BETROTHED TO THE BILLIONAIRE

Valerie’s POV

With my hands tightly wrapped around him firmly and my head on his back, I let the sound of the motorcycle engine drown my thoughts, concerns, and worries.

I am also ignoring the suspicion I am having about Ryan lying to me about the kiss. I don’t want to think about anything now. I just want to enjoy the evening air brushing past my face and hair.

If I wasn’t in a sad mood, I would have loved to shout into the air with one of my hands flying around and the other holding onto Ryan as he drives.

I don’t know where he is driving me to but I don’t care. I just want to be far away from that cold room and let my worries go.

My father is still in the hospital. I wanted to spend the night with him but my mom insisted on having me gone. From her persistence, I can see how much she wants me and Ryan to work unlike what I told Ryan a few minutes ago.

Even with that, I still believe that the person who needs this sort of assurance is his mom, not my mom. My mom is just after the money they promised my father.

Suddenly, the speed increases, and I let out a yelp as I hold onto him more tightly. He chuckles lightly and I hit him on the shoulder.

We keep going in complete silence. Now, the silence isn’t as awkward as it was earlier in the room. It is comforting. Comfortable.

The motorcycle was in his penthouse. I saw it there on our wedding night and I have been meaning to drive on it but I couldn’t bring it up because we weren’t on good terms.

Tonight reminds me a lot about being my father’s princess. Dad used to do this with me whenever he had something troubling his mind when I was still young.

I was his princess and he prefers going out on a motorcycle with his Princess to his wife. I wish I had his sort of patience. Being with my mom over the years has been a result of his patience. My mom is hard to deal with and hard to live with for years without fighting.

Realizing that I am still thinking about everything I said I wasn’t going to think about, I turn my head to the other side, my left cheek on Ryan’s back, and I shut my eyes.

I don’t want to think about anything.

Nothing. Not about being my dad’s princess. Not about my dad’s situation or ill health. Not about my plan to interrogate him after he has been discharged from the hospital.

And not even about that awkward kiss.

Ryan seemed like he had something to say to me when he came into my room this night. I guessed it was about the kiss but when I saw the disappointment crossing his expression after I asked him if he did that because of my mother, I concluded that he didn’t come to talk about the kiss and I should forget all about it.

It should mean nothing, right? After all, I am not proud of it happening.

If I was still friends with Brenda and I told her what happened today about kissing my ex-boyfriend and my supposed husband, she would cackle in laughter and smirk in pride.

Not because she likes the idea but because she will feel I have finally become like her and I have the right to judge or nag her over being promiscuous.

I sigh.

“Are you ok?!” I hear Ryan’s shout and I nod.

“Yes.”

“Should we stop for a while?” He says and I want to tell him no.

Before I can do that, he slows down and the bike stops immediately. He takes his helmet off and I step down after taking my hands away from his body.

“Are you ok?” He demands again, peering down at me with concern.

“Yes, I am”, I brush my hair away from my face, wishing I had packed them before coming out.

Ryan’s finger touches my face and I see him brushing my hair too, tucking the pleats behind my left ear.

There is a look on his face that I can’t place. The same look he had on when he kissed me at the hospital reception.NôvelDrama.Org content.

“Let’s go”, he says, jerking me out of my thoughts.

When I glance around, it is an enclosed garden with a big house behind it. I turn to stare at Ryan and he shrugs nonchalantly.

I want to ask him where we are by this time of the night but he quickly disappears, moving towards the garden while I fold my arms around my bosom, suddenly feeling cold.

Something hits my face and I take it off to see it is a cardigan. “I was so sure she would need one and now you do.” He says to my amazement.

Where the hell did he put the cardigan all along?

With no question, I wear it and I see him wearing the same cardigan. It is a black one with a big hood covering almost my entire face.

Leaving the house in just my night-long silk trousers and shirt was a rash decision. But I never knew we would come this far.

“Come with me”, he stretches his hand and I walk closer to hold hands with him.

With a smile, he begins to walk forward toward the garden again. It is enclosed with lots of strings that form a door and when I look closely, I notice there are not just flowers in there, some living things are going around the place.

Ryan produces a torch and switches it on to reveal the beauty that makes my breath hitch for a second and my mouth hanging open in wonderment.

Tiny butterflies are flying around the garden. It perches on one of the flowers and runs off again.

They are beautiful and colorful. When we are inside the garden, I feel tempted to touch them but they always escape before I move closer.

All of a sudden, Ryan whirls me around and there stands one of the most beautiful butterflies ever on the tip of his finger.

He smirks with pride and signals to me to touch it. Scared that it will escape again, I shake my head.

He nods at me with encouragement and I finally summon up the courage to at least try. If it flies away, fine. I know I tried my best.

Shakily, my hands reach out to it but it is still on Ryan’s finger. Finally, I touch it and a profound feeling of joy rains down on my existence and my heart begins to dance for joy.

The imaginary butterflies in my belly sparks like they always do when I am extremely happy.

Just then, it flies away and I watch it go to the far end of the strings binding them from going out to their freedom.

My joy knows no bounds and for a split second, I get lost in them until I begin to tear up, not because I am still sad but because I am too happy to express how I feel.

The butterflies begin to go around till they surround us, adding to my joy. They keep going around and I keep turning around too to watch the beautiful creatures when I suddenly begin to feel dizzy.

I laugh as a tear rolls down my eyes without stopping. When I lose my stamina and almost fall, a pair of strong arms catch me and the sniff of his cologne reminds me of the fact that Ryan is with me.

He is behind this magic.

He brought me here. He gave me both real and imaginary butterflies.

Right now, as I stare at him, he is nowhere close to the man I married. He is someone else. Someone I don’t know. A man I never knew existed. A man with a kind heart.

He did all of this for me?

Why?

Wait, was this the reason why he had that disappointed look on his face after I jumped to the conclusion that he kissed me because of my mom?

Does Ryan have feelings for me?

I almost snort in regret. Ryan can never have feelings for me. We are two opposite people with opposite ideologies and opinions.

He doesn’t like me one bit for being too strong-headed.

I am wrong. He is doing this just to make my sadness go away. I shouldn’t get ahead of myself.

When his index finger touches my face again, it suddenly dawns on me that Ryan and I shouldn’t be too close to each other.

No one is looking now. We don’t need to act all lovey-dovey as if someone is looking from somewhere.

Or is this one of his ways of assuring his mother that we are cool? Isn’t the pregnancy facade enough?

Before I can try to find any answer to the question, his lips touches mine and I stiffen.

I am not given a chance to process what he is doing because the next thing he does is to delve his tongue into my mouth to force me to open up as he begins to kiss me roughly.