Quinn's heartbeat sped up staring straight at this man who dressed like a proper gentleman but behaved like a wolf. Her brows furrowed slightly and she couldn't help but ask, "Why me?"
Leif put down his teacup and stared at her his gaze piercing straight into her soul. His fingers subconsciously rubbed against each other his old behaviour springing up again.
Quinn glanced down at the man's fingers and that feeling buried deep in her heart sprung up. Why was it so similar yet so different?
Leif finally opened his lips after a moment of great silence. "You are the most perfect person for this. You lack ambition and have no interest in me. This is good for both of us. Each of us take what we can take with no consequences," he said and Quinn's tight brows loosened.
She never thought someone would be interested in her because she was not ambitious. Was she not ambitious? No, she was very ambitious but her ambitions were entirely focused on her freedom. Freedom from her grandfather. She worked extremely hard to make that man disappear and no one knew that she had a hand in it.
Quinn valued her freedom more than the average person and no one knew how hard she was beating herself up after compromising that. Now she was yet again entwined in this circle that ate people alive like sharks.
"Do we have an agreement?" he asked and Quinn didn't answer for a while. She had never realised it but true freedom can only be attained with money. Money to be anywhere with just a single thought. She could be anywhere around the world and as far away as possible from this circle of piranhas. She had that chance and that chance was coming from this contract.
Once they divorced she would get more money than she could dream of and be able to leave this place once and for all. She could take her mother to live in a different kind of paradise free from the anxiety that comes with being in this place.
"I have a few conditions," she said and his fingers that were rubbing against each other stopped as he tilted his head slightly.
"Yes, I know. You have said that several times and I will allow it," he said his tone sincere like he genuinely wanted to hear her out.
"There is no consummating the marriage," she said and Leif's face turned colder than before.
After holding back for a while he said, "Who do you think I am? I am not interested in you in that way. Neither are you, right?"
Quinn who felt somewhat insulted by his words was a little irritable. This was exactly what she wanted him to say but she still couldn't help but be annoyed. She wasn't bad looking at all. In fact, she was the type to make people turn their heads twice when they saw her yet this person said there was nothing on her that was good looking.
She couldn't help but open her mouth and say, "Yes yes, I am not as fine looking as miss thing who just walked out of here so why not pick her? She looks like a model straight out of a magazine."
Leif's eyes chilled her a few more degrees hearing this. He had a strong aversion to crazy women and that woman right there was crazy as hell. Miss Feral was as feral as her surname but she was good at hiding it or in other words good at toning it down.
His mother was raving mad so much so that his father had run off with him when he was three. They lived in the poorest conditions because his father was afraid she would find them. They moved from place to place whenever he suspected that she was about to find them.
One might ask what was so bad that his father had no choice but to run. His mother was what others would call a yandere. She was obsessive and possessive towards him. She was the type ready to use violence and murderous means to maintain an exclusive bond.
Most romanticised this type of character in the online community but in reality, it was a very deadly trait.
It got so bad that she would use him against his father and the day she locked him up in the basement for an entire day using him to make his father do all her bidding his father ran away the very next day.
So yes, he was very sensitive even to subtle behaviours that others would deem normal.
"I have my reasons," said Leif his voice chilling to the point that Quinn felt shivers run down her back.
Quinn felt like she had stepped on a landmine thus she reasonably retreated back. She could understand how he felt. She didn't like talking about her grandfather and the insufferable days she went through in that mansion.
"If that's the case then let's carry on. I take it that we will live in separate bedrooms, right?" she said, and Leif who was almost drawn in by the haunting memories of his past looked at her his mind returning back to normal.
"Yes and you aren't allowed under any circumstances to enter my bedroom or my study," he said truly exhibiting his territorial habits. He didn't like people touching his things and he even went as far as cleaning his space by himself.
Unfortunately for him, he couldn't do the same with his work office. That's because he would constantly have business partners walking in and out.
"Okay," said Quinn before continuing in her mind, "Not that I am curious."
"You mentioned wife duties in public. What in your dictionary constitutes wife duties?" she said curious to know how this person with emotions like that of a statute defined wifely duties.
"This means making an appearance at business events that require a plus one and attending any events that require a Mrs. Carnell. You can't discuss this arrangement with anyone and the goal is to make everyone believe that we are a happily married couple," he explained and Quinn's brow raised as he stared at him with faint amusement.