If This Is It (An Arranged Marriage Love Story)

Chapter 15: Why Egg Salad Sandwiches?

I woke up and sat right up. What time was it? I looked around the room and noticed that James's side was made. Seriously, what was going on with him? First, the goodnight kiss and now actually cleaning up for himself? What did I do right? I mean, what did I do? 

Casually glancing at the clock, my eyes widened. How could it be 12:00 pm already? I threw the covers off of me as I raced to the shower. 

James's POV:

 I sighed as I watched the fifth news broadcast of the morning. They just repeated themselves. It was getting annoying. The chef came in again, for the fifth time, sheepishly. "Sir, do you know what you and your lady would like for lunch?" 

I grimaced. "Sorry, Luke, she isn't up yet." 

He nodded reluctantly and began heading back to the kitchen. "Wait!" He turned around surprised. Enough was enough, I thought. "I'm going to go ask her." 

I was about to knock on our bedroom door when I noticed it was slightly opened. I peeked through to see Nicole standing in front of our closet in her towel. I bit back a groan as I watched her stand there. She was so undeniably sexy when she thought no one was watching. I forced myself not to laugh when I thought about how ridiculous that would've sounded if someone said that to me when I first met her. 

Before she could change or anything, not that I would mind, I opened the door a bit more. "It's about time you woke up." She jumped about three feet in the air and turned to me with a scowl. "Geez, James, have you ever heard of knocking?" Her hand rested over her chest while the other held her clothes and towel tightly against her. 

I shrugged. "I am your husband." She shifted uncomfortably making me smile. "I came up here because I need to know what you want for lunch." She looked at me surprised as she nodded.

"Egg salad sandwiches." I scrunched up my nose as I looked at her.

"Are you serious?" 

Her eyes burned into mine. "Of course I'm serious! I ate them all the time at home." 

"Hey, I never said we wouldn't eat them for lunch. I just, never mind." I was actually stopping myself from picking a fight with her? WHAT WAS UP WITH ME?!

Her eyes became calm again as she stared at me quizzically. "What?" 

"Did you listen to a word I said?" 

I shook my head embarrassed. "No, sorry." 

"I asked if you were going to leave so I could change." 

I grinned dopily. "And why would I do that?" She kicked me and began yelling at me as I ran out the door. I laughed once I was down the hall a ways. She made that way too easy. 

Nicole's POV:

As we sat on the couch eating sandwiches, I stared at all the gifts we had to wrap. "Are you good at wrapping?" 

He nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm done eating. Should I get going?"

I stared at him like he was stupid. "Yeah!" 

As he began to wrap, I realized he had no idea what he was doing. Chuckling, I made my way over to him. 

"If we want any paper left after this gift, you better let me wrap while you help with the tape." He nodded and ran a hand through his hair before we switched places. 

As I watched him cut the paper, I began drooling at his muscular arm flexing. I shook my head and mumbled to myself as I turned to grab a bow. He raised an eyebrow.

"You alright?"

I gave a small smile. "Yeah, just rattling off the list of what's left in my head." 

He gave a short smile before getting back to work.

James's POV:

I caught a whiff of her hair as she reached across me to stick a bow on the gift. Ugh, and her hair was swept to her left shoulder showing me her tantalizing neck. I just want to dust kisses all the way down it.

She placed her hand on my knee as she pushed herself upright again. I tensed causing her to turn worriedly. "Is everything alright?" 

I stared at her plump lips and blue eyes for a moment before nodding feverishly. 

Nicole's POV:

We were now at our last gift and back to sitting on the couch. Writing our names with a coffee table as a hard surface was so much easier. "Merry Christmas! Love, James and-" 

"Nicole," he whispered in my ear sending shivers down my spine. 

I turned slowly to him to see his burning eyes. Before I could say anything, his lips were on mine, hungrily. I sighed as made my way from his lap to laying down on the couch. To say that our fiery tempers between each other equaled the passion we had for each other, was a complete understatement. 

"Hello?" an Irish voice called as it made it's way closer to us. James paused on my lips but stayed attached to me. 

"Oh there you two are." I shoved James so quick off of me that he yelped. We both looked up to see a grinning Rollin. "I was just dropping off my presents for everyone. I have to go home to be with the family tonight." 

He eyed us and probably sensed the tension because he said, "Well, don't let me stop you, I was just leaving." 

He did leave soon after but left the awkward feeling he had when he walked in with us.