by Keys, Sherie
So he kept the thought to himself, instead. He looked ahead, and saw the photographer waving. He waved back, and put his arm around Almasi’s waist. It was show time.
The photographer was a middle-aged man with a large bald spot and sweat stains at the pits of his white dress shirt. He looked cheerful, if a bit overheated. His nose was peeling from what was probably a bad sunburn on his face. Almasi was immediately thankful that because of her dark skin, she could never get burnt like that. It looked uncomfortable, not to mention really, really gross.
In spite of his unappealing appearance, the photographer was energetic and enthusiastic, and he bounded around as he found places for Jacob and Almasi to pose, shouting out commands as he went. They posed standing, sitting, smiling, holding hands, and at one point, kissing, their lips pressed together for the very first time. “Put some more passion into it, lovebirds!” cried the zealous photographer.
“You would think you two have never kissed one another before! She is a woman, damn it, not a prop!” At that last statement, Almasi raised her eyebrows and glanced at Jacob, who could no longer contain himself, and the two of them began to laugh hysterically. Later, when the prints were all completed, there would be a beautiful shot of the happy couple laughing together. It was the best picture from that whole day, and it would be the one selected to be framed and put on the mantel in the foyer.
Just as Almasi thought that there could be nothing more to do, that they had exhausted every possible wedding photo pose and then some, the photographer said, “Okay, get down on your knee, lover boy. It’s ring time!”
At first, Almasi was confused. Ring time? What did that mean? Then she realized. Jacob was pulling a small box out of his pocket and he moved to kneel down in the grass in front of her. Almasi’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t expected this to happen. This made everything suddenly all so… so real. He opened the box, and she saw a white gold ring with three gemstones: a large blue one in the center, and two smaller white gems. They sparkled brightly, and Almasi realized that they were tiny diamonds.
“The company is out of stock of the larger diamonds,” explained Jacob. His voice lowered so the photographer couldn’t hear what he was saying. “That’s part of the reason why this Kumi deal is so important,” he explained. “But I thought you would like the sapphire.” He looked up at her so earnestly, his eyes so blue like the gem on the ring.
“I love it,” whispered Almasi. “Thank you.”
“I am so glad,” said Jacob, smiling widely. He stood up and slipped the engagement ring on her finger as the photographer’s camera flashed rapidly. “My bride deserves all of the happiness that I can give her,” he added more loudly. He looked into her eyes, and…was it just the glare of her dark brown eyes gleaming in the sunlight, or did he detect tears welling in them?
This woman was good at playing her role, he thought. She had even had him convinced for a split second. He made a mental note to ask Jeremy if they had the funds to give her a raise on the amount they had promised her. She was doing this so well. She truly deserved to prosper from this arrangement.
When the engagement photos were finally over, and the photographer had packed up his equipment and gone on his sweaty way, Jacob looked at Almasi and said, “Lunch?” Almasi nodded.
It was well past 2:30, and she was used to taking her lunch break at 1:00, or sometimes even as early as noon. So Jacob and Almasi made their way out of the garden and back to the mansion. They were greeted by a maid when they got to the door, and she ushered them into the dining room for lunch. Unlike the previous night’s dinner, this conversation was lively between Jacob and Almasi.
The two of them had finally bridged the gap between awkward co-conspirators to… well, something resembling friends, maybe. They peppered their language with terms of endearment, phrases like “darling,” and “dear,” “my precious,” and “my love,” and Almasi thought to herself that this felt a lot more natural than before. It felt… actually, it felt pretty sincere.
As she looked across the table, she found her heart welling with fondness at the sight of Jacob. No, she told herself sternly. You are the hired help, just like the rest of these servants. He may be treating you like his queen, but you need to always remember that you are a pawn in this game. However, she refused to let the thought linger or a frown to break across her face. So Almasi kept smiling, laughing, and talking with her future husband all the way through lunch.
The preparations before the wedding were hectic, as Almasi expected them to be. Yifeng paid her another visit, as did Mrs. Nettle, and she was pinched and prodded and pulled into the wedding dress. The neckline of the gown was rather low, so she had to find a way to conceal the key to her diary. She took the chain off her neck, and when Mrs. Nettle and Yifeng were looking away, she tied it to her garter. That way, she thought, she could assure it would be safe and she would avoid any nosy questions.
The wedding, Almasi was told, was going to take place in a small chapel inside the mansion. Good heavens! she thought to herself, How many rooms does this place have? Jeremy, Jacob’s assistant, would be the best man, and he would walk her down the aisle. The matron of honor was to be none other than Mrs. Nettle, who Almasi suspected knew more about the arranged marriage than she was letting on to Almasi and Yifeng.
A non-denominational minister would be performing the service and he would be arriving at 5:00. Almasi looked at the clock on the wall. It was 4:45. Fifteen more minutes, and she would be getting married.
The ceremony was uneventful. Jeremy was stiff and silent as always, Mrs. Nettle was stern, and the elderly minister was expressionless as he read the vows. But when Almasi looked into Jacob’s eyes, she saw her own feelings reflected: excitement, a bit of apprehension, but most of all, a growing fondness. It was funny how two people could grow so attached to each other in such little time.
It would be hard to let go of that feeling once this was over. Almasi swallowed and repeated her vows. And once the “I do's” had been said, the rings had been exchanged, and the marriage certificate had been signed, the couple walked out to an unexpected gathering of all of the household servants, who were smiling happily at them. They applauded and cheered as the two of them walked out into the garden.
They would have an hour still before dinner was served, so a romantic stroll among the flowerbeds was deemed the appropriate activity. And so, hand-in-hand, Jacob and Almasi made their way past the cheering service staff and into the large labyrinth of flowers, trees, and bushes.
As they walked, Jacob continued to hold her hand, and Almasi did not move to take hers away from his.
“You know, I…” Jacob began, and then trailed off. He took a deep breath and sneaked a glance at his new wife. “I think that went pretty well.”
Almasi looked at him and tried to decode his facial expression. He seemed happy, but… restrained? She decided to adopt the same tone. “Yes, I agree,” she said evenly, not breaking eye contact with him or slowing the pace of her steps.
“I was thinking,” he started again, “uh… well, how are you feeling about the whole staying in my room thing?”
Almasi’s heart sank. She knew this had been too good to be true. Clearly, he did not want her around now that he had been near her.
“Well,” she said, “I mean, it’s necessary for the Kumi Diamonds deal that we act like a couple. And I… I would not mind sleeping with you. I mean,” she corrected herself hastily, “sleeping in the same room with you.”
Jacob stopped walking and turned to face her. “Well, you know, I was actually… kind of looking forward to spending time close to you. If that’s really what you want.”
Oh. Oh. Was this why he had sounded so nervous? So it wasn’t that he hated her. He… he wanted to be with her, whatever that means.
“It is,” she said evenly. Then her emotions overcame her. She smiled softly and looked into his eyes. “It really is what I want, Jacob.”
“Almasi…” he began, and she
stepped closer, bridging the space between them, and kissed him gently on the mouth. She took him by surprise, but soon he was kissing her back, and his hands were on her waist and hers were in his hair. They were kissing passionately now, and Jacob felt relief and desire well up inside him in equal measures. This was different from the kisses he had shared with other women; it felt sincere. It felt real.
Almasi couldn’t even think for all of the joy and pleasure she was feeling. This was her first deep, intense kiss, since… well; it was the first in a very, very long time. It was amazing. If she had let herself be carried away, she would have gone to be with him that night and had him as a lover. He was her husband, after all, so not only was it proper, it was also generally expected.
And the feelings that were filling her body and mind were so strong, so passionate, so real. She wanted him, here and now, in the garden, and she had to resist that urge with every fiber of her being, because now was not the time.
This was not even necessarily the man. Although sex would not affect the annulment, Almasi wanted her first time to happen in a less contrived circumstance. She didn’t want to lose her virginity in that kind of a situation, even though she was quite literally being paid a million dollars by the man who could be taking it. Even though she wanted it more than anything in the world, she had to stop. So she pulled away.
Jacob looked at his beautiful wife, her lips fuller from kissing, her eyes wide and pupils dilated. “What is it, darling?” he asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Only, uh, just…” she trailed off. “Should we not be heading back for dinner by now?”
Jacob looked at his watch. “Oh! You're right. We have ten minutes.” A bit of mischief sparkled in his eyes. “Want to race me?”
Almasi laughed. “Only if you want to lose!” and she lifted up the skirt of her dress and ran, weaving her way through the gardens and trees. Jacob, laughing, followed her, and by the time they got back to the mansion, they were gasping for breath.
“Almasi,” said Jacob, and as she turned to look at him, he grabbed her at the waist and kissed her again. When he was done, he pulled back and said, “I have no idea what we’re doing, but I enjoy this.”
“Me too,” she whispered, looking at the ground.
He took her chin in his hand and made her look at him. His eyes were honest. “It will all work out. Now, dinner?”
“Dinner,” she agreed, so they brushed themselves off and went inside.
Chapter2
The wedding night passed uneventfully, with both the bride and groom too careful about the situation to try anything with one another. Over the course of the next week, they played a sort of avoidance game, even as they began to fall for one another in earnest. Almasi realized that she was beginning to memorize her husband’s features. The slight wave of his hair, the color of his eyes, the strength of his hands, and the sound of his breath in bed next to her.
Jacob, for his part, was beginning to question his entire view of women and sex. This was the first time he had been with a woman in such an intimate and romantic setting without sex happening, and he found that Almasi’s company was enough. He respected her taste in colors and food, and he found that she always knew how to approach a business situation when he shared company financial information with her.
She would lean over his shoulder as he would sit at the desk in his study—the study that had once been his father’s—and comment on his work. She was insightful, intelligent, and beautiful, and she was his wife.
If only… if only, he thought, for the thousandth time, this had not been contrived. If only this had been the plan all along, for him to fall in love with the woman to whom he would only be married to for a month. He would watch her sit in her lounge and write in that secret diary and sigh. She was perfect. Hell, she was even his wife. So why, God, why could she not also be his lover?
A week ago, he would have laughed at such thoughts. He would have dismissed romantic feelings like that as puppy love, and happily proclaimed anyone silly enough to buy into such things to be an idiot. He knew that Jeremy would laugh if he ever told him the extent of his developing feelings for Almasi.
But at the same time… he felt something, and yes, there was lust involved, but it was more than that. He felt whole with Almasi around. With Almasi, he felt like he could accomplish just about anything. He sighed.
Her feelings would never be the same, he imagined. She was here for one thing and one thing only: to play the part of the good wife, to collect her payment, and then to go back to her real life. She would go to grad school, he knew it, and with the one million dollars she would earn from her deal with him, she would never have to worry about working overtime or pushing aside her dreams of success.
And all of this, this future… it did not involve him. It would not involve him. So Jacob resolved to let her play his wife, to make the deal go smoothly, and then to let her go free. It was the least he could do, after all of the trouble she was going through. There was no need to complicate things.
Meanwhile, Almasi processed her own feelings through writing her diary entries. She wrote at least twice a day, often three times, making observations about her surroundings and trying to muddle through her emotions. She wrote about the wedding day, and the passionate urges that his kisses had aroused in her. There had been a few other kisses like that—once in the hall, and again one time in the foyer when his after-work peck turned into something a little more fervent (the maids had turned away, blushing).
He would also kiss her before bed every night, and she would occasionally kiss him gently and tenderly on the cheek in the morning if she woke up before him. She could sometimes feel Jacob’s presence in the room, watching her as she wrote about these things. It gave her great comfort to know that her diary was locked up for safekeeping. Almasi knew her husband well enough by now, to know that he would never pry, and she respected him all the more for it, but she also did not want to risk him finding out about her true feelings. She would not have him think that she was unable to do this job.
In spite of Jacob’s insistence that she should just relax, and that her contribution was enough just by being there, Almasi did what she could to help in the household. She took over organizing some of the servants’ duty lists, and she helped Mrs. Nettle plan for the diamond dealer’s arrival. She also helped where she could with the paperwork on the Adamson Jewelry finances, and she hoped desperately that her comments to Jacob were not coming off as annoying or self-centered.
When Jeremy was around, he always seemed annoyed that she was in the room during business, but from what Almasi could tell, Jeremy was annoyed by pretty much everything. And besides, Jacob seemed honestly impressed by her efforts, so she continued, figuring that the opinion of her husband mattered far more than that of his grumpy assistant.
Two days before Mr. Kumi’s arrival, Jacob asked the cook to have dinner served outside on the patio. The weather was beautiful, not too hot out but warm enough to dine outdoors. Almasi was wearing a flowing floral dress when she stepped outside. It was orange like the sunset, and the fabric clung to her body in a way that made Jacob want to moan the moment he saw her.
This was so ridiculously unfair! He wanted so desperately to sleep with his wife, his own wife, and he did not know how to initiate things. He suspected that she would respond favorably if he made a romantic advance to her—he had seen the lustful glances she gave him when she thought he was looking away, and he had felt the fervor in her kisses as it had grown day by day.
And that dress, damn, that dress. The way it hugged her ample breasts and hips, the way the straps sat on her shoulders like they were begging to come off—he wanted her in his bed so, so badly. He was certain that she wanted him, too. So it was worth a try, right? It wasn’t as if they were breaking the contract of their arrangement, right?
“Jacob?” he snapped out of his thoughts, and realized that Almasi had been talking to him. “Jacob, why are you staring at me like that?” She looked a
little bit confused, but mostly amused. He swallowed.
“I… you look beautiful tonight, darling,” he said, recovering his composure. “No, actually, you don’t just look beautiful. You are beautiful.”
The way Almasi smiled made him know he had said the right thing. “Thank you, my dear,” she said. They sat and chatted, ate their four course dinner that was topped off with a mango gelato. It matched the color of Almasi’s dress, and watching her eat it in the sunset made Jacob feel as if his head was spinning with dizzying arousal. He shifted in his seat. The trousers he was wearing were beginning to feel a smidgen too tight.
Almasi noticed all of the signs of Jacob’s fidgety arousal. She did not show it on her face, but inside she was laughing. She was turned on as well, though, and she suddenly thought to herself, Tonight. Tonight, that is when this is going to happen. She shivered a little, overwhelmed with anticipation, and maybe a little bit of nervousness. It would be her first time, but she knew he would be gentle. He was always gentle. And, although his past reputation as a ladies’ man had its drawbacks, it also meant that he probably knew a thing or two about pleasuring a woman.
Jacob saw Almasi’s shiver and mistook it for being cold. “Here, do you want my suit jacket?” he asked, standing and taking it off for her. “I wouldn’t want you to be…”
“Shh,” she said, standing up and meeting him halfway. “That's not it.”
“Then what's going on?” It couldn’t be… could it?
“I want you.” Her soft and quiet words were simple and she looked into his eyes honestly. His confusion faded, and then his expression mirrored hers. He took her by the waist and pulled her close, and they kissed, hard and long.