All Chapters of His Reluctant Bride: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

One week earlier Aira finished the last touches on the magician’s eyes she was drawing and leaned back admiring her work for a few moments. ‘Not bad for a first draft…’ She pondered as she looked up at the clock on the wall in front of her atelier. Sighing she stood up stretching and letting her muscles protest to her about the long hours she just spent bent over the table not moving. Aira stopped by the fridge for a bottle of water and picked her phone up turning it on. Her phone immediately started binging furiously startling her so much that she almost dropped it. Her mother had called almost ten times, a call from her brother and a few congratulatory messages from her acquaintances. She tapped on her mother’s name put on her pods and wandered toward her room. She picked up before Aira could reach her room making her smile. Her mother’s impatience was always a source of entertainment for her. “Aira! Why aren’t you answering your phone?! Do you know what time it is?!” Her moth

Opening her eyes, Aira slowly moved her body noting the sting in her arm and the slight soreness in her chest. Looking around, she realized that she was still in the middle of the highway where people were starting to gather and some of them were holding their phones to report the accident. Slowly looking to each side, she realized that the other car smashed into the passenger side of hers. Hence the throbbing in her left arm. Noting that her life wasn’t in danger, the first thing that she thought about was that she was going to be late for her exhibition. She opened the door slowly maneuvering her way out of the car clutching her phone in her hand. As she stood up, she was hit with a sudden bout of dizziness and lost her footing for a moment. She felt something hard support her back as strong arms wrapped around her effectively stopping her fall and sending a wave of electricity through her skin where the hand touched. Funny that the first coherent thoughts she could muster out o

“Aira, this is Carter Polland, Mr.Valory’s personal assistant,” Meghan said introducing the handsome, almost pretty young man in front of her. “Mr. Polland, This is Aira Brian,” “Nice to finally make your acquaintance, Miss. Brian. My boss is such a huge fan of your work, I hope everything is to your liking.” “It’s nice to meet you too, Mr. Polland! Of course! Everything is perfect, thank you very much!” “Please call me Carter, we will be working with each other from now on so let’s drop the formalities,” Carter announced and Aira smiled “Call me Aira then, Carter. It’s very good to make your acquaintance,” Aira said smiling at the deceptively charming secretary. She glanced at her friend to find her keeping a good distance from the amiable secretary and stiffly staring at Aira who wanted to laugh at the sight. Maybe she was going to have her revenge on Megs for teasing her earlier sooner than she expected. Her usually fun-loving and social friend was acting like she was in a h

Aira slowly woke to persistent beeping sounds bumping into her ears like drums. Opening her eyes she tried to sit up from her crouched position on the desk wincing as her neck and back protested against the sudden movement after such a long time resting in a wrong position.Trying to massage the back of her neck as it painfully flexed back against her fingers like some unruly child who didn’t want to be set straight, Aira looked around her through half-closed lids.Papers were strewn around her desk haphazardly with rough drafts of various characters. She had been pondering in her mind for a while waiting until the Idea completely formed in her mind. And last night they finally came to her.The drawings caught her eyes and she couldn’t help but look at them with amazement. In her furry, she had managed to complete the work of weeks within one week and only to finally sleep on her desk with her pen still in her hand.The persistent sound came through again and she turned toward the doo

“What do you mean?” Aira asked looking at her friend who was looking back at the office door with a puzzled expression.“What do you mean by ‘What do I mean’?!” Maeghan said sounding surprised,“You were in there! Didn’t you see?! He was smiling! Vicent Valory was smiling! The whole time!” She said lowering her voice to make sure no one heard them.“Well, yeah. I guess he was smiling. Does he usually not do that?” Aira asked,“Usually? The man never smiles Aira! The best thing one could see from him is a tight business smile and that was solely reserved for people he conducts business with.” Meghan responded,“That’s weird. Since I met him he had always been like this. He was always charming and kind of easy to talk to.”“Aira, I’m telling you. In the years I worked here I’ve never heard anyone describe the man as charming. Handsome, maybe. Sexy, definitely, but never charming. They call him the Shark in the broad room and he does deserve that nickname if how he ruthlessly tears peopl