Beautifully Disturbed | ✓

[41]

Laila's POV

I didn't expect him to avoid the question, to be honest. I thought he'd have at least one family member he looks up to.

This has to either mean he doesn't have a good relationship with anyone in his family or he doesn't have good memories related to them.

Also, the fact that he's shirtless is increasingly distracting and I can't focus anymore.

"Do you like what you see?" He asks with a smug smile.

"No. Okay, my turn!" I smirk.

"You sneaky Kitten!" He attacks me by rolling me onto the bed, pinning my hands down with his body hovering over mine.

"You asked a question! Rules are rules!" I laugh uncontrollably as he softly tickles my neck.

He slides off of me and sits back down in his spot. "Go ahead."

"Who are you really?" I ask.

He raises his brows in astonishment at the question.

"I mean, who is behind the mask that you show to the rest of the world? Who's the real Alexander Romano?" I try to clarify what I'm trying to say.

He simply just stands up and begins to take off his joggers.

I didn't know he wouldn't answer the question at all. I thought he'd say something snarky like, who I am isn't your business or I'm whoever you see me to be.

"WAIT!" I panic as I see him undoing the string of his pants. "Oh my God, it's okay, you really don't need to take off anything else."

A wicked smile crosses his face. "I'm your husband, this isn't anything new to you. Besides, rules are rules."

I'm trying to look anywhere but at him.

"I n-need a glass of water." I walk around the bed to the table with a jug of water.

The second I turn around, I gasp. Alex is standing right behind me and I didn't even hear him walking towards me.

"You scared me!" I say as I try to catch my breath.

He holds both my hands and intertwines his fingers through mine. Suddenly, he rests his temple on mine, his eyes intensely staring into mine, searching for something.

My heart begins to beat faster and faster, my breaths becoming shorter and shorter.

"If you could as the Devil a question, what would it be?" He asks in a low, raspy tone.

"I d-don't understand..." my words come out strained from the lack of stable oxygen.

"What if he's standing right in front of you right now?" He presses his nose against mine, our lips inches apart.

"W-what do you m-mean?" Is he talking about... himself?

"You know exactly what I mean, Laila." His eyes never leaving mine.

I almost squirm under his gaze. What an odd question to ask... what will he get out of this? Is it kind of haram answering such a question? Honestly, I have no clue.

But I'm pretty sure he's referring to himself when he asked the question because of the emotion he put into it. I'm not a 100% sure...

Well, I don't plan on taking off any part of my clothes so...

"I... I'd ask him about his side of the story. It'd be interesting to see what he thinks actually happened. What really made the way he is, what really triggered his behaviour..." I answer if I were telling him how I felt about him opening up to me about himself.

"You'd be willing to hear his side? Even though he's so destructive and you're so..." He whispers the incomplete sentence.

This is definitely about him. I didn't go through over 6 years of schooling in psychology to not be able to catch this behaviour.

"Yes, of course. How else would I understand him or his story? I'm not a mind reader." I reply.

His eyes, they looks so... sad. Almost like a child lost in a world of corruption. This is an emotion I've never seen him portray, it's heartbreaking seeing him like this.

I softly place my hand on his cheek and caress it with my thumb.

At this very moment, I forgot about everything. I forgot about all the pain, all the trouble, all the imperfections of this relationship. Everything around me became a blur, except him. He's the only thing that I can see, crystal clear.

"Your turn." He breaks our gaze and takes a step back from me.

It takes me a few seconds to get a hold of myself and return to reality.

"Uh... I'll ask you the next question once you put your sweatpants back on." I say as I realize he's literally in his boxers.

He takes a seat on the bed. My God, he's definitely a very handsome man. It doesn't help that he's barely wearing clothes.

"I don't think I like wearing pants." He shrugs.

"Alex, please." I plead.

"No." He smirks.

"Then, I'm going back to—" He pulls me onto the bed before I can finish my sentence and I shriek in shock.

"A-Alex!" I start laughing as he tickles the living daylights out of me.

"You were saying? You were going back where?" He grins as he continues tickling me.

"S-Stop... Alex stop... I f-forfeit, y-you win... k-keep your pants off... just stop tickling me!" I say in between my uncontrollable laughter.

"I'd hope you say that." He stops tickling me and rolls off to my side.

He tugs up the blanket over the both of us since it was starting to get a little cold. Maybe he should just put his clothes back on, I think.

"Come here." He pulls me against his chest and we lay like that, without saying a word.

I snuggle in closer to his chest. Somehow, I'm always so relaxed when I'm in his arms, it feels like home.

He brushes my hair behind my ear. His fingers trace my cheeks until they find their way to my lips. He uses his thumb to softly stroke my bottom lip, he can literally drive me insane with the smallest of touches.

We lay like for a few minutes before I suddenly had the urge to say something.

"You know... I didn't want to marry a doctor..." I say.

His body stiffens slightly from hearing my words.

- - -

A/N: sorry for the short chapter!

There's a question everyone keeps asking, I'll answer it below:

Q: how often will you be updating?
A: I'm trying to update every day (around 12:00 PM EST) until school starts again (it starts next Monday!). Hopefully, I can keep up!

Please vote and comment and let me know how y'all feel!!