The Faceless Billionaire Celebrity Wife-Chapter 266: Simple Questions.

"Not that," she interrupted, "You can vent all you want but don’t utter curse words..."

"Is that what you have to say, Kera?" Ethan asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah, just...just say whatever but don’t curse." All this while, she refused to meet his eyes as she talked, knowing that she might accidentally let everything on her mind out under his scrutinizing gaze.

Ethan felt worry growing within him all of a sudden. He closed the distance between them both, placing his hand on her shoulders.

"I asked you before, Shikera. What’s the problem with you?"

"And I told you nothing. Don’t ask me again," she snapped, feigning impatience. Only her knew how much she wanted to bury herself in his outstretched arms, but she could not... right?

As if stung by an insect, Ethan removed his hands from her shoulders immediately.

"Hold on, Shikera. You...is all this because of my presence? I uhm— I can leave if my being here makes you unhappy. I’m sorry."

It was the first time Shikera was seeing him struggle to make a complete sentence, and it was her fault.

"What difference would it make if you leave? You already know where I am so I’ll be watched day and night," she stated, looking up at his face.

Ethan frowned. Since he saw her, each word that came out of her mouth only served to confuse him more than previous one. He could not even tell what she was thinking now, when he used to be able to tell everything in her mind just from one look at her face.

"Shikera, just answer this one question and clear my doubts. Does seeing me make you angry or not?" he asked, feeling the only way to know what she was thinking was by asking these simple questions.

"That’s not what I’m talking about here," Shikera murmured in reply.

’Exactly! So confusing...’ Ethan thought.

"Yeah, but just answer my question with a simple yes or no," he stated.

"Seeing you...does not make me angry."

"Okay. Then do you want me to leave or not?" he asked again.

"No. Stop asking me those questions that will—"

"Of course I’m not asking any more questions," Ethan interjected. He bent to take her hand in his, leading her to the rock opening where they were to leave ’Paradise’.

"What are you doing? Where are you taking me to?" Shikera questioned with a frown. With the way Ethan was leading her, an onlooker would think he was a tour guide leading a tourist around his territory. She was sure he didn’t even know where he was but wait...how did he get here?!

She stopped dead in her tracks, causing Ethan to stop too as she refused to budge from the spot she was standing on.

Ethan turned to look at her, his eyes examining and assessing her body.

"Why did you stop?"

Instead of answering his question, Shikera posed her’s, "How did you get here? Not how you got to the island but how did you get to this place?"

"You don’t want to talk about that now," Ethan shook his head.

"I very much want to. Tell me, Ethan," she insisted.

"Then you’ll also have to tell me why you are here on this island; why you didn’t want to see me even though you were at the hospital when I visited your doctor. You can’t tell me it was because you aren’t Liam Anderson’s child, right? Your doctor must have told you the truth then so if you really missed me, you would have taken that opportunity to even see me once. Do you still want me to tell you how I got here?"

"No," she answered, her voice softening. She hadn’t gotten the lies she would tell him ready.

"Cool." Ethan shrugged. "Don’t worry though. We will still talk about this. Latest by tomorrow morning," he said, his tone showing that he could only give her that much time to get her story ready.

He continued, "For now, let’s go back."

Shikera silently let him lead her back to where she parked the bike, and that was when she noticed there was something wrong.

"You said tomorrow morning, where will you stay until then?" she asked.

"Anywhere I want to? I can pay anyone whatever they want if it’s for us to stay together for a night," he replied.

"You can pay anyone?" Shikera burst out in mocking laughter, her eyes on Ethan who wasn’t paying her attention but was instead fiddling with something on the bike. Was he cleaning it or...? She wasn’t sure.

"What’s so funny?" he turned to look at her.

"President DeLoach, do you think this is the city? It’s not Crystal city; not Bellary’s city or any of the cities where you are well known! In fact, this island isn’t on the map of the country at all so you have no influence whatsoever here," she chuckled.

"Exactly why I could not find you. But even if I don’t have a place to stay, what about you?"

"Me? Why won’t I have somewhere to stay?"

Ethan frowned, "Then why bother me by asking where I’ll stay? I’m staying with you."

With that, he got on the bike without saying anything else and extended his hand to Shikera, helping her get on behind him.

"You can’t stay with me, Ethan. I stay with someone and—"

"It’s getting dark, Kera. If I have to stay out, then you will too."

"I can’t! Grandma Cooper might need me during the night," Shikera disagreed with him.

"Then if you don’t want your Grandma Cooper out of the picture, you will have to let me stay with you. With or without her knowledge," he declared in a firm tone.

Shikera knew there was no way she could change this. Or was it that she did not wish to change it? Anyhow, she knew Ethan was staying with her tonight so she had to start thinking of answers to the countless questions that would arise.

The rest of the trip back to the house was silent, each of them buried in their own thoughts while having little sparks of excitement trail their bodies which were pressed together.

Since the whole street was already silent although not asleep, Shikera didn’t bother returning the bike to Alan’s garage, but instead hid it in Grandma Cooper’s.

"Who taught you how to ride?" Ethan asked as they climbed the short flight of steps that led to the door.

"Mig—Uh?? Sorry, I know a little about bikes from Noah but one of the girls here taught me the rest," Shikera replied. She almost slapped herself at that slip of tongue she almost made.

"Oh..." Ethan commented without breathing anything else, as if he didn’t hear the slip she made in the beginning.

Shikera pushed the door open slowly to avoid it creaking and waking Grandma Cooper up, as the two of them stepped into the house. As quietly as he could, Ethan bent to remove his sandals and assisted Shikera with hers. He was about to place the two pairs of footwears on the shoe rack when the loud voice from one of the rooms shocked him.

"You just came back, Kera?"

"Yes, Grandma!" Shikera replied at the top of her voice.

"Wait for me in the living room. I wanted to talk to you about..."

As she talked more, it seemed like her voice was approaching the living room. Ethan who was still squatting and Shikera who was standing straight shared glances, the latter questioning the former with his eyes.

"Up! Do not drop the sandals!" Shikera screamed silently. She pulled him by his collar and pushed him across the living room.

"There’s the bathroom, stay there until she’s done," she whispered.

"Why the bathroom? Why not the kitchen or—"

"Shit! Just go in there!" Shikera pulled at her hair in frustration. There was probability of Grandma Cooper going into the kitchen or the toilet at this time, so that was the reason the bathroom was the only option for Ethan to stay in. He also couldn’t stay in her room as he would have to pass Grandma Cooper’s room to get there.

"Why are you standing there like that?"

Shikera snapped out of her reverie, composing herself immediately.

"It’s nothing, Grandma. What’s the problem? You could have just called me to come to your room," she said.

"If you weren’t so stubborn, I would." Grandma Cooper walked towards Shikera and felt her skin. She continued, "Exactly how I knew it would be. Stop staying out so late at night, behaving like Leah. It’s unhealthy for you and the—"

"Alright, Grandma! I won’t stay out late again. Never in my entire life!" Shikera yelled, intercepting Grandma Cooper.

Taken aback, the older woman could not help but flick Shikera on her forehead.

"Couldn’t you have said that silently? Did I tell you I was deaf?" She asked.

"I’m sorry, Grandma."

"It’s alright. I made a warm bath for you. You should use it before returning to your room," Grandma Cooper said.

"What?"

"I MADE A WARM BATH. GO TO THAT BATHROOM AND USE IT NOW. I’LL WAIT HERE UNTIL YOU’RE DONE." Seeing Shikera’s mouth begin to open, she added, "I won’t listen to anything you say. And like I said, I’ll only wait here until you’re done."