(Free Book): Will You Marry My Groom?

22

(RECAP: Tristan has agreed to give their relationship a chance and things are gradually going well in their relationship. Tristan said they’ll be going to his parents' house. Hazel received a strange text from a random stranger but hides it.)

*** 

~ HAZEL ~

Tristan had been frowning so much throughout the drive. He had decided to drive today. I couldn’t do anything but stare at his handsome face all along since he wouldn't talk to me. 

“You can’t possibly stay mad at me forever.” I chuckled, earning an eerie glare from him. 

His anger was justified; I had been preventing him from kissing me for the past two weeks, and it was clearly pissing him off. He claimed we were starting this relationship as friends, so… I wasn't at fault here, was I?

I realized it was best to not bother him at all and continued staring out the window, watching as the sky and trees seemed like they were racing when the car drove past them.

My mind had been clouded with extreme worry recently: I had received about five more strange messages from the same person, and I was damn scared of Tristan finding out. 

The drive lasted for a few more minutes before he pulled over in front of his parents' mansion. 

“Wait.” He stopped me from opening the car door, got out of the car then opened the door for me. 

“I hope I’ll get used to that soon.” I chuckled, expecting a roll of eyes or an uninterested response from him, but he only chuckled too. 

After getting out of the car and shutting the car door, I held Tristan's hand and we ambled to the mansion's main doors, ringing the doorbell. 

In a jiffy, the door was opened and we were welcomed by a cute young maid who led us in and went upstairs to call Tristan’s parents downstairs. 

“Is Nikita at home?” I asked Tristan, jerking my head in his direction. 

“Yes. Do you also have a problem with that?” He asked without interest, slipped his phone out of his pants pocket, and started typing away on it. 

I didn’t respond to him, but began to pay attention to how my heartbeat rate increased.

His parents suddenly appeared out of nowhere and took their seats on the sofa opposite to the one we sat on. 

“Wow, look who finally came to pay a visit.” Hames said to me with a welcoming grin. “They promised to come a week ago, but postponed it till today.”

I only smiled shortly, unaware of the perfect response. 

Imogen was staring at me intently— obviously planning my murder in her head. 

“Where’s Nikita?” Tristan asked, rising from his feet. 

“In the study room.” Hames replied. 

“Okay, I need to speak with her.” He started walking away, ignoring how I was literally begging him with my Hazel eyes I thought were influencing enough, begging him to not leave me alone. 

I watched him walk away and into the elevator, not even sparing me a glance. 

“You're sleeping over, right?” Hames asked. 

"I really have no idea.” 

“Oh, okay. I think my beautiful wife here would like to speak with you, so I'll leave you two.” Oh no! Why were they doing this to me? “But we must definitely have a good father-daughter time before you leave. My son can't be married and I won't strengthen the bond with my new daughter. Honey, be quick, and please make dinner today.” He pouted and gave Imogen a short forehead kiss before taking his leave. 

I was now face to face with the demoness herself whose expression was completely blank. I couldn't tell whether she was studying me or glaring at me. 

“Would you mind joining me in the kitchen?” She asked and was surprisingly very polite.

“S-sure. No—no problem.” Why on Earth was I stuttering?

She rose to her feet and started walking to the kitchen. I got up and tailed after her. 

Entering the kitchen, I knew I had entered my doom after noticing so many shiny utensils. Oh God! This woman has brought me here to murder me, I was certain of that.

Okay, it seemed like I was thinking dramatically already.

She started bringing some food items out and arranging them on the counter, finally wearing a smile.

“Tristan told me you love cooking, so I want to see how good you can cook. Since he was a child, Tristan has always been on and on about how no one can cook better than his Mom, but it seems like you’ve stolen that praise now.” She frowned playfully. 

“That’s not true. I'm sure you’re a pretty great cook, even way better than me, Mrs. Hendrix. Tristan is certainly just dramatic.” For formality sake, I had to call her that, scratching my arm due to the weird uncomfortableness gyring in my body. 

She paused, staring at me with her head tilted slightly. “Hazel dear, something is wrong.”

“Uh?”

“You seem too… formal.” She sighed. “Listen sweetheart,” me? Sweetheart?! From her mouth?! “I know I must've said so many mean things to you, and I have been a very terrible mother-in-law to you, but I want you to know that I'm very sorry. I’ve realized how terrible I must seem to you; I really apologize. I was only very worried about Lila and I thought you knew about Indy's whereabouts, but now I know I’ve been unreasonable. It's been on my mind to apologize to you. I accept you as my daughter-in-law now. I'm not a wicked mom-in-law.” Her wonderful eyes Tristan stole portrayed nothing but genuity. 

“I—”

“I hate terrible mother-in-laws.” She cut me off. “If I were you, I’d have definitely thrown me off the rooftop.” My eyes widened at first, but when she burst into laughter, I joined her too. “You shouldn’t do that to me though.” She playfully warned. 

“Oh, I won’t.” I chuckled. 

She sighed again. “Do you forgive me now?”

I simply nodded at her, wearing a big smile of relief. 

She returned my smile with a bigger and amazingly calming one. “You’ll love me, don’t worry. I’ll be like a mother to you.” She assured, pulling me into a hug. 

“I’d really appreciate that.” I returned the hug. 

“And yes—” she pulled away, tucking a few strands of blonde hair away from her face, “don’t you dare call me Mrs. Hendrix. I’ll roast you if you do.”

Oh, thank goodness! It's annoying to call her that. 

“Call me Imogen. We’re both Mrs. Hendrix, it wouldn’t make any sense to call me what you also are, right?” 

“Right.” I let out another chuckle, leaning against the counter.

“I’m damn hungry.” Tristan groaned, shuffling into the kitchen with an extremely blank facial expression. 

“Will you ever be patient?” Imogen rolled her eyes at him, turning to reach for a large spoon and started arranging food items in front of her.

“You know I can’t be.” 

“Yes, I do. I thought you were with Nikita, why are you here so soon?” She asked. 

“She's being sulky again.” He said dismissively. 

He stopped beside me, letting out a yawn before leaning his face towards mine.

Knowing fully well he intended to kiss me, I swiftly turned my head away—it seemed to be a developing habit now.

“I can’t take this nonsense anymore.” He grunted. Returning my gaze to him, I noticed how his face had crumpled into a dangerous frown that made me shudder internally. 

“What do you mean?” Imogen asked, staring at us in confusion. 

“Hazel, I have to speak with you upstairs right now.” He demanded.

“Uh…”

“Tristan, you can’t just command her like that; she’s your wife, not some slave you can order around.” She frowned at him. 

“Mom—” he paused, heaving a frustrated sigh then turned to me with intense rage burning in his eyes. “Hazel, can I 'please' talk to you upstairs?”

Without giving me the chance to respond to him, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the kitchen with him, furiously storming up the stairs while I tried so hard to keep up with his pace. My heart was beating really fast. Where was he taking me to?

He finally stopped in front of a door, kicking it open then gently dragged me in and locked the door. 

“Tristan, are you seriously mad—”

“What are you trying to gain?” He barked. The rage in his eyes subsidized as he turned to me. 

“You said we should start as friends and I thought it’d be best to not kiss in order to prevent anything from going wrong.” I tried to talk really fast, my palms were starting to feel sweaty from his glare. 

He grabbed my waist, turned me around and pinned me against the wall, smacking his lips against mine aggressively. 

I hated the fact that he was making me very nervous and wanted to push him away, but I got very lost in the world of his wondrous kiss. 

Heat was building up in my body as he slowly slipped his tongue into my mouth, sending waves of pleasure to run down my spine and butterflies exploded in my tummy. Our tongues fought for a while before his tongue gained dominance over mine, exploring every bit of my mouth, and his hands making slight movement on my waist made me feel dizzy and the need to have more of him— it seemed like I wasn't getting enough of the kiss, and this burning desire made me very sweaty.

He almost broke the kiss, but I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me, permitting him to resume this wondrous exploration. The kiss became more aggressive in a satisfactory way, causing my heart beat rate to jump beyond limit. As if to drive me even crazier, he caught my lower lip between his teeth and carefully nibbled on it, causing a twitch to occur in my south pole and a moan escaped my mouth before I could stop it. 

His lips trailed down to my jawline then he planted a very soft kiss on the nape of my neck, permitting another moan to escape my lips, before he let go of me and walked to sit on the bed like nothing just happened.

My brain took a while before returning to its normal state. “So you angrily dragged me here just to kiss me?” 

“Come here.” He said emotionlessly. 

Reluctantly, I ambled to him, and let out a yelp when he pulled me to sit on his lap, securing an arm around my waist again. 

What had gotten into Tristan this evening?

He brushed my hair with his fingers. “I get very possessive of the things and people I love, so if you want me to fall in love with you, be prepared for over-protectiveness, over-possessiveness, and over-dominance— dominance in many aspects.” He smirked. 

“Is that supposed to be a threat?” I gulped. 

“No, it’s a warning.” He chortled. “You must’ve loved the kiss; you didn’t want to let go.” He teased. 

I could feel my face heat up. “That’s not true.”

“Oh, really?” Gosh, I felt like slapping his smirk off his face. “Have I told you how beautiful you look today?”

I shook my head, feeling my cheeks about to burst from extreme blushing. 

“Mom was right— I shouldn't order you around. And you shouldn’t ever feel so scared of me; you looked like you were going to pass out.” He laughed, earning a smack on his chest from me, which only increased his laughter. 

“Where has this Tristan been my whole life?” My arms went around his neck again to feel more comfortable on his lap. 

He ended his laughter with a serious look. “You’re having such a great effect on me. I almost passed out anytime you stopped me from kissing you. I’ve been dying to taste those lips and I can’t wait to…” he trailed off, shaking his head.

“To what?” 

“Never mind. Forget it. Let’s just go to bed.” 

“Bed? I thought—”

“Shh.” He placed his finger on my lip, made me stand up then made me lie on the bed, took off my shoes (an action I considered sexy) and then he lay on the bed next to me.

“This is strange. I haven’t had my night bath or din—”

“Please let’s just go to bed now; I have a reason.” He wounded an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to his chest, letting out a sigh. “The strangest thing right now is how you’ve been everything on my mind lately.”

Once again, my face heated up with a blush. 

“Things seem to be happening faster than I thought. Please don’t keep anything from me, okay?” He started drawing circles on my arm.

I swallowed silently and gave a small nod. I really wish I could let him know everything, but…

“Hazel, please don’t ever break my heart.” Those were his last words before he stopped drawing circles on my arm and I started hearing his quiet snores, indicating that he had fallen asleep. 

God please help me. 

I tried to brush every form of worry and let the warmth emanating from his body calm me down till I also drifted into sleep. 

A/N: Hi, everyone! Happy New Month!

Whoa! It’s been exactly two months since I last updated this book, and I want you to know that I’m very sorry for that.

I had to write an exam and needed the break, but I’m back! I already made an announcement in the Fâcebook group, ‘Author Gift Odulesi (Gift’s readers)', on the reason for not updating, but wasn’t able to open my writing accounts to let you guys know. You can join the group to receive important notifications regarding my books' update or follow me on Înstagrâm: @ giftodulesi

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave your comments on it, and I hope you forgive me.

More updates coming soon~~

Have a nice day everyone.  

Sorry for the long Author’s note. Lol.