“Ayah, will you...”
She stopped him with a kiss.
Her lips were beautifully soft and warm, and without thinking he kissed her back, hands sinking in her hair so he could pull her closer across the table, his tongue diving in to taste all her sweetness and warmth. He nipped her lips, sucked her tongue, and he didn’t let either of them breathe because he was kissing her so possessively, wanting her to be one with him.
When he lifted his head, both of them were panting.
Her eyes shone like the loveliest jade, and her tone was breathlessly happy as she said, “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Nic stilled.
Around them, the people who knew about what was taking place – everyone whom Mari told about Luuk Aafjes wanting to go somewhere private with Ayah – had also turned into statues.
Their expressions mirrored each other, and it was best described with just two words: OH FUCK.
Ayah rained kisses all over Luuk’s beautiful face. “I promise, lieverd, I promise I’ll be the perfect wife.”
~ Six ~
“You what?” Feeling her knees about to give way, Farica hurried to the nearest chair – in this case, one of the visitor chairs scattered around the black-and-white themed hotel lobby - and plopped herself down on it. She had been in the middle of a luncheon meeting with her younger cousins, trying to play Little Miss Nice, when she had received Nic’s call.
She had hoped for some good news – the de Koninghs had always been known for having tragic luck when it came to affairs of the heart. Farica was praying her generation would be different – but Nic’s announcement was...unclassifiable.
He was getting married...just like that?
Nic quickly put as much distance as possible between his ear and mobile phone at the sound of Farica’s screech. “Tell me I’m making the right decision, Fari.” He spoke in Dutch, making sure that Ayah wouldn’t understand what he was saying if she accidentally overheard him. Although he could hear her still talking to Mr. Hsu at the balcony, he preferred to play it safe.
“Do you love her?”
Silence.
Shit. “Did you at least tell her who you really are?”
Not a word from Nic still.
Oh my God, it kept getting worse. “Did you even tell her anything?”
More crickets.
She started rubbing her temple. She either had a migraine or Nic’s problems were getting to her. “How can this be right when you haven’t told her anything?”
Nic restlessly got to his feet at the question. “How the fuck can I tell her I’m not who she thinks I am?”
“But you’re Nicolaas de Koningh! Surely she’d be happy—-”
Pacing the floor like a caged lion, he cut her off, saying tightly, “You don’t know Ayah. She won’t see it that way. She’s all about seizing the day and never wasting a moment on deceit and all untruths because life’s too short.”
Farica blinked. It was a...surprisingly nice lesson. It would make for difficult times, but that kind of outlook could also make life pleasantly simple.
Unfortunately, that kind of outlook just wasn’t a good idea when the person belonged to one of the world’s most powerful and famous families. People like her and Nic had been taught to lie at a young age out of necessity. If they hadn’t learned to lie, they would have been eaten alive by the media.
Outside, Ayah had turned around, leaning against the balcony wall and facing him. She caught him looking at her and she blushed and smiled.
That smile hit him like a ton of bricks, and he felt torn between wanting to snatch her into his arms and flying out of Hong Kong to give himself some space to think.
“Are you still there?” Farica’s voice jarred him out of his thoughts.
“Yeah, I’m here.” He couldn’t take his eyes away from Ayah.
Farica puffed her cheeks, something she tended to do when she needed to focus on a problem. “Okay, let’s try to make sense of this. She still thinks you’re Luuk Aafjes, an impoverished, cold-hearted, and married guy who just got a divorce—-”
“Cold-hearted?”
“You never visited her in the past year. That’s cold-hearted.”
He cursed. “You know why I didn’t.”
“Yup. But it still makes you cold-hearted.” Farica puffed her cheeks again. “So, let’s recap. You’re Luuk, you’ve realized you’ve been such a bastard, you flew to HK to get her to come away with you, but instead she thinks you proposed to her.”
Nic’s head started to pound painfully. When his cousin said it like that, it sounded a lot worse, like a story straight out of a stupid TV drama. But -—what else could he have done? Tell Ayah she had made a mistake in front of all of her friends? Even her friends knew he hadn’t meant to propose, but none of them had said a single word. They obviously couldn’t bear telling her the truth either.
“Nic...do you want to marry her?”