$Chapter 1

It’s been three days since Adira married Chadwick McElroy. After spending three nights in Japan for their honeymoon, Adira returned home to her new house as Mrs. McElroy.

“Ahhhh. My body feels so tired,” she moaned, sitting on the edge of the bed. And when she lay down, her long and curly red hair scattered.

Wearing her sexy undergarments underneath the red robe, Adira’s olive eyes glued to the ceiling. There is nothing much to see there. She’s just trying to ease the fatigue of long hours traveling back to the country.

“I still couldn’t believe that I am a married woman now,” she murmured, blinking her eyes, and her long lashes fluttered like butterfly wings.

It’s not been that long since Adira agreed to marry the CEO of the Wine&Vibe company. And now, she’s inside the room and thinking about how fun life can be. She can still remember drinking alone in her condo unit while singing a pop song entitled: “I Don’t Need a Man.” But here she is, trying to familiarize herself with her new name by practicing.

“Adira McElroy. Adira McElroy. Mc…Elroy.”

A deafening silence swept the space.

Promptly, Adira burst into a thunderous laugh.

“What’s the point of marrying that man? I didn’t even see his face during our honeymoon.”

It is in the plan that Chadwick and Adira will spend their honeymoon in Japan after the wedding. However, only Adira arrived there. She only heard a bit too late that Chadwick’s meetings follow her on their honeymoon because he has a necessary appointment at work.

A guy who will prioritize his work over a once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon?

Adira isn’t dumb to notice that Chadwick is avoiding her on purpose. Because if not, they do not need to sleep in a separate room.

Irritated, Adira sat up on her bed. Her initial reason why she agreed to this marriage was to become pregnant. She planned to have an s*x with her husband on their first night together. But Chadwick stood her up and prepared a separate room in their new house without consulting Adira.

“What’s wrong with my dear husband? Is he even a man?” Adira breathed.

When she tilted her head, she saw her reflection in the mirror on the make-up table.

Her red hair scattered down smoothly, and it suited her tiny face. She has been graced with a look that could be that royalty. Her emerald eyes are sharp, but inside has the reflection on the waters of a pond. Her tight, rose-colored lips are pursed in what appears to be a mid-kiss. And her body? They won’t call it a ‘Coca-cola’ body without any reason. Anyone who sees her sitting on the bed with a robe, red hair, revealed cleavage, and legs as white as ivory would find her damn attractive.

“I am so pretty,” Adira told herself. She tilted her head and added, “And I am sexy too.”

She only said facts. But still, she’s confused. How did Chadwick decline to take the chance of taking her virginity during their honeymoon?

Adira took a deep breath as she brushed her red hair upwards, making her look coquettish, and then she recalled what happened during their wedding day:

Wearing a dress, Adira looked at the groom waiting for her at the end of the march. It is her soon-to-be husband, Chadwick.

Chadwick did not bother staring back at his gorgeous bride. He just stared at the air in space as if he was so bored he might dig a hole in the ground soon. Anyway, Adira does not care about her groom’s apathetic expression. All she wanted was to finish this wedding as quickly as possible, so she picked up her pace.

When Adira stood beside Chadwick, there was a moment of breathless silence. Chadwick offered his arm without even looking at Adira’s face. She clung her hand around his arms. Then, both turned their backs to the guest and faced the judge.

The judge looked at the two couples in a grimace as if they were in the middle of mourning instead of their wedding. Something was off. The judge can quickly tell.

Disregarding the odd situation, the judge forged a cough. He wiped the sweat on his bald head and fixed his eyeglasses before starting the ceremony.

As the judge talked, Adira looked at her husband’s side profile.

‘At least he’s handsome,’ she thought before she noticed that he was gawking intensely in a specific direction.

Narrowing her eyes, Adira tended to the direction Chadwick was looking at. From afar, she saw a woman smiling sweetly at Chadwick while waving her hand.

After remembering the woman, she saw during their wedding, Adira confirmed why Chadwick keeps away from her.

“It is because of that woman,” she whispered.

Before their wedding, Adira investigated her groom-to-be. She heard that Chadwick did not date anyone, but he had a friend he had feelings for.

“I don’t care if he likes someone else,” Adira said. “However, do we have to sleep in different rooms?”

If Chadwick continues avoiding her, Adira thinks she needs to use another way to achieve her goal. And that is to seduce her husband.

Grinning widely, Adira moved up from her bed. She jolted out of her bedroom and stood next to her husband’s room; there was the East side of the house.

Adira believes that being straightforward is the best way to solve the problem.

‘So, I will directly ask him to sleep with me,’ Adira thought. She’s confident of her beauty and her s*x appeal.

With her head held high, she touched the doorknob. She was about to open the door but stopped when she heard her husband’s voice inside the room.

[“Nothing happened between Adira and I. Don’t conclude weird things, Isa.”]

Adira flinched when she heard the name ‘Isa.’

‘Isa Daley,’ Adira murmured inwardly.

There’s no way she won’t recognize the woman whom she saw at their wedding. The woman whom his husband loves more than anyone else is Isa.

Isa Daley. She has been Chadwick’s female friend since high school.

According to what Adira heard, Isa and Chadwick did not date each other. However, students in their batch said that Chadwick had been in love with Isa for a long time.

‘In short, he’s a pathetic loser,’ Adira concluded while nodding.

With crossed arms, she stood outside her husband’s room and listened to Chadwick’s conversation with his first love.

[“My wife is pretty? W-Well. I admit that she is indeed pretty.”]

A satisfied beam appeared on her luscious lips. She knew that fact very well, but hearing it from someone else still felt good.

[“But in my eyes, she’s not attractive in my eyes,”] added Chadwick.

At Chadwick’s remark, the smile on her lips turned crooked. Adira looked at the closed door and snorted.

“Huh!”

She praised her husband’s fearlessness in escaping during their honeymoon, suggesting that they must sleep in separate rooms and that his wife is unattractive to another woman. Adira just wanted to laugh and clap her hands in amusement.

‘He’s something else,’ she said internally.

Adira isn’t jealous a bit. She does not care if her husband is calling another woman in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, she wanted to take revenge on him by calling him unattractive.

Not wasting time, Adira twisted the doorknob and opened the door with a bang.

BAM!

The door opened so hard it bumped into its opposite wall. The rude opening of the door was an eye-opener for her husband.

Chadwick was so flabbergasted that his mouth hung loose as he stared at his wife while holding his phone, which he didn’t have the time to close.

Adira approached him and greeted him in a loud voice. “Good evening, my dear!”

Speechless, Chadwick stayed at his spot while gawking at his wife. He did not expect Adira to visit him in his room, making him wordless.

“Why are you calling another woman in the middle of the night?” Adira asked. “I waited so long for you to come. So, drop the call, and let’s start it right away. Our s*x.”

The shape of Chadwick’s eyes was bigger than their original size!

He turned red, as bright as ketchup, as he was embarrassed to realize that Isa was still on the phone and she had just heard everything.

With trembling hands, he hung up the call. When he lifted his eyes, which cannot shut, to Adira, he uttered, “You…You… ARE YOU CRAZY? W-Why would you say that when I was still in the middle of my phone conversation?”

Acting innocent, Adira shrugged her shoulders. She smiled at him, and her dimples appeared deeply on her soft cheeks.

Chadwick’s jaw almost dropped after receiving his wife’s nonchalant reaction.

Adira Hale is the famous and respectable CEO of Crimson Meadow. She’s competent, professional, and hardworking. And because of this, Chadwick respected her as his business partner, all thanks to the good rumors he heard about her. But now, he had a change of mind. He thinks he’s starting to see her true colors, which weren’t revealed in public. He was flabbergasted!

“I see nothing wrong in asking my husband to sleep with me,” Adira defended, her hands behind her back, making her look polite.

Breathing quivery, Chadwick responded, “So, you are saying that you did not do anything wrong?”

“Yes,” Adira quickly replied. “But you did. You left me in Japan, decided on the room's structure in this house by yourself, and called me unattractive.”

Chadwick’s forehead crumpled at the last reason that she said. He can understand why she’s complaining because he left her in Japan and decided to sleep in a separate room. However, he couldn’t understand why she was upset because he called her unattractive.

“No one has yet to call me ugly. So, I was shocked,” Adira explained, even before Chadwick asked.

Chadwick heaved a sigh. “I understand that you are upset. But, if you suddenly barged inside my room like you did tonight, I would be upset too.”

“Then it’s fair. You called me unattractive, and I barged inside your room. It’s deuce.”

Chadwick tilted his head. He does not understand where her ability to reason came from. Either way, he wanted to know why she visited his room.

“Why did you come here to my room?” he asked.

Adira smiled at him and answered, “To have a s*x with you.”

“.…”

After a few minutes of silence between them, Chadwick asked again, “Pardon?”

“I said I came here to have a s*x with you,” she repeated with a beam.

Blinking swiftly, he asked, “Are you… damn serious?”

As her answer, Adira nodded her head.

“W-Wait a minute,” he ceased, raising his hand to stop her from saying more. “We got married for convenience. You aware of that, right?”

“I am. So?”

“We got married suddenly without proper dates and meetings.”

“I know that too.”

“If you know all of these, how can you ask me to have a s*x with you?”

“That is a rhetorical question,” Adira said. “I am your wife. And you are my husband. It is natural for a married couple to sleep together.”

Chadwick’s lips pursed in a straight line. It is indeed his responsibility to fulfill his wife’s sexual needs. However, he’s not ready to surrender his virginity to a woman he has just met. Everything is just a business between them, so he thought they wouldn’t interact that much. In addition, Chadwick believes it is wrong to have sex with someone he does not love.

Nevertheless, he has no plan to fall in love with Adira in the future. For now, he is finding an excuse to prevent it from happening.

“I have to apologize,” he said. “I can’t sleep with someone I don’t like romantically. Before we started this relationship, I believed both sides clarified that our wedding would remain a business.”

Adira nodded her head as if she understood him.

“So, go back to your room,” Chadwick commented.

However, the stubborn wife stayed in her position.

Seeing Adira’s suspicious gaze on him, Chadwick asked, “W-What? Do you have more to say?”

“Well, I was thinking of another reason you are so afraid to sleep with me. And I thought of one thing.”

“What is it?”

Adira glanced at his lower body, there at his center. Then, she dropped, “Your thing is small. Right?”

$Chapter 3

“Your thing is small. Right?”

Your thing is small, right?

…thing is small, right?

…is small, right?

…small, right?

..right?

Adira’s question echoed in the clear and quiet night.

It was a starry night sky with a cold wind gushing westward. Reports told nothing about the possible eruption of any volcanoes worldwide.

Yet, when Chadwick heard Adira’s question about the most precious thing in his body, he felt as if a sharp lightning cracked in the sky, and he listened to a thunder booming inside his head, molten him in anger. His temper peaked like a volcano about to erupt in its enormous rage.

“I can handle that, I think,” Adira said, nodding while looking at Chadwick’s center. “But how small is it? Can you give me a hint so I can be prepared?”

A fresh swell of rage rose, and Chadwick gritted his teeth. The fury is twisting his stomach and blurring his ability to think straight.

Catching his breath with his wide-opened mouth, he grabbed the pillow and held it tightly with his trembling hand.

When he pursed his lips, he started biting his lower lip, and he ignored the pain in the flesh inside his mouth until it felt numb.

‘If only she is a man… If only she is a man!’ Chadwick chanted these inwardly while imagining how relieving it would be to hit her face with a pillow. He really wanted to, but he won’t. He cannot. He must not.

He is not a violent person, to begin with.

However, the question is enough to stir up his last inch of patience.

When Adira saw her husband’s sour expression, red face, and veins popping out from his neck, she couldn’t stop the laugh from bursting out of her lips.

“Pfft…” she let out loud chuckles and covered her mouth.

Wordlessly, Chadwick watched Adira. A scowl marred his handsome face. He couldn’t believe that she could even dare to laugh at him.

He wanted to say that his thing isn’t small. But if he does, he fears hell will fall from her trap.

‘Damn it!’ Chadwick cursed while gawking at Adira.

Holding her intense belly, Adira wiped her teary eyes. Chadwick can’t tell if she’s being serious or only teasing him. Either way, he had already cursed her inside his head. He did it about three times, and he never felt satisfied.

Adira stared at the threatening bloodthirstiness on his red face. Then, she felt the low temperature inside the room.

‘He’s really mad. Shoot,’ Adira laughed internally.

She forged a cough and said, “I was only joking. Seeing that you don’t want to do it with me tonight, I won’t force you anymore.”

‘But that does not mean I won’t return,’ Adira added.

She smiled at him with the beam of a cat playing with a mouse; then she turned around. But Chadwick dropped a question with his keen edge voice before she could step away.

“Do you like me?”

The question he tossed was so sharp, like swords that can pierce a neck.

Adira stared vacantly. It was just that the question bewildered her so much that she lost the sense of direction for the moment. Blinking swiftly, Adira tilted her head to her husband, who suddenly spoke of nonsense.

“Did you fall for me because I am handsome?” he asked her again.

He is handsome. Yes, that is true. A big CHECK. His good looks were a hot topic in the business world, as he was called the most handsome and youngest CEO ever, even way back before. Adira once saw that article in the magazine.

Now, looking at him, Adira observed his face.

Chadwick has cat-like eyes, rounded in the base and sharp in the end. Then his nose is pointed and thin, but not something that can cut an onion. He has straight brows that are always marred in front of Adira and cupid bow lips in which both corners have elevated shapes, making him look like a gorgeous large car.

But to fall for him just because of his looks?

Adira thinks her husband suffers from an ‘I am handsome, and I know it’s a disease.

A lot of handsome men tried to woo Adira. Some are celebrities, others are athletes, and most are rich conglomerate sons of billionaires. However, no one preceded to swoon over the CEO of the Crimson and Meadow company. No one.

And Chadwick, her husband, won’t be her exemption. Even if he is the most handsome man in the world, Adira can’t imagine herself falling for him just because of his looks.

“I did not fall for you,” she uttered with chuckles. “But if we share our genes, our future baby would be grateful.”

Chadwick’s brows tangled in a deep accusatory scowl, an attitude as cold as an executioner’s ax.

He repeated the surprising word inside his head again and again.

‘Baby? Baby? Baby?’

Until it processed in his mind.

“The reason I wanted to have sex with you is to get pregnant,” Adira explained. “I am turning 32 this year. So, before it gets too late, I wanted to have a baby.”

Actually, Chadwick did not expect her to offer this to him. Aside from her age, they also got married only to resolve the current business problems in their companies, and soon, they might divorce.

‘Why would she like to have my kid when there’s a chance we will separate soon?’ he wondered.

“So, you wanted to get pregnant, that’s all?”

“You got my point, honey.”

Chadwick scratched his head while blinking his eyes swiftly, quite dumbfounded.

“But I don’t like to do it with you. What to do?” he asked, raising one of his brows.

“You aren’t worrying about who will inherit your company?”

“No. My older brother has children. My nephews can inherit the company,” he answered.

“Woah, this is commendable. It is rare to see someone who does not have greed for power.”

“So, you should stop using me to fulfill your goal. There are still other ways for you to get pregnant,” he suggested. “And you can also adopt a kid.”

Brushing her red hair upward, Adira responded with a sneer.

“Do you think my father, who set me up for an arranged marriage for the company's sake, will accept a child whose blood came from an unknown man? Hmmm?”

Chadwick could not respond. The answer is obvious.

“If that really happened, then the child would only suffer. So, getting pregnant in this way is my only chance. When you are ready, just feel free to tell me. Okay? I will give you the privilege of choosing whose bed you want. My bed or your bed.”

Adira winked at her husband. When she turned around, her long crimson hair fluttered. She exited the room, leaving the flowery scent of lavender.

Staring at the closed door, Chadwick soon caught his face with his palms and roughly washed it up and down. He really expected it would be easy to live with his wife as long as she was Adira Hale. But he only realized that he was wrong a little bit too late.

“She is… a crazy woman,” he mumbled in a low voice.

He felt his phone vibrating while he was falling into deep thoughts of regrets about this marriage.

Isa sent him a text message.

[“I am so sorry, Chadwick. Perhaps, did you fight with your wife because of me?”]

After reading the text, Chadwick took a deep breath and lay on his bed.

“I don’t even know if that is a fight or what,” he mumbled.

-- -- - -- - - -- - - -- - -- -- - - -- -- -- - - - - -- - -

The following day came.

The golden ray of sunshine brushed Adira’s porcelain face. It woke her up from her sweet abyss.

With a stretch, she welcomed the morning with a groan, “Ahhhhhh Hmmm.”

Today is her first morning living with her husband under the same roof. Usually, newlywed women wanted to fulfill their longtime dream of cooking their husbands’ breakfast on their first morning as a married couple in their new house. Yet, Adira doesn’t belong to that group.

Why would she cook for Chadwick?

She knows that Chadwick will do his best to avoid her as mus as possible. So, it will be a waste of time to cook for him. In addition to that, what Adira wanted was to seduce him in bed but not to make him fall in love with her.

Relishing her spare time to stare at the blank space, Adira yawned.

She stared at nothing for many minutes before deciding to start her day.

Her plan? To do her daily routine, working as the diligent leader, the CEO of Crimson Meadow company.

Waking up late won’t ever be in Adira’s dictionary. Just like what everyone who knows Adira is aware of, she hates people wasting their time by being irresponsible at work. In other words, she wanted to be a diligent and punctual leader, and being Chadwick’s wife won’t hinder that.

With enough time left, Adira walked out of her room. She is still wearing the thin, silky crimson bathrobe she wore last night. The less fabric she wears, the more comfortable she feels in her sleep.

“Ahhhh, my shoulder is aching,” she groaned while walking to the kitchen. “Maybe I am getting older.”

Sighing, Adira stopped her pace and glanced at her husband’s room.

They are both CEO of two different companies. Therefore, she wondered if he had already left for work or if he was still in the middle of preparing.

“If that weird man is up, I bet one million dollars that he won’t walk out of his room because he does not want to bump into me,” she chuckled. “This holy romantic v*rgin.”

Adira addressed him as ‘Virgin’ not because she’s not one of the clubs. She does not have any experience too. Not even one. Yet, it is so confusing for her that Chadwick does not give in to temptation.

“My sleepwear is too revealing. But he did not bat an eye,” Adira complained nonchalantly while looking at her huge clothed bre*st.

Clicking her tongue, she arrived at the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator when suddenly, she heard the doorbell.

Ding dong~ Ding dong!~

She closed the door of the refrigerator and looked at the door.

‘Who is crazy enough to visit our home this early morning?’ she wondered, tilting her head.

Thinking how odd it is to have a guest as a married couple on their first day together in their new house, Adira approached the security camera.

On the screen of the security camera, she saw a cute woman standing in front of the door.

“She looks very familiar,” Adira murmured.

She narrowed her eyes to the image of the familiar woman until she recognized who she was.

“Ahhhhhh, I know now,” she gasped.

The woman who came is the person she saw during their wedding. She’s the enthusiastic and brave lady who waved at Chadwick during the wedding ceremony.

‘And also, the woman calling my husband last night,’ Adira added inwardly.

“Isa Daley,” Adira whispered to the woman whom her husband has feelings for. “So, it is my husband’s visitor.”