Chapter 3
Sebastian’s calm gaze turned stormy. He couldn’t understand where things had gone wrong. Why wasn’t the item there?
He said in fluent Criptonese, “This trip will be a waste of time if we can’t find the item, so I’m not going anywhere. Continue searching.”
The attendant didn’t dare influence his decision. He said, “The news of the two grooms ‘accidentally’ going to the wrong rooms has already spread, and someone from the tenth floor is coming to get you. Be careful, Mr. Whitman.”
After that, he swiftly left, his movements deft and agile. It was clear he wasn’t an ordinary person.
Sebastian stubbed out the cigarette and shut the window. Then, he returned to the messy bed. He bent down to pick up the torn nightgown. His face was still emotionless, but his gaze seemed to darken.
Just then, Eleanor emerged from the bathroom. Sebastian immediately threw the nightgown onto the floor.
She was taken aback and blurted out, “What are you still doing here?”
He raised an eyebrow at her. Then, he asked coolly, “Where else would I be?”
Eleanor frowned. Things were turning out differently in this lifetime, leaving her puzzled. However, someone knocked on the door before she could process the situation.
She turned around and opened it to see a maid standing outside. The Sandberg and Porter families had booked the cruise ship for the two weddings, so the servers on the ship were the maids from the two households.
The maid lowered her head and said, “Ms. Eleanor, Mr. Philip, Madam Sheila, and Mr. and Mrs. Porter are asking you and Mr. Whitman to join them on the tenth floor.”
Eleanor narrowed her eyes. She knew this meant they wanted to get to the bottom of the groom mix-up. She smirked and said, “Tell Uncle Philip and Aunt Sheila I’ll be there in ten minutes. I need to change.”
The maid made a sound of acknowledgment. Eleanor shut the door and approached Sebastian, saying bluntly, “Let’s talk, Sebastian.”
They didn’t know each other well. In her past life, they’d only seen each other a few times. Her understanding of him was limited to knowing of his existence and that he was actually an illegitimate son of the Porter family despite them claiming he was adopted. He was very unpopular with the Porters.
Rumor had it he didn’t even get paid despite working at Porter Group. He was even worse off than she was—a sad sprout, he was. That gave her the leverage she needed to bargain with him, though.
Sebastian sat on the bed. “What about?”
Eleanor stood before him and started hashing out the details. “You’re the one who mistakenly came into my room, right? You’re also the one who made the first move, right? Even if you mistook me for Brenda, you’re still at fault, right?”
He raised an eyebrow as she rattled off her questions. “So?”
“So, you have to take responsibility for what’s happened. That’s what you said earlier, isn’t it? This means we’ll be husband and wife from now on,” Eleanor said.
Sebastian fell silent. A few seconds later, he fixed his gaze on her and repeated, “We’ll be husband and wife from now on?”
Eleanor didn’t know why, but she felt somewhat oppressed the moment his eyes landed on her. She pursed her lips and said, “Yes, we will. Didn’t you hear what the maids said earlier? Brenda’s been photographed in bed with someone else, and everyone now knows about the groom mix-up.
“We can only go along with the mistake. What else can we do about the situation? It’s not like we can have you and Maurice swap back.”
He couldn’t be so loyal to Brenda that he didn’t even care about being cuckolded, could he?
Sebastian fell silent, seemingly deep in thought as he weighed the pros and cons. The look on his face was complicated.
Eleanor wasn’t happy with that. She hated it when others left her hanging, so she stepped on his foot. “Say something.”
She’d taken off her drenched shoes after leaving the bathroom, so she was barefoot. Her dainty toes were an alluring sight.
Sebastian silently retracted his gaze. He carried himself with an innate sense of nobility—not even Maurice, the proper son of the Porter family, could compare to him. Then, he grunted.
Eleanor took that as an agreement and moved on to the next step. “Since we’re husband and wife, you have to be on my side. I don’t care how much you love Brenda—you’re not allowed to help her backstab me. If you dare do that…”
She abruptly grabbed him by the collar and leaned down to look menacingly into his eyes. “I’ll castrate you!”
She wouldn’t allow him to treat her as Maurice had done in her past life—helping her nemesis while playing the role of her husband!
Sebastian looked at her up close. Her skin was flawless and as smooth as marble. She’d just showered, so she smelled wonderful. The fragrance wafted into his nose.
He lowered his gaze to see the lapels of her robe falling slightly open due to her posture, revealing her full chest. Eleanor was slender, but she had curves in all the right places.
She was gorgeous.
Sebastian’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He moved his now darkened gaze back to her face.
Eleanor didn’t notice. She was too focused on being nice after threatening him earlier. “Of course, I’m not a ruthless bloodsucker. As long as you play your role as my husband well, I’ll give you 300 thousand—no, 500 thousand dollars as your monthly allowance.”
Sebastian said, “I don’t want your money. I only have one condition.”
She frowned and released him. Then, she straightened up and crossed her arms. “Let’s hear it, then. I’ll consider it.”
He got up. He’d been seated earlier, giving her the chance to look at him imperiously. Now that he was standing, he towered over her, his presence daunting and prominent. She didn’t back away, though.
He gazed at her solemnly. “We’ll be an actual married couple.”
“What? What do you mean?” Eleanor’s brain suddenly stopped working.
Sebastian said slowly, “What we just did—I want us to do it all the time.”
Her head shot up as she stared at him. She would never have expected that to be his condition. She flushed and blurted out, “Are you that insatiable?”
Her heart raced. “We can’t do it every day. I’ll have my period every month, and I’ll need to go out of town on business trips now and then. I—”
He frowned. “I’m not that desperate.”
Eleanor pressed her fingers together to wake herself up. They were just talking about sex. Why did she feel so flustered?
She’d planned on getting herself a man, anyway. Since she had a husband, she would enjoy his crown jewels the best she could.
She went back to being her proud, aloof self. “Deal.”
Sebastian made a sound of acknowledgment and sidestepped her to get a glass of water. Eleanor had other matters to discuss, though. “How did you get to my room? The people on the tenth floor are going to ask about this since they want to see us.”
She could figure out everything else later. Now, she had to know how exactly Brenda had made the switch happen.
Sebastian paused. Then, he said, “I had too much to drink, and a maid helped me here. The lights weren’t on.”
Oh. That probably meant the maids had been bought over.
Eleanor got dressed while puzzling things out. Then, she gave Sebastian a once-over. “You had too much to drink? I don’t remember smelling any liquor on you, though. Your face showed nothing, too.”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he called someone and had them bring him his clothes.
Eleanor applied a red lipstick that was bold enough to make her look daunting. At the same time, she said, “Don’t say anything later.”
She didn’t want him to get bullied, the poor sad sprout. She could put this show on herself.
