It was our wedding night. But unlike most newly wedded brides, I was not looking forward to this night.

I stood looking out the floor-to-ceiling window dreading this moment. I wished this night was over and that tomorrow was here. I leaned sideways against the glass panel with my arms crossed in the dark; I didn't want the glares from the lights to prevent me from enjoying the beautiful night scenes outside of the penthouse. Darkness was the only thing giving me any sense of calm right now.

Today, I was forced to marry a guy I absolutely abhorred. He represented everything I hated—a player, a womanizer, a layabout, a wastrel and probably a cheater—pretty much a good-for-nothing kind of man.

He was what people would call 'the idle rich.' He probably never worked a day in his life and spent his father's money to cover his lavish lifestyle while chasing after women. At least that was how I would describe my newly wedded husband.

I frowned as I wondered if he would force me to share his bed tonight.

The sound of the door handle turning brought me out of my thoughts. I moved away from the window and turned to see the invader knowing full well who it was—Artemis Jame—my husband.

"So you've been hiding in here." His voice was playful and seductive. He flipped on the light switch and smirked as he walked confidently toward me.

Yes! I've been hiding in one of the four available bedrooms in this luxurious apartment hoping that you wouldn't care enough to look for me, I thought.

"Does that mean you couldn't wait to make our union official?" His teasing continued. He was wearing the same suit I had seen him in earlier this morning.

As much as I hated his arrogant egotistical demeanor, I hated how my body was responding to him more. My brain told me to despise him while my body was doing the exact opposite. My heart started beating fast and my insides doing flips as he got nearer.

While I stared at him, I grudgingly admitted that he must be the most handsome man I've ever met. His beautiful caramel eyes with specks of greens and a hint of mischief connected with my grey ones.

He stopped a few steps away and I couldn't help but gazed at his beautiful lips—a devilish smile still on his face.

I made myself look away before he managed to steal my soul. "We're officially married on paper. There's no need for you to be here right now to make it official." I said with finality even though I was trembling inside. I hoped he would leave me alone tonight; as for tomorrow, I will worry about that later. Right now, I could only plan a day at a time when it came to our sleeping arrangement.

"That's where you're wrong." His enchanting husky voice sounded closer as he took a few more steps. "You owe me an heir." He bent down and whispered in my ear—his hot breath sending shivers down my body.

My head snapped back to bravely glare at him. He seemed amused and unfazed and one corner of his mouth lifted up.

I loathed how he could make my stomach flips even with the slightest move he made. It was so infuriating! What was more infuriating was that he was well aware of him charms too. Damn this man!

"That wasn't in the contract!" I spat with less venom than I had hoped.

"Oh. I guaranteed you it is." He got closer and forced me back against the glass window. "But I'll explain that later because right now, we will be busy doing something more productive than talking." His tone held implications when he said the word 'productive.'

I tried to move away but he reached out and flattened both of his palms against the glass, imprisoning me between his hands. "Where do you think you're going?" He asked enticingly.

"I...I-I...Y-You..." I couldn't think straight with him being this close hovering over me like a predator playing with its prey before the kill. His tantalizing scent attacking my nostrils making me want to inhale deeper.

One of his hands moved away from the glass, captured my chin and lifted it so our eyes would meet. The eyes staring back at me were a foot above mine and they reflected the beautiful city lights behind me. I felt like looking at stars in the night sky—so mesmerizing. "You what sweetheart?" His lips curved. He was having fun with this game at my expense.

I jerked my head out of his grasp because my chin was being burnt by his touch. "Don't use the same endearment you used with your other conquests on me." I said agitatedly.

Why would I get angry over a word? It was just a word and yet it bothered me to think that he had used it on other women.

He chuckled. Even hearing this simple sound made my heart skipped a few beats. I was getting more annoyed at the fact that I couldn't even control my own body. "Is my sweet wife jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous? I don't even like you!" I challenged. I hoped he believed it because that sounded false even to my own ears. Ugh. I needed him to get away—the farther the better. The longer he was near, the more fuzzy my brain got.

With his one hand still planted on the window, he suddenly grabbed my waist with the other—the same hand that was holding my chin captive earlier.

My hands instinctively flew to his chest to push him away. "What do you think you're d..." His lips crashed into mine before I could finish.

As I pushed harder against his hard chest, his arm tightened more around my waist while his other one moved to hold the base of my head.

His lips were soft and he kissed me with urgency. My body pathetically gave up the fight and started to melt into his. I could feel him smile with satisfaction against my lips before he went back to kissing me.

He took his time on my bottom lip—pulling, sucking and gently biting—before moving on to my upper lip. My mouth slightly parted and he bent his head to kiss me deeper.

Even though my inexperienced lips didn't know how to kiss him back, my inexperienced hands moved up his chest and wrapped around his neck. I moaned softly. I never knew kissing could feel so good.

I would be extremely embarrassed at the sound I just made if I weren't so intoxicated. My body seemed to want more as my arms pulled tighter and I stood on tip toes to get closer to him if that were possible.

He chuckled against my lips and suddenly pulled back.

My brows furrowed as I slowly opened my eyes. He laughed at my disappointed look. With his arms still around my waist and mine now on his chest, he said smugly. "If I can't make you fall in love with me after one month, I'll give you a divorce without penalizing you for breaking the contract."

I pushed his arms away and he let them drop to his side without resistance. "What about my father's company?" I asked full of sorrow.

Our marriage contract stipulated that he would help my father's company from going bankrupt. It also specified that he wouldn't cheat on me or have any inappropriate relations with other women or else he would be penalized. The second condition applied to me as well, not that I would ever cheat on him.

"I will still help him even if we divorced." He said sincerely and I believed him.

His offer sounded good. If we divorced, no scratched that, when we divorced, he would still help my father's company. This was the reason why we got married in the first place—so my father wouldn't lose his company.

He was overconfident in his proposal. I was sure I'll win this bet and then I would be free from him.

"Deal!" I happily stuck out my hand and he took it while smiling cockily.

"Goodnight, wife." He said sultrily and then exited the room with the same confidence when he first came in.

I huffed in annoyance. There was no way in hell I would fall for a self-centered playboy like him.

Whether I fell for him or not, it would still be a win-win situation so I got nothing to lose.

My alarm went off at 6 in the morning. I groaned softly as I tried to turn off the annoying sound. Usually, I hated Mondays. Today, however, I welcomed it with open arms knowing that the dreadful Sunday was officially over. I smiled to myself as I got out of the king sized bed and walked into the connecting bathroom to get ready for school. I was extremely surprised and grateful that my skirt-chaser of a husband didn't force himself on me last night.

As I stared at myself through the bathroom mirror, images from last night's heated kiss came flooding back. My cheeks blushed a pretty pink while my fingertips gently grazed over my full bottom lip as I recalled how his beautiful soft lips felt against mine.

I shook my head to dispel the feelings.

No. All kisses were probably like that and last night was no exception, I thought. Not that I had any prior experiences to compared last night's kiss with but that didn't matter. I reminded myself that whatever I felt was part of the norm and definitely not special.

As I brushed my teeth, I mentally noted that I would have to call my father sometime today. I needed to ask him the details of the marriage contract to make sure I won't be missing any important specifics such as producing an heir. I didn't want to be surprised again like last night and let Artemis have the upper hand. It was dangerous to give this already overconfident man any advantage; his head might actually explode due to its swollen state.

I grabbed a coffee on my drive to school. At a red light, I took a sip of my drink and closed my eyes as I savored the taste. Oh how I loved having coffee in the morning. It was one of my simple joys in life. I smiled as I took another sip before the lights turned green.

My first two classes went smoothly since they were lectures and I just had to take notes. The last two were the dreadful ones because I had to participate in discussions for grades. I hated anything that remotely involved public speaking of any kind—even small group discussions. Luckily, I won't have to worry about these awful classes until after lunch. I could handle anything after a satisfying meal. Food was my happy pill.

I exited the five story science building and walked in the direction of the fast food restaurants. My stomach was growling since I had skipped breakfast this morning.

Normally, I would always eat breakfast because my brain needed the calories to function until lunch. Otherwise, I would turn into a grumpy hungry monster and no one, and I mean no one, would want to be around that.

"Grace, wait for me!" Pru called from somewhere behind me.

I turned to see my best friend running toward me with a big smile plastered on her face.

"Hey." I smiled back. "Ready for lunch? I'm starving." I was trying to tame the beast for a little bit longer.

"Oh yeah. I can eat a horse!" She responded with a laugh.

I couldn't help but laughed as well.

Pru and I met when she transferred to my high school during freshman year and we've been inseparable ever since. Now, we were both seniors in college.

She looked me up and down and said sweetly. "I love your outfit. Can I borrow it sometime?"

I had on a simple white sleeveless blouse and a dark pair of fuchsia skinny jeans.

"Of course! You can borrow whatever you want, anytime you want." I reassured her.

My family was not any where near as wealthy as Artemis's but we were not poor either. We were comfortable and my parents had always provided me with everything I wanted and needed.

Pru, on the other hand, was an orphan. She grew up having to do everything herself without much help from anyone. She was probably the nicest and strongest person I've ever met. She was also very smart since she got a full-ride scholarship to go to this university with me. Her one flaw was that she had difficulties asking for help or asking for anything...even something as small as borrowing my clothes.

I wrapped my arm around her small shoulders as we walked and asked. "What do you wanna eat? My treat."

"I'm craving for Mexican food." She said brightly.

We went to a place nearby that we would go to regularly. It was bustling with students. I guess everyone was as hungry as we were.

"You find us seats and I'll go order. What do you want?" I asked.

"Maybe the usual." She said thoughtfully after taking a whole minute to decide.

Her usual consisted of three shrimp tacos and chips and salsa on the side.

I laughed knowing she was going to say that. She never ordered anything new. She liked to order the same thing everywhere she went like she was afraid of change.

"Why order something new when I already know that this would taste good. Why take my chances." She said philosophically and shrugged. "And you do it too so don't you dare laugh at me." She made a face and pointed her index finger at me.

I laughed harder. "I know! It's kinda sad really. We're both too rigid and stubborn for our own good."

I sat down across from Pru once I got our orders in.

"So...wanna hear some unexpected news?" I asked without much enthusiasm.

"Angela's pregnant!" She guessed.

"No. But that wouldn't be unexpected." I said casually. We both knew how Angela couldn't stand to be single for a day. She constantly had to have a boyfriend and she changed them like clothes.

"You got a tattoo!" She guessed again, this time with much more excitement.

No. She knew I was deathly afraid of needles.

"I got married over the weekend." I said indifferently as I put my elbow on the table and rested my face on my palm.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." Pru was not amused. "So what's the plan for the weekend?" She asked as she grabbed a hair tie from her wrist and put her silky long black hair into a ponytail.

"No. I'm serious." I said with more feeling this time.

"Yeah, sure. And I'm married to Chris Evans." Pru rolled her eyes. "How can you get married when you don't even have a boyfriend?"

"You got me there...but somehow I managed." I gave her a sad smile.

"You're fucking married?!" She exclaimed loudly.

I instantly got up and covered her open mouth with one hand. "Keep it down will you?" I hissed. "It's not supposed to be public knowledge." Not yet anyway, I wanted to add. Artemis planned on making it officially known via a press conference in a month. Hopefully, we would be divorced by then and wouldn't have to go through such an ordeal.

"How?" She whispered. I let go of her and sat back down.

"It happened kind of fast to be honest." I sighed and hunched over as I tried to keep other people from hearing our conversation. "A month ago, out of the blue, my parents told me that their company was struggling and the only way to save it was for me to marry Artemis Jame..."

Pru sucked in her breath the moment she heard the name. "You're married to fucking Artemis fucking Jame?" She interrupted me before I could finish.

Everyone knew the Jame's family. They were practically royalty in this city; hell, probably the whole state.

I scrunched up my nose. "Can you please stop using the F word?"

"No! Because you're fucking married to fucking Artemis fucking Jame!" She spoke with her jaw locked and only her lips moved.

Ugh. She could be such a drama queen.

Finally, our foods arrived and we started digging in like starved pigs.

"Anyway." I said between bites. "As I was saying...after a lot of bickering back and forth between my parents and I, they won, and now I'm married."

She let out a low whistle and opened her mouth to say. "F..."

I glared at her before she could finish.

"I was going to say fudge." She lied and turned serious. "Wow. So you're married. Who would have thought with your dating history. I mean, the lack of dating history—that would be more accurate."

"I know. The story of my life—the girl who has never dated suddenly got herself a husband."

"I thought you would be the last one to get married out of all our friends." She just couldn't fathom the thought.

"I know! All the terrible breakups I've seen you guys go through are enough to keep me away from relationships for another 5 years. My parents' relationship is probably the only one giving me any hope that love does exist."

"Hey. You should thank us. I know we all came to you and stained your shoulders with tears and snots but we dated all the assholes so you wouldn't have to." She said it with so much conviction that I had to laugh.

"I guess that's one way to look at it. Thank you so much for your service and generosity." I said sarcastically.

"Damn right!" She chuckled.

"But you didn't save me from the biggest asshole of all—the king of all philanderers—Artemis Jame.”

"Well, I'll take him if you don't want him." She said playfully and winked at me. "One good thing about being with the biggest asshole is that whoever comes after him will seem like prince charming."

I rolled my eyes and took another bite of my steak tacos. "That sounds so reassuring."

"I try." She grinned showing her cute dimples and threw the last bite of tacos into her mouth.

I gave her a mocking smile. "I can always depend on you to find a silver lining in the darkest of clouds."

"Yup. That's me—always the optimist. Anyway." She switched to a more serious tone as she picked up a chip and dipped it in the salsa. "Your parents seem like loving parents. I can't imagine them pushing you to marry a stranger out of selfishness and completely ignore your happiness."

"That's what I thought too but they really believe that Artemis will be a good husband to me. They seem sure on that fact but I feel like they must've been living under rock if they haven't heard all the ugly rumors surrounding him."

"Or they heard but decided not to believe it." She countered.

We both finished our meals and grabbed everything to throw away. Once we were outside, I continued as we walked back toward the academic buildings. "Anyway, Artemis and I...well, we're kind of strangers but at the same time we're not."

"What do you mean?" Pru was confused by my vagueness.

"We knew each other when we were kids. Our parents were good friends so we went over to each other's houses a lot."

We passed by the enormous library where a bunch students were sporadically spread out on the grass—some laughing and chatting while others quietly studying.

"We were friends up until I turned seven, he was twelve. That was the year that it all changed. His mother died in a car accident and then Artemis vanished." I sighed as I recollected our past.

"I didn't see him at his mother's funeral either. I kept asking my dad about Artemis but my dad always said the same thing, that Mr. Jame had sent him to a school far away. And after that I stopped asking."

"What happened to him?" She asked curiously.

"I don't know. Even now I still don't know what really happened to him." I didn't realize I was still holding on to this—the emptiness and sadness I felt after his disappearance—because the more I talked about it the sadder I got.

"I didn't see him again until the year I graduated high school. I attended my first gala with my parents for a charity Mr. Jame threw. I met Artemis there and I was so excited to see him and wanted to ask him where he had been all these years and catch up. But when we locked eyes, he seemed so distant and indifferent that it stopped me from approaching him. That and he was surrounded by a bunch of girls so I decided to avoid him altogether."

A tear escaped down my cheek and I quickly wiped it away. What the heck. Why am I crying? I guess I was hurt that day but I pretended that I wasn't and have been in denial ever since. Who was I kidding. He didn't care about me and probably didn't even remember me. Eleven years of being away versus my seven years of childhood memories; my pathetic seven years would lose to his eleven years of outside influence. He probably met a lot of people and had many life changing experiences that he didn't give a second thought about me.

"Luckily, college started soon after, I got busy and didn't give him much thought until now. Out of sight out of mind, I guess." I gave a dispirited smile. "And now, here we are, married." I sighed.

"I feel that we are closer to being strangers than friends since he seems so different from the guy I grew up with." I pondered. "Besides his eye color, everything else is different: his looks, his behavior, even his eyes—they used to be friendly but now they hold only mischief and something else."

We made it to our destination—another science building.

"Maybe the guy you knew is still in there somewhere. I feel like there's more to it if your parents agreed to let you married him." She said after some thought.

"I got that feeling too but then why wouldn't they tell me?" I asked angrily. "If there's more behind the scenes I mean. I deserve to know since I married the guy." I got more frustrated.

We arrived at our class, Biology Seminar. Oh how I hate this class. However, I knew I had to get used to it because there would be more of this if I decided to go to medical school afterward. Pru was, without a doubt, definitely going to medical school. She would get a high score on her MCAT, being as smart as she was, and would get accepted immediately. I, on the other hand, had no courage on registering to take the test...yet.

Our classes went by slowly with me participating once while Pru participated 5 times. She was outspoken and had an opinion on each of the 5 primary literatures that we read and discussed.

After class, I said bye to Pru and walked to my car. My body relaxed now that classes were over. I got in my car, before turning on the ignition, I called my father. He picked up after the fourth ring.

"Hi honey. How's married life?" He softly chuckled from the other end.

How could he be laughing right now? I couldn't find anything entertaining at all about my situation.

I huffed in annoyance. "It sucks!" I whined while he chuckled louder.

"It can't be that bad." He said with amusement. "Are you picking on Artemis?"

My brows creased and my jaw dropped. "Where's my father and what have you done with him?" I was hurt and frustrated. "Dad! This is your favorite only daughter here. How could you possibly think I could pick on Artemis? He picking on me is way more likely."

"Alright. I believe you." He said agreeably even though he sounded like he still believed Artemis to be the more probable victim. What was going on? Did Artemis bribe my dad? Why was my dad taking his side and not mine—his own daughter?

"Dad!" I complained. "What's this thing about 'producing an heir' that Artemis mentioned?"

"Well, isn't that part of what being married is all about? That you'll eventually have kids." I could feel him grinning widely from the other end.

"But was it in the contract? I don't remember it being specified in the agreement when I read it the first time." My voice dripped with agitation.

"It wasn't but Artemis added that at the last minute and I agreed to it since it seemed natural that you would give him an heir at some point in your marriage." He sounded as though he didn't understand why I was making such a big deal out of nothing.

I sighed. "Did he add anything else at the last minute?"

"No, dear. That was it."

I exhaled loudly. "Okay. Good!"

"Sorry, honey, but I have to go. Your mother and I will see you at the gala this weekend." He hung up before I could ask 'what gala?'

I stared at my phone in dismay when it suddenly dinged. A text message from an unknown number popped up.

I opened the message and it said: Mr. Jame's meeting has been prolonged. He won't be able to make it to dinner. Please don't wait up.

I snickered as I read the words. Please, like I would wait around to have dinner with him. When it came to food, I would not wait for anybody, least of all, him. And he had the nerve to ask someone else, maybe an assistant, to text me instead of doing it himself.

By the time I pulled out of the school parking lot, it was already 5:00 p.m. so I decided to grab some food on the way home.

After a full belly and feeling fresh from a recent shower, I started to work on Biology Seminar homework. I sat on my bed with my back facing the door. I turned on my MacBook and started doing searches on the net for primary scientific literatures for my essays.

Ten minutes in and I heard movements downstairs through my open bedroom door. I guessed he was home. I sat rigid wondering if he would come into my room.

My body hummed with anticipation as the sound of his footsteps got closer and stopped right behind me. He bent down, his hands on my bed, with his arms stood paralleled to mine as they supported him.

He placed his face an inch from mine, his right cheek almost touching my left, and whispered. "Hello, wife." His voice low and full of sweetness. "Did you miss me?"