Bound by Tension
42

There was a knock on the bedroom door. I raised my head from my phone. "Come in."

The doorknob turned then the door was pushed inwards. A petite redhead with hazel eyes strolled in and sauntered to me.

"Good afternoon. I'm Faith Daniel, your personal maid." She introduced herself with a polite bow of her head.

"Oh..." I trailed off, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. "Why do I need a personal Maid?"

She wore an angelic smile that made me love her immediately. "To help you out with anything you'd need, help you out with your dress, your hair, everything. We can be friends too." She winked. "Friends?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, ma'am. If you're not—"

"It's okay. And don't call me 'Ma'am', I'm Imogen Mark." Mark? Wasn't it supposed to be Imogen Hendrix now? Thinking about that made me cringe.

She lifted an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

"No, not at all. It'd be really cool to have a friend by my side everyday. This house is damn boring. By the way, where's Hames?" I hadn't seen that weird man all day long. It wasn't like I wanted him to be around me but I needed to know whether or not he was home. How could he leave without letting me know? Not like I care either, just curious.

"Hames?" She quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Hames. Hames Hendrix." Didn't she know him?

"Uh..." she scratched the back of her neck. "I don't... I'm new in this section. Is he your husband?"

"Yes, my husband." Husband? It made me cringe again.

"Oh, the boss. I think I heard Daisy say he's in the office in this house." She smiled again.

"Oh, okay." I nodded.

"Is there anything you'd like me to bring or do for you?"

"Hmm..." I trailed off to think of anything but there was nothing. "No, thank you."

"Okay. The Head Maid said there's a red button on your bedside table. You can press the button to call for me whenever you want."

"Sure, no problem. Bye."

"Bye." She turned around and took her leave.

What a boring married life with a boring man.

I rose from the couch in the room and left for the home office.

I gave the door a slight knock and was suddenly feeling nervous. There was no reason to be nervous, right? I was simply going to Hames for... wait, for what? There was no valid reason. I wasn't missing his presence, was I? That wasn't possible at all.

"Who is it?" Hames' deep voice vibrated from inside, making me more nervous.

"Uh..." If I went to him, he was going to think I needed his attention. I twirled around to leave.

"Imogen?" His voice made me stop in my tracks.

I sighed, pivoted and opened the door, shambling in.

"You don't have to knock, you can come in whenever you want. Do you need something?"

I shut the door behind me and shuffled to him, taking a seat on the chair I had sat on when I made the most stupid decision of my life by signing a contract without reading it. I still hadn't read the weird contract. "I'm glad to see you came in search of me, dear wife."

"I'm not here to see your ugly face. I-I thought of "

"You don't have to lie. You missed me because you haven't seen me all morning." He smirked.

I wanted to retort to his words but I couldn't think of any good points to say to argue against him.

"Your life is boring. So all you do is work? Even when you're home?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"Not exactly. I only work at home when it's very important. I'm trying to overwork so I can settle things and leave the rest for the manager to handle because of our honeymoon." He rose to his feet. "Honeymoon?"

"Yeah. Instead of our 2-week vacation we planned on going to before we married, we'll make it our honeymoon." He walked to me and held my hand to make me rise to my feet. "I'm on a break now. Let's go on a walk, dear wife." "I don't feel the need to go on a walk, especially not with you."

"You've become so lazy since you haven't returned to work. Why haven't you? You're making my work ten times harder." He brushed a few strands of my hair from my face. "I think you'd resume tomorrow. It's so nice to have my secretary living with me."

"I guess I'm still working with the mean boss." I rolled my eyes.

He laughed. "I'm no longer mean to you, am I? You're my wife and I love you. Yes, you're still working as my secretary but I don't think it's necessary. You can work for a few weeks, teach your assistant everything she'll need to know before you stop working."

"St-stop working?" A weird type of hurt filled me. "So I'll be a housewife and nothing else because I'm married to you?" I let go of him.

"I don't think so."

"Gosh, my entire career, my life would be stagnant." Heavens no, there was no way I was crying! What was happening to me? "You're crying?" He looked confused, shocked and funny.

"I don't know. Now that I'm married to you, it'll feel like a mountain has come in my way of progress. Firstly, you ruined my dream marriage; I thought I was going to get married to someone I love, have a grand wedding, be happy after marriage and not forced to do things according to a stupid contract I signed."

"I can't believe you're crying." He chuckled, pulled me to a hug and brushed my hair with his fingers. "Don't worry, your life won't be stagnant. Don't you remember my wedding vow to you? I promised to support your dream, you can chase your dreams, I'll always be there for you. You should've let me know you wanted a grand wedding, I'd have done that."

"I also can't believe I'm crying." I chuckled, wiping my face with my fingers to avoid getting his shirt wet with my beautiful tears. "I can't change the wedding, it has happened."

"We can do a second wedding if it'd make you happy." He tightened the hug. I returned his hug because I felt the need to do it.

"That's not necessary anymore. I'm stuck in this shithole with an asshole for a husband."

He burst into laughter. "It's nice to hear you insult me directly. I promise I'll be the best husband you could ever have. You won't regret getting married to me." He pulled apart from the hug, held my shoulders and planted a kiss on my forehead. Whether or not I admitted it, it felt damn good. Since he pointed out that I blushed when he kissed me, I tried not to blush.

"You're still a jerk." I wiped the tears from my face completely.

"A jerk for a husband. Anyway, let's make a deal."

"A deal?"

"Yes. You'll give me fifteen chances to prove myself to you and let you know that I genuinely love you." I already knew that, else he wouldn't have married me despite the fact that I didn't love him. "With these fifteen chances, you'll grant me permission to do anything I wish to for the sake of the chances. I'll make you love me back with these chances."

"What if you don't?"

"If I don't then I'll permit you to separate from me for a month or two."

A smirk appeared on my face. "Okay then. Deal."

"Deal." He held my hand and shook it, placing a kiss on my knuckles before letting go. "By the way, my best friend, Amanda. You should know her from the date between me and her that I intentionally made to be our first date after she left." "I should've known that!"

"You should have. Anyway, Amanda is coming over tonight. She couldn't attend our wedding because she traveled so she'll be very mad at me for not informing her. She'll sleep over, you two can get along."

"Sleep over? Your female friend can sleep in your house? Isn't there a hotel around?" I frowned.

"It's not such a big deal. She has her room here. Hasn't your new personal Maid shown you around yet?"

"No, she hasn't. So your friend has a room of her own? Unbelievable."

"Why do you sound angry? Are you perhaps jealous? There's no need to worry about Amanda, she's just a friend." The corner of his lips quirked to a smirk.

"Why would I be jealous?"

"That's simply because you're already falling in love with me but you're yet to verify it."

"You're silly. I won't ever love you, I hate you."

"Let's see how long you can say that for. You'll love me soon, I assure you. If you're not going on a walk with me, bye, we'll go together some other time. You can resume work after we return from our honeymoon. I can't wait for our honeymoon. Who knows? You might be expecting to be a mother in a few months after we return from our honeymoon due to its beautiful activities."

"Has anyone ever let you know that you're the most disgusting man ever known?"

"No one would ever let me know because you're the only one who's aware of this side of me, sweetheart."

"Just leave."