Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 225: Know Your Enemies

"You learn fast, seems I won’t have to worry about you too much." Andrew said with a measured tone, his eyes shining with mirth as he stared at her.

Anne who had been forced to wear Andrew’s coat clutched the smooth fabric of the coat that felt like warm silk against her fingers. It was so soft and yet bouncy in a luxurious way that one would find it hard to believe a man with rough edges like Andrew was the person wearing something so breathable and soft.

"You...worry about me?" Anne found herself asking, her mind highlighting that one word out of his whole statement.

His pink tinged, full yet tempting lips quirked up slightly, showing a light smirk as he leaned his back against his swiveling chair appraising her with his deep eyes.

"You’re like a mouse captured in a den of vipers, gullible as mice can be they might not sense the presence of the predator waiting to tear them apart, wouldn’t you be worried too?" His words were measured, tinged with a tiny hint of humor and a hint of something dark underneath.

"But I’m not a mouse, and I wouldn’t willingly walk into a den of vipers."

He tilted his head to the side as he replied, "Really? Yet here you are working in a company like SE, over the course of a few months you’ve been tangled in several scandals that circulated the whole company, in a place like this, how can you know your enemy and how will you know a friend?"

Anne suddenly seemed to have nothing to say, her mouth opened and closed and no words came out.

He might actually be right?

Several times her name had been dragged around the company for no reason at all, and everytime she became a target of criticism, judgement and hate from people who didn’t even know her.

"Even if that’s true, I managed to survive it all didn’t I? And you saw just now, I know who my enemies are."

Anne wasn’t surprised that Andrew seemed to be aware of the fact that Clara disliked her. He was a very perceptive man, and she doubted if Clara’s little act which always managed to fool others would work on him.

He probably just ignored her little play before because it had nothing to do with him, but Clara believed he fell for her, maybe somewhere in her heart she actually believed that he might admire her.

Anne didn’t know what Andrew’s thoughts were, nor did she know how he felt about Clara, but she was very certain he didn’t think favorably of her. It was evident in the eyes of others, whether she was there or not, he just didn’t care, but perhaps the person in question wouldn’t see it.

When one had feelings for someone, they would mostly be blind to reality and take the other person’s words and actions in a different way, that was because their feelings for that person always made them desperately wished the person felt the same, so they would translate the person’s attempt at keeping a distance as a sign of suppressed love, they could even go further as to translate that person’s rejection as hidden love.

It was specifically why people said love was always delusional, and it was that delusion Anne wanted to avoid.

She didn’t want to analyze his words or actions towards her because subconsciously, her heart might want to begin seeing the things it wished to see and not really what existed in reality.

One smile her way and her heart might conclude he liked her, one action of kindness and her heart would soar with the thoughts that he might be in love with her. That was because her heart yearned for it to be true.

It was the very same thing Clara was experiencing now. Anne already figured out that Clara had feelings for Andrew, it was evident in her eyes, evident in her actions towards him and to the third person’s perspective, they could clearly see that Andrew felt nothing for her, but to Clara’s own perspective she might believe there was hope.

She might cling onto one single glance from him, one single stare, and if that never happens she would go on to cling onto the possibilities of it happening someday.

It was the very reason Clara still returned to Andrew despite him being carelessly dismissive to her everytime.

"Knowing your enemies is the very first step, I’ll give you that as a bonus point." Andrew’s voice suddenly cut through to her. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

He pulled his gaze away from her, fixing it down to his computer, his fingers moving over keys carefully as he continued to speak,

"Knowing your enemy and fighting back only makes them angrier, they’re going to want to come for you. Whatever you do, don’t let them trample all over you, if that happens I won’t be able to hold myself back from hurting someone." The cold note in his tone seemed to affect the temperature, the air around instantly chilling and it had nothing to do with the AC, Anne felt a rush of nerves, a somewhat strange anxiety from his hard words at the same time her heart trembled, skipping several beats at a time.

It wasn’t his exact words that had that effect on her, it was the firm protectiveness within them. It felt as if she mattered, her well being, her emotions, her in general, it felt like she mattered to him, and that tiny voice in her mind jumped in elation pushing her to ask,

"Why does it matter to you if anyone tramples over me, you never cared, did you?" The final part of her question seemed to hold a hopeful hint.

As she asked this question, her heart began to beat faster, so fast she almost felt the urge to hold her hand against the left side of her chest out of fear that it would burst through her ribs.

This feeling was akin to someone who had gone and made a confession of their feelings to their crush, waiting and hoping they would reciprocate.

He fixed his gaze on her, several fast fleeting emotion danced over those dark eyes not giving her a chance to be able to pick one and decipher his thoughts.

"You’re my wife, what makes you think you won’t matter to me?"

Anne suddenly felt her heart jolt at the words.

He said it again, and her heart seemed to be keeping track of the number of times she had heard him call her that, his wife.

Anne inexplicably felt like her blood had turned warmer, and if one touched her skin, they would feel the heat.

"I’m your wife on contract, in our kind of marriage, you don’t care about what happens to me, and I shouldn’t care about what happens to you either. You called it...crossing the line."

Anne almost thought she saw his broad shoulders flinch slightly at her reply, as if what she said had jabbed at him in a way that caused him pain. She quickly looked away from his face, forcing herself not to try and decipher his thoughts from his expression, it was dangerous waters she couldn’t allow herself thread into, a place that could make her develope delusions just because her heart desperately wished he cared for her too.

If she should believe anything had changed about their relationship, it had to be from straightforward words spoken by him. The temptation to think about his recent actions towards her was strong, he kissed her more warmly these days, and sometimes fiercely as if he wanted to devour her, it could be nothing else but lust but if she thought about it she would...

"Come here." The silence suddenly being broken made her flinch, realizing she had let herself get lost in her thoughts again.

His eyes burned with an intense, almost palpable energy. He waited patiently for her to come to him and Anne began to take hesitant steps forward rounding the table until she was next to him, but without her expecting it he suddenly grabbed her hand and yanked her towards him in a way that was not too forceful till she had fallen into his arms finding herself sitting right on his lap.

She was taken aback for a moment, eyes wide open in shock at how he was holding her, with her sitting on his lap right inside the office that her eyes subconsciously drew towards the door as if looking if someone would suddenly barge in.

"What are you... someone could walk right in." She exclaimed in a tiny voice, her body already betraying her when she felt the warmth of being so close to him, the urge to lean against him, close her eyes and savor being in his arms was hard to resist.

"Let them come." He said, searching her eyes with something one could only describe as tenderness in his gaze.

Wanting to be close to someone was a sign of love, and lately he seemed to enjoy holding her a lot, what if he...

’Shut up Anne!’ she instantly silenced her thoughts, closing her eyes to push them away, a second later she opened her eyes and decisively tried to stand up but that only made him press her waist down just as she tried to stand, then without waiting for her words of protest to rush out of her mouth he sealed his lips with hers rapidly, his mouth powerfully encaging her own as if the fiercely hot way his mouth moved over her own could say something to her.