Chapter 7

They were quiet as they stared at each other.

What had been a relaxing bath at first now felt the opposite of its intention.

There were so many things Lisa was curious to know but she thought that maybe keeping quiet was her best bet.

After all, she didn't know how he felt about the fact that they had literally switched and gone ahead to lie and deceive he and his family.

"Are you hungry?," he suddenly asked.

Lisa looked up, shocked by his question and a little wary of him.

She had lied to him and deceived him and where she came from, a little lie would earn her a beating and starving for days.

A lie as big as this would have her locked up in the basement for days, with no food, water or sunlight and she would only be let out when the house became too dirty and they needed her to clean it.

That was what Lisa had grown used to so right now, she couldn't for the life of her understand how he could continue to smile at her and ask her if she was hungry.

When she didn't reply to his question, Richard shrugged.

"Okay. Wrong question, you are definitely hungry after everything that happened today. What would you like to eat?," he asked again.

Lisa blinked, confused by his line of questioning.

Was he really asking her what she wanted to eat? As in, her choice?

She had never been asked that and just looked on in shock as he stared back at her, also wide-eyed.

"Did I say something wrong?," he asked her.

Lisa hurriedly shook her head, realizing that she had not answered any of his initial questions either.

"No, you didn't say anything wrong. I'm not just used to being asked that," she answered.

Richard frowned, he really didn't think that being able to pick what to have for dinner was that much of a luxury.

"You're not used to being asked..," he muttered as he nodded carefully.

"Do you want me to pick for you then?," he asked her as he reasoned that she was probably feeling overwhelmed.

Lisa hurriedly nodded.

"Yes, I'd love for you to pick for me," she rushed to tell him.

Her haste made Richard laugh.

"Look away," he instructed.

Surprised by the abrupt order, Lisa froze.

Richard who had wanted to step out of the tub so he could inform the kitchen staff of their priorities for dinner was a little bit taken aback when he saw her reaction to his words.

He had no issue with standing up while she watched but judging from how she had reacted earlier, he didn't think that she would be too happy to watch him stand up while he was soaked through and his clothes had become completely see through.

"Or you could just watch," he said and stood before Lisa had the time to process what he was saying.

As soon as he stood up, Lisa let out a little scream.

She had of course seen men before, a lot of times that she had seen them, they were usually fully clothed and her options were quite limited especially since she was always stuck at home except when she had to get groceries or cleaning supplies and the likes.

All of that was different especially when she the man she was staring at was her very own husband with the entirety of his body highlighted by the wet clothes that clung to him.

She hiccuped violently as she finally had the good sense to look away several minutes later.

Richard laughed at her as he stepped out of the tub.

"Do you have allergies or foods you dislike?," he asked as he put on the robe he had taken off earlier.

Lisa hurriedly shook her head.

She didn't have any allergies that she was aware of.

She could have had allergies but she had eaten meals from very slim pickings all of her life so she was pretty sure that she didn't have any allergies and even if she did, she had probably adjusted to them from eating only the same types of meals all of her life.

"I don't think I have any allergies," she told him.

Richard blinked.

"You don't think? Well, I'll have them prepare an EpiPen too, just in case you do have one," he told her with a chic smile before he left.

As soon as he stepped out of the bathroom, Lisa took a deep breath and buried her head in to the water.

She was a few seconds into that when she heard him again.

"Love?," he called.

She immediately lifted her head from the water, staring at him in surprise.

"I thought you left," she protested.

"Yeah, I can see that," he told her.

"I wanted to let you know that dinner will be available in about thirty minutes. So, you can get dressed and come on down to the dining room. We have the house to ourselves tonight so it might be hard to navigate. If you think you're lost, just call for me, okay?," he said to her, his eyes a twinkling wonder to behold as he walked off.

Minutes after he left, Lisa was still staring at the door, afraid that he would walk in the moment she thought that he was gone.

But, he didn't come back in.

It didn't matter anymore because she was no longer interested in washing for any longer so she got out of the tub.

She stood in front of the tub, wondering how to drain the water for almost five minutes before she eventually gave up.

She grabbed a towel and dried down her body before she finally wore a robe and stepped out of the bathroom.

As soon as she was out of the bathroom, she returned to the equally massive room and went straight to the closet.

She spotted a booth that seemed to have been dedicated and walked there in search of a lotion.

There were several types that she didn't recognize and when she couldn't continue to try to pick which one to use, she just settled on the closest one to her and hurriedly took off her robe to slather her body.

She found another set of lotions and oils for her face and just picked the nearest one instead of wasting her time.

She combed her hair too, tying the thick tresses into sizes she was comfortable with.

Done with that, she headed down to the clothing section and and began to search for clothes that were appropriate for the occasion.

Lisa soon discovered that there were none of what she considered appropriate there.

Everything she found was either sheer or looked like something a very confident woman would wear and Lisa didn't think they were meant for her.

It didn't help that she could see the designers tag and that immediately made her nervous of the price.

Finally, Lisa left her closet and sojourned into Richard's closet, hoping to find something more appropriate.

The first thing she set her eyes on was a long sleeved white shirt that she immediately picked because it was big enough to reach her knees.

Lisa changed into them and took a look at herself in the mirror.

She looked different, almost like she was a completely different person than she had been this morning.

But, that only lasted for a bit because as soon as she stared at herself for too long, she. began to look quite the same as the girl that she hated to see in the mirror.

Lisa hurriedly turned away from the mirror and headed out of the house to find the dining room, determined to impress him by finding the dining room without actually calling for help from Richard.

Lisa had a photographic memory.

She never forgot something she had once seen, no matter how long ago it had been so she had no problem finding her way down the stairs to the rest of the house.

As soon as she was downstairs, it didn't take very long for her to find the dining room.

She smiled as soon as she had found it and walked into it to find Richard lighting candles.

It wasn't just the candles, he had already put out quite a spread of food as well as two bottles of red wine and Lisa couldn't help but notice that even though the table was so large, he had practically pushed two chairs together so that they would be sitting quite close to one another.

"Did you prepare all of this?," she asked him.

Richard who had not been expecting her and had totally thrown himself into preparing the best for her was a little bit taken aback when she suddenly showed up.

He turned around and took a look at her, smiling.

"You were quick," he said as his eyes moved down from her face to her body.

He blinked when he noticed that she was wearing a shirt that belonged to him.

His assistant had taken care of filling get wardrobe.

Had they forgotten to do that?

"Weren't you able to find your clothes in the closet?," he asked her, already one step away from calling to ask why such a messy job had been done.

She however, nodded her head.

"I found the clothes," she told him.

Her face was suddenly so red that Richard had to abandon what he was doing, approaching her as he wondered what was wrong.

"Oh, you found them then? What happened to them?," he asked her.

She blushed harder.

"Have you seen what was in there?," she asked.

"It's filled with really weird clothes that I couldn't possibly wear. It would feel like I was naked," she rushed to answer, blushing furiously.

Richard hadn't been the one to pick out the clothes so he didn't really know what she was talking about.

He laughed softly as he regarded her.

She had really thought that wearing his shirt was a better idea than wearing whatever had been put into her wardrobe but Richard didn't think that.

Seeing her in his shirt made him feel things that he had no idea he was capable of feeling.

He hastily cleared his throat before she got wind of his lustful thoughts.

"Come on, let's eat. I'm sure you're really hungry," he told her as he took her hand and led her to the seats that he had put close together.

He pushed the seat out and practically carried her on to it, adjusting it after she had sat down.

"What do you want to start with?," he asked her.

Lisa quietly surveyed the food and eventually pointed at a bowl of creamy pasta.

Richard chuckled and took out a plate to serve her a bit of the pasta.

It didn't end there because he immediately moved to another bowl and added some pieces of turkey on to her plate and thenhe got another little plate and added quite a bit of Caesar salad.

"You should start with that," he told her.

Lisa was going to protest but she was too hungry to do much so she sat down and allowed him to feed her like he wanted to.

And did he indeed feed her.

He kept adding to her plate till she could no longer eat but that didn't stop him from asking about dessert.

She didn't know what to have so he decided on ice cream and proceeded to have her taste several different flavours till she decided on her favorite.

By the time they were done, Lisa could barely walk.

She wanted to clean up the dishes but Richard flat out refused and when she insisted, he carried her out of there and away to her room.

He helped her in and showed her where every necessary thing was before he eventually left her to have a good night's rest.

The end of the day had marked the end of a chaotic existence for Lisa.