The Winter Bride (TSBS-2) COMPLETED

Chapter Fourteen

A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.
-Fidel Castro

Ashley Davis-Harris

"Are you ready?"

I nodded and solemnly, entered the car. As soon as the streets ahead sought out his attention, I discreetly stared at him.

The tight lines on his face were the epitome of his mood for the day. Well, since yesterday, his mood had been quite same. No, no. Exactly same.

Are you ready?

Those three words were the first he had spoken since we left the diner yesterday morning. After the dreaded family topic, he had brought us back to the penthouse and prisoned himself inside his bedroom till the mid-afternoon.

Left alone to roam around the duplex penthouse, I had been bored out of my mind. Like every day since I started living here.

By mid-noon, when he still hadn't made a noise inside that very dark bedroom of his, I had to make sure whether there was a living being or a corpse inside.

Momentarily forgetting the lessons from Mama, I had peeked inside his bedroom, only to find the discarded sheets on the bed, empty of any masculine body and the bathroom door slightly ajar, the sound of water hitting the tiles and citrus fragrant floating around the room.

Slowly but carefully, I had backed away with red cheeks. A black Calvin Klein boxer was lying at the foot of the bed. I had swallowed and tried to shake away the image of water running over his naked golden body.

After a while, he had walked out of the bedroom, completely clothed, looking slightly relaxed and came down the stairs, ignoring me leisurely laying on the couch. I had sprang up instantly and maintained a decent pose, watching him strode toward the kitchen and picking out few fruits from the basket.

Again, without acknowledging me, he had walked back out the kitchen but this time, didn't take the stairs instead entered through the double doors beside the stairs and closed them with a moody thud.

Not so relaxed after all.

Sighing, I glanced at the fruit basket with disdain. Fruits for lunch? Grandmama would be immensely proud of me right now.

Later at evening, Neil had finally decided to call some dinner from outside and when Mark had delivered them, he had taken a foil box, leaving another on the counter and locked himself back in the study.

Remembering the hugely packed dinner he had ordered, a small smile came upon my face. No matter what he meant later on about him having different definition of family, none of us could deny for a second, that he had thought of me as his family.

There was an uncanny warm feeling inside my chest at the thought of being his family and without any hesitation, feeding his family as in me, huge portions of protein for dinner.

Coming back to the present, I didn't realise I was still staring at him quite attentively, with a small smile still on my face. During a stop light, he cocked an eyebrow at my smiling face and I quickly turned away, removing any sign of feelings from my face.

It still didn't satisfy the curiosity in me. Curiosity of his real family. Where was his family? Where was his parents? Did he have any brothers or sisters? There wasn't a single picture in his penthouse and I had never ventured into his study to come upon any information about the man I had been living with. I really didn't know anything about the man who was my husband. Well, no one could blame me. I had married a complete stranger. Well, more like he had threatened me.