Chapter 6: Lost in the Castle Labyrinth

ALICE

Gideon gently put me down, telling me to get out of my clothes and make myself comfortable on the bed.

Like what in the bloody hell?

Did the man forget I was a virgin? How could I make myself comfortable on the bed? How could I be expected to be perfectly okay with the fact that I was going to have sex for the first time?

I had a feeling Gideon was not right in the head.

“You’re still dressed,” Gideon stated, coming out of the bathroom in nothing but his boxers.

A blush colored my cheeks as I stared at my husband. The man was drool-worthy, with corded arms and a defined chest.

No wonder women screamed while they had sex with him; I had a feeling that he nearly crushed those poor females under him, causing them to scream like banshees.

I finally found my voice. “Uh…yeah…”

Shaking his head with a small smile, Gideon strode over to me and quickly undid the buttons holding my dress together.

Once all the buttons were undone, Gideon slipped the wedding gown off of me, leaving me wearing nothing but my underwear, while I stood frozen.

Turning me around, Gideon took hold of my shoulders then gently guided me to bed. Pushing me down, Gideon positioned me so my head was on the pillow, my body under his.

“You’re scared,” he stated, caressing my cheeks.

I was too scared to respond, the words lodged in my throat. Never in a million years had I pictured this moment—me, married, having sex for the first time with my husband.

All of this made me feel as if I were in an alternate universe.

“Don’t worry, just close your eyes. I won’t hurt you.” And he did it again, going back from being a tosser to being utterly sweet.

Too nervous to argue, I did as he said, closing my eyes. I tried to find comfort in darkness but did not succeed. Gideon’s scent invaded my nostrils, making me realize just how close he was to me, his body’s warmth seeping into me.

Gideon captured my lips in a slow sensual kiss. Running his hand on my bare skin, he quickly stripped me of my bra and panties, leaving me completely naked.

My body started heating up as Gideon deepened the kiss, spearing my lips with his tongue, invading my mouth. I felt something moist between my legs.

He continued running his hands on my bare skin, leaving a trail of electric fire. I thought he would stop touching me after he stripped me, but his hands didn’t stop.

They continued their journey south, until they reached my sex, which was dripping with liquid heat.

I jerked when Gideon slipped a finger inside me, but his weight kept me in place. Leaving my lips and kissing my neck, Gideon slowly pumped his finger in and out of me, making me feel pleasure like no other.

Removing his finger from my core, Gideon positioned himself over me. My mind was hazy due to what he did, my eyes heavy. I felt drunk on lust.

Without a word, Gideon slid inside me, making me arch my back at the sudden fullness, my insides stretching to accommodate his length and girth.

“Aah, stop, take it out,” I cried. Had he already broken my hymen? I didn’t know, but I did know that it hurt.

“Shh, little fairy, relax, just relax,” Gideon cooed, running his fingers through my hair, calming me.

Breathing heavily, I did my best to relax, trusting Gideon not to hurt me. Closing my eyes, I did my best to relax my muscles.

“Good girl, now this is going to hurt.”

Wait, there was more?

With a swift thrust, Gideon pushed inside me, making me arch my back once again as pain ripped through me, making me scream.

“Son of a bitch!” The pain was horrible, burning me from the inside. I cursed all the romance novels I’d read that said that the first time was pleasurable.

“Shh, relax, the pain will go away in a little while. Just relax, little dove,” Gideon murmured softly, kissing me, holding me close to him.

Just as he said, the pain abated after a little while. I breathed a sigh of relief. Sensing this, Gideon began moving, slowly, pumping in and out of me in a rhythmic pace.

Now, my body was tingling with a weird sensation. It started like a warm ball in the pit of my stomach, which kept on growing and growing until I wanted to be bathed in this warmth.

Soon that ball grew and grew and finally exploded. I arched my back as pleasure ripped through me, showering me with golden warmth as my body trembled.

Was this what the women in the novels meant about sex being pleasurable? Was this what an orgasm felt like?

Was this the nirvana that women talked about reaching as they kissed their significant others with passion? Was this the reason women were addicted to sex?

The sound of a grunt brought me back to reality. I blinked my eyes to see Gideon stilling on top of me as he spilled himself inside me. After a minute, Gideon let out a heavy breath and got up from on top of me.

“Get some sleep now. You must be exhausted,” Gideon said, lying down next to me. Pulling me to him, Gideon wrapped a corded arm around me, securing me to him.

I was too lost in the feeling of post-coital bliss to argue with Gideon. So I closed my eyes with a small smile on my face, falling into the deep depths of sleep, feeling sated.

***

After taking a quick shower and putting on a dress, I strode out of my room to find Gideon. I needed Kieran’s number in order to check on Nico.

Gideon had not been in bed when I had woken up after my nap. Strangely, I felt my heart sink when I woke up to find myself alone in the room.

I knew it was totally ridiculous of me to expect someone to be nice and loving toward me when he had only married me for a baby, but I just couldn’t control what I felt.

I was really silly.

Checking the living room and then the library, I frowned when I didn’t see Gideon anywhere. Where was he? Was he already gone for work?

After searching a couple more rooms, I became breathless; the castle was huge and there was a considerable difference between one room and the next, which had me gasping for breath after searching six rooms.

I wondered how many rooms this gigantic castle had. And how long would it take for me to explore all of it? A year? Maybe more?

If it was going to take more than one year, then I believed I wouldn’t be able to see all of it.

Giving up after finding the sixth bedroom empty of my husband, I got out of the room, planning to go back to my room, when I found myself confused as to what direction my room was in.

I turned my head left and right to see if I could recall the direction of my bedroom, but it looked as if my short-term memory had come into play because I did not know which direction I had come from. I was well and truly lost, after being here for only a few hours.

It was in times like these that I wished I had been blessed with some spatial intelligence, but no, God chose to bless me with one terrible trait after the other.

Relying on my instincts—which were not exactly reliable—I chose to head right, praying it would lead me to a familiar location.

However, my unreliable instincts once again proved just how utterly useless they were, because, as I kept going farther, I found myself in an unfamiliar grand room.

It was a circular room with a marble floor, grand windows, plush velvet curtains, and tapestries on the walls, giving the room a royal look.

A massive crystal chandelier hung from the center, the teardrop crystals sparkling in the sunlight that was filtering through the windows. There was a portrait of a woman hung on the wall.

The woman looked to be well in her thirties with beautiful skin, rosy cheeks, and sea-green eyes; she was dressed in a purple gown that looked incredibly expensive.

She sat proudly atop a high-backed chair. She looked regal. I wondered who she was.

Gideon’s mother? Grandmother? Great-grandmother? Whoever she was, she only added to the beauty of the already breathtaking room, which was probably off-limits as well.

Feeling my heart sink at being in yet another unfamiliar room, I bolted out of the circular room and found myself back in the vast corridor. Panic started taking me over as I found myself trapped in this peculiar, grand maze.

I’d known being with Gideon would not be easy, but right now finding him was proving to be more difficult than I could possibly have imagined, not to mention I had yet to call Kieran and inquire about Nico.

God, it was only my first day at being married and I was already cursing! So much for living like a bloody princess.

“M’lady? Are you all right?” a soft, feminine voice asked.

I twisted my neck in the direction of the voice so fast it was a wonder it didn’t break.

Standing just a few feet away from me was a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties, wearing the signature maid uniform.

Her blonde hair was tied in a neat bun above her head while her pale skin was dotted with freckles. She had dark blue eyes and thin lips.

“Ah yes, do you know where Gideon is?” I asked the woman, not wanting to let her know I was lost.

“Mr. Maslow is in his study,” the maid answered.

“I would like to see him.” I was not going to request this maid take me to Gideon. He was my husband, and I had every right to see him.

“When Mr. Maslow is in his study, he gives strict instructions to not let anyone disturb him,” she replied.

“Well, I’m his wife, and I want you to take me to his study,” I asserted. I needed to see Gideon, and nothing was going to stop me…except my sense of direction.

Before the maid could say anything, soft footsteps were heard from behind her. A woman, who looked to be in her forties, appeared with a frown.

“What’s going on here? M’lady, what are you doing here?” the woman demanded, as if my being here was wrong.

“I want to see Gideon. Take me to him,” I ordered the older woman.

“Suzy, why haven’t you taken Mrs. Maslow to Mr. Maslow’s study?” the older woman asked the younger one, who furrowed her eyebrows.

“You know the rules. No one is allowed to disturb him when he’s working,” Suzy muttered to the older woman.

“Yes, but we cannot have her roaming on this floor. This part of the castle is forbidden. Mr. Maslow has given me no instructions to allow his wife to come here,” the older woman whispered harshly.

Seriously?! I was standing right there, and they were conversing with each other like I wasn’t standing just a few feet from them. I got that I was short and skinny, but that in no way made me invisible!

More importantly, why was this part of the castle forbidden? Was it because of the lady in the room? Was this castle haunted?

But I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary while I searched for my husband here, so why in Buckingham Palace was this part of the castle forbidden?

“Please forgive me, m’lady. I will take you to Mr. Maslow right away. If you would just follow me,” Suzy said to me after a few seconds.

Not wanting to waste my time lingering here more than I already had, I began to follow Suzy’s lead, but the older woman’s voice stopped me.

“M’lady, with all due respect, please refrain from coming to this floor from now on. This part of the castle is strictly forbidden to all the staff and family alike.

“Mr. Maslow will not be happy if he knows you have ventured into the forbidden parts of the castle,” she told me.

“Why is this part of the castle forbidden?” I questioned.

“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to tell you this, m’lady,” she responded, her gaze not leaving mine. It was like she wanted me gone, like she was angry that I had dared to come here.

However, her words only piqued my curiosity. She might not be at liberty to tell me exactly why this part of the castle was forbidden, but I knew Gideon would tell me. He had to tell me.

“Any other parts of the castle that are forbidden?” I asked, acid dripping from my words.

“Yes, this floor and the rest of the floors above this one are strictly forbidden,” she answered, not sensing the bitterness in my tone. I did not like this woman.

Nodding my head, I turned and let Suzy lead me out of the forbidden zone. We went down seven flights of stairs, which had me mentally smacking myself. How on earth had I managed to climb so many stairs? Seven floors!

I had searched rooms in seven floors! Well, I had tried to find Gideon in only six rooms…six unlocked rooms. The rest of them were locked.

Throughout all this, I took in the beauty and opulence of the castle. There was not a single thing that looked cheap. Everything looked to be state of the art and expensive.

Not to mention that the castle was a contrast between new and old. The structure of the castle looked to have been made in the eighteenth century, but the technology was definitely from the twenty-first century.

After descending two more flights of stairs, Suzy took a sharp right, leading me into a secluded corridor. She stopped when she came face to face with a giant door. Raising her small fist, Suzy knocked twice on the door.

“Yes?” came a masculine voice, unmistakably Gideon’s.

“Sir, your wife wishes to speak to you,” Suzy answered back.

“Okay, you may leave,” he replied.

Nodding at the wooden door, Suzy turned and walked away, leaving me standing staring at the expensive wooden door. I had half a mind to follow her, but something told me Gideon was going to open the door.

When the door opened, I sighed in relief, glad that I had chosen to stay despite the confusion that had gathered like a cloud in my mind when Suzy left me. I entered the room, and the door immediately closed.

Gideon sat in a plush high-backed chair behind a large wooden desk. Papers littered the surface of the desk, along with other accessories like a glass paperweight, a mini globe, a pencil holder, and a pad of sticky notes.

A giant Mac sat on his right, the screen showing an Excel sheet.

The rest of Gideon’s study was not different from the rest of the castle. There were a couple of grand, high-backed visitors’ chairs, and a royal sofa was placed against one wall with two matching chairs on either side of it.

There was a small chandelier, casting a soft glow around the room. The velvet curtains prevented sunlight from entering, bathing the room in artificial light.

“I see you’re awake,” Gideon stated, looking at me.

“Why were you not in bed?” I asked then immediately regretted it. I did not want Gideon to think that him not being in bed made me unhappy.

“I had work to do,” he answered.

“You could’ve woken me up,” I told him.

“No, you looked like you needed to rest,” he replied, letting his eyes run over the paper he was holding.

“Well, I tried searching for you, but I got lost.” I began playing with my necklace.

“Well, now you found me, so tell me, little peach, what can I do for you?” Gideon asked.

Commit suicide, maybe? It would save me the trouble of being married to you, my subconscious suggested.

“I need Kieran’s number,” I told him.

“Why?” Gideon raised an eyebrow.

“I need to talk to him,” I answered vaguely, not wanting to tell him the real reason I wanted to talk to his brother.

“About?” He was not going to let this go.

“Something important.” I was not going to tell him why I needed to speak to Kieran either.

“And that is?” Man, he asked a lot of questions.

“Uh, something important,” I repeated.

“Tell me, little one, are you deliberately being obtuse, or were you born like this?” Gideon inquired.

My temper flared at hearing his words. The nerve of this man! How dare he call me obtuse?!

“Just give me Kieran’s number,” I demanded angrily.

“No,” he said.

“No?” He had to give me the number.

“Not until you tell me what you want to talk to him about,” he stated.

“I told you it’s something important,” I gritted out.

“And I asked you exactly what it is.” This man was impossible.

“It’s important,” I repeated stubbornly.

“Important, like wanting to know about your brother?”

I huffed. “Okay fine, yes, I want to know how Nico is, and I need to tell Kieran to give Nico his medicine at exactly nine o’clock. Now, can I please have his number?”

This is what I was reduced to—begging. I could not believe that I had landed myself in such a state just because of money. No wonder greed was one of the seven deadly sins.

“See, now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Gideon loved taunting me, riling me up.

“What’s his number?” I asked him, ready to memorize Kieran’s number.

Gideon did not answer. Instead he picked up the cordless phone and pressed a button. “Come here. You can talk to Kieran now.” He held out the phone for me to take.

I reached Gideon in three strides. Taking the phone from his hand, I plopped onto one of the visitors’ chairs and listened to the monotonous ringing.

“Hello?” Kieran asked.

“Hello, Kieran, it’s me, Alice,” I said.

“Oh, hello, little mushroom, how are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m okay. Listen, is Nico there with you?”

“Yes, he’s watching TV,” Kieran answered.

“Has he had his dinner?” I inquired.

“Not yet, but in another hour, we will sit down for dinner,” Kieran replied.

“Okay, make sure his meal is free of any fats, just give him vegetables. They’re good for his health, and please give him his medicine at exactly nine o’clock. I’ve kept them all in his suitcase, along with the prescription,” I told him.

“Anything else? Does he sleep on his right side or left? Does he have a special bear that he likes to sleep with? Does he sleep after he hears a bedtime story?” Kieran taunted.

“No,” I gritted out, trying to calm myself, “just do as I said and tell Nico I said hi.” With that, I hung up, not wanting to listen to Kieran’s annoying voice.

Putting the phone on the table, I breathed heavily. I was short-tempered—I really was. But it had been so long since anyone had truly pissed me off. Now, with Kieran taunting me, I found myself getting angrier and angrier, and I did not like it.

“Is that all?” Gideon asked.

I nodded. “Yes, thank you, I’ll leave you to your work. Sorry for disturbing you.” I stood up and turned, intending to head out the door, but stopped myself when a thought entered my mind.

“Gideon?”

“Yes?” He did not look up from his papers.

“How did the door open when you were sitting behind the desk?” I queried.

“Remote control. I pressed a button, and the door opened, and then I pressed another button that had the door closing.” A perfect combination of old and new.

“Oh, that’s nice, and one more question.” Now that we were talking about the house, I might as well ask what had been bothering me earlier.

“Yes?” Gideon was so nice at times.

“Why are the upper floors of the castle forbidden?” I questioned.

That got a reaction from him. Gideon’s head whipped up, staring at me. One second he was sitting behind the desk working away, and the next he was standing in front of me, gripping my arms with his hands, his gaze hard.

“Who told you that?” he asked me, anger marring his face.

“Uh, the maids told me,” I answered, suddenly afraid of him.

“Why? Why would they tell you?” He shook me, causing my fear to rise.

“I—I went up to the seventh floor looking for you. I got lost, and Suzy and this other maid found me and told me the top floors were forbidden,” I answered, my heart pounding.

Gideon released me from his grasp and clutched his head, spinning around so his back was to me. Gideon groaned in frustration.

Whirling around, Gideon grabbed my shoulders and brought me closer to him. He bent his face until his breath mixed with mine.

“Don’t ever, and I mean ever, dare to go up there, Alice. I mean it. There will be serious consequences if you step foot on the seventh floor and above. Do you understand me?” Gideon ordered.

I nodded, too shocked and terrified to utter a syllable. I had no idea what on earth was up there that had Gideon reacting like this, but whatever it was, it was bloody serious.

After seeing me nod, Gideon instantly relaxed. With a quick nod, Gideon removed his hold from my shoulders. Taking a couple of deep breaths, Gideon ran a hand through his hair.

“You are not even going to mention these floors ever again. Got it?”

I nodded once again.

“Good, now let’s go eat. You must be hungry,” Gideon stated. Taking my hand in his, he led me out of the study.

I had no clue what was up there. But I was going to find out before this year ended.