Chapter Nine: The New Gardener

We spent the night watching a movie. Karlo did not leave when I turned to my N*****x account and revealed what I was planning to do. Even when I was getting an ice cream, he did not even move as I arrived.

“Would you like some ice cream?” I offered and neared the cup to his mouth.

That’s when he turned to me. He glanced at the ice cream I was holding, while I was just waiting for him to answer. He was having a grim expression, as if he despised the ice cream.

“I would like to have a taste,” he revealed.

“Only taste?” I echoed. “You don’t want to eat another cup?”

“I don’t like cold and sweet food.”

I frowned. “What a choosy man!” I said bluntly and scooped an enough amount of ice cream on my spoon. “Say aaahhh?”

Karlo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, repeatedly glancing at the spoon and then my face. I neared the spoon again, slightly touching his lips so it would urge him to eat it. He did not have a choice but to open his mouth and eat the handful of ice cream. He stared at me for a while, as if he was assessing me. After he was done, I scooped again and put the ice cream into my mouth without breaking our eye contact.

“What? What are you looking at?” I innocently asked while licking the spoon.

He shook his head. His eyes drifted to my lips, and then he avoided his gaze, now focusing on the movie again. After minutes had passed, his cellphone rang from the glass table, which he answered instantly.

“Excuse me,” he said and went away with his phone. “Hello?”

Even though I was listening to the movie while enjoying my ice cream, I still could hear him talking on the phone. He must have just stopped at the end of the staircase, not far from me.

“Yes. I will go to the meeting first thing in the morning. Just prepare the visual presentation. I will lead tomorrow,” I heard him say. “Send me the files via email. I’ll review tonight. Now? No, I am spending time with my wife.”

The spoon inside my mouth stopped when I heard his last sentence and blinked. I stiffened and swallowed hard. A small smile crept onto my lips, as if Karlo is my crush and I am happy that he is asking me out. What the hell?

“Thank you. Good night.”

Spending time with my wife…

Why do I feel butterflies in my stomach hearing those words?

Yeah.

Karlo Rodriguez, the well-known, handsome, hot, and business-wise entrepreneur in society, and even a secret mafia boss that I hardly know of, is my freaking husband. And even though I have a boyfriend, I still can’t deny that I am attracted to him despite hating him because I was forced to marry him. It’s just that I am waiting for him to cheat on me, so I would be turned off. Hmmmm, should I ask him?

“Karlo?” I called him when he got back to the sofa. “Is that your girlfriend?”

I wanted to slap myself because I just heard him from the back that he is talking business. Now I couldn’t restrain myself from asking that damn question?

He didn’t look like he was taken aback, but he did squint his eyes and twitched his lips. He sat all the way before he regarded me.

“No. That was my secretary. I have an important meeting in the company tomorrow, and I am just asking her to prepare,” he elucidated.

“Ahhh,” I said and nodded as if I cared even if I didn’t. “But do you have one?”

“What one?”

“Girlfriend.”

“No.”

“Why?”

Karlo sighed and leaned his back all over the sofa. “Because I am married to you. Why would I have a girlfriend?”

“I have a boyfriend. You know that. And you didn’t even have a protest.”

“Do I even have a choice but to swallow that since he got you first, and I am just married to you by paper?” He scoffed, but it didn’t have any humor. “You can’t just force someone to take when that someone is already taken.”

The bitterness in his tone was vivid. At least I know that he does not have a girlfriend. I do have a boyfriend, and yet he seemed okay with it. But why does he sound like he does not like it?

“But you’re a man. Sometimes you would need sex. Have not ever been tempted by some woman in the bar or something to get laid?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Minerva!” he called out my name, as if he was threatening me.

“What? It’s just logic and you have needs!” I debated.

“But it should be out of your concern-“

“I am just stating the facts!”

“I have no intention to get laid!”

“Well, get laid!”

“And why would I fucking do that?”

“So you can have a great time and not just follow me around like a dog!”

“I love acting like a fucking dog, then!”

“Will you stop cursing?!”

Karlo immediately closed his mouth and thinned his lips so he would shut up. I glared at him intently. He sighed and closed his eyes, his nape resting on the top of the backrest of the sofa. My frustration slowly subsided when I watched him resting without him seeing me while I was eating. His Adam’s apple was moving, his calm breathing was making me breathless, and his sweet, manly scent filled my nostrils, and it indicated that he just recently showered before coming downstairs.

This son of Adonis…

The next morning, Karlo went to work very early. Because he strictly prohibited me from going out, I just busied myself working out in the mansion and doing yoga. I just called my instructor to visit me so that we can do the yoga sessions. I have no phone, so I could not scroll through my social media accounts and contact Ian and my friends. Karlo said it would be too dangerous, and I would be traced easily.

“Thank you very much,” I said to my instructor as I escorted her out of the entrance of the mansion. “I’ll make Karlo call you again for the next session, but I think it will be impossible for it to be sooner, since I am going to the USA next week.”

“Oh, wow, then I will not see you for a while, Minerva?” Suzzette, my female instructor, enthusiastically asked.

“Yeah, although I will miss you and our sessions. Maybe I will just do yoga all alone there until I come back here,” I said. “I will take an MBA there.”

“I wish you good luck.”

“Thank you so much. Take care!”

I watched Suzzette go to her car in the garage. Our gardener from afar followed her with his gaze. I furrowed my eyebrows at his direction, because even though he was watering the flowers under the heat of the sun, he did not look familiar to me. I remember our gardener being so thin, short, and having brown skin. But this one has a bulky body, tall height, and fair white skin color. Who is this? Is this new?

I could not see his face since he had a garden hat over his head. I was too curious to even stop wondering who it was. The car of Suzette began to run on the pavement towards the gate as the guards opened it for her. When it vanished and the gates closed again, I started walking in the direction of the gardener.

I was still wearing a pink sports bra and a black tight leggings with my rubber shoes on. My hair is in a ponytail. Sweat was scattered all over my body because of the yoga workout I had earlier. I will just shower once I know who this new gardener is.

“Hi!” I greeted and tilted my head, trying to peek who it was under the garden hat. “You are new to my eyes, sir. Are you a new hired gardener?”

He stopped pouring the sprinkler all over the flowers, but he still has not turned to me. After a minute, he sighed and began to remove the garden hat from his head.

“I hope you are not ugly that I am here, my love…”

My jaw instantly dropped when I saw Ian in front of me. “Ian?!” I exclaimed. “W-What are you doing here?!”

He did not even answer me and just catapulted himself onto me, embracing my body tightly. Even though he dressed like a gardener, he still looked handsome and hot. I was still shocked when he released me and kissed me on the forehead.

“You were not answering my calls and chats. I thought something happened to you. Or maybe your stupid husband did something bad. I was so worried about you!” he pattered and repeatedly looked at the sight of the guards. “I asked for help from one of your maids to visit you here. She knows me because I kept visiting you ever since before when your parents were still alive. She knows about us-“

“How could you do this when you know it’s dangerous, Ian? Karlo might find you!” I cut him off. “Get out of the mansion! Now!”