Second Arrangement

CHAPTER 36 - SURPRISE GONE WRONG

JACKSON

I looked at Ellie's flushed state proudly. Her lips were swollen like she was thoroughly being kissed. And underneath her sundress, I knew that there were marks scattered all over her body, courtesy of yours truly. That way, no men would dare to make any moves. It was a miracle she was single until I met her. Perhaps I should thank her for being so focused on her career that she never cared for her love life before she had to meet me. Otherwise, it wouldn't be me that was sitting here next to her. Grabbing her hand and giving it a light squeeze, I returned her smile before putting the blindfold on her again.

"Again?" She grunted. "What's the point of blindfolding me at this point? Sooner or later I will find out about it. We're about to land, if you forget about it."

"Yeah," I made sure that the blindfold really covered her eyes. "But that's the point. My surprise isn't until later, so I don't want you to make any guess until you arrive on the spot that I want you to be."

But, it wasn't Ellie that she didn't try to get on my nerves. Plus, she had a very brilliant brain, and it never slept. From the moment the plane landed and I guided her down the stairs off the plane, she has been using her senses to guess where we headed. She could easily guess that it was a tropical place since the weather was hot and humid, despite wearing a light sundress. Then, along the way, inside the car, she insisted on opening the window at some point, thus she could hear the crashing waves outside the car. She guessed that we were at a tropical beach somewhere. Luckily, she didn't manage to catch the locals' conversation or it would be the end of my surprise. Even though I was a language genius, she was not far behind. She might not be able to speak other languages as quickly as I did, but she could detect the language.

"Are we there yet?" I chuckled as this was the third time she was asking the same question already.

"You know what," I said in an amused tone. "If your coworkers see you like this, they will think that someone else is inside that body of yours. Not the usual Ellie."

She blindly smacked the space beside her, hoping that she could smack my arm, but luckily she missed by an inch. "Well, in case you didn't know, we surgeons are not the most patient people on earth. In fact, patience might be at the bottom of our traits."

"Yeah, that's clear," I chuckled as she pouted. "But I have to say, be patient. We will be there in five minutes. Just hold on a bit longer. We're pulling in the place as we speak," I decided to narrate our trip so she would stop asking where we were anymore. "Look, the car will stop here," I told her as the car came to a halt. "But we have to walk for a little bit more," I put her hand on my forearm and guided her out of the car carefully, protecting her head from the hood of the car with my free hand to make sure she didn't bump her head before pulling her away from the car.

"That's right... one step at a time," I told her. "Okay, two steps down, be careful...," I warned her and helped her count so she wouldn't miss a step and fell down. "Now, you can walk straight again. Just a couple meters and we'll arrive at our destination."

Luckily, she decided to shut her mouth and trusted me completely. I stopped at the right spot and turned her body around, putting my hands on her shoulder as I leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "Now, I will take off the blindfold on count of three, and then you can open your eyes."

One... two...three, I counted slowly and lifted the blindfold off her eyes. It took her a couple seconds to adjust her eyes and when she could see clearly, all she could see was a big bright blue ocean ahead.

"Where are we?" She turned to face me as she couldn't guess where we were. After all, all she could see was the sea, the beach, and the cottages. No other people in sight. Yet.