Pushing Adriano as far away from her as possible, Ximena began to angrily march towards the front door. Sure, she was pretty mad that he and her best friend had practically kidnapped her but she was even angrier at the fact that a small part of her actually found it romantic. Even though her face was contorted into a scowl, her lips were fighting hard not to break into a smile.

Before she could turn the door knob, Adriano swooped in right before her and bolted it shut using a key heaven know he had pulled out from where. She looked up at him, blue eyes blazing. “What the hell did you lock the door for?” she fumed, her nostrils flaring in the process.

“You are not leaving until you hear me out,” he remarked coolly, and grabbed her shoulders so that he could direct her towards the living room.

She tried to shrug him off but he wouldn’t let her go. “Okay, so now you’ve resorted to forcing me to do things? Whatever happened to consent? This is quite illegal I’m sure,” she grumbled and Adriano chuckled. Her head turned back to him so fast that she was moments away from getting whiplash. Was the bastard finding all of this comical? Seconds later, she was placed on the plush couch and he proceeded to sit right next to her. He was so close that she could smell his scent; his intoxicating scent that made her weak at the knees and made her mind race vividly.

“Are you blushing?” he asked her, amused at the red tint that had overtaken her face.

Looking away in embarrassment at the various scenarios that were running through her mind of them, together in scandalous positions she coughed unceremoniously. “I am not blushing!” she defended weakly, and he laughed richly once again. Curse you Adriano Dos Santos, she swore in her heart.

“I’d love to enact whatever is going through that pretty head of yours but first I need you to listen to what I have to say,” he began in a playful manner and then took hold of her hand in his large ones. She slowly looked back at him, succumbing to the fact that she couldn’t run away from him any longer. It wasn’t like her father was there for her to dictate her actions.

Adriano sighed, looked heavenward and then back at her. “Amanda and I were lovers,” he breathed lowly. Then and there Ximena wanted to rip her hand out of his, having decided that she had already heard to much but he wouldn’t let her. His grip was firm as he willed her to keep on looking at him. “Hey, calm down. I know it sounds wrong but that’s the truth. We were lovers before I met you,” he emphasized and Ximena swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.

He continued to speak after giving her a moment to digest the new piece of information, not that she didn’t already have a vague idea of it. “We met by chance and I guess we connected. I found comfort in her because she was wild, mysterious and bold. In fact, she was the one who asked me out,” he chuckled at the memory, and Ximena felt a pang of jealousy because she wasn’t remotely close to fitting that description. But she kept quiet and let him go on.

“We dated for a couple of months, probably the longest relationship I ever had. Most of my past flings were just casual hookups but with Amanda…she made me want to slow down a bit. Everything was great, until my father decided to rain on my parade by telling me about the contract. I’ll admit that I was really upset about it. I didn’t want to be sold off like some cardboard game piece just to satisfy his never-ending greed. What made me particularly furious was the fact that the person I was going to marry was you,” he said, and she gulped. The last statement he had said almost sounded like it held to much resentment that she was at a loss for words.

“Ximena Dos Ramos, a.k.a heiress of the Dos Ramos shipping throne, the girl every man wishes was his…and the woman I haven’t been able to get out of my head since I saw her in that purple dress that left little to the imagination that one night,” he whispered with a smile and Ximena had to bite her lip to stop a grin from bursting through.

“But still, at the time I was rather stubborn. I said some things and tried so hard to fight this. When you ran off to Paris, I was relieved. If you hadn’t returned by the given time frame, your company’s shares would have been as good as mine. The first moment I realized something was wrong was when my father seemed like he was okay with it. Like he wanted that to happen. I should have known he was up to something since that day…” he trailed off and she looked at him quizzically.

“What does your father have to do with this?” she asked him, but he shook his head.

He stroked her hand. “I’ll get to that but for the time being, bear with me. When we had that fight in the hotel room, something changed. I was finding you so enticing, attractive and for once I truly didn’t know what to do about it. Usually, I’d have to chase women and they’d fall for me quickly…but you were defiant, feisty and so damn sexy. I was goner,” he said softly and then kissed her hand, making butterflies rumble in the pit of her belly. She would have kissed him, but a part of her was adamant to not just give into him…yet.

“The more I got to know you, be around you, hold you, kiss you; I fell harder for you with each passing second. The first time I noticed that what I felt for you was deeper than some flimsy little crush was at your birthday party. And when you danced with that stupid bastard, I swear that I would have killed him for the way he looked at you. I had long decided that only I am allowed to look at you like that. And for a while we were living in bliss, oblivious to the world around us. Nothing mattered but you and I; hell, nothing should ever matter besides what exists between the both of us,” Adriano recited profoundly, and ran the back of his hand on her face. She unwittingly leaned into his seductive touch and whimpered.

She couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye anymore. For some reason, the words he was saying made her feel weak, angsty and vulnerable. Tears were right around the corner for her. “But it was never just the both of us,” she lamented and used her free hand to swipe the lone tear that had trickled down her face. Adriano got off the couch and knelt in front of her, and cupped her face.

“It always has been the two of us, and it always will be. I should have told you about Amanda but before we got married, I ended things with her. I told her that I never wanted to see her again, but she insisted and became a bit more aggressive. I promise that whatever she told you were lies.”

“She told m-me that after the fight we had at my o-office, you went running to her and-,” she couldn’t bring herself to utter those disgusting words that Amanda had poured out just to spite her. They still haunted her.

He wiped the other stray tears for her with the pad of his thumbs. “I would never do that to you. I did something very stupid that day. I went to a pub to drown my sorrows in alcohol and she somehow conveniently knew where I was. When I went to the bathroom, I idiotically left my phone on the bar top and that’s when you called. By the time I came back out, she was gone but my phone was still there. I didn’t think to check my phone until I got a call an hour later that you’d been in a freak accident and that your life was hanging by a thread. Do you know how scared I was?” he spoke in a trembling voice, his eyes now holding unshed tears. “I never knew fear was real until that exact moment. Because you want to know something, Ximena? My life is completely meaningless if you are not by my side. And for a couple of months, I’ve experienced hell here on earth without you. Mierda, having you here right in front of me once again feels like I’m in a dream,” he said and then kissed her forehead.

“I… I-,” she struggled for words to come out of her mouth but he shushed her.

He shook his head at her. “I’m not done, please let me finish. It isn’t until a couple of days ago did it begin to occur to me that Amanda had been a part of my father’s grand scheme. He plotted all of this from the beginning. He put Amanda in my path, either for me to fall for her and someday cheat on you or for her to sabotage our marriage. That is why he’d speak in code every now and then…because he knew that one day, something would bring us apart.”

Her mind flashed back to her birthday gala, to the chilling words Mr. Dos Santos had voiced to her thinking that she might not have heard them, but she had.

Welcome to the game, he had spoken so ominously…like the devil incarnate. It all sounded like bullcrap but yet again, it somehow made sense. Since the day she’d met Humberto Dos Santos, his first impression had rubbed her the wrong way. He was evil, no doubt but was he capable of something to grandiosely malicious? And all for what, so that he could claim some shares?

She blinked at him. “A-are you sure about what y-your saying?” she inquired of him, a tinge of disbelief in her quivering voice. He nodded.

“Not a single doubt in my mind or heart, that that’s exactly what happened. That would explain why Amanda knew about the contract and kept on referring to us as chess pieces,” he added and Ximena’s eyes widened.

“She knew about the contract?” she almost shrieked. Okay, maybe his theory wasn’t as absurd as she had previously assumed.

His lips thinned grimly as he nodded his head again. “And it didn’t help either that your dumbass of a P.A had feelings for you. He had much to do with the drift between us, but I am also to blame. I said a lot of foolish things to you and I regret them each and every day of my life. When you told me you loved me, I panicked because I hadn’t come to terms with the fact that I was, still am, in love with you too. It amazed me that you’d figured it out so quickly, before I had. If I could go back, I would in a heartbeat and profess my love for you on the highest rooftop I can find.”

He removed his hands from her face and held her hands. “I should have said this sooner, but I love you Ximena Dos Ramos. I’ve loved you for some time now and although I basically screwed up everything, I don’t want us to get a divorce. How do you expect me to live without you if you’re the air that I breath? I want to fall asleep with you in my arms and wake up to your beautiful, angelic face. I want to carpool with you to work every day, laughing and singing along to all the songs that you like so much. I want to consume as many doughnuts as I can with you, whilst we talk about whatever you like. I want to be the father of our eight kids. But most importantly, I want you to be mine with nothing but love to tie us together and not some ‘marriage merger’,” he chanted genuinely to her and she finally let the flood gates to her eyes open.

Wasting no time, she cupped his face and connected their lips to which Adriano responded fervently. She poured all her unspoken words and emotions into that kiss. When they both needed air, they retracted from each other and she smiled widely at him. “I love you too, Adriano Dos Santos. I love you for your brutish ways and I will continue to love you even with all the baggage that comes with you. I’d love to say more things to you but I have to be honest and say I’ve been dying for you to make love to me for a while now,” she whispered shyly against his lips, which quirked into a smirk.

“Your wish is my command, my spoiled little brat,” he whispered back and kissed her once more before embarking into an amorous night.

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Hey people. I actually wrote this chapter whilst sick so I hope it's good. I think I did justice to their reconciliation and their

❤