บท 18: A Lesson

Even though he broke the kiss, Demetri continued to hold her face, caressing her gently. To Nora, it felt as if he was trying to calm an agitated pet. Meeting his assured gaze with her own confused one, she spoke slowly," I do not understand..."

It was unclear to her what she did not comprehend. Her reaction to him, his reason for initiating the kiss or her reluctance to break off the kiss.

Slowly, he explained," You are young. There is a significant age difference between us. We've had different lives and experiences. Someone in my position...it is expected that I would have a few conquests, for lack of a better word, under my belt."

"Very soon, you will be introduced as my wife to the world. Your youth and inexperience will be your biggest enemy and threat to the act we intend to pull off. Any show of weakness and the vultures will pounce on it, wanting to tear you apart. The people, whom I intend to deceive will not give you any consideration unless they firmly believe that I am deeply in love with you."

"They will attempt to make you doubt yourself. Instil the belief that my feelings for you are not genuine. That I am only interested in your body and there is no love. Fortunately, the contract clarifies this unpleasant outcome, and we do not need to truly love each other and endure pain. However, they will scrutinize us and our interactions like eagles."

"If you flinch even a second at my touch, they will know it and there will be rumours about trouble in our paradise. So, you have to not just get used to me touching you but also learn how to initiate intimacy. Consider this, just now, a lesson in intimacy. Your experience is limited to your ex-fiancé, a boy who was barely out of his adolescence, but you have to put on an act with me... you need to be prepared..."

Nora blinked at the explanation before she felt mortified. She had actually been so immersed in the kiss, that she had totally forgotten herself while he was merely giving her a lesson. As her face reddened with a blush, she tried to think of a way to quickly recover from her mistake.

On the one hand, she wanted to snap at him for taking liberties but on the other, she knew she couldn't blame him. He had already mentioned an expectancy of physical intimacy and she had even assured him that she was capable of acting as his lover.

"I... appreciate your honesty... I'll try my best to assimilate to you as soon as possible." Nora gave him a bright smile, trying to look as normal as possible. She would analyse her treacherous responses later.

He nodded, "Thank you." As he would have moved away from her, however, she quickly crossed her ankles behind his back. Demetri's eyes widened a bit in surprise but the reaction was quickly masked while Nora spoke," I think we should click some pictures as well. A normal couple would take selfies. I can upload the pictures on my socials as well..."

She tapered off when he stared at her and slowly started to unwind her legs. He caught her knee before she could shift and nodded slowly. Slowly, she pulled out her phone and throwing one arm around his neck, brought them cheek to cheek.

Holding the camera high so that it would capture their intimate position, she clicked a photo. In a matter of minutes, the man had moved away from her with a curt goodbye.

It was only later as she stared at the picture that she had been as red as a tomato. And even though, Demetri was his own expressionless self, he was extremely photogenic... And they looked good together.

Quickly, she grabbed a pop tart, her choice of breakfast that she had bought yesterday and raced to her room. First, she needed to analyse *The Kiss*.

Nora hurried to her room and threw herself face down on the bed. She had only kissed Antonio a few times. And all those had been initiated by him. The first time her lips had met his wet ones, she had been shocked and a bit discomforted. Everything had happened too suddenly and she had been unprepared.

The next time they were alone together, she had expected that and even tried to mentally prepare herself. And would have even termed it a pleasant experience but then Antonio had decided to take it further and slipped his hand under her t-shirt making her jump.

And then he had blamed her for breaking off the atmosphere. She'd had to continuously coax him and apologize to him, trying to explain that she had just not expected that kind of intimacy.

Later, in her discussions with Isabella, her friend told her how kissing was not as appealing as the books made it out to be. She'd described her numerous experience with kissing from it feeling like being sucked by a vacuum clear to her boyfriend drooling all over her face.

Hearing the horror stories had actually comforted her, making her feel as if she was not the only one feeling gross. However, after hearing the horror stories, she had started to shy away from kissing and had always tried to make sure that there wouldn't be many opportunities. Eventually, though she'd learned to accept his kisses and caresses, assuring herself that she would come to enjoy them slowly. They would learn together. As for their being together, she had insisted that she would only do that if they were married. Was that why he had proposed marriage to her? So that she could get to sleep with her. No, she was not going to ruin this moment by thinking of these things.

She needed to think of Demetri Frost and how he had changed her worldview with a single ki... umm lesson. It had been exhilarating. She almost forgot her promise to not tell Isabella anything about her current situation and wished she could gush about it. Experience really played a big role in these things... And the man seemed to have a lot of practice.