8- Hidden

(Six months later)

"How is your handsome husband, girl?" Valerie rolled her eyes when Geena asked her about Rafael.

Her friends used to envy her all the time. Valerie did hit a jackpot when she married Rafael. A handsome billionaire who could fulfill all his wife's demands.

"He is good," She said with a careless shrug.

"How is he coping with his eyesight."

"Well. He did act odd a few days post-surgery but then everything went back to normal." She squeezed her eyes in excitement. 

"Odd?" Geena sipped her iced tea, "What did he do?"

"Like … he used to put a blindfold before making love to me," Valerie said with a blush and Geena rolled back her eyes in ecstasy, 

"So let me spell it out for you. He is filthy rich, handsome, and then kinky as well. What a wild combo! Woah!"

Valerie shook her head in amusement, "After putting on the blindfold, he used to suck my lips intensely as if… as if he was trying to taste them. He used to feel every part of my body with that blindfold covering his eyes."

"What? Every part?" there was a dreamy look on Geena's face when she saw the red hue on Valerie's cheek getting darker, "Girl. This is some real bedroom shit. Did he ever tell you the reason?"

"No! He just said that he wanted to feel me like he used to do when he was blind." Valerie was taking small sips of her iced coffee latte.

"Does he…" Geena leaned forward to be a little discreet, "Does he know that you were absent from his life for two years and that Marissa was the one…"

"Shh…" Valerie hurriedly ran a gaze around her and sighed with relief when found very few customers sitting around, "Geena. Please. We don't need to discuss it anymore."

Only Geena and Nina were the ones who knew the details. Thankfully her mom also stood with her and helped her in getting back what was rightfully hers.

"Hey. I'm not discussing it. It was just a question…" This time she threw the straw and took a big chug from her cup, "You are damn lucky that I'm Rafael's cousin. Otherwise, nobody could have stopped me from getting him." She wiped her mouth delicately with a napkin and Valerie couldn't even smile.

She needed to talk to Nina about this girl. She seemed to be bad news.

***

After getting out of the car she fixed her dark shades and went inside the house where Rafael was sitting in the living room watching a TV show.

Valerie's steps faltered a little. Wasn't he supposed to be in the office?

"Hey! How come you are early?" she walked up to him and then sat on his lap after planting a kiss on his lips.

"I just wanted to come home and rest a little. After attending these meetings, I felt my energy drenched."

"Oh," Valerie quickly kicked off her sandals and then started tracing her finger softly on his face, tracing every feature, "What do you say?" she asked in a hoarse whisper, "should we go to the bedroom, and I pump more energy into this body of yours?" she licked her lower lips a little seductively.

However, her expression changed when she saw him holding her by her waist and making her sit beside him, "No thanks. I'm more interested in watching TV."

For a moment, Valerie felt insulted. It had been months since they got intimate. Last time, he made love with a blindfold on his eyes because he wanted to feel her body.

After that, there was no intimacy. She tried getting closer to him a few times, but he didn't seem to get it up.

Initially, she thought that it might be the after-effects of his surgery. But no man lost his hardness after a mere eye surgery. That didn't make sense.

Frustration surged through her veins like a hot lava.

"It's been days, honey. Why are you depriving me of your love?" He didn't even bother to look at her.

"I'm sorry, Valerie. But this is how it is. If you want, you can leave me and find yourself another man. I won't keep you tied to myself." At last, his Emerald green eyes met hers, "I'm ready to give you a handsome alimony."

Valerie gulped down in sheer panic. She didn't do all that hard work to handover him the title of the most eligible bachelor on a silver platter.

She kept chewing her lower lip trying to control her tears. The same act that once used to make him horny, his eyes were now glued to the TV screen.

"What went wrong, Rafael? Why are you being like this?" she at last held his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I dunno. Maybe a psychological issue." He said curving down his lips.

Valerie wanted to cry. He was sitting there as If she was nothing but a showpiece in his enormous luxurious house.

She had started getting tired of getting rejected by him. Her way of coping was to tell fake stories about his lovemaking to her friends.

Even Nina had started asking her to go for fertility treatments. She wanted an heir for Sinclair Empire. 

"Are you up for couple counseling?" she asked him hopefully. 

For a minute Rafael felt remorseful but none of it was his fault. He didn't know what to do anymore with this relationship.

He did try to get close to her. They snuggled for long hours, all nake*d in bed. But he couldn't get the desire back.

During blindness, he used to enjoy her body every night. The way she used to show him how every part of her body wanted him.

Or maybe it wasn't Valerie's body at all. It had been ages since he last tasted those strawberries. His hands were still looking for those perfect bo*obs that used to fill his hands so perfectly.

He headed back from his thoughts to his present with a jump when felt her hand on his shoulder, "Just say yes, baby. Let's go for couple counseling."

Rafael at last nodded his head in agreement and got to his feet.

"Where are you going?" she asked his back. He didn't stop at her query.

"Office," she frowned at the answer. Wasn't he home because he wanted to take a rest?

After sitting in his car, Rafael leaned back his head on the back seat. If that report was true, Marissa would deliver the twin babies after three months. 

"I'd love to have kids with you," Once, he had told her after making love, "If we ever have a son, I'll name him Alexander."

"And what if it will be a girl?" she asked him, gliding down her hand on his toned and sleek abs. 

He had held her hand to stop it from going down any further, and spoke in a dangerously low voice, "Then I'll name her Valerie."

A lone tear escaped his eyes, sliding down his cheek. His investigators were working so hard to look for them, but God knows where they were hidden.