Isabella was walking to the helicopter with a tight heart, second thoughts were filling her mind to the point that she was about to be sick to her stomach.
Her entire life flashed before her eyes, for no reason in particular.
She lived a pretty dull one, dating a guy that tried to took advantage of her family tragedy, her vulnerability, to lure her into prostitution. After that, she promised to do everything in her power to avoid catching feelings.
Not that there was any chance to flourish some sort of infatuation for Edmund. Never.
Her sister. She was the sole reason she was doing that last minute trip, not the man that walked beside her at that moment, although he could upstage male celebrities and even Gods, for what it counted.
Surely every man she met before and considered handsome until then was just put in the shade in comparison, but he was not getting a place in her mind or heart, the health of her sister was her sole concern.
Without a doubt, that was probably the craziest thing she has done in her nineteen years of life, following that ridiculously dashing stranger into a private flight.
Yes, stranger. The fact that he was part of family by alliance meant nothing to her. If not for that recent event, she would have preferred never to make contact with him. His family destroyed hers, stuff like that could not be easily forgotten.
“Everything okay?” He raised a brow inquiringly, his soul sucking eyes enticing her in a burning gaze.
She nodded as ‘yes’, but her entire stance screamed ‘no’. He read right through her, his eyes narrowed in lack of conviction.
He offered his hand to help her climb up, and she grabbed it at the speed of light. It was her first time riding a helicopter, her body shivered from head to toe as she was afraid of heights.
Planes did not scare her. Takeoffs and landings maybe a bit, the rest of the flight made her mind at ease, as a point of irony, if that made any sense. So the plane flight was not the problem, the helicopter was another matter entirely.
Sitting in this tight space as they flew above the city, with his body pressed against hers, it was impossible not to be conscious of his heavily built, aggressively masculine frame.
Unwanted, yet ravishing sensations were coursing through her blood, all the way to her core.
‘My skin is burning from the closure, I pray he would not notice, and I blame it on my non-existent sexual life!’
She convinced herself that the lack of sex was the reason, not that ungodly handsome man.
‘How can a stranger awaken such wicked desires in me?’
As if that was not enough, something even more peculiar happened to her. His closure instated an odd feeling of security into her being, the helicopter flight was over before she could even begin to delve into her fear of heights.
‘Is this the level of comfort a woman should receive from her man? And how would a man like him treat his dear one, the one he loves? Moreover, is there someone like that in his life?’
She was quick to push those pathetic questions in the back of her mind. The situation with her sister messed with her brain, she was undeniably losing her sanity, that was how she explained it.
“The take-off is scheduled in half an hour, Madrid to New York will be 7 to 8 hours long–”
“New York? I thought you said their accident occurred in Italy.” She cut him off.
“It did, but my trusted doctors are in New York, so I had them transferred.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Anyway, if you care to do some stretching, do it now.” He interrupted her line of thinking. “Not that the plane is small-sized, but in the helicopter, you reminded me of an image with a fish out of water so I’m guessing that you have a problem with flying. You own a passport, you must have been traveling at least once, and you know better how you deal with it. For me, it is not an issue, I’ve spent more than 12 hours from the last 24 in the air, it’s like a second home to me anyway as I’m constrained to go abroad more often than one might think it’s possible, the business requires it.”
Edmund watched how her face lost color in a blink of an eye and instantly regretted his words. He meant no harm, but somehow, he managed to offend her.
‘It’s our ill fate probably and it might be for the better!’ He convinces himself.
Her body pinned to his in that compact spot was rather troubling for him, her presence being more tempting than he had expected. It took all the willpower in the world to keep his member from getting hard, and it was safe to say that it had never occurred like that.
Surely it happened because of the dreadful event concerning his brother, not due to this woman, she meant nothing to him, nothing more than a means to an end.
“I’ll be fine. No need to worry about me.” She assured him. “We can go inside, if you wish.”
“Sure, I just need to make a call first.” He signaled her the way, the flight assistant welcomed her to board.
“Have you completed that little operation of yours?” The voice on the other side of the call belonged to his cousin Moira.
“I’m in the process.” He responded. “This is of no importance, do you have any news about my brother?” He sought an answer, not sure if he could handle the truth.
“No improvement whatsoever in his condition.” She sighted while pronouncing the words.
“Well, I suppose that no news is good news in this case.” He felt relieved that he was not forced to hate Isabella even more, if hating her is even conceivable. “And what about Luisa, how is she?”
Luisa Duarte is a woman he despised with all his being. She was the worst thing that happened to his family, he knew that from the start and if he needed more proof, it was provided by the car accident, if that was an accident indeed.
“I’ve thought you’ll question me about her too. She stays the same, but at least she’s conscious and her wounds are not life threatening.”
A reminder that she is practically fine, while his brother was on the brink of death.
“Fine, see you soon.”
“Can’t wait to meet your bride!” She chuckled.
“I’m in no mood for jokes, Moira!”
“Should I call her your fiancée then? You’re still planning to force her into marriage to keep the wealth in the family, no?” She asked playfully. “Is she as flavorless as her sister?”
No, Isabella was the opposite.
“Moira, you’re getting on my nerves!” His tone of angry note, he snapped.
“Okay, okay, I’ll see her with my eyes soon enough.” She hung up.
Luisa was a woman of no wealth that married into an extremely powerful, very rich family. His family. Which meant that she would inherit his brother’s part of the wealth, if a tragic event were to occur.
‘It’s gonna be an eye for an eye. She took my brother, I’ll take her sister!’
His plan was to make Isabella pay for everything that Luisa did.
Plus, the wealth would stay in the family.
‘Not that this kind of marriage brings me any pleasure, of course no, it’s fucking business.’
While waiting for Edmund in his private plane, Isabella’s mind traveled to their recent discussion. Even if it hurt her to admit it, he read her right, he was entirely accurate.It’s always been her dream to travel the world, but she'd barely set foot outside Madrid. She had her motives, but probably none legit or unshakable, some were just lame excuses.“Do you need anything? A meal was ordered for you in advance, we can serve it to you now or a bit later, whenever you feel like eating.” The smiling face along with the polite tone of the flight assistant broke her train of thought.“Meal?” She narrowed her eyes and shook her head in disagreement, at no point with the intention of being mannerless. “No, I’ve eaten recently, I’m not hungry, thank you!” She added, forcing a smile in response to the cordial proposal.If she believed it was considerate of him to arrange everything from transportation to meals, hosting, clothing, it would be her little secret.A warm smile made its way on
Agonizing fear invaded Isabella’s body when the plane started spinning. The world seemed to come to an end and she was about to die alone, in a way few experienced, and none lived to tell, to share the emotions and the thoughts or the images that invaded their brain in their last minutes of life.It was not the sort of knowledge that would have been of help to any extent, but tears were soaking her cheeks as she cried her heart away.She had no dear person she would hate to leave behind, except maybe for her sister, even though in the last years they haven’t had much of a contact. Maybe Luisa will not make it either and she will never find out about her awful death. Maybe they would meet on the other side, if there was such a thing, she couldn’t know for sure.There was no lover who would miss her when weekends came and he would have to sing in his car alone, while going on short trips around the country.No husband who would yearn for her while making the bed at night or having brea
Dizzy from the shock, Isabella’s mind replayed the scenes where his mouth was on hers, she gently touched it. All the spots on her skin that made contact with his hands were still tingling with hot lust, every inch of her body tormented with some kind of biological urge that never hit her like that before. She blamed it on the fact that she was still a virgin and also didn’t use her sex toys since a while.Those were the reasons most certainly, not the fact that she had been craving to have a taste of the man from the moment she set her eyes on him in that third-rate diner.That was surely not the case.What happened a few minutes earlier was the result of a plausible set of circumstances, life and death situations can provide justifications even for the most unrealistic course of events.Would it have happened if not for the fear of death? Probably not.Stopping the time in the moment that their lips collided would have been gratification ordained by gods, she allowed herself to bel
‘No, he did not, he couldn’t have, I refuse to believe this. Did he?’ Isabella was in denial. He couldn’t have said those horrible things, she must have been imagining them, the shock was to be held liable for that sort of malfunction of her brain. Taking all factors into consideration, the distress from the last hours could be the foundation of these inconceivable thoughts of her. She glanced at him in bewilderment, uncertain if her short memory, the one that replicated his speech in her mind, was unblemished or if the panic of a viable airplane ordeal and the other incidents that followed altered it beyond cure. “What did you just say?” She inquired, being optimistic that it was all just a gloomy hallucination. “I said that you are to marry into the mighty Stark family. Although you are clearly not my type, you are to become my wife, a place coveted by the entire female population pertaining to the high society and by all the other women that strive to achieve a place in the wo
It happened again, Edmund’s analytical thoughts went astray after the lower side of her abdomen came in contact with his hard member, throbbing through the pants as it did all day long, threatening to escape and forge ahead to the most coveted place on Earth, her inner part.Like the world came to a halt, he felt nothing else, nothing but the shockingly heavy slap on his face she gave after he advanced that damn request to her, a proposition he believed to have been totally entitled to push forward.Clearly, she disagreed. He touched his face, it stung. It was the first time a woman slapped him, so it felt rather interesting. ‘She should beg me. She should!’Every other woman would have blatantly offered herself to him, doing whatever things necessary to benefit from a single touch from his part.‘Why would she be any different? God, how I’ve yearned to hear those fucking words!’Instead, after slapping him, she left his side, retiring in the sleeping area.If only she would have sa
‘Is it that horrendous that hearing him saying ‘you’re mine’ and talking about marriage and children does all kinds of wicked things to my body? Is it sinful that my core is trembling with a need that can only be satisfied by this arrogant man?’Isabella hated herself for her weakness, for the way her treacherous body responded to Edmund.She tried to remember when was the last time that she craved to be possessed with raw passionate carnal desire by a man, to be punished with maddening sex. Or when was the last time she felt a consuming urge deep inside, like some devil took control of her body.The answer was ‘never’.‘When did anybody make me feel so wet and desperate for some rough intimacy? Also, never.’Those were new feelings for her. She didn’t have a clue that she had it in her, and if not for Edmund, she might not have found out in a lifetime.Reading her mind, or maybe it was her yearning glance that gave it out, his eyes started traveling all over her body, the hot fervor
Isabella once again stared at him in disbelief, he had the audacity to assume that she could be threatened into a marriage.‘For God’s sake, is this man really serious?’ She could not stop her nervous blinking.She opened her mouth to speak out her outraged mind, but she bit her lower lip instead, deciding that the conversation should end there. It was not even worth wasting a breath, the minute she would walk out of there, she planned to avoid the ravishing man for the rest of her life.‘What person with a sane brain would ever believe that a marriage could be crafted on insults, accusations or intimidation? Is he some kind of Italian Don from some distant past where women were mere objects at a man’s disposal, where marriages relied on some sort of vendetta?’Though they met a few hours ago, he undeniably prevailed in invading her mind and her soul. She shed tears for reasons she could not completely identify, or maybe she just chose not to dig further into her heart.But even if s
‘Does this man find so much delight in making me miserable?’Isabella could swear to have seen his lips briefly form into a devilish triumphant smile, just before his face regained its usual cold appearance.‘For God’s sake, he just won a small battle, not the freaking war!’She had a well-established plan. She would find a way to get out of the abominable contract after seeing her sister. Luisa was the only one important at the moment, nothing else mattered.Though she was ashamed to admit, a treacherous part of her was perturbed by the existence of that Moira woman, that part of her wanted to know his connection to her.‘Why go to the extent of marrying me if he already had a woman? Are we really married now?’Deciding that she would not let the thought consume her mind, she was keen on getting out of the plane and filling her lungs with fresh air.‘Finally! Only God knows how suffocating this trip has been!’~~~It would have taken ages to pass through the airport immigration check