Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 552

Chapter 552: Getting closer
“You call this fine?” Nicolai snapped harshly. His eyes were fixed on the marks that were turning purplish and his nostrils flared as if he were about to breathe fire. “This is anything but fine, Ariana.”

“I know,” she spoke to him in a placating tone. “But it could have been worse; at least I am fine?” When she saw that he was still frowning, she smoothed the frown on his forehead and said to him, “Now stop frowning like this; there is no need for you to get angry now. That man is gone and no one knows where he is hiding.”

“It doesn’t matter where he is hiding,” Nicolai sneered. “I am going to drag that man out of his hole very soon.”

He then frowned and added in a swift manner, “But I still do not understand why this man is after you; his actions are confusing.”

Ariana’s fingers, which were stroking his hair as he lay down in her lap at some point, froze. She swallowed and looked down at him, while Nicolai was already looking up at her.

“You know the reason, right?” he said to her even though she had said nothing.

“I don’t,”

“No, you do,” Nicolai shook his head as he continued, “And he is related to the reason why you don’t like intimacy.”

Ariana swallowed hard once again as she looked away. “What do you mean?”

“Call it my intuition or something of the sort but I have a feeling that the man has something to do with your anti-intimacy agenda. You told me it yourself. You said that you do not like being intimate and that it is not right for you to be with a man. When you obviously like it when you do it with me.”

“It’s not necessary for everyone to like it.”

“I know. But don’t you think that it’s really weird for you to be so against the idea of being close with someone?”

Dear lord. Ariana sighed. She couldn’t believe that she was going to breach on this subject but Nicolai had been so open with her. The least she could do was to share a bit of the truth with him. She didn’t like how heartbroken he looked whenever she tried to push him away.

Not that it had ever worked.

“You are right. You can say that he is the reason why I never liked to be with a man before or share any form of intimacy with a person. You might not know this but—Marcia Harlow, she sold me to this man. And once she did that, she taught me all kinds of things about how a good woman should act. You can call me crazy but I actually believed her when she said to me that it was alright for a man to find another woman but as a wife, I am supposed to wait on my husband even if it feels wrong on so many levels.”

“I was taught to listen to her words and follow her decisions; she made it almost impossible for me to do anything or make decisions for myself. So I believed her, and even if I never liked it …I couldn’t find the courage to go against her. If not for the things that Ariel did and made it impossible for me to ignore her, I would have actually stayed with Noah and died a nun.”

“She sold you?” Nicolai’s voice raised a notch. He expected something like this; in fact, he figured that it was something along the lines even when Ariana did not explain her connection with the man who kept haunting her even though she had never ever met with her.

“Yeah,” Ariana sighed. “I don’t really have it figured out but I have a feeling that it is related to my mother. Don’t tell anyone this though.”

“Your mother?” Nicolai was even more confused when he heard Ariana’s doubts and guesses because he had been tracing the past of her father and not her mother.

Ariana hesitated and shared her thoughts that she had been having ever since she saw Kaylyn.

“I don’t know—it just feels really weird, I guess? My mother and I look so much alike that it’s a bit scary. Other than my eyes, the two of us look like two peas in one pod. I just can’t help but wonder what if ….” She trailed off but at the same time, Nicolai, who was quieter than the silent sea, realised two things.

One, there was indeed something that he missed and two, he seriously liked it when Ariana massaged his hair.

“Don’t worry, Pallas,” he told her. “Since you are doubtful, we might as well investigate the situation thoroughly.”

Ariana did not say anything; she simply smiled at him. She then pushed him off the bed and said to him, “You need to go home.”

“Do I have to? Can’t I stay the night?”

“No, you can’t.”

“But I don’t want to go. It took quite some time for me to climb up to your room without anyone finding out about it.” As he spoke, he tackled on the bed and hugged her tight. And before she could ask him to let go, he threw his leg over her waist and said to her, “Night, night, Pallas.”

A hard lump constricted her throat as she raised her hand to push Nicolai away. But then Ariana lowered it and stared sideways at his face that was buried in her neck. His hair scattered all over her pillow.

“Night, Nico.”

The next morning, when Ariana woke up, she realised two things.

While she was sleeping, she ended up hugging Nicolai like a Koala. Her arms were wrapped around his waist and her head was resting on his outstretched arm. His arm was nestled inside of her shirt and he was cupping her bosom while her legs were thrown over his.

Secondly, as she looked at the clock hovering on the wall, she realised that it was eight o’clock in the morning. Eight! Not five but eight!

She was truly done for. Thank goodness she closed the door; otherwise, if someone had barged inside and walked up on her and Nicolai, chaos would have erupted all over the house.

Not to mention, her schedule was royally fucked up. She had woken up at five in the morning for like more than twenty years of her life and now all of a sudden, that ritual that she had followed with all her heart had broken.

What was wrong with her? Was she right in her head or not?

The familiar feeling of something clasping hold of her heart and throat spread throughout her body, making it impossible for Ariana to breathe.

She tried to get up but as soon as he moved, Nicolai pulled her right back down on the bed. His fingers rubbed her on the back as he said to her, “Just ten minutes more, Pallas.”

The panic in her heart eased as she looked at the man who was hugging her. It calmed her down, which was very strange as she was not used to someone hugging and holding her.

Not to mention she had never felt that it was alright for her to break her routine for anyone. And yet Nicolai made her feel like it was not a big deal.

“It’s eight in the morning,” she shifted her head and told him.

“Don’t leave me yet,” he spoke in a pleading voice.

Hearing his needy and whimpering rumble, Ariana’s heart swelled with warmth. It was quite a surprise that it did not jump out of her chest and explode into bits of pieces and flesh.

How can she refuse if he was to ask her to stay like this?

She lay back down on the back and continued to stare at him. Her eyes flickered as she took in his contours and features. How could a man his size and ferocity look so adorable when he was asleep?

His eyes slowly opened as if he realised that she was staring at him. And Ariana felt something shatter and break inside of her when he looked at her and smiled as if she were the brightest ray of sunshine. How could he look at her smile like this?

When the truth was that it was him who had brightened up her world?

“Morning, Princess.”

Damn it.

“Good morning,” she whispered, not at all surprised when her voice broke with a different kind of emotion.

She then turned to look at the clock before saying, “Get up; you need to sneak out and I need to go outside.”

“Mhmm.. let me cuddle a bit more,” he told her and Ariana shook her head when he tugged her back down on the bed.

“You sure like cuddling.”

“Only with you, I like it.” He grinned at her and she could not help but pinch him on the cheek before saying, “Alright, it’s not going to get you lucky, Mister.”

“Are you sure?” He turned her around so that he was over her. “Because I think I might get lucky.”