Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 (29 page)

"You are so obsessed about this other
men thing, but I get it. People would start to gossip and it might
ruin your reputation." She said while passing a fork with a piece
of meat from her plate to him.

"It's not just that. More importantly
for me is that I can't bear the thought of anyone else getting
close to you, or knowing something about you that I
don't."

"You sound like you're jealous." She
teased.

"Let me tell you a story, there was
once a beetle who coveted a beautiful flower that he thought was a
gift to a bee who was very near and dear to him. Even though all
his life this beetle would always give anything he owned to the
bee, whenever the bee asked him without exception, because he loved
that bee so much. But it turns out, the gardener had always
intended to give the beautiful flower to the beetle, and not to the
bee. So naturally the beetle was very happy and grateful, he held
the flower tightly not willing to let anyone else not even the bee,
come near or touch it. From the beginning, the beetle swore to
himself that he will protect the flower from harm, even though he
knows that the flower has many thorns and could protect herself.
Because for him, that flower was the most precious thing he owned."
Ali paused, "What do you think about my little story?"

Paramita took a napkin to wipe her
lips, "Are the beetle and bee in a boy loves boy
relationship?"

"Here, eat some more meat!" Ali said
while pushing his fork near her mouth.

Paramita wiped her lips again with the
napkin to hide her smile.

Ali stared at something in the
distance, he looked stunned. Paramita followed the direction he was
looking at, it was the table where Dewi was sitting, "Ah, so your
beautiful flower is meeting with another man?" She said with an
angry tone.

Ali looked at her and couldn't help but
smile, "So you do feel jealous towards me?" He continued, "It's not
that. You know, that man is Jonathan Tan, my step uncle, he owns
Mountain Records. So that was the record company that Dewi was
meeting. But that's not the problem. The problem is, that auntie
who just walked in with him, doesn't she look very familiar? Where
have I seen her before?" He said while signaling with his
head.

Paramita turned around discretely to
see what he was talking about, she couldn't quite see the auntie he
was talking about, but after looking at them for a while too was
surprised "Abang, that's not any auntie, that's my
mother."

"Mita, now we have a connection between
your mother and Holy Mountain. I think we should leave as soon as
possible, we don't know who our enemies are, and I don't want to
take any risks with your safety. Come on let's go." He said to her
while standing up and grabbing hold of her arm.

Paramita accidently fell forward
because of Ali pulling her, and that made the table screech as it
slid on the ceramic floor. The group turned around and looked at
them. Soraya didn't expect to see her daughter there. She walked
over to them followed by everybody else in the group.

"Mita, my little girl, I didn't know
you would be here tonight, why don't you please introduce me to
your companion." She said pretending not to know who Ali
was.

Ali smiled and answered before Paramita
could say anything. "Bunda Soraya, it's nice to finally meet you."
He answered while taking her hand and kissing it.

"Jonathan, Dewi, I would like to
introduce you to my daughter, Her Highness Puteri Paramita Sawitri,
and this is her fiancée Raden Ali." She introduced them.

"Thank you for introducing us, Bunda. I
am well acquainted with you companions." He answered, while putting
his left arm around Paramita's waist and pulling her backward away
from her mother.

"Congratulations...congratulations...Nephew. Soraya, you
might not know this, but Ali is my nephew, he is the son of my
sister's husband." Jonathan said while smiling and giving Ali a big
embrace and shake on the hand. "And congratulations to you too my
new niece. He said to Paramita. "Look at us we are all one big
family now."

"I don't want to be rude, but Mita is
not feeling too well right now, she has been sick these past few
days. Please excuse us, we were just about to go home." Ali put on
a smile.

"Are you sick? What do you have?" Asked
Jonathan.

"A case of food poisoning." Paramita
answered while looking at Madam Soraya through the corner of her
eyes. The latter seemed to be unaffected.

"Oh my, you have to make sure that you
take good care of yourself." He said to her.

"If Mita is sick, then the two of you
should go ahead and go home now. Ananda Ali, please take good care
of my daughter." Soraya said.

* * *

Paramita sat quietly in the car leaning
her head against the window, Ali held her hand and squeezed it
gently. "Abang, don't ever betray me, okay?" She said without
turning to him. "You're the only person I have left, don't
disappoint me."

"I won't, I promise." He answered
shortly. "Do you want to visit the Lotus Palace tomorrow? We can
check if they have finished with the renovations that Ayahnda
ordered and you can decide if you like the furniture or if you want
to buy new ones." He said to divert her mind.

She took a deep breath. "Fine, we can
go there. Truth be told, I don't want to live in some ten bedroom
palace. Especially one that's only lent to me and that's not mine.
I would prefer living in a small house, but my own. I should sell
my jewelry and buy myself a house."

"What are you ranting about? If you
don't want to live in the Lotus Palace, then we won't live there,
I'm sure Ayahnda will understand. And what do you mean, sell your
jewelry to buy a house? Do you think this husband of yours is only
good for sex?"

"Oh my goodness, I can't believe you
said something like that." She said while covering her
face.

"Why are you still shy about it? I want
us to be able to talk openly and comfortably about these things,
this is the first step for us to be each other's confidants." He
said to her. "I think I said this before, we only knew each other a
little over a month, but we are going to spend the rest of our
lives together, so we should start by opening up and saying what's
in our minds. For example I didn't know that you didn't want to
live in The Lotus Palace, why don't you tell me what else you don't
want, or the things you do want, so there will be no feelings of
discontent between us."

"When did I agree to spend the rest of
my life with you?" She lifted her head and looked at him, "But
you're right, there has to be a communication in the meantime. The
problem is, I just don't know where to start."

He glanced at her while biting his
lower lip, "Let's start at our living arrangements. I have a few
properties around the city, some of them are rented out, but I do
have a house that I bought about a year ago, that's not occupied.
Maybe you want to go and check it out?"

"A house that you bought around a year
ago?" She repeated. "For what purpose? Is this the house that you
plan to live in after you marry Dewi?"

Ali didn't answer, he just took a deep
breath.

"No! I don't want to live there." She
answered without waiting for his reply. "And if it is your dream
house with her, then I don't want to have anything to do with
it."

"Mita, I'm sorry that I made you upset
again." He said.

"Why do you have to apologize? It was
me who came into your lives and tore you apart." She said while
turning her head away.

Ali didn't say anything, they had
arrived at the Raden Hamza's house. As soon as Ali parked the car
in front of the front door, Paramita got off, and went straight
into their room. Ali quickly followed behind her.

"Don't be like that. Listen, I might
have had a girlfriend before I knew you, but ever since you came
into my life, there has been no one else for me. I swear." He said
to her.

She pretended not to hear him, and
entered directly to the bathroom locking the door behind her. She
splashed water on her face, not wanting him to see her cry. He
knocked on the door repeatedly, calling out her name very softly to
not be heard from the outside. She opened the door and walked out.
He was standing at the front of the door smiling.

"Why are you smiling?" She asked in an
angry tone.

"Come on, let's wash up and go
downstairs, I think that will help calm you down a bit. We can talk
about this again after we pray." He said calmly.

She took a deep breath and
nodded.

* * *

After they finished the night prayer,
Ali asked her to go back to their room to talk. She sat on the bed
while he pulled a chair and sat in front of her. "I admit, I did
buy that house with the idea of living there with Dewi, long before
I met you. My life now is different from then. Now I only see you
in my life, nobody else. I'm sorry. If it would make you feel
better, I'll sell the house."

She looked at him, "Thank you." She
said. "I think we should temporarily live in the Lotus Palace, my
father went out of his way to renovate it the way he thinks I would
like it. So as a good daughter I should show him my appreciation by
living there."

"Okay, I understand. Then we'll move
there next week."

"And since you said you were willing to
sell your dream home with your ex-girlfriend, then after you sell
it, we can use the money to buy a piece of land, where we will
build a house that I will design."

He didn't answer, he just stood up and
pulled her up from the bed into his arms then kissed her
passionately. She wanted to push him away, but her mind became
blank, erased by the warmth of his lips. She felt him lifting her
body from the floor and gently lied her down on the soft bed.
Paramita couldn't remember why she was angry at the first place,
she closed her eyes and allowed him to lead her through the
moment.

* * *

"Why do I feel manipulated?" She asked
partly to herself, partly to him, taking her eyes off the
television set and lifting her head from his bare chest to look at
him.

"Manipulated? That means you did like
it when I made love to you." He answered while caressing her
shoulder.

"Did you like it?" She asked him back
without answering his question.

"No.......... I loved it." He said.
"I'm addicted to making love to you, I'm addicted to
you....."

She kissed his chest a few times as he
held her tighter. "I think that I'm in love with you." She
whispered.

He turned towards her abruptly making
her fall backward on the bed. He laid on top of her, pinning her
body down. He kissed her greedily, enjoying her wet lips on his.
"I'm glad that you feel that way about me too." He
whispered.

"Too?" she barely succeeded to speak
before his lips enclosed hers again.

"I love you." He whispered.

"Mmm." She gasped as she felt his lips
moving down towards her breast. Her back arched involuntarily when
his fingers roamed her body, she moaned softly, "Bang
Ali."

"Call me again." He
whispered.

"Bang Ali."

Ali couldn't hold himself back any
longer, he pushed forward to feel her warmth surrounding
him.

* * *

She couldn't feel happier lying there
in his arms. A sensation of peace filled her soul for the first
time in a long time.

"Mita," He asked, "Tell me how your
mother is usually with you?"

"Mama? When I was growing up, she was
hardly at home. She was always travelling for her work, I guess
owning a top artist agency is not easy." She said staring into the
air, "She was always strict in my upbringing, you know about my
studies, she also made sure that I acted like a proper Jothar
woman. She has always been obsessed with my chastity."

"Is that why you doubted that she was
drugged although she was capable of forcing you to drink the pills
in the bottle?"

"Pretty much." She answered. "She
insisted that I should drink it just in case I was
pregnant."

"Pregnant? By me?"

"Crazy, right?"

"Well, at that time, it was crazy. But
not now........" He said with a cheeky smile.

"As I said, she has always been
obsessed with my chastity." She answered ignoring his mischievous
innuendo.

"Maybe we should tell her that you're
not doing a good job at saving yourself until our wedding
night."

"We haven't had our wedding reception,
but we do have a written permit." She defended.

He thought for a while, "I was
surprised to see how calm she was when she saw you. She didn't seem
to feel any guilt at all about what she did. Has she always been
that way?"

"She used to grab me, drag me and even
smack me sometimes if I did something wrong, but she never did
anything to this extent, she never attempted to hurt me like she
did that day. It was strange, the reason she was angry was typical
of her, but her reaction wasn't."