A Vow So Beautiful

"A game?" Prisana incredulously asked, wishing she could throw the pool cue at his infuriating grin. "You seriously want to play a game right now, when your lovely wife is begging to be taken?"

"That's exactly why. We're still strangers. You're my wife now, so I want to know you more. They do say, you learn more about your partner when you play a game together so indulge with me."

"Do you know how to play?" he asked, cleaning the cue with a small white sponge.

"Yes but..." she followed how incredibly breathtaking his attention to detail was as he cleaned the pool cue. "What on earth are you planning?"

"When I said I was going to make love to you, I didn't specify in bed."

"Oh," came her stunned response.

"The cruel beast in me wants stories but he also wants delicious foreplay watching as his lynx suffers with need."

"Cruel beast you really are!"

So he wanted to make love to her here?

She looked around the game room and felt odd as they've only ever made love in bed so this was something forlorn to her. Her mind wandered to where exactly they would make love. The ground? But it would hurt her back and he didn't seem the type to be that cruel.

The couch she sat on? That seemed like the most reasonable place. As she looked to the couch, she was brought back to more pressing matters. Her dress fell downstairs when she untied it completely off as she thought they would dive straight into love making.

Prisana was painfully aware now that she was exposed and only covered by her thin black undergarments so her arms snaked up to hug her body. It didn't help that his heated and intense gaze kept making her more blushed and more moist in her sensitive spot she didn't want to admit to.

"I've already seen everything there is to see so why do you feel shy?"

"The thing is, I'm the only one naked because I thought we were going to do...bad things."

"What kind of bad things do you want me to do to you?"

She licked her lips as she took in her fully clothed beast. What sort of bad things did she want him to do to her? Oh, all sorts of things where he took her to bliss every time. Prisana looked him in the eye as she imagined what exactly kind of bad things he would do to her. She imagined, that he was right beside her and not so far away.

First and foremost she wanted him to go easy on the kissing. Her lips were still bruised beyond saving. After a few light kisses, she would offer her body to him as he would expertly touch along her breasts and wet core both at the same time until she would be panting with need for him to be inside of her.

Their bodies would at last meld passionately under a beautiful rhythm.

He broke the spell and flickered his gaze over to the pool table. Frowning, she reluctantly grabbed hold of the pool cue he handed to her and stood across from him.

"The rules are simple. If you make a shot, you get to ask the question and the other person has to answer honestly. But if you miss..." his fiery gaze roamed over her already bare body from head to toe. "If you miss, then you have to take off one piece of clothing until you're completely bare."

"But that's hardly fair!" she gestured at her black bra and undies. "I already took off my dress and you're still fully—What are you doing?"

Dane tossed away his suit jacket at her complaints and proceeded to loosen his black tie until it fell at his feet. God, even the way he loosened his tie and shook it loose to reveal hints of his glorious chest muscles was simple yet alluring. He made sure to slip off his shoes and socks. Now, he stood before her in his white collared shirt and black dress pants.

"There. Now we're even," Dane said as he gestured with a hand of courtesy. "Ladies first."

Prisana gulped down the air and shamefully extended her arms with the pool cue as she aimed for the white ball. Her bare and naked body was forgotten altogether as she focused seriously on her aim. She struck the ball as it hit the triangle of balls in all directions. A green striped ball fell into the hole and she squealed as she silently mouthed a 'yes!'.

He chuckled at her enthusiasm and she coughed under her breath.

"You should be afraid that you are playing against me. Alright so," she pondered over what to ask but her body moved over to him as the question was already made up in her mind.

Prisana's hands trailed over his brown jagged scar and this time he flinched but he remained still under her intense gaze. How ironic. She believed that he was her beast in shining armor but in truth he was a wounded animal and needed saving just as much as she did.

"That scar...How did you get it?"

"A house fire. You can say it was an...accident of sorts," came his quick and dark reply and Prisana couldn't find it in herself to push further.

Dane's large and muscular body with arms stretched out wide resembled a Greek god statue as he intently focused his aim on the colored balls. His concentration leveled to the corner of the bold red, and velvet interior of the pool table. He slowly withdrew the pool cue and then struck it against the white ball.

The white ball first hit the corner and then it scored two balls down the hole simultaneously. Her eyes widened as she realized he expertly hit the corner on purpose to kill two pool balls with one strike.

"Two questions. The first one...That day three months ago, why did you leave?"

Prisana looked past him, to the wall. To tell beautiful truths to her husband of a stranger, she was hesitant. Hesitant because when she told him, she didn't want to rely on him for her troubles. When time came, she would have to be brave and face them on her own.

"My father and Giovanni have endless means to find and capture me to save their image or further their objectives. Even now," Prisana shuddered. "I know they have men looking for me and they won't stop until I face them head on."

"Let me face them for you," came his dark and terrifying voice.

"No!" she shouted, lowering her voice. "No. You've done enough. I'm using you for protection and shelter already. I have to be the one to do this or my demons won't ever rest."

A brilliant idea surfaced into her head.

"When is the next time you will attend one of those gaudy candidate functions?"

"This upcoming weekend."

"Perfect. Your lovely wife will attend too."

"But—"

"Are you afraid of your image being tarnished? The media and the public speculating our whirlwind of a marriage? The CEO of silver linings going against the senator may put all that you aim for, at great stake."

"Of course not. I could give a damn about any of that."

"That's what I thought. My husband is fearless," she said with a knowing and satisfied grin.

Regarding her husband's little smile that lifted at the corner of his lips, she knew she had gotten her way with him.

"Fine. Do as you wish. Next question. Why did you run from your vows?"

"...Giovanni always loved other women. I think I tried so hard to believe that we could still be happy after marriage but when he loved my best friend and sister, it opened my eyes to ugly truths that I couldn't bare to live in them anymore."

She was a little worried about how he would take it but his expression never betrayed how he was feeling inside. Only his next words stirred her heart for she didn't wish to tell him the ugly truth.

"Did you love him?" he asked and to that question, she remained silent as the air thickened with indescribable tension.

"It's my turn now," Prisana interrupted his question as she aimed for the purple stripe ball.

Prisana missed and suddenly, she felt a shiver trickle down her spine as his impatient eyes raked over her bra and her undies. Her hands slowly hovered above both her bra and undies as she was unsure of which to take off first.

His continuous stare nerved her as it caused her to tremble a bit in embarrassment. The lights were so bright and her imperfections were shed to light for him to see but the beast before her wouldn't show her any mercy.

"What will it be?"