Rules of Engagement

Chapter 11 His Masculinity

Soren brought out a camp bed and threw a thin quilt onto it. After all, their marriage certificate was not valid yet and they were not familiar with each other. She must feel uneasy. He thought of her friend telling her to save the number of the police before she left. It was so funny. Was he really so different from a gentleman?

He took a shirt and a pair of sweatpants of his own and handed them to Elsa. "Please make do with these clothes tonight, Elsa."

What? Hearing that, Elsa froze for a moment. Every time she struggled with something, it would be solved easily by him. She took them and said, "Thank you."

When Soren was about to say something, his phone rang. He answered it, but his attitude became a little stiff. He said in a cold tone, "Dad?"

While talking on the phone, he made a gesture to tell Elsa that she could take a shower first. He was indeed a leader. His manners and deportment were always impeccable, which made Elsa feel as if he was going to take some special action.

She rushed into the bathroom. She would have a shower first even if he didn't tell her. She would feel uneasy if she had to bathe in the same room with a strange man. She must finish it as soon as possible when he was out talking on the phone.

After such a busy day, Elsa felt both physically and mentally exhausted. It was comfortable to rest in hot water and her restless mood was alleviated. After the shower, she took Soren's shirt by her hands. When she smelled his unique odor, her face began to heat up. She put it on in a few movements. The shirt was so big that it could cover her thigh. And the sweatpants were loose too. Fortunately, she could tie the drawstring tightly, so they wouldn't fall off.

In this way, it seemed that as long as she breathed a little heavily, his smell would fill in her nostrils, and all her clothes was full of his smell, sunny, warm... manly and masculine.

Elsa walked out of the bathroom, with confusion in her eyes. She could only see a figure sitting on the edge of the bed. She thought it would take a while for Soren to make the phone call, but to her surprise, he had already finished it. Seeing her come out, he also grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom. "Phew." Elsa let out a sigh of relief.

She made the bed and tucked herself in. This was his home. So she was self-aware enough to choose the small camp bed, instead of the big one... On the big bed, the sheet and quilt were made by her parents. It was a pity that she could not sleep on them.

The camp bed was also full of his masculine smell. As soon as she lied on it, the unfamiliar smell surrounded her entirely, wrapped her tightly like a rope. Elsa quickly sat up. She put on her glasses and looked around. But the photo on the dresser was gone, not even the frame.

There was only some cake left on the dresser, and the cream and peaches on it were very attractive, giving off a faint fragrance. She was embarrassed just now, so she only ate a little. Now that she saw this delicious cake, she could not help but want to eat it. Elsa stealthily take a bite of the cake with her finger and sighed with satisfaction.

She took another two bites of the cake and swept the edge of her lips, secretly glancing at the bathroom like a little rat. When Soren was taking a shower, the sound of the water came to her ears. He could not find her eating as he was standing behind the wall and so far away. Elsa enjoyed the cake in peace. When she looked at the bathroom again, she saw that he was rubbing the bubbles in his hands and washing his hair. The water splashed all over his strong body. She couldn't help admiring his excellent figure and dragged back her eyes. See no evil. See no evil.

But...

Wait, there seemed to be something wrong. She sucked the cream on her finger, wondering what was wrong.

She pushed up the big black-rimmed glasses and slowly looked in the direction of the bathroom. She saw that Soren was washing his shoulders with the hand shower and suddenly realized: the wall was only a piece of glass! She could easily see through the translucent glass wall of the bathroom!

There was no real wall of the bathroom but it was made of glass! With her glasses, she could see his strong naked body back to her! Although the air became blurred because of the rising steam, there were still many details that could be seen clearly!

So how long had he talked on the phone when she was in the bathroom? Where was he after he answered the phone? The blood rushed to Elsa's burning face. If she had known that, she would have gone to the other bathroom!

She frowned and was about to ask when the door of the bathroom suddenly opened. Her courage immediately disappeared like a broken balloon. She hurriedly took off her glasses and wrapped herself in the quilt. Then she closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.

After knowing him for only one day, she didn't feel like herself at all. This feeling was not good.

Elsa closed her eyes. She could hear Soren walking back and forth in the room. When he walked to her bed, he stopped.

"Elsa?" Soren called her tentatively.

She wouldn't and was too embarrassed to respond.

"Are you asleep?" He seemed to be closer to her.

Since she was pretending to be asleep, of course she would not answer him. 'Just let him think I'm asleep.'

Suddenly, Elsa felt something warm moving very close to her. She didn't dare to look at it or even open her eyes. She felt that the warm sweep across her lips and cleaned the cream left on her lips.

She didn't dare to think what it was that had touched her lips...

The embarrassment of being caught eating furtively and of being watched naked during the shower made her grab the quilt and close her eyes tightly.

She was even more embarrassed when she heard the laugh of Soren.

"You are too tired. Have a good rest." Soren touched her hair with his big hand and then left.

It was not until the curtain was drawn and the light was turned off that Elsa got relaxed from the tense state.

In a short while, the sound of Soren's breath came from the bed. It was quiet, peaceful and stable. Elsa was relieved and gradually fell asleep.

She was too tired in these days, so she slept very well last night. In the morning, Elsa was woken up by a phone call. Still half asleep, she picked up the phone. "Hello, Janie. Although it's not a real marriage, we are still newly married. Why are you calling so early in the morning?"

She had been waken up by a succession of phone calls for consecutive days. So she was so upset to be called again when she was sleeping!

"Elsa, I'm really sorry to call you at this time. But the newspaper has something urgent. Someone's looking for you. Come over now." Although Cindy Wu was apologizing, her voice was neither cold nor warm. It was kind of intentional politeness.

"I have assigned my work to another colleague during my wedding leave, so I can't make it now." Elsa refused. She would never push off her own work, but she would not get involved in the things that did not belong to her either.

However, Cindy just said, "Elsa, it's no use getting angry with me. I'm just trying to inform you as soon as possible. Whether you will come or not, it's up to you." Elsa couldn't figure out what expression was on Cindy's face now.

The phone was hung up by the other end.

Elsa was annoyed by the trouble. When she asked for a leave of marriage, she had assigned her work temporarily to another colleague, Hal. There's endless work of the newspaper. If she began to deal with this trouble, she would be busy all the time. She had planned to take advantage of the marriage leave to relax herself for a period of time.

But since she answered the phone, she couldn't pretend that nothing had happened. Elsa had no choice but to call Hal. Then she found that Hal was working on a big news and was not in the office. So he didn't have time to deal with this issue. He kept apologizing to Elsa over the phone.

Therefore, Elsa had to go to the newspaper office in person.

As soon as Elsa remembered that someone else was on the bed, she covered the cellphone with her hand. She looked around and found that the quilt on the big bed was folded neatly like a piece of tofu. It was her new quilt for marriage. The beautiful flowers on it was a little bit inconsistent with this folding method.

Soren had already left. Elsa quickly got up and washed her face. When she walked out of the room, she saw Blanche preparing the breakfast in the kitchen. And Johnson was drinking a cup of tea as usual.

Blanche said with a smile, "We got up early and bought some food in the neighborhood to make breakfast. Unexpectedly, Ren got up earlier than us and was running downstairs. Zaza, if you have time, you can work out with Ren. You either go to work or sit in the office all day long, how are you going to keep healthy without doing exercise?"

"Okay, Mom. Something happened in my company. I need to go there now. I'll be back soon." Elsa grabbed her bag and was about to leave.

"What? Aren't you in your marriage leave? Zaza, take an egg before leaving, and the soy milk just made by me."

Grabbing the egg in her hand, Elsa rushed out of the door, with no time to drink the soy milk. She felt a little dizzy and couldn't tell which direction she should go, so it took her a while to find the elevator. She went downstairs and was confused again. Finally she found the exit of the community. But her car was not here, and she didn't know where the bus stop was either, so she had to take a taxi.

She rubbed her eyes, wondering when the dark circles would completely disappear.

On the way to the office, Elsa made a phone call to get more information about this issue. It turned out that it was only a small incident.

Last time, Elsa had posted a news with a picture, which was taken on the street according to the content and requirements of the news at that time. A person in the bustling crowd was a little more conspicuous than others, but not very obvious. Now the wife of this person came to ask for compensation for the publish of the portrait, saying that if the newspaper refused to pay her the money, she would sue the newspaper and the reporter for invading the portraiture right of her husband. Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

Elsa was dumbfounding to find out the truth. In the news report, the newspaper had the right to use a person's portrait if it's needed. It didn't violate the portraiture right, let alone the compensation for the person.

But it was said that the old lady was very difficult to deal with. As a result, others had no choice but to ask Elsa for help.