The Arranged Bride

Nick's POV

It's been a few weeks since Clara had paid us the visit. After that day Ethan was a bit skeptical. He never wanted Sophia to be out of his sight, thinking that she might just leave. Her assuring words could only provide momentary relief. He was even coming up to our room at the middle of the night to sleep with us.

It took me and Sophia a lot of effort to make him believe that she was staying in his life. Can't say that we were completely successful.

It has been a few days that he is not coming to sleep with us at midnight but is still not at ease fully. Sometimes it's frustrating to see how restless he gets when Sophia isn't at home for a few hours. All this was just because of that bloody gold-digger!

This thing kept Sophia under stress. She was always thinking about him. In the last meeting she was too lost to even realize when she was called.

It was Saturday morning and I was working on my laptop in the living room when Sophia came in. Handing me a mug of coffee, she sat down beside me. We took few sips in silence. She sat looking in front, in deep thought about something. I sighed and put down the cup. I shifted closer to her and circled my hand around her shoulders. She leaned in towards me and rested her head on my shoulder. "What are thinking about?" I asked, somewhat knowing the answer.

"Ethan." She breathed out. How I saw this coming. I sighed. She was taking this a bit too seriously.

"Don't stress yourself over it. Ethan is a child. He just needs a bit of time to get over his insecurities. "I squeezed her hands to assure her.

"No, I was just thinking of going for a family dinner or something. Maybe some nice time together will ease his insecure mind ... I don't know I just hate to see him not being his own self." She was more of mumbling the last part to herself. She looked confused on what to do to bring everything back to normal. I could understand the amount of underlying concern in her words. I kissed her forehead. "You're right, we should go." I agreed. I was ready for anything that would bring her mental satisfaction. If going on a dinner would do Ethan good, then why not?

She looked up to smile at me and then went back to rest her head on my shoulder.

She looked again lost in her thoughts. I slowly brought up my hand to rest on her thigh and then started dragging them up. She immediately overcame her lost self. I could hear her sharp intake of breath. I smirked on knowing the effect I had on her.

I trailed kisses along her jawline and moved my lips down to kiss her neck. Her eyes were closed and she let out a soft moan which heightened my excitement. I pulled her up on my lap in a way that she was straddling me. She put her arms around my neck and caressed my hair with one hand.

Pushing aside the strap of her dress, I paced soft kisses on her collarbone. I could often feel her shiver at my touches. My hand travelled up to caress her waist. We were so lost into each other before we were rudely interrupted.

"Holy shit! God bless my virgin eyes." I groaned and pulled apart at Caleb's annoying voice. Sophia, sprinted off my lap and fixed her dress.

"Uhm do you want some coffee?" She asked Caleb, her face was red out of embarrassment.

"Eww no. I would prefer not having any kind of germs. " Caleb made a disgusted face to which Sophia rolled her eyes.

"As you please." She shrugged and sat down beside me. I put my hands around her waist and pulled her closer.

"Don't you think you should get a room for what you were doing?" I could feel that Caleb wanted to embarrass the hell out of Sophia. I was immune to this but didn't know of how she would react. "Don't you think you should call before visiting your friend who is newly married?" Instead of being shy or embarrassed, she retorted using the same tone. Caleb was shocked at her words and blinked a few times. I chuckled at his expression. He dramatically put a hand on his chest feigning hurt.

"Why should I? I can come in anytime I feel like. Right Nick?" I rolled my eyes at his dramatic expression.

"Fair enough, then you must know that this may not be the last of times when you walk in on some steamy scene." She sassed. I raised a brow at her words which she seemed to not mind. "Gross!" Caleb frowned and we laughed at him.

He stayed up for lunch. When Ethan saw him, he was stuck to him for the whole while. He had always liked Caleb a lot. The lunch was spent with Sophia and Caleb bickering over everything.

By the time he left, Ethan was tired and was off to take a nap. As soon as Sophia entered our room I pulled her to sit beside me. Having her effectively trapped between my hands, I looked at her. "So steamy scenes you say?" I brushed a curl from her face to tuck it behind her ears. She blushed under my gaze. This small action of her's was enough to have me want her even more. "T-that I said just to re-reply him." She was shuttering which I found to be quite cute.

"Hmm" My face was so dangerously close to her's that my breath was fanning at the corner of her lips.

"Stop teasing and just kiss me already." I chuckled at her words but complied anyway.

Sophia's POV

"Do you like it sweetheart?" I asked Ethan as he was devouring his chocolate desert.

He bobbed his head up and down as a response. He chose to enjoy his desert rather than wasting time giving verbal answers. Nick lightly laughed and I shook my head.

When Ethan learnt that we were going out for dinner, he was bubbling with excitement. As it was a family dinner, Nick decided to drive us to the restaurant himself. Contrary to what I expected, Nick had brought us to a warm and cosy restaurant, which was nice for some family time.

After he had paid for our food, we got up to leave. As we were heading out of the restaurant, I felt the need to use the washroom.

"Nick, I need to use the washroom." I said to him.

"We'll come with you." He was about to lead me in before I stopped him.

"No, you should take Ethan to the car. He seems tired. "We both looked at Ethan who was holding Nick's hand and rubbing his eye with another hand. Nick looked back at me once again.

"Are you sure?" He asked. I rolled my eyes at his question. He didn't need to be so overly concerned.

" Of course I am. I won't get lost." I chuckled but he didn't. He slowly nodded and starting walking off.

After finishing my work in the washroom, I was thinking of how happy Ethan was today. He really seemed so carefree and relaxed after such a long time. The evening turned out to be so beautiful. But I said that too early.

Suddenly, I felt a hand covering my mouth and another hand around my waist. I immediately started thrashing in the man's hold. For a fraction of a second the hand on my mouth was removed only to be replaced by cloth. I tried hard not to inhale guessing what could have been in it but finally gave up. I could feel the consciousness seeping out of me as I was hoping that Nick would find me soon.