Chapter 5 If Marriage Is What You Want

It disturbed her, though, that her one major decision had somehow already been made by her parents without her knowledge. Worse, her willingness in the matter that concerns her life forever wasn't given sort of consideration by the pair of married individuals who birthed and raised her!

The poor redhead really was displeased, and even feels betrayed, that her parents could do that to her while also lying to her face by telling her they were travelling to a friend's place as she was being set up.

Her heart almost stopped at the mere thought of her marrying Luciano. Not that she's not attracted to him or not like him... Hell no, God forbid that she ends up with someone less good-looking than him! But who gets married to a dog? He's definitely a huge one at that and this form of his is as scary as hell! She couldn't tell her family or her bestie about what she had witnessed back then. And It's not so hard to confess it all to end this obviously, but she just couldn't! She did not want his secret life headlined all over the news. She knows how painful it was when his ex assistant betrayed him and she's definitely not going to do that to him even if it's means her supposed freedom from him.

I need to think of a way out and fast!I can lie through my teeth and say that I fell in love with someone else....I would pretend that its true, even if it went against all my principles!

*************

Luciano was very still, his entire attention engaged by the strange behaviour of the woman in front of him...

Why would she suddenly run from him? He reasoned. Everything was fine until that night before the wedding when she was acting strange with me while we were making love on our massive king-size. Did I do something wrong? Did I act in any way that I shouldn't have? He kept internalizing in confusion.

Women never stick out their chins petulantly and ignore Luciano when they were lucky enough to gain his attention. They smiled at him, flirted, treated him to little slanted glances that were meant to seduce to. But they never ever blanked out on him, moreover considering of fleeing and hiding from him on the day of their nuptials. Yet Ariel Morris was now blanking out on him, keeping silent and avoiding his gaze.

"You are mine..." Luciano spoke up, breaking the long pause, repeating a statement he said a few moments ago and startling her. As his dark, deep accented drawl trailed along her skin like a soft caress, it awakened goosebumps all over her trembling body.

As the ramifications of what he had said forcefully sank into Ariel's consciousness. His runaway mate went rigid at the possessive look that he was sending her way.

"I'm not your property," she shot back at him, hissing her livid words angrily. Admittedly, her temper was now rising and spilling out without warning, while another inexplicable emotion shook her to the core with its intensity.

His perfectly shaped mouth took on a derisive smirk. "You're still mine, either way," he confirmed matter-of-factually.

Ariel felt him come up beside her, her skin prickling all over and her nostrils flaring as she breathed in his citrus-based aftershave overlaid with his particularly unique and sensually desirable male smell. All of her senses - the ones she had sworn when she left him, would always be switched to neutral when he was around - instantly turned on to full throttle.

She felt her heart starting to anxiously flutter when his large manly palms came to rest on the top of her right shoulders, while her breathing stopped altogether when his hand brushed the side of her breast.

"There is no doubt that you're mine, Ariel," he finally concluded while dragging her extremely close to his side and inserting his tongue into her open luscious mouth.

"You smell nice," he said intense pleasure lining his low smooth voice. He then slowly bends his head so his mouth almost touched the side of her neck. "Is that a new perfume that you're wearing?"

Somehow, the slim silent female got her voice to work, "Get your hands off me, Luciano!" she sternly demanded.

His hands tightened for a fraction of a second, long enough for her heart rate to go up another notch.

"Our Marriage will be finalized soon," the wealthy good-looking business owner stated with finality, his warm breath moving the hairs that had come loose from her makeshift ponytail. "Maybe we can make the most of the time before the event is completed, hmm?'

The seething woman very much doubted it...

Ariel turned to face him, her heart tightening all over again as she gazed intently into his dangerous dark blue eyes. "What do you want from me, Luciano?" she asked pretending not to be extremely affected with his proximity. "You already had tasted me multiple times so what the hell would you still expect of me to offer you?"

His strong thumbs started to expertly knead her knotted and tense shoulders until she was sure she was going to melt into a gooey helpless pool of passion on his lap. She fought her initial response, clamping her teeth together as she put her hands against his chest to push him away, "Will you stop touching me, for God's sake?" she exclaimed at him.

He captured her long-fingered hands effortlessly, holding them in just one of his as if they were a child's. "I wish it's that possible Amore mio," he said in his native language. "I wish I could erase or even ignore this pull I have towards you but I can't," the bulked-up foreigner explained before moving away from her side with a dejected look on his face.

Ariel swallowed raggedly. She tried not to think of how agonized he now looked.

"In any case, if marriage isn't what you truly want, then we shall see..." he added still with that extremely pained expression.

She was about to lie. She was about to pretend that she is in love with another when she is not and the knowledge cut her deeply because, within the normal scope of things, Ariel is a naturally honest and straightforward person who detested lies and deception. Her desire to look out for her needs, she regarded unhappily, had put her on a slippery slope and at odds with her conscience. She knows that she should be telling the truth, no matter how unpleasant or dangerous it was, but the wretched choice was too hard to decide on. Two wrongs does not make a right. This man was her lover and future husband who she is very attracted to. But could she simply just sit back and watch Luciano Grey take her back to his home on his private jet despite her inner conflict and emotional turmoil?.

She knew and was aware that she could not escape the way she did before . She does not have any effective safeguards against him even with her heart or mind. Unfortunately, Ariel was defenceless against him. It is therefore her priority to carefully consider her future and ensure that her needs came first. But she had to be self-sacrificing about that process too, she reminded herself tenaciously.

Even if the final result hurt, even if it meant loosing the most delicious man on earth... the only one who had every made me cum so hard and fast with his naughty ways, I need to preserve something myself, and not totally lose myself with and in him.

The problem though, this was not as easily done, than said, woman!

"We shall see," Luciano repeated the sentence, wondering if his worst fears were being brought out by her clear apprehensiveness and obvious dread.

"Yes," Ariel softly muttered in agreement, dry-mouthed, while her taut nerves were now spiking through her slim torso.

All bets are off if he intends to have me, whether I'm in love with another or not... the troubled bride-to-be admitted to herself.

Ariel had no idea nor was she worried that she could be exposed as a liar and pretender with what she's planning to do. She lowered her thick feathery lashes as she wordlessly considered her options...

Well, I would just have to wait and see what transpires from hereon after. After all, I'm presently not in a position to do anything else. Arguing against anything concerning the matter would only muddy the waters. It wouldn't achieve anything. It would only increase the animosity between us and the state of uncertainty about my future.

"So, will you agree to our immediate marriage?" Luciano asked softly, a glint of hope shining in his eyes as he waited for her answer in suspense.

Involuntarily, Ariel glanced at him and ended up locked with his intense dark blue eyes' deep gaze. She couldn't help but notice how his slitted pupils were surrounded by long velvet lashes a degree darker than his blond hair. Her heart went clipity-clop speedily inside her and she felt incredibly dizzy, as if she stood on the edge of an abyss gazing down at a towering perilous drop. Something tugged and tightened low in her pelvis and she was unexpectedly alarmingly aware of her body as if her prickling skin had suddenly become too tender to bear the weight of her clothes.

"Yes..."

He breathed a short sigh of relief as he continued, "I also wish that you will agree to all my demands," Luciano told her without skipping a beat while he silently marveled at the translucent perfection of her eyes. "Because you are not stupid and it would be very stupid to refuse me of anything that I would request from you."

His thick dark brows scrunching together, Damien Bennett turned from his seat up front the compact but powerful plane to study his Alpha in astonishment. A second later, his attention will be drawn back to the human mate who was serenely sitting by her broad-chested man's side. She was just silently looking at Luciano as if he had cast a magic spell over her.