Arranged Love (Complete)

Chapter 12 - The Next Day

"Okay," Eva said hesitantly, laying her things down and walking over to sit down on the end of the bed.

He threw the sheet off of himself and stood up, revealing a smooth tan chest, rippled washboard abs and broad strong shoulders. Seeing that left her speechless, sitting there looking up at him like a deer stuck in headlights. Then her eyes scanned down to his black boxer briefs and the large bulge that was in the front of them.

His chiseled, sculpted body reminded her of the marble statues of the Greek gods in her castle museum and looking at it made her insides flutter and her heart beat a little faster. She couldn't believe this gorgeous man was her husband.

She swallowed hard and said, "Ummm. What did you want to talk about?" looking back up at his face and trying to concentrate, even though he had her feeling flustered.

Paulo took a deep breath in and let it out, pacing the floor before saying, "My Dad made sure to tell me about ten thousand times how important it was for us to consummate our marriage last night. He said if we didn't, the marriage could be ruled invalid and annulled and our trade agreements would be void. When I argued and said I wouldn't rush you into anything, he threatened to bring back the old royal family tradition of the bedding ceremony where witnesses stood around and watched your first time on your wedding night to make sure it actually happened."

"What? Are you serious?" she gasped, raising her eyebrows with wide eyes, making a disgusted face. "Ewww. I can't even imagine the humiliation of having people watch."

"Yeah. I'm dead serious. He finally agreed not to after I stopped arguing and promised him we'd go through with it. Your Dad and Mom even said something to me about it at the reception. Let me tell you, that was an awkward conversation," he laughed.
"Both our countries need heirs ASAP so our parents are really putting on the pressure."

He looked down and ran a hand up through his hair, letting out an exhale before adding, "but there was no way I was going to do it when you were that drunk, even if it was our wedding night. Plus we're still practically strangers and we have our whole lives together. I think there's need to rush into it, no matter what our parents say."

She looked at him, thinking for a second before quietly saying, "Thank you."

He cleared his throat and said, "You're welcome. I ummm, I think we should probably lie to them though and say we did it last night, so they don't overreact. Don't you think?"

"Yeah," she said with a nod. "My Mom was saying something to me yesterday about it too, about how we needed to start trying right away. I know they would be mad if they knew we didn't."

She looked around the room for a second awkwardly and then down at her fidgeting hands.

"Okay. Then that's what we'll do," he told her. "We'll lie if anyone asks us. The fact that we haven't consummated our marriage has to stay between us. No one else can know about it, not even your best friend. Agreed?"

"Agreed," she said, looking back up at him.

"Good," he said as he walked over to get clothes out of his suitcase.

She got up to get ready too and he turned around and almost ran into her, stopping with his body right up against hers. She swallowed hard at the sight of his almost naked body so close in front of her, freezing for a second as she slowly looked up into his eyes with her heart racing. She freaked out and quickly grabbed her things and rushed past him into the bathroom.

She was standing in front of the vanity putting on some makeup when he walked into the bathroom in just his boxer briefs and walked over to the toilet on the opposite wall and started peeing. His back was facing her so she couldn't see anything but her face was flushing red because she felt weird about being in there while he used the bathroom and hearing it.