I breathed heavily and looked upon Michael with displeasure. The time was exceeded by just that teeny bit, so was it necessary to be this calculative?
His unhappiness with the situation surrounding Ronan was understandable, but this? I was not in the wrong so I was not going to apologize for it.
“You are increasingly demonstrating your disregard for me, Anna.”
He spoke casually while he eyeballed me dispassionately. However, that still managed to make me feel enormously pressurized and fearful even when nothing had been done anything to me yet.
Meeting his gaze, I could not stand the way he looked at me. No one could understand how it felt to be misunderstood and distrusted by someone one loved.
“What do you want me to say, Michael? What will it take for you to believe that there’s nothing between Ronan and me?”
It might be that Michael was bothered by the things Ronan said, but the crux of the issue was that he still did not trust me.
“Ronan is a serial playboy, so you’d do well to steer clear of him,” Michael said after he took one glance at me.
I could sense the simmering rage which he had been keeping in check, but I could not, for the life of me, figure out why he was acting out of character today. On any other occasion, he would have told me outright that I was his woman and ordered that I keep other men at arms’ length. But not today.
Perhaps it was in consideration of his cousin’s position that he did not say that to my face.
“Ronan’s your cousin…” I reminded him of that in my squeaky voice—not in the defense of Ronan, but out of a feeling that there were no similarities between them.
“That guy’s always canoodling around beautiful women and never one to turn any away. Describing him as such is already putting it mildly,” Michael snorted.
That was what I thought in the beginning as well, but I was not in the opinion that Ronan could be the amorous type after spending some time getting to know him better. It was kind of hard to explain this sentiment of mine either, so I held my silence and kept my head bowed.
“Between me and him, you could only be mine. So stay away from him from now on, you hear?”
Seeing how unresponsive I was, Michael furrowed and hardened his stance, and I exhaled helplessly before I walked towards the man who had fallen back into his possessive ways.
Settling down next to him, I wrapped my hands around his arm and spoke softly, “Right now, I’m not interested in any guy apart from you, so I hope that you would be able to have a little more faith in me and not doubt me all the time.”
I looked straight into his eyes in earnest, like I could see none other.
Michael probably had not expected that. There was a sparkle in his eyes, and the fiery aura surrounding him swiftly dissipated.
“I’ll trust you only if you stay away from other men,” Michael said, his emotional state indecipherable. But what followed left me shuddering.
“Can’t tell what’s so good about you that got me worried that someone else might snatch you up.” Michael then laughed in a self-deprecating manner that was previously unheard of from him.
My eyes lit up while his words sent ripples through my heart.
People would only fear losing those whom they loved. Could it be that Michael had also fallen for me?
The more I thought about it, the more my heart was set aflutter. For the first time ever, I was sure that Michael did like me.
I put my lips to his without hesitancy. After all, what could not be put into words was better expressed through action.
Even though my kiss could only rouse Michael’s carnal desires without bringing his attention to my emotional depths, that was still what I did.
Michael’s eyes widened at my sudden advances before he closed them and reciprocated.
Before a gifted kisser, my own effort could still be lacking finesse, so Michael very quickly took over and pulled me into his arms.
His kisses were intense, and his hands were wrapped so tightly around me that they threatened to meld me into him.
My cheeks became flushed, and we were quickly becoming delirious after some furious making out. Clearly, our senses had been awakened.
Every time I initiated, it always yielded a strong reaction from Michael. Once this kiss wound down, he swept me up into a cradle and strode into the bedroom.
That night, we gave ourselves to each other, and he was indefatigable like an unbridled stallion.
When I woke up the next morning, I realized that he had left a whole bunch of hickeys running all over my body up to my neck. Those sitting on my nape were unambiguously conspicuous even after I got dressed.
I examined them in front of the mirror and exhaled, knowing well that they were going to stick out like a sore thumb if I were to show up at the office like this. However, it could not be helped as I could not possibly miss work just because of a few love-bites.
Meanwhile, Michael was already fully dressed when he came up beside me. His lips curled into a smug grin while he let his eyes linger upon the reflection of my neck in the mirror.
“Those actually don’t look half-bad up here.”
I knew what exactly he was referring to, and if my mood was not bad enough, hearing Michael’s words made me roll my eye at him.
As if doing it was not enough for this man, he had to leave such an embarrassingly large mark behind on me.
“Would you think the same if I left the same thing on you?”
He could be as blasé as he wanted because I was the one who was branded, but I reckoned that he would not have the roles been reversed.
“I won’t mind it if you want to.” Michael’s stylishly arched brow perked up while he spoke.
His equanimity was starting to wear on me. Since he said he was amendable to it, I should stamp one on him and see how much he enjoyed that.
With that in mind, I elevated myself onto the tip of my toe before he could react and sucked hard upon his neck, withdrawing in satisfaction only after I had left a very prominent impression behind.
“It seems more like you’re drinking blood rather than creating a love-bite, Anna.”
Michael looked upon me in derision before turning away and out of the bedroom. The man was long gone just as I was beginning to catch his drift.
