A Bride for my Mate

9. The Virginity race.

Why? Why? Why?

Spirits! Why is my head blank?

"Amy?" Mia is at her impatient best today "I'm waiting"

"I....I don't know" I said when nothing came up.

"What do you mean you don't know?" she frowned.

"I'm as clueless as you are" I decided to feign innocence "I was with you on the phone when I walked in. Imagine the shock I went into when I saw him waiting here for me" I omitted the part where he was half naked. The details don't matter.

I hate lying. No, it's not a moral issue. I simply have a very poor memory so it's hard for me to keep a track of what I told whom. So even if I lie, I keep things close to the truth. Omitting things and keeping my mouth shut is usually the way I go about life.

"That still doesn't explain why he cares so much about your safety" I'm going to tell Sophie that she's my best and only friend the next time I meet her.

"How am I supposed to know?" I hissed glaring at her "You seem to hold onto that effectively forgetting that he threatened to punish me later"

"Oh!" she mellowed down "That's weird"

"Weird?"

"Yeah! His threat" she explained "It was so personal"

"Of course it's just me he holds a grudge against" I nodded.

"No" She shook her head thoughtfully. I hate it when Mia goes into her thinking-monkey mode "It was like he is so focused on what you did that he couldn't see the entire picture. His threat was personal in the sense that he wants to have a one-on-one with you when he could have easily taken the dirty routes like legal notices or give a blow to our business but he chose to come here and fix your window. How do you not find that weird?"

"Oh!" was all I could say "What do you think he's trying to do?" I asked trying to sound worried.

She plopped down on the couch near us and tapped the seat next to her for me. I warily took my seat waiting for the next bomb to drop.

"You can be so clueless sometimes Amy. You poke your nose into everyone's business but fail to notice the eyes that are on you" Sure, if you insist. I bit the inside of my cheek to hold back a snicker "I have learned a few tricks in the four years I have worked for our dating agency"

"Mating"

"What?"

"Ours is a mating agency not dating" I corrected her.

"Yes that" she waved it away with a swat of her hand "That man was definitely focused on you the three times I met him. That could mean two things. One, he holds a personal grudge that's older than this incident. Two, you are important to him. Which one is it?"

I shrugged "I don't know"

"You are so useless" Mia said in distaste "Let's go find out" she stood up pulling me up by my wrist.

"Wait. Find what?" I asked as she opened the door "You think he likes me?"

That stooped her. She turned to me "Why would you assume that?" she asked incredulously "He's a predator. I was thinking more in the line of 'you look like a dead relative or friend' you know. Someone he had a soft spot for"

"Like his grandmother or something like that?" I asked trying to make a joke out of the situation even though Arthur has literally thrown this at me. This is his punishment and I feel helpless against it.

I have always been scared of him not because he would hurt me physically but because he always finds ways of getting under my skin. He always has something on me to keep me in check. This time he's using my friend and the worst thing is that I don't even know where he wants to take this. Is he going to give up now that I've convinced Mia or does he really want her to know about us? What's his end goal?