Never be prisoner
of your past.
It was just a lesson,
not a life sentence.
-
A.P.J Abdul Kalam

__________________

I stride through the living room, head held high like I own the place. I'm wearing a pantsuit today. Probably less provocative than yesterday's outfit. I'm also wearing bright purple heels. They clip irritatingly on the hardwood. Heels are something that boosts my confidence a lot. The sound that they make when I walk brings a huge of amount of energy in me.

I ignore the looks of Daniel and Ryan who're sitting on the couch. I drop my bag on the kitchen table and spins to face them. A pair of glasses frame my eyes which I wore only when my eyes hurt due to contact lenses.

"You decided on breeze-appropriate attire today, huh?" Ryan asks, glaring at me.

The only sign that he has gotten to me is the slight tic in my cheek. I blink once and drags my pink tongue across my red lips before I smile. "Watch yourself, Ryan. You're sounding a lot like an asshole, and you wouldn't want to know how I deal with assholes."

"What are you even doing here?" He snaps, glaring at me.

"I had a meeting with my fiancé yesterday. I reached the venue earlier than necessary only to find my fiancé drunk and cursing me. I had to help him back to his house because he was too drunk to even stand straight on his feet," I tell them, my eyes focused on Daniel who's staring at the floor. "Your plan of making me back off from the wedding is not gonna work. You have been trapped by your parents and I have similar problems too. We're in this together so better learn to treat me with the respect I deserve because I won't accept anything less than that. "

Ryan stares at me with wide eyes. I wink at him. "I'll make it simple. We stay together for six months and then we get a divorce. Agreed?"

"What about Annabelle?" Ryan asks Daniel who still hasn't opened his mouth.

I wave my hand. "Don't worry, I'll help you with that. That's part of the deal too. I'll throw Annabelle out of your life without causing you any trouble. Is that okay?"

Daniel lifts his head and his eyes meet mine, butterflies start swarming around in my stomach and my body gets hot all over when he looks me up and down.

"What do you get from this?" Daniel asks, my breathe hitches again after hearing his voice. It was soft but demanding at the same time.

"I just want divorce after six months. That's it, nothing more. Deal?"

He looks at me for another few seconds before muttering, "Deal!"

"What?" Ryan shouts like a teenager who gets grounded for six months.

"Great," I tell him. "But before we talk about this deal I would like you to get cleaned. That beard is great and I bet lies love it but I don't. It's not that you're not sexy with it but it's just that I can't see your expression when there's a huge beard like that. Otherwise, it's perfect. I didn't mean perfect as in you're perfect, I was telling about your beard which is the wet dream of many girls. Not that I dreamt about it but it's really nice to experiment. I mean which girl doesn't want a sexy guy with long beard to go down on her. Okay, I really need to shut up." I bit my lip, giving Daniel a sheepish look. He looks amused.

Did you really talk about oral sex?

I guess so.

Sex and beard? Jesus! You're something.

"Don't do this Daniel, she's nuts," Ryan mutters, staring at me with wide eyes.

"I'll shave," Daniel mutters, a small smile on his lips. Oh Jesus! Consider me dead!

What? When?

Did you see that smile? Isn't that divine?

"I have a spa appointment for you so go get ready," I tell him as I move towards the kitchen. "By the time, I'll prepare a pie."

"I bought you strawberry so you can make pie but I get the first piece," Ryan tells placing the basket full of strawberries on the kitchen island.

"Okay," I tell him with a grin.

"Why strawberry? Why not something else? Like cherry?" he asks, sitting on the stool placed near the island.

"Strawberry is better than cherry. Frankly speaking, I don't know to cook but I love baking. Baking is fun! I don't always get time to cook as I'm busy," I tell him.

In minutes, we had an assembly line going on the countertop: bags of flour and sugar, measuring cups, a cutting board, and knife. I decided to start with the crust, and put Ryan to work.

"You know how to measure flour?" I asked as he dragged a stool over to the counter.

"Yup!"

We got to work, and after a while we had a bowl full of sliced strawberries with some lemon juice, another bowl filled with perfectly measured flour, salt, and sugar, and now Ryan was adding my uniformly cut-up butter to the dry ingredients.

He questioned everything: Why was there salt in a piecrust? Why did the butter need to be so cold? He also seemed to appreciate the way I made each cube even and straight, all looking the same. Good boy!

Boy? He's a man, a guy. Look at him all hot and sweaty.

Shut up! He's my cousin in-law. Don't drool over him.

"Okay, now press down on everything with this pastry cutter. It'll mix the flour and butter together, and then we can add the ice water."

"Ice water? In a pie?" he asked.

"Remember what I said about using cold ingredients for pastry dough?"

"The colder the ingredients, the flakier the crust," he repeated.

I had to smile because he sounded like a ten year old. I guess he loves baking just like me and wants to learn it. After few hours, we're done and was busy eating the slices. Ryan was the first one to take a bite. I'm allergic to strawberries so I avoid taking a bite. He grins.

His grin vanishes when he saw my smirk. "Your pies are good and that's the only reason why I'm giving my approval for the wedding," he tells with a frown.

I hear footsteps behind so I turn around only to find Daniel standing there wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. I stare at him for twenty seconds before blinking twice. "Ready?"

"Fine. But we can cut out the spa treatments. I can take the electric trimmer to this and be done with it." He motion to his hair.

I look at him, horrorstricken. "Absolutely not. You are not shaving your head. I forbid it!" I snap, walking towards him.

"Pardon me?"

"Your hair is thick and full and fantastic. Shaving your head would be a disservice to men around the world. And women. You're getting a professional haircut. End of conversation."

"You can't tell me I can't shave my head or force me to get a haircut," he snaps. I notice his annoyance.

I arch an eyebrow. "You don't need to cut your whole hair. It's just gorgeous, you just need a trim and a shave. If you won't come with me then I have to use other ways. You're getting a haircut. You can do it the easy way or the hard way. That's your only choice in the matter."

"Fine," he mutters.

Two hours later, I'm sitting in a comfortable couch in the salon. Carl's my favorite one for haircuts so I brought Daniel here. It's been almost two hours since Daniel walked inside with Carl for the haircut and shaving.

I turn towards Ryan who's busy playing some type of game in his phone. I poke him in the rib. "Ouch! What?" he snaps, glaring at me.

"Why did he grow beard? I didn't find him having beard in the any of the photos."

Ryan raises an eyebrow. "You googled him?"

I grin. "No, I didn't but my friend did and she told me that he had a face with no beard and she talked about his jawline for hours. She wanted to know whether I was marrying a serial killer or not. Now answer my question."

He snarls. "Last week sucked for him. His parents forcing him for marriage and then Annabelle. His company is his life and he didn't wanna loose it."

Hmmmmmm. That's explains.

Explains what?

He sounded so defeated in the bar. His work is his life so when that was being threatened he couldn't manage. I wouldn't handle it well either when my job was threatened. My job is my life too. We have that in common.

"Does he have friends?" I asks, leaning against Ryan who tries to push me away from him but I didn't bulge.

"No! He's always busy with work. No partying. No friends. No family." I smile.

No family? He has family issues.

Again, we have another thing in common. I assume they’ll be done with the whole beautifying routine. I requested they give him a facial if the whole beard disappears. I chuckle to myself at his potential irritation.

"Come in, guys. It's done," Carl shouts, opening the closed door. We both stand up at the same time and race towards the door like small kids. I reach the door him and enter inside.

The first thing I notice when I enter the room is a man checking himself out in the three-way mirror. His suit hugs every muscle of his incredible body perfectly. His hair is thick and looks perfect. He's clean-shaven, and even from across the room, I'm pretty sure he's a delicious specimen of man. I sure hope Daniel cleans up half as well.

He turns, a smirk pulling up one corner of his mouth.

"Like what you see?" he calls out.

The cocky comment gives me pause, and then I realize I recognize the voice. "Daniel?" I try to keep my jaw from hitting the floor.

"I can't tell if that shocked look on your face is a good or a bad thing." His grin tugs nervously upward.

"Holy hell." I cross over to him. "Oh my God. I can't … This is…" I'm full-on gawking, but seriously, he looks like a totally different person. "Dear Jesus!"

"Holy shit," Ryan curses when he gets a look of Daniel. Daniel's brow furrows. It’s a very different expression now that I can actually see his face. And what a face it is.

I can't seem to put words together in a sentence. I'm too busy being blown away. I didn't see him beardless before so I didn't expect this. I should looked at the photos when Cassy googled him, it might have avoided the damn surprise. I reach up and run my fingers over his smooth cheeks. Good God. His jaw is made of all things magic, square and strong and just … bitable. His lips are full, and they look incredibly soft. I have the restraint necessary not to touch them, although I suddenly have the irrational urge to find out how they’d feel against mine.

I follow the contour of his jaw with my fingertips and sigh—or possibly moan—when I reach his chin. He has a dimple. A sweet little dimple that softens all of the hard masculine angles of his gorgeous face. I cover it with my fingertip.

"Jesus," I blurt out, lifting my free hand as if to shield my eyes. "It's like looking into the sun."

"What?" he snaps, those laser-bright eyes narrowing.

Oh, this will be fun.

"You're too hot. It's too much to take," I whisper. "Do you have an off switch? Maybe put it on low?" He looks at me with wide eyes. "Don’t tell me you’re unaware of the dazzling effect you have on the world." I give him a look of wide-eyed wonder.

I bet my panties are wet.

"You want me to check?"

I look up from where my finger is still pressed against his dimple. "Huh?"

Daniel is full-on smiling. And it's beautiful. His eyes light up with mirth. The right side of his mouth tips slightly higher than the left, making his grin lopsided. His front tooth is turned ever so slightly, a tiny endearing imperfection. He's magnificent. "Panties, Allison. Do you want me to check the state of them for you?"

Dammit! I said that out loud.

I step back as I clear my throat. I glare at him. "You're not allowed to grow beard for more than two days," I order, my hands on my hips.

He smirks. "Maybe you should reconsider that decision when you want to know how beard feels between your legs." I freeze. Is he flirting with me?

It's obvious!

"What the hell? What was that?" Ryan asks, pointed at me and Daniel.

I turned to look behind me, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Daniel was similarly glancing around before he blinked at Ryan. "What was what?"

"You two," Ryan said, stepping toward us, his eyes narrowed with warning. "What was that look you shared? Are you two already hooked up?"

I roll my eyes. "Shut up," I tell him. I turn towards Daniel with a smile. "Pay them and then let's go. We need to talk a lot. This is my first marriage and the last so let's not mess it up."

I pretty sure everything is already messed up.

Hey guys!

How are you all? Hope everyone is fine.

How's the chapter? Did you like it? Well..how many like strawberry pie?

Don't forget to comment and vote.

Allison ;)