Chapter 23: The manipulative Christian

Christian and Clarisse stepped out of the car after the Chauffeur parked the car.

" Is this..where I'll be living now?", Clarisse asked in her mind as she stood before the magnificent building, " I guess we'll be living together with his family", she said in her mind referring to Christian's parents and siblings.

The building is so huge, it wasn't just a penthouse, but also a mansion. She walked into the house carefully, afraid that she'd stain the wall, even the wall screamed wealth making her feel inferior.

The luxury cars, beautiful garden, and the heavenly and suffocating environment were nothing compared to what was instead and she ended up gasping before she could restrain herself.

' how can someone have a whole paradise in his home?', she said in her mind and her eyes wandered around, ' these people are no doubt powerful and wealthy, if a family can have all these inside a living room, there's no doubt that they're very wealthy, billionaires if not trillionaires', she nodded as she thought to herself.

' More reason to be the house rat, away from their eyes', she looked up at Christian's back head and remembered how he kissed her, ' I can't trust even this man, I have no idea what his intentions are, they've all done things without me consenting to it, I know I'm his wife but...', she sighed sadly, ' did he even see me as him wife, who would accept me, he probably did all that for something, a man like him would want Alice, he has been acting crazy and manipulative, he'd probably also use me then toss me to a side after getting what he wants. So Clarisse, let's not trust if anything, he might be the most dangerous of them all.

" We are here". Christian's voice interrupted her thought.

" This is where we'll be staying, and this is the living room, I hope it's to your liking".

Clarisse felt a spank of anger in her chest. How can he be sweetly manipulative, what exactly is he trying to achieve? What does he want from her, not like she has anything.

" Thank you", that's all she could find to say, bowing her head and refusing to look anybody in the eyes.

' she's not looking at me again ', Christian said in his mind realizing.

" Want to check out the rooms?",

" Huh? Uh, no thanks, I'm fine",

" You're sure? Any room is fine by you?",

" Ye.yes", she answered and in the next seconds, she felt his grip on her wrist, pulling her away. Her heart was beating fast as she had no idea what he was going to do to her, hit her? Yell at her? Lock her somewhere? She shouldn't have disobeyed him, she should have just done as he said.

He took her into a room, spacious and beautiful, the interior design was stunning, the wall was painted white, and the huge bed was well laid with a white bedspread with three pillows, every single thing that caught her eyes was a beauty, the room was too beautiful that she didn't mind being locked inside it.

Christian smiled seeing her facial expression, " do you like it?",

" Huh?",

" Do you like it?".

She looked at him like the question was strange.

" Why?",

" If you like it then this will be your room",

" My room?",

" Hm mm",

" Like my room?",

" Yeah", he said smiling but he wasn't expecting to receive a frown instead.

' did I say something wrong? Why is she frowning? I thought I shouldn't rush her that she might need some privacy ',

" We'll sleep together if you want",

" No, no, no, I'm good", she quickly accepted. She was surprised that she had her room but that even made her more suspicious.

" You sure?",

" Yes I'm sure", she quickly accepted cause she was in no way accepting the offer of sleeping together with him or staying together with him, in a room, alone.

" Okay then, if this is what you want, cool by me".

" If you need anything, don't hesitate to let me know", he said and made to leave but stopped him.

"My clothes, where are my clothes?", she asked and he gulped down saliva as he remembered what he had done.

(Flashback)

They were living in the suite when Christian saw Mrs. Bree. B carrying an old bag that contained some things, she was carrying it along with them.

" What's that?", he asked,

" Mrs. Clarisse's belongings",

" My wife's belongings?", he eyed the bag one more time like he had just heard wrong. He took the bag from her and checked, brought out the clothes inside and it was all old and shabby.

" Are these all?",

" Yes sir",

" Leave", he dismissed Bree. B without handing back the bag.

He dialed a contact on his phone,

" Good afternoon sir",

" I need some dress, best of bests and latest collections, for my wife"...

( End of flashback)

" Why don't you go and shower, I'll instruct one of the maids to bring it",

" Okay, thank you so much ", she thanked him and headed into the bathroom.

Some minutes later, Clarisse walked out of the bathroom, dripping wet from head to toe, wrapped around her chest in a white towel, the water was so refreshing and she had enjoyed her bath...

" Ahhh", she screamed, startled to see a figure sitting like a royal on the chair in the corner of the room not far from the bed. It was Christian, she wasn't expecting to see him still in the room and she was hearing the door opening and closing so she thought he had left.

She covered her chest with her palm.

' what a pervert? What's he still doing here?', she eyed him.

"What...what are you doing here?",

" I have to wait behind",

" Huh?",

" To get your opinion, on this", he said pointing at the clothes on the bed. That's when Clarisse took notice of the clothes on the bed, there were different dresses of different colors on the bed.

" Check them out, see if there's anyone you like".

She eyed the clothes and looked back at him, " they are not my clothes",

" I know",

" You promised to give me back my clothes", she said getting stressed, she didn't want to be indebted to him or even get any attention from him,

" I did?",

" Are you going back on your words?",

" I'm a man of my word, Ari, I said I'll give them back to you I didn't promise",

" So where are they?",

" I'll give them to you, but not now",

" Why?".

He sat down properly looking at her, his words just stuck for a second seeing her wet body standing opposite him, the water that drips down her hair strode down to the middle of her breast causing him to swallow hard.

" There are some things that might be precious enough that we can't let go, but we need to accept them as memories later on ",

" That's for me to decide ",

" Sure, and that's why I'm preserving them for you as closet memories",

" What?!",

" Go pick a dress baby girl", he said and looked away, he couldn't look at her one more time, she's too tempting.

" I'm not going to pick anyone or wear anything, not until you give me my clothes ",

" Are you sure about that?", he asked staring at her from her thigh to her chest, then to her eyes seductively.

His stare felt like it was ripping the towel from her body making her feel so uncomfortable and the last thing she wanted was him looking at her that way so she had no choice.

She hurriedly picks a dress gritting her teeth bitterly,

" And ain't you going to leave? I want to dress up ".

He raised his hands in surrender and walked out of the room, the moment he closed the door behind him, he smirked in victory.

While inside, Clarisse was gritting her teeth, " I hate him", she said.