Mental note, I need to go back to the library and steal a portrait of him. Well, not necessarily stealing, just taking, but without his knowledge.

He might wonder why I need to keep a portrait of him. I am wondering too. But…

“Thank you. It felt more beautiful today because I had you beside me.” He states, turning to me.

The rosiness on my face drags my eyes to the turquoise waters of the pool, averting his gaze for a moment. I wonder how it feels like to be in a swimming pool especially with the solar shining savagely above you like this. My! I have never been to a swimming pool. Heck, I don’t even know how to swim. I better trash that stupid idea.

“You want to taste the waters? It will be cool!”

Huh?

I dashingly drag my eyes to him. Was he reading my mind?

“No. I don’t even know how to swim.” I state, and I don’t feel anything wrong with me being so free and open to him.

“I could teach you.”

Damn! Is he pulling my leg right now? Me and him in the pool? I don’t think I…

“Oooh!” I cry, and suddenly my short cry gets cut. Guess where I am?

Under the water!

He is such a… Did he just push us both into the pool?

I spring up from the water, him doing the same. Under the scorching sun and inside the cool waters, we rack before each other, both of us trickling wet. Well, if there is any time I have ever seen an irresistible sin beckoning so close, it is now. Gosh! He looks like…

I shake my head, hopefully, the sight of water percolating on his features and the tight muscles on display would be shaken out of my innocent mind, but who am I kidding? He is right here before me!

“You are gonna pay for this, Jerol O’Brian McCall!” I try to break the awkwardness, but I think I made it worse.

“Make me.” He hoarses with his beautiful cold voice, closing the tiny gap between us.

I’m sniffing the heat of his pheromones. At least that is what I can make out. Why is he beginning to affect me like this, huh? I should probably stop the kissing? Yes, probably. Maybe that way I will stop feeling this hot whenever he is this close. He is not still in his right mind. I should be the one to act sane for both of us. Mostly, for my sake.

“Someday, just not now.” I state, harmlessly beaming at his cuteness when he acts this sane.

But on third sense, he isn’t.Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.

He wouldn’t be ogling my lips like this if he was totally sane. And probably that heated kiss in our bedroom earlier wouldn’t be tickling me like this if he was not being so…

I flinch as his hands grab my waist under the water, encompassing me to him. I place my hands on his chest in a defensive stance, or so I was my preliminary inkling, but that idea circumvents my mind the moment his lips tickle mine. Everything crumbles, and I find myself only dangling to his soaking wet shirt as our lips dance in rhythm.

The kiss is absolutely sweet, like those few others we have shared, but I am fearful that I might become addicted to this. I didn’t know kisses could taste this sweet and addictive. I start walking back, perhaps hoping to break this albeit with reticent, but that too hit a hard rock as he starts walking forward, and I keep going until I hit the wall marking the pool, giving him the satisfaction of caging me between him and the pool wall.

I quit fighting. I quit pretending that I am not exhilarated by this. As my arms encircle his neck and pull him more to me, I block every other sense from my mind and savor this.

They say that you should grab every chance to be happy in life whenever and however it allots itself, right? Well, this is mine. This is my phase to be happy. As long as he is getting a kick out of this, as long as he permits this, I will relish it. Maybe I need beautiful memories to pack in my mental basket when we part ways.

Hush, now!

We pull away at last, both of us panting heavily for breath, and he pulls us for a hug as we steady our breathing.

Peeling my eyes open, I am greeted by some six pairs of eyes of the security guards gawking at us behind him. These ignoramuses who almost lugged my ass out of this castle that day at the order of his mother. These now ostensively flabbergasted monkeys! May the devil lick their asses! I should probably summon by bitchy mode and show them my middle finger, but I just snuggle up close to my Jerol.

This feels so heavenly. We should probably do this often, if not always. Mental eyes roll! But I have the rights as his wife, right?

He pulls away after a long while, and I was almost slumbering on his habitable shoulder. He cups my face, browsing it for a while. What seems to be catching his attention this much on my face, huh?

“You are beautiful!”

Hello, cloud nine! Did you call me?

I swallow hard! What was that?

“So… sor… Sorry?” I hum softly with a broken voice.

“You are amazingly beautiful, Tessa Angeline McCall! Do I need to always say your name so that you believe I am talking to you?” He strokes my cheeks, bolstering my blush and disarray.

I am trembling. My face has assumed a different colour. I’m burning red from the ears to the nose due to his compliment. Is he this sane now to flirt? How can he find me attractive?

I’m beautiful? And I had to hear that for the first freaking time in my life from him- Jerol O’Brian McCall? How can my bones not weaken like this, huh?

“Me?” I implore, unbelieving that he actually said that to me.

“Why, does it sound like impossible to you that someone finds you attractive?”

Wait, he is serious!?

“Well, uum. It’s not just anyone telling me that, but it’s you, Jerol! You expect to believe that?” I mumble, sounding as soft as anyone could ever be.

“Why?” He queries, and suddenly his eyes turns vulnerable. “I get it. I’m the crazy Jerol…”

“Hey!” I cut him off. I didn’t mean to sound like that. “No. That’s not what I meant, Jerol. You know I can’t insinuate something like that.”

“What is it then?” His eyes turn to their usual icy demeanor again.

“It’s you, Jerol – a multi-billionaire. And me? I am a no…”

“I am just Jerol, and you are simply Tessa. And you are truly beautiful both inside and outside. Don’t let anybody deceive you otherwise, okay?”

Ooh, well! I guess I am beautiful then. That hits so weirdly differently. But it’s natural for someone to feel this way after a hot rich guy like Jerol utters such heavily sweet words to them, I suppose. I nod my head, and he leans in for another kiss, but I stop him.

“They are looking at us.” I murmur, referring to the fools behind him.

The maids have also assembled them to enjoy the sight of their boss kissing someone in the open. More to their awe must be him getting out of the castle for the first time in almost three months. What do they think of us?

“Those lethargic arses? Do you mind them?” He queries, not even minding to spare them a peek.

“Don’t you?” I retort.

“Why should I? I am their fucking boss. I should probably fire them for disturbing my precious moments with my wife.” Aha! His wife! That tops the blush on my face. He might be salvaging his senses completely given his talks. “So, do you mind your servants, Mrs McCall?” And that sounds so heavenly.

“No. Because I am with my husband. Nobody has the right to question me.” I mumble, and as if driven by a certain spirit, I drape my arms around his neck possessively. I pull him to me, and kiss him as if I have all the legal rights to be entitled to this.