“What are you doing?” Ophelia murmured softly as she slipped from underneath him and stood looking at him as he maintained the same posture from earlier.
“I am just trying to tell you that you should not open Pandora’s box if you would not be able to handle it,” he said and she shook her head.
“Wait, let me get this straight.”
“Get what straight?” he asked, straining his back and sitting like he was being invited. His legs together and his hands on them.
“The facts,” she said, trying to keep her voice down. Luckily for them, the staff had left the house, and they were supposed to call them over if they needed their meal to be prepared. Ophelia was sure, however, that she was not going to go to call them just yet; she needed to clarify what was going on with them.
“What facts?”
“Just a minute, let me gather my thoughts,” he nodded and rested in the chair, waiting for what she would say. “So you do not believe in love right?”
“I told you this from the beginning, I do not,” he answered, and she nodded.
“Okay but you think I can seduce you?” she asked again and he shifted to the edge of the seat.
“Well, love is deeply caring for someone and seduction comes from attraction”
“So you find me attractive?” she asked.
“Of course, you are very attractive; every man would agree with me on that.”
“Okay, so you can be attracted to a woman but not love her, meaning that you can be attracted to a stripper at a strip club because she is attractive and you can sleep with her because she seduced you, right?”
Cade opened his mouth and closed it multiple times; he was at a loss for words. Why would she think about it like that? “Ophelia?”
“Just answer the question,” she let out shakily. She felt like she already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear from him to avoid jumping to conclusions.
“Hear me out; I know that is how the situation would seem, but it would never happen,” he said, and he blinked.
“What?”
“I might be attracted to her, but that does not mean I would do something like that,” he explained. “I know and understand that we are a non-sexual couple, and I have accepted that already, but it does not give me the license to cheat on you,” he said, and she nodded. He was not sure if she was convinced by his words.
“Hear me out,” he said, standing up and going to hold her shoulders. Her blue eyes stared at him, and her lips looked plum. He wanted to crash his lips against them to feel them once again. It was as if he had forgotten what they once felt like.
“I understand our relationship and I would never ever try to sabotage it for fun.”
“But don’t you miss having fun?” Cade could not tell if she was trying to tease him, if she was trying to gather intelligence, or if she worried about him. All he knew was that she kept distracting him with her face as it filled up his eyes. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“I do miss having fun, but I chose this life, and I get to have something better than fun, and that is all that is important.”
“I know I was the one who said we should not have sex, but…”
“You have been saying that we should have sex and have kids since morning. Are you serious or are you just saying that because of the situation?” he asked, cutting her off.
“Hmm?” she murmured, pressing her lips into a thin line.
“If the circumstances were different, would you be asking that we sleep together?” he asked, and she blinked. How could she tell him that she was developing some kind of feeling for him out of the blue? How could she tell him that she could not understand the feeling by herself and that it was so confusing for her? “Would things still be the same if the situation was normal and no one was forcing us to have kids?”
“I do not know,” she murmured once again. He dropped her hand from her shoulders and moved a step back.
“If you do not know, then you should think about it very well. I will wait for your answer, and if you think that you do not need to give me an answer, I do not mind,” he said. “Okay?” he followed up when she did not say anything.
“I will think about it,” Ophelia said, taking a step back so the distance between them became wider.
“Do you want something for lunch?”
“What?”
“I am thinking of cooking myself something for lunch; do you want to eat as well?” Cade asked because they skipped having lunch after she had stood up in rage and left her father to get the meal they had not been able to eat.
“Let me get one of the staff to do that,” she suggested.
“It is okay, I can do this myself,” Cade said. “So do you want a plate?”
“Yeah, I haven’t had lunch, and if you offer to make one, how can I refuse?” she said.
“Okay then, you can come down in the next thirty to forty minutes and you should be ready,” he said, walking out of the room.
“Okay,” she called after him also going out of the room to her room upstairs.
Cade got into the kitchen and closed the door. “What was that just now? What did I feel?” he asked himself, running his hand across his lips.
“Why did I want to kiss her so bad?”
“Mr Vale? Can I help you with something?”
Cade turned around to see one of the staff standing there. “No, you cannot. I am just trying to put together a meal. Thank you for offering to help.”
“I can help you cook.”