Ryan's POV
Having a taste of her sweet lips makes me lose my mind and I find myself leaning in closer for more and expecting her to open up for me to explore the insides of her mouth.
Instead, she places her two hands on my chest and pushes me away roughly, her face in a deep frown with her eyes in a depth of annoyance for what I just did.
Rather than feeling sorry, I plaster a wide grin on my face and she pushes me off the bed.
"What the hell was that for? Are you crazy?" She thunders in anger and I find myself laughing on the floor.
What exactly is amusing to me? I do not know.
"A practice. We might have to kiss in front of Mother tomorrow…"
"What?" She furrows her brow, the anger increasing.
I rise slowly and sit back on the bed. "We are going to meet with Mother tomorrow."
She remains silent and I try to read through her expression, feeling bad for kissing her without permission.
But I don't regret it because her lips were inviting and sweet. She tastes like mint.
Slowly, she drops her head and rubs her fingers on her temple.
I am tempted to apologize to her for what I did but I am not saying anything.
Kissing shouldn't be a big deal, should it? She brought the idea of acting up and here we are.
"Ryan, kissing each other should be out of the plan, please." She says in a low tone.
"Why?" I demand nonchalantly like it is a normal thing to kiss her since she is my wife. Suddenly, it dawns on me that this is the first time we are kissing.
On our wedding day, she didn't kiss me. She only pecked my cheeks and made it look like we actually kissed. That was one of the reasons why I was so mad at her that day because I felt humiliated.
What if someone has seen what she did?
I look up to see her staring at me with daggers in her eyes.
"Why?" I repeat again. I am desperate to know why kissing me is bad. It is so obvious that she doesn't like the idea. Valerie isn't one to pretend. I am beginning to know her bit by bit. "Am I a bad kisser?"
I smile widely.
She picks up the pillow to throw at me but I evade it by scrambling out of the bed in laughter.
"Do I look like I am in the mood for jokes right now?" She is breathing heavily as she drops the pillow.
"I wasn't joking, sweetheart…." I round the bed, grinning widely like an idiot.
For no reason, I am actually enjoying this. Taunting her and seeing her angry this way is making me happy.
"Ryan, please. Don't let this repeat itself.*
"Come on, Val. I told you it was just an act. I wanted to see how you would react if the kiss was unexpected and in public. You didn't do badly, though. I'm sure if it happens next time, you won't push me away that way or we will be busted."
"No kisses. Don't you get it?"
"Why?" I raise a brow in curiosity, standing with arms akimbo.
Why is she making it a big deal?
"Because I don't want it. I don't like it and I don't need it."
I pretend to be thinking about it for a while before blurting out. "Maybe that is because your boyfriend was bad at kissing."
"No!" She shouts defensively. "He wasn't."
"He wasn't?" I ask to be sure I heard right. Meekly, she nods then she falls back on the bed and covers her face in embarrassment.
I burst into a fit of laughter, my stomach churning from the action.
"Stop laughing and get out of here. You are so annoying!"
I continue to laugh at my fill. After sobering up, the smile on my face won't disappear. I find everything she did right from when she pushed me away cute and sweet.
There is more to this, though. I can see it on her face. But there is a lot she needs to do to get rid of his memories.
I wish I can help but I can't. She won't even allow me to call her the names he used to call her. So how can I help?
"We are going to Mother's place tomorrow. She isn't picking up my calls and I'm worried. We haven't talked since the other day when we had a fallout. So I guess we should visit and then…", I trail off. I don't know what else will follow.
I just hope the news would have gotten to her about my candlelight date with Valerie.
I smile proudly to myself.
I amble back to the bed, about to get in when she shoves me aside.
"Hey."
"You can't sleep here." She spreads her legs over to the edge of the bed so there won't be much space left for me.
"Why?!" I cry out. "Are you afraid that I will kiss you in your sleep?"
She jumps up immediately with a pillow and hit my head with it. I grab her off the bed and we both struggle with each other. Before I know it, she is on my back, hitting me numerous times and shouting for me to drop her.
My hold on her becomes stronger as I run around the room in laughter, relying on her to stop hitting me, or I won't drop her.
Finally, she stops. I stop running too. We are both breathless.
"Drop me."
"What just happened? Was that a pillow fight?"
"It wasn't. Just drop me, you jerk!" She hit my shoulder with her hand, the pillow dropping to the floor.
"Hey, that hurts. I'm going to drop you, ok?" I move close to the bed, tempted to ask her if this is how she beats her ex-boyfriend.
I drop her off and quickly climb in beside her, holding her two hands so she won't push me off the bed again.
"Please, let me sleep here. I promise I won't kiss you or make you uncomfortable."
"No!"
"Please. I will do anything you ask of me…"
"I don't share my bed, Ryan. Stop making me feel like a bad person. Just go and sleep on the couch. It won't hurt, will it?"
I pout, hoping she will change her mind like I once did but she is set on seeing me off the bed.
She wriggles her hand away from my hold and drags all the comforter off my body. This is when I know she won't give in to my demands, no matter what I do.
If I spend any more minutes here, then she will push me off her with her legs. I am sure she must be counting to ten right now.
Sighing heavily, I get down from the bed and take a pillow, hugging it to my bosom, still pouting before walking slowly to the couch.
The moment I lay on it, I hear her sweet laughter which sounds like music to my ears.
Deriving comfort from the laughter, I turn and toss on the couch till sleep evades me.
****
💓