Kayden tilted Crystal’s head backward held her nose and blew air into her mouth. Suddenly, she jerked and coughed, water coming out from her nose and her mouth and the first thing she did was slap Kayden across the face. He glared down at her, and her eyes widened as soon as she realized what she had done; she covered her mouth immediately. She felt a pain in her throat and nose, the only reason she is feeling pain is because she is alive. She tried to get up but her legs were like jelly, shaking from fear of dying. “Are you okay?” Paige asked as she got down to embrace Crystal, she hugged her friend. Seeing her alive and okay makes her heart lift.“What are you doing inside the pool if you cannot swim? Are you trying to die or something?” Kayden asked as he flicked her forehead, she winced from the pain and then glared at him. His frown softened, and she gave him a good scare, he thought she was a goner. That was enough staying outside it was getting late anyway, he grabbed
Crystal was fully dressed and was about to leave when Kayden’s voice stopped her. “Where are you going dressed like that?” He asked curiously, she glanced back at him, he was holding his cup of tea and his eyes were narrowed in disapproval. “Dressed like that?” she repeated as she inspected her dress, a simply plaid gown that had a thin and stopped right enough to cover the scar on her knees. “There is nothing wrong with what I am wearing.” “You should take a coat along with you, it tends to get windy around this area.” He suggested and her eyes narrowed back at him. “A coat won’t go well with my dress.” She tells him. “I don’t want to change my dress because I want to take a coat along.” “You don’t ever listen to me, do you?” He complained, dropping the cup of tea to the table, he got up and walked towards her. “If you don’t want to take a coat, at least put on something with sleeves.” “This is strange,” Her eyebrows furrowed at him. “Since when do you care about what I wear? We
CHAPTER NINETY- SIX Crystal opened the door and waddled in, it was odd because the lights were off, and she wondered if Kayden was asleep already. It’s barely eight pm and he is asleep? She closed the door with a soft thud because if he was asleep, she wouldn’t want to wake him up.“Are you back?” She heard his voice from the darkness and almost immediately the lights came on, Kayden sat up from the bed rubbing his eyes.“Yes, I am.” She answered immediately, she dropped her tablet on the table, Kayden’s silver eyes landed on her and his eyes narrowed.“What is that?” he asked curiously and she shrugged.“What?” He got up from the bed and his steps doubled as he headed towards her, he pulled her face and his hands went into her hair. “What happened to your hair?” he looked just as baffled as he sounded. She pushed him away and took a few steps back, she could see the dissatisfaction in his face, he looked like a child denied of his toy. “As you can see, I got a new haircut…” sh
“Laurie didn’t come back last night, did she?” Deborah asked curiously as she stared at Paige on the other bed watching some of the Thai drama’s that she had recommended the previous night, and Paige shrugged, she wasn’t close with the lad so she didn’t care if she came back or not. “She is a grown ass lady, do you have to look out for her, do you think you're her mom?” Natalia asked as she did some touch up on her make-up, this was the last of their vacation and she would like to use the most of it, probably get the attention some of those attractive businessmen she met in the lounge last evening. “Everyone here needs to be looked out for,” Deborah’s brows curved and there was a taunting look on her face now. “Everyone except for you, because it’s clear you have other motives.” “I know you always want to pick a fight with me,” She sighed as she added one more layer of her fiery red lipstick to her already blood red lips, her eyes raised to glare at Deborah who was wearing a b
“I heard you dropped the charges against Natalia.” Kayden asked as he grabbed Crystal by the arm. Crystal had spoken to the police and called the incident an accident, she said she was trying to climb down the stairs in a hurry and she tripped, and because she was the victim, the evidences dug up became invalid. “Moreso, without my knowledge?” Her eyes lazily fell to the point of contact before they went back to his silver eyes that narrowed down at her. “Yes, and is there any problem?” She asked curiously as she tried to disengage from him, but all her efforts were futile. “Of course, there is a problem.” He tightened his grip. “Dropping all charges would render all my efforts useless, and since I have come this far why don’t w—” She interrupted him sharply. “I do not wish to be stressed,” she confessed. “Isn’t it enough that you fired her already?” “What are you talking about?” “Kayden,” she called him softly, she pinched her nose bridge in frustration. “There is no need for
“What are you doing here?” Paige asked Crystal, who was engrossed in making a particular design, she glanced up at Paige and a mischievous smile spread across her lips, Paige eyebrows raised up slightly, because recently seeing her in a good mood, is close to impossible? “Do you have anything good?” Paige peeped into the screen and saw that she was finishing up the art that she was doing in the memory of her mother, and it was exactly as she remembered Mrs. Cabin, Paige smiled back at her, she could already see the source of her happiness. “You did it?” “Yes, I did.” She grinned revealing her set of pebble white teeth and Paige felt some sort of comfort in her, she was relieved. “I guess I just have to do more brain work, the problem is my fuzzy memories.” She understood what Crystal was trying to say, Paige knew that her trying to remember a lot of things might cause some mental problems for her. “I can’t hide from my problems forever; I need to learn how to embrace them.” She an
“For me to help you, you have to tell me everything.” Kayden's voice came back again, and Crystal gripped the edge of her dress, this was everything she was avoiding and more, but somehow the past she tried so hard to run away from had caught up to her. Who could have done this? Is it Jake? He is the only one who probably still had access to those pictures. “Help me? In what way are you going to help me?” she croaked out after the long pause.“My team has been able to take down, most of the pictures, and we will proceed to start a serious investigation on whoever posted them, but I just ask one thing of you.” More tears slipped out from her eyes. “Tell me the truth, Crystal, the woman in the picture is you, right?”“Yes, it is.” She confessed feeling the sudden sense of shame flooding through her, maybe it was because she was faced with Kayden, but she was so embarrassed she could die. “Usually, I wouldn’t care what you think about me, but this time I will just tell you, I am not th
“Crystal, you can’t keep yourself locked in there forever!” Jake yelled as he bang on the door to his bathroom repeatedly, she didn’t come out to him, even though he had been asking her nicely to come outside and he had apologized to her countless times too. She had locked herself in his bathroom, ever since their small squabble, he would admit to the fact that he had overreacted. “Alright, fine, I was wrong, Crystal, I promise to not hit you again, so please come out, I am sorry.” He heard the locks on the door and it opened slightly, she stared back at him dead in the eyes, her lips pursed together stubbornly. “Crystal…” he reached for her face but she slapped his hands away in anger, one half of her face was swollen so badly, and her lips were busted too. It seemed like he had used a lot more strength than he had intended. “…I am sorry, I-I was drunk.” “You were drunk?” His lashes drooped down when he noticed the sarcasm in her voice. “You hit me because you were drunk
Alright! *drops pen* This is a special shoutout to everyone who turned the pages over, this is my first book (the first one I ever took seriously lol) and I'm glad it's not that bad. *hehe* Thank you so much for reading, commenting, venting your concerns, voting, and supporting "My Contract Marriage." Your opinions were appreciated and valued and it was just enough for me to go on as a writer. Y'all are my special babies and I won't forget this beautiful ride. Will it have a sequel? Probably. I hope to write more books in the future, so please stay tuned. My favorite character in the book is Sebastian, hehe, you should see more of him in the sequel (If I ever take my life seriously *hehe*). Thanks once again for supporting this book and staying with me through its rough times. xoxo
“Would it be a surprise if I told you?” He teased, pulling some stubborn strands of her hair away from her face and feeling up the soft skin of her face with his long thin fingers.“Don’t you think this is too much?” She asked, staring in the distance, her feelings overwhelming her. “It’s too much for me.”“I don’t think it’s enough.” He answered, and Crystal looked around once more. “Not enough?” she asked herself internally, what did he mean by it isn’t enough? She pinched the insides of her palms, hoping she would wake up from the unreal dream.“You deserve to have this and more. This is not enough for someone like you.”“But why?” it was still unbelievable. This building was worth millions, yet she couldn’t understand why Kayden thought she was worthy to have something of the sort. “I don’t know how to pay Mrs. Darling back, nor do I know how did I ever deserve to get such a gift?”“You don’t have to pay her back, however, you can also pay her back by doing exceptionally good in
Kayden glanced at Crystal who was staring outside the window with a rather unhappy look on her face, he was concerned because she had not spoken a word to him since the beginning of the ride, and he couldn’t help but feel that she was either angry or sad.“What’s making the birthday girl so sad?” He quizzed with a teasing smile as he controlled the steering wheel professionally, but Crystal didn’t glance back at him as much, which was even more suspicious.“It’s nothing.” She muttered and even after some seconds passed, she was still staring outside, yeah, she was mad at him, but what did he do? He had no clue what he had done wrong. Is she mad he was celebrating her birthday?That didn’t seem to be the case, she was just fine a few seconds ago, what could be the problem? He glanced back at her worriedly. “Did I do something wrong?” He guessed but she didn’t reply to him. “Crystal?”“No, you didn’t,” her response resembled that of a doll with missing batteries and Kayden’s eyebrows
"Are we not going to work?" Crystal asked as she climbed the stairs and headed towards the dining area. She noticed that Kayden, who was usually dressed by this time, was sitting at the dining table in his pajamas, drinking his morning coffee. Crystal glanced at her wristwatch and realized that it was way past their usual resumption time. She quickly opened her calendar app to confirm that today was not a weekend or a public holiday.They were already late, because even though she tried to get him out of bed, he wanted to cuddle a bit more, and she also couldn’t resist his charms.Instead of their usual breakfast foods, Petra and the other maids arranged the table with sweets, scones, and a baked turkey.“What?” she asked curiously. “Is this for Thanksgiving or something?”Crystal sat down on the chair next to Kayden. “Do you not know what day today is?” Petra asked, taking the words right out of Kayden’s mouth.“No, is something going on today?” She asked him curiously, and Kayden c
The sounds of birds chirping filled Crystal’s ears, she turned to the other side of the bed, her hands instinctively reaching for the pillows to block her ears; she turned away again, and this time it was the sunlight that was in her sight, she picked the other pillow to shield her eyes.Suddenly, she was pulled against a sturdy chest, the skin of which was smooth and enticing. She snuggled closer to him, relishing in the comfort from the heat his body radiated.It felt like she was floating on a cloud, she opened one of her eyes to observe his beautiful face, Kayden’s eyes were closed as he slept peacefully, and for a moment she wished time stopped so she could remain like this forever.It was peaceful.“I can’t sleep properly if you keep fiddling about the bed.” He murmured against her ears, smoldering her cheeks with kisses even though he was still half asleep.“I think it's morning though.” She noticed returning the small kisses to him as well, placing her head against his chest a
“I told you I am fine.” Sebastian scolded Lorenza, his mother because she had been complaining about his health ever since she got to the hospital. She cried about thirty minutes before he was able to convince her that he wasn’t going to die.“What do you think I am going to do if you had died?” The door opened and Crystal ambled inside with a tray of food in her hands, for the three days he had been here, Crystal hadn’t left the hospital. “How do you think I will survive?”“Mom, I told you that I wouldn’t die from such a shallow stab wound… It would be laughable.” Sebastian muttered and Crystal scrunched up her nose in disgust, as she neared the bed.“I told you not to speak like that again.” Crystal scolded glaring down at him, he used the same words Kayden used when she was worried about him. “What part of your death would be comical to us?”“I am pretty sure some people would find it funny, especially Kayden.” Sebastian pouted “That’s no way a man should die.” Lorenza rolle
Crystal’s eyes fluttered open when she heard a pained growl that came from Jake, when her eyes opened, he was on the ground, with Sebastian’s heavy boots placed against Jake’s head.“Crystal!” She turned in the other direction, and she saw Kayden heading toward her in fast strides, he pulled her as he got down on one knee and his silver eyes narrowed when he noticed her busted lips and swollen eyes. He reached for her face and caressed her in his palms, she felt fresh tears well up in her eyes, and his frown deepened when he noticed the narrow cut on her neck, it was terrible, even though shallow.Kayden didn’t want to imagine what would have happened to her if they got there any second later, the bastard had a knife to her delicate throat, as though she was a piece of vegetable, why would someone be so evil?“I-I’m sorry,” she whispered and his frown deepened, for what reason is she apologizing? “Kayden…” She reached for him and pulled him into a hug, he noticed that she was tre
Trigger WarningThis chapter contains some violence, please read it at your discretion.Crystal thought to herself, she had to clarify the misunderstanding, probably this anonymous sender was planning to send those gifts to someone else and there must have been a mix-up in the addresses… She wasn’t close with any middle-aged man, so why did he keep sending her letters and gifts? She was only lucky Kayden had moved her out of his office, he would be so worried by now, that’s why she would meet with this old man and tell him to stop. She was able to get out of the company and proceed to the parking lot without being noticed by anyone; at least not anyone close enough to follow her.She stood out in the open, her eyes met by the very bright lights of the underground parking lots, that almost blinded her. She stood there rigidly in one spot for about a minute or two, unsure of what to do or where to go, and there was no one in sight too.The letter didn’t give much details, it simpl
Sunlight creeps into the bedroom from the slightly opened blinds in the room, warming up Crystal’s face, she stirred being disturbed by the light. She felt something heavy on her waist and she glanced up to be met by a pair of silver eyes staring intently at her.“Hic…” she gasped softly when she realized she had been sleeping against Kayden’s chest, she could hear his heart beating in slow steady rhythms, he pulled her closer with a smug satisfaction on his face, his heavy arms on her back.“Good morning,” He murmured his voice still husky with sleep, Crystal flushed red from his seductive bedroom voice, and unable to form words, she nodded at him. “Did you sleep well?”“Y-yes,” she answered with a slight tremble in her voice, it was unbelievable, who would have thought that one day she and Kayden; would be lying down in her bed, naked and tangled underneath the sheets? “How long have you been awake?”“For a while now,” He confessed and he reached to feel the soft skin of her fac