That One Time Read online

  Oh my God, had she just said that?

  “Do you really want me to answer that?”

  Not really, Ayah thought. She already knew—

  Everyone was choking again.

  Ayah very sloooooowly covered her face. She had said that out loud, too?

  God, she was so amusing, cute, and hot. He wanted her in his bed – now. “Ayah—”

  She shook her head, still keeping her face covered with her hands. She would never ever get to live this down.

  The more embarrassed she was, the stronger the urge became to pull her onto his lap and embarrass her more. Nic suppressed a groan, the thought more than enough to have his cock fully erect inside his pants.

  Facing Ayah again, he gently pushed her hair away from her face, smoothing the locks back as he said quietly, “I think it’s time we ended this little game, don’t you think?”

  She nodded, still not looking at him.

  “You didn’t really want to speed date dozens of guys, did you?”

  She shook her head quickly, emphatically.

  Nic smiled. “Then we need to prove it, don’t you think?”

  She stilled. “How?” Her voice was muffled by her hands.

  “With a kiss.”

  Slowly, her hands moved down, revealing her eyes first, which were filled with doubt. “But what about your…”

  “It’s over,” he said, understanding her concern right away. His heart clenched as he spoke. Now he was beginning to understand why all the people here seemed to hate his guts.

  Ayah was…incorruptibly innocent.

  And here he was, a devil wooing an angel. A year had passed since that one time they had met and found each other, but she had always been faithful…to him, without him ever asking her to be.

  Deeply humbled, he said softly, “I’m yours if you want me.”

  Ayah’s eyes filled with tears.

  He took a deep breath. He knew he was taking a risk, asking her to leave all this and fly away with him to see where it took them. But he was done playing it safe. It had been the worst kind of hell the past twelve months, pretending that his body didn’t ache for Ayah’s every night.

  “Ayah, will you…”

  She stopped him with a kiss.

  Her lips were beautifully soft and warm, and without thinking he kissed her back, hands sinking in her hair so he could pull her closer across the table, his tongue diving in to taste all her sweetness and warmth. He nipped her lips, sucked her tongue, and he didn’t let either of them breathe because he was kissing her so possessively, wanting her to be one with him.

  When he lifted his head, both of them were panting.

  Her eyes shone like the loveliest jade, and her tone was breathlessly happy as she said, “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  Nic stilled.

  Around them, the people who knew about what was taking place – everyone whom Mari told about Luuk Aafjes wanting to go somewhere private with Ayah – had also turned into statues.

  Their expressions mirrored each other, and it was best described with just two words: OH FUCK.

  Ayah rained kisses all over Luuk’s beautiful face. “I promise, lieverd, I promise I’ll be the perfect wife.”

  ~ Six ~

  “You what?” Feeling her knees about to give way, Farica hurried to the nearest chair – in this case, one of the visitor chairs scattered around the black-and-white themed hotel lobby - and plopped herself down on it. She had been in the middle of a luncheon meeting with her younger cousins, trying to play Little Miss Nice, when she had received Nic’s call.

  She had hoped for some good news – the de Koninghs had always been known for having tragic luck when it came to affairs of the heart. Farica was praying her generation would be different – but Nic’s announcement was…unclassifiable.

  He was getting married…just like that?

  Nic quickly put as much distance as possible between his ear and mobile phone at the sound of Farica’s screech. “Tell me I’m making the right decision, Fari.” He spoke in Dutch, making sure that Ayah wouldn’t understand what he was saying if she accidentally overheard him. Although he could hear her still talking to Mr. Hsu at the balcony, he preferred to play it safe.

  “Do you love her?”

  Silence.

  Shit. “Did you at least tell her who you really are?”

  Not a word from Nic still.

  Oh my God, it kept getting worse. “Did you even tell her anything?”

  More crickets.

  She started rubbing her temple. She either had a migraine or Nic’s problems were getting to her. “How can this be right when you haven’t told her anything?”

  Nic restlessly got to his feet at the question. “How the fuck can I tell her I’m not who she thinks I am?”

  “But you’re Nicolaas de Koningh! Surely she’d be happy—”

  Pacing the floor like a caged lion, he cut her off, saying tightly, “You don’t know Ayah. She won’t see it that way. She’s all about seizing the day and never wasting a moment on deceit and all untruths because life’s too short.”

  Farica blinked. It was a…surprisingly nice lesson. It would make for difficult times, but that kind of outlook could also make life pleasantly simple.

  Unfortunately, that kind of outlook just wasn’t a good idea when the person belonged to one of the world’s most powerful and famous families. People like her and Nic had been taught to lie at a young age out of necessity. If they hadn’t learned to lie, they would have been eaten alive by the media.

  Outside, Ayah had turned around, leaning against the balcony wall and facing him. She caught him looking at her and she blushed and smiled.

  That smile hit him like a ton of bricks, and he felt torn between wanting to snatch her into his arms and flying out of Hong Kong to give himself some space to think.

  “Are you still there?” Farica’s voice jarred him out of his thoughts.

  “Yeah, I’m here.” He couldn’t take his eyes away from Ayah.

  Farica puffed her cheeks, something she tended to do when she needed to focus on a problem. “Okay, let’s try to make sense of this. She still thinks you’re Luuk Aafjes, an impoverished, cold-hearted, and married guy who just got a divorce—”

  “Cold-hearted?”

  “You never visited her in the past year. That’s cold-hearted.”

  He cursed. “You know why I didn’t.”

  “Yup. But it still makes you cold-hearted.” Farica puffed her cheeks again. “So, let’s recap. You’re Luuk, you’ve realized you’ve been such a bastard, you flew to HK to get her to come away with you, but instead she thinks you proposed to her.”

  Nic’s head started to pound painfully. When his cousin said it like that, it sounded a lot worse, like a story straight out of a stupid TV drama. But — what else could he have done? Tell Ayah she had made a mistake in front of all of her friends? Even her friends knew he hadn’t meant to propose, but none of them had said a single word. They obviously couldn’t bear telling her the truth either.

  “Nic…do you want to marry her?”

  “I…”

  Sensing his inner struggle, Farica rephrased her question. “If you were to die now, would you regret not marrying her?”

  He closed his eyes just as he heard the doors slide open and the soft footsteps of Ayah as she walked towards him. “Yes.”

  Tears stung her eyes, and she let them fall because they were tears for joy. Nic was the most reserved man in their clan, the one all of them thought would never marry and yet now…

  “I think you have your answer,” she choked out.

  He covered his face with one hand. “This is so fucked up.” He undid a few more buttons of his shirt, feeling like he couldn’t breathe. Was he really going to marry Ayah because of a silly misunderstanding?

  “You could look at it that way or…” Farica paused. “You could think of it as fate.”

  “Fate? I’m about to marry someone I don’t know if I truly love and you
think it’s fate and not a goddamn disaster? I’m not even sure if she really loves me and—”

  “Nic…” She waited for him to stop talking. “I think it’s fate because…I need to think it is. When you told me what happened, the first thing I thought was what if I had been Ayah? If I was, then I hope…I hope the guy I love would make the same mistake because I think…” A sad smile touched her lips. “I think it’s the only way I’d be able to get him to marry me.”

  Nic lowered his head as his chest tightened with a mixture of fear and anxiety. A second later, someone was stroking his cheek, pulling his hand away from his face. When he opened his eyes, Ayah was there, on her knees before him, her lovely face filled with concern.

  Are you all right? she mouthed.

  He looked at her, and he knew that Ayah hadn’t understood a word he said.

  He looked at her, and he knew that even so, Ayah had come to him because she sensed his pain.

  He looked at her, and he finally understood what Farica was saying.

  It was fate.

  “I have to go.” He paused. “And Fari?”

  Farica answered with a smile, “You’re welcome, cousin.”

  When Luuk was done with his call, Ayah asked awkwardly, “Are you having trouble because of me?” Unable to wait for his answer, she continued valiantly, “Because if you are, we can push the wedding back. I can wait. It’s totally fine.”

  It didn’t look like it was fine, Nic thought, doing his best not to smile. She looked like a suffering saint, offering her life in exchange for the forgiveness of other people’s sins, and he knew that she was only doing it because she thought he was having second thoughts about their wedding.

  Ayah was still talking. “…I don’t want to start our life together as a burden to you. We can tell everyone that it’s just delayed—”

  She stopped speaking.

  She had no choice, not with Luuk suddenly pulling her up and dumping her on his lap then kissing her, a hard sweet kiss that told her he needed to kiss her just because he did.

  When he allowed her a moment to breathe, she looked at him with wondering eyes. “What was that for?”

  “A hello kiss.” Then he covered her mouth with his again, sucking her lower lip hard.

  When he released her, she asked breathlessly, “And that one?”

  “A welcome kiss.”

  “For what?”

  “For this.” He kissed her a third time, and she giggled into his mouth. The sound shouldn’t have been erotic, but it was, and his cock shot up, poking Ayah. Her giggles turned into whimpers, and his hold on her tightened.

  “Ayah,” he growled.

  “Yes?”

  “I need to fuck you now.”

  She stiffened.

  He stiffened, too. That was not how he imagined she’d react to his words. Had they been too dirty? Was he being too fast? “Ayah?”

  “We can’t.”

  She said it so miserably that he was mollified, not completely, but at least it was clear now she desired him as much as he did her. “Why can’t we?” He couldn’t help his voice from cooling, couldn’t stop himself from thinking that he had made a mistake and Ayah was just like his mother and most other women.

  They were not to be trusted, and marriage for them was nothing but a tool—

  “Because it was my last day yesterday, and I’m still spotting…and can we talk about something else now?” She was so embarrassed she pulled all her hair down to cover her face.

  He choked back a laugh even as amusement and relief poured through him, making Nic relax. “I get it now,” he said soothingly.

  But Ayah kept pulling her hair down, doing her best to turn herself into a yak.

  He grinned. “I really get it, Ayah. I promise.”

  “But it’s so embarrassing! I know for other couples, it’s cool, but it’s my first time—” She felt him stiffen and tried to look at him through her hair-made mask. She asked worriedly, “What is it?”

  He had a tight-lipped look on his face as he bit out, “Nothing.”

  “But—”

  With a sigh, he admitted baldly, “When you told me it’s your first time—”

  “It is—”

  His cock strained harder against his pants, and Nic suppressed a groan. “—it just makes me want to fuck you more, lieverd.”

  “Oh.”

  He echoed her humorlessly, “Oh is right,” since he was going to get a big fat zero tonight with—

  Nic straightened up as Ayah scrambled off his lap. “Where are you—ah.” This time, he groaned and held his breath, his entire body tense as Ayah went down on her knees and reached for the buttons of his pants.

  She looked up at him and told him warningly, “I’ve never done this before, okay?”

  He told her warningly as well, “I don’t think I can go easy on you even after you’ve told me that.”

  She blinked at him. “That wasn’t the point.”

  He looked at her steadily. “It should have been. With how much I want you now, I’m going to fuck your mouth hard.”

  She gulped.

  He said gutturally, “Take out my cock now, Ayah.”

  It took her a while to move, the way Luuk was staring at her making her extra clumsy. When she had the buttons undone and the zipper pulled down, she rose up and slowly pulled his briefs away from his body.

  “Oh!” His cock jerked out, taking her completely by surprise.

  “Touch me.”

  She did so hesitantly at first, terrified of making the wrong move. Ayah peeked at his expression and was stunned when she saw Luuk’s eyes closed, a look of intense want on his face.

  “Don’t stop,” he growled.

  Shivering involuntarily at his command, she looked down at his cock and this time, she was more certain with the way she held and stroked his cock. Gaining confidence from the way his body vibrated with sexual desire, Ayah gripped him more tightly as she quickened her strokes as well.

  He expelled his breath in a furious hiss. “That’s so good, Ayah.”

  His words thrilled her, his approval like an aphrodisiac that had her body up in flames. She couldn’t stop staring at him and his cock, her gaze moving back and forth between the two. She was fascinated with the way he seemed to react so strongly to her touch.

  “Ayah—”

  It was so beautiful to hear him saying her name, and even more beautiful to finally see him again and be with him when he said it.

  She loved him. Oh, God, but she loved him since that one time and she had never stopped. With love bursting in her heart, Ayah felt it was only natural for her to lower her head and take his cock into her mouth.

  His hips stilled.

  She sucked hard on his head.

  “Fuck.” His hands sank into her hair, tightening. “More, lieverd.” He guided her with his hands and she followed his lead, trusting him to do what was best for both of them. She opened her mouth as widely as she could at his hoarse urging, making her throat relax when he told her to do so, and all the while she sucked and loved his cock.

  It was an indescribable sensation, driving the man you love wild with just your mouth and she couldn’t get enough of it. Even though he told her to take it easy, she didn’t want to. She wanted to hear him groan, to feel him stiffen, to see him—

  “Ayah!”

  Her eyes rose to meet his as he came in her mouth. The look of pleasure on his face was unforgettable – it was the first time she had seen him come, and she almost wished she could have it added to her digital scrapbook. She never ever wanted to forget this look.

  Ayah swallowed all of his come, loving his cock till the end, loving him from the start, and when she finally released him, the look in his blue eyes spoke of the words she needed to hear but couldn’t ask of him. Not yet. Licking her lips, letting him see that she loved the taste of him, Ayah said, “I love you, Luuk.”

  ~ Seven ~

  “No, you can’t treat me.” Ayah had a determined look o
n her face the next morning as they set off for Ngong Ping 360, a popular recreational park located at one of the outer islands of Hong Kong.

  They were both munching on sandwiches bought from a 7-11 outlet near her workplace, with water bottles tucked into the side pockets of their backpacks. Hers was a colorful Toki Doki with more keychains and charms than zippers while his was a baby pink Jansport backpack. It was that or the one with a huge photo of some guy named Lee Min Ho, a really famous actor in Korea. It was an original item made especially for his fans club members, Ayah had assured him. That may be true, but he would rather hand-carry everything than have another man’s face printed on a backpack he was using.

  “Be reasonable, lieverd. I am the man—”

  “But you spent so much money on your flight here,” she argued. “I want this to be my gift to you. Think of it as…” She chewed on her lip, obviously thinking of a way to salvage his pride without budging on her stance.

  He was content to wait as it gave him time to simply look at her. He had known from her friends that she liked dressing casually. It was what he knew of her, too, which was why Nic had a urge to snatch her into his arms and kiss her, knowing that Ayah had worn a dress for him alone. It was a very modest dress, but because of her curves it had become sexy as hell. It revealed her slim arms, showed off the barest hint of her generous cleavage, and displayed most of her legs. He loved that it gave him something to enjoy staring at, but he hated the fact that other men would be able to see it, too.

  “I got it!”

  When he glanced at her questioningly, she told him smugly, “Think of it as a dowry. There! You can’t argue with that!” When he started to speak again, she frowned. “I mean it, Luuk. I want this to be my treat. Please?”

  There were so many reasons to say no. For one thing, the truth was nothing like what she said. He had not spent all his money on the flight here. In fact, he hadn’t spent a single penny since he had been using one of the family’s private jets, and all of its expenses was paid by the family firm.

  Also, he was a man. He was the one supposed to pay. Thirdly, he was used to paying and was raised to pay a lady’s tab at all times. But when he looked into Ayah’s eyes, seeing how proud she was to do something for him, he heard himself saying, “It will be as you say.”