Bondage and Marriage - 52

Noah, curious, opened the message and saw the attached photo, his mouth slightly open in surprise.

“What is this…?”

The message from Gabriel included a photo of someone lying down, spreading their legs provocatively, exposing their private areas without any shame. The person’s face was cleverly hidden, with only the jawline and blonde hair visible. However, when Noah noticed the words written in a star-shaped magic marker on the person’s right thigh, a memory came to mind.

When was it, exactly? It was probably when he and Gabriel were having one of their usual “fun” private lessons. The week before that day, Gabriel had given Noah a book that was too advanced for his level, saying they would have a test on it the following week. At the time, Noah had deliberately pretended to be less skilled than he actually was to prolong the lessons, so the difficult level of the material wasn’t much of a problem. However, the actual test had been difficult, and it was obvious that Noah had done that intentionally.

At that time, Gabriel punished Noah for not studying properly, writing shameful words on his thigh and making him read them aloud. As Noah recalled that unpleasant memory, he stared at the photo. The words written on the thigh of the person in the picture read: “I am a naughty child. Please punish me.” He tilted his head as he looked at the writing.

Yes, that was the same phrase Noah had written back then. Yes, he had taken that position before. But Gabriel had never taken a photo of him during those private lessons. Gabriel was very meticulous and left almost no evidence of his abuse of Noah. He never pleaded with Noah, nor had he ever carelessly left his bodily fluids around the room. After punishment, Gabriel had always been careful to erase any traces and even treated Noah’s skin.

With today’s advanced data recovery technology, even if a photo was deleted or a device was damaged or submerged in water, it could be restored. Therefore, Gabriel never took such photos. Moreover, as Noah carefully examined the photo again, he realized it looked like him at first glance, but it wasn’t his body. The decisive proof was that Noah still had the real photo from that time.

“Where is it…?”

Noah pressed a disguised app on his phone. It looked like a regular game app, but when activated, it led to a privacy folder. Only by tapping certain characters in a specific order on the app’s initial screen would the hidden folder appear.

Well, there wasn’t much in the privacy folder. Just photos or videos of things Noah liked… Occasionally, after spanking, Noah would take pictures of the marks on his body if they looked particularly attractive or if he had used a new tool that seemed quite naughty. That day, the photo of the writing on his thigh was one of those moments.

“Ah, here it is.”

Noah brought up the photo and compared it carefully. At first, it looked similar, but the location of the writing was different. The writing in the photo from Gabriel was farther out on the thigh. So, this was a fake photo, even though it had been sent as if it were him.

Noah was puzzled about why Gabriel would send such a photo, but as he absentmindedly scrolled, he found another message from Gabriel. It was a lengthy text, but in summary, it said that if Noah didn’t meet him at a certain cafe at 3 PM tomorrow, Gabriel would send other photos of Noah to a tabloid journalist.

“Hmm… so this is blackmail, right?”

Whether he responded or not, Noah closed his phone indifferently. If Gabriel had real photos of Noah, he wouldn’t be sending fake ones like this. And Noah didn’t care if Gabriel had real photos or not. No one would dare publish an article about the secret lives of the Frost family, as a team of lawyers would be on it within a day, tearing Gabriel and the magazine apart.

However, Noah was concerned. If it had been before, he would have happily followed Gabriel’s demands, but now, after spending over two months with Ian, Gabriel no longer interested him. When he had decided to marry Ian, he had worried about not being satisfied with anyone else after a divorce, but now… he couldn’t even imagine it.

As Noah closed the privacy app, he fell into deep thought. He believed Ian would be the one to ask for the divorce first, rather than Noah. If it were the former, Noah would pretend to lose and ask for the divorce after enjoying his time with Ian. If it were the latter, Ian would probably be the one to get tired of tormenting Noah and ask for a divorce himself. But, thinking about the situation lately, Noah felt like Ian wouldn’t be the one to initiate the divorce.

Plus, there was that meaningful statement from Ian last night. Yesterday, in the midst of all the enjoyment, Noah had hardly listened to Ian’s words, but now, thinking back on it, Ian had said that this was the last time. Was he talking about this being the last time they would discuss divorce? Was it because there wouldn’t be another chance to talk about divorce after that?

Noah was satisfied with his life now and didn’t have any particular intention of divorcing, but if Ian refused a divorce, things could get complicated. Society was still more lenient with alphas than with omegas. There was a big difference between an alpha requesting a divorce and an omega requesting one, and in most cases, the latter was rarely accepted.

So, if Noah ever asked for a divorce and Ian refused, it wouldn’t be impossible, but it would turn into a long, difficult battle. And that was when Tanner would likely get involved, turning everything into a chaotic mess. Noah really didn’t want that. In other words, Noah’s neat plan to divorce and become independent would fall apart.

“But, I guess, I don’t have to divorce if I don’t want to…”

People’s feelings could change, and lately, Noah had been wavering. He was so happy with his current life that he wondered if he really needed to divorce after all. Thinking about it made his head hurt, so he lay down on the bed with a sigh. “Forget it, I’ll just decide later based on the situation.”

However, Noah would later learn that life doesn’t always go the way you want it to. Sometimes, things happen that you think would never happen.

“After we finish eating, get ready to go out. I’m going with you.”

Noah, who had been eating his favorite crispy salad, looked up at Ian, wide-eyed like a rabbit. Ian demanded an answer, and Noah quickly swallowed his salad and nodded.

“Yes… do I need to dress up specially?”

“There’s nothing like that, just come out.”

Noah nodded on the outside, but inside he was a bit confused. Lately, Noah had been seeing Ian a lot more. Before, Ian would only come to him at night, but now he was seeing him at least three times a day. Since Ian’s work hours had gotten later recently, Noah saw him once in the morning, once at lunch, and once at dinner… and other times as well.

Moreover, before Ian would only call Noah when he wanted to tease him, but recently, Ian called Noah for trivial things. For example, he would call Noah into the study, expecting something, but Noah could just ask a servant to do it. Instead, Ian would have Noah make coffee. (And the dessert that came with the coffee was so delicious that Noah would realize after arriving at the study that he was actually enjoying tea time with Ian.) Or, Ian would drag Noah along on a walk, even though Ian could have gone alone, or call him to the office like now…

Since Noah never knew when Ian would tease him, he had to respond to everything Ian did. It was better than just staying at the mansion and doing nothing, but Noah felt like Ian had changed a lot recently.

Noah was almost done with his meal when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and frowned slightly. It was Gabriel. Since that day, Gabriel had been relentlessly sending threatening messages. Noah thought he would stop if he ignored them, but it seemed like he had given Gabriel the impression that he was easy to take advantage of, which made him keep sending messages.

This was the fifth message today, but Noah didn’t delete it in case he needed it later. Then, the phone vibrated again. Annoyed, Noah turned off the vibration, and when he looked up, Ian was staring at him with raised eyebrows.

“What’s with all the messages lately?”

Noah was a bit surprised that Ian had noticed so many messages, but considering the frequent vibrations during meal times lately, Ian, being sensitive, might think it was happening often. Noah shook his head. He didn’t want Gabriel to ruin his peaceful life.

“Well… I’ve started talking to an old friend again.”

“Didn’t you learn any manners at home? Using your phone during meals is rude.”

Ian said in a cold tone. Noah apologized but secretly pouted. Ian had used his phone during meals too, even talking on the phone openly, but now, he suddenly had a problem with it… Noah grumbled internally, then his thoughts drifted to a different track. He half-jokingly wished that Ian would properly teach him meal manners using his phone… just as he was about to put his spoon down, something sparkled in Ian’s sleeve, catching Noah’s attention. It was a simple, diamond-shaped blue sapphire cufflink.

“Huh?”

Wait… didn’t I buy that? Noah remembered the cufflink that had suddenly disappeared from his drawer and looked at Ian with slightly open lips. The culprit was Ian. Well, it was his birthday present, so it made sense that Ian would take it, but he could have at least told him! Ian, noticing Noah’s suspicious look, raised an eyebrow. Noah hesitantly spoke up.

“That… isn’t it my birthday present?”

“What?”

“The cufflink…”

While leisurely sipping his coffee, Ian glanced at the cufflink on his sleeve, his eyes quickly scanning the electronic pad as he read something. “What’s that?” Noah thought. That’s my cufflink! He was curious whether Ian would look embarrassed, but Ian didn’t seem embarrassed at all; instead, he confidently replied.

“I’ve always had this.”

“Ha, but…”

That cufflink wasn’t Ian’s style. Noah, who cared about clothes even though he didn’t show it, knew Ian preferred metal-themed cufflinks, not flashy sapphires. And judging by the timing and design, it was undoubtedly the cufflink Noah had bought. But Ian insisted it was his and even went a step further.

“By the way, why didn’t you give me a birthday present?”

“Huh?”

Ian raised his head arrogantly, as if he had no shame. “On my birthday, your family gave me presents, and so did our acquaintances.”

“Even the servants gave me gifts, but you, my husband, didn’t give me anything. How shameless.”

Now, who’s being shameless here? Ian took the gift without saying anything and was now demanding a present in return. Noah was speechless, and Ian stood up, grabbing Noah’s shoulder with a smug smile.

“If you’re not shameless, then you must think I’m a joke. Isn’t that right? Looks like you need to learn how to respect your alpha.”

With that, Ian lightly patted Noah’s shoulder as if shaking off dust. “Get ready to leave. Let’s go.” Hearing that, Noah quickly changed his mind. Well, I guess it’s my fault for not giving a birthday present. So he eagerly went upstairs to his room, expecting Ian to tease him more during their trip.