(Jay's POV)
The five alarms Keifer set? Yeah, they were useless. Apparently, Keifer has developed a new superpower: snoozing them in his sleep without even opening his eyes.
I woke up to the sound of the sixth "backup" alarm—which was just Keifer's brother, Keigan, calling him on speakerphone and screaming, "GET UP, YOU LOVESTRUCK IDIOT, YOU HAVE AN 9 AM!"
"Keifer, move!" I yelled, shoving a pillow into his face.
"Five more minutes, Jay-Jay..." he mumbled, wrapping his arms around my waist like a human octopus. "You smell like vanilla and home. Let's just stay here and let LSE teach itself."
Usually keifer wakes up even early from me but today his behaviour is a lit bit "Hmmm..."
"We are going to be late!" I scrambled out of bed, tripping over a stray sneaker.
Keifer finally rolled out, looking like a high-fashion model even with bedhead, while I looked like I'd been through a wind tunnel.
The chaos didn't stop. Keifer couldn't find his watch, I couldn't find my favorite lip balm, and we ended up sharing a piece of toast while sprinting to the car.
As we hopped into the car, Keifer finally woke up—and by "woke up," I mean his inner flirt was activated.
"You know, Jay," he said, steering through the London streets with one hand while using the other to playfully tug at my ponytail.
"Even when you're angry and have a crumb of toast on your chin, you're terrifyingly beautiful. It's distracting. If we crash, it's your fault."
"Focus on the road, Keifer!" I swiped at his hand, blushing."I am focusing. On my future wife," he winked, leaning over at a red light to whisper in my ear. "Are you sure we have to go to class? I have a sudden urge to take you to Paris instead."
"We have an exam next week! Drive!"
Enter: The Human Barnacle (Vanessa)
The second we stepped onto the LSE campus, the vibe shifted. Standing by the entrance was Vanessa Christopher, looking like she'd spent three hours on her makeup just to walk to a lecture.
"Keifer! Darling!" she chirped, practically lunging at him. She tried to hook her arm into his, but Keifer—smooth as silk—stepped closer to me and put his arm firmly around my shoulder.
"Morning, Vanessa," Keifer said, his voice polite but colder than a London winter."I heard about the merger talks your father's company is having," Vanessa purred, ignoring me entirely. "We should grab coffee and discuss it. Just the two of us. For old times' sake?"
I didn't even blink. "Oh, Vanessa, didn't you hear? Keifer's off caffeine. It makes him jittery around people who talk too much about things that don't concern them."
Vanessa's smile twitched. "I was talking to Keifer, Jay."
"And I'm his fiancé," I chirped back, showing off my ring. "Which means I'm basically his personal firewall. Access denied."
Keifer chuckled, kissing the top of my head. "That's my girl."
Vanessa wasn't giving up. Throughout the morning, it was like a cartoon villain plot.
Attempt #1: During our break, she "accidentally" tripped and tried to spill her iced latte all over my white sweater. I saw it coming from a mile away. I stepped aside, and the latte ended up drenching her own expensive suede boots.
"Oops," I said, handing her a single, tiny napkin. "Careful, Vanessa. Gravity is a hater."
Attempt #2: In the library, she tried to sit between us, claiming she "didn't understand" the macroeconomics assignment.
"Keifer, help me with this? It's so complicated," she pouted, leaning way too close.
I leaned over and slammed a textbook down. "Here's a summary, Vanessa: Supply meets demand. Currently, Keifer's supply of attention is 100% demanded by me. Try YouTube tutorials."
Keifer bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud in the quiet library. "She's right, Vanessa . I'm a very busy man."
The Tension: The "Lost" Laptop
The humor hit a snag in the afternoon. I went to grab us some waters, leaving my bag with Keifer in the student lounge.
When I came back, Keifer was gone, and so was my laptop—the one with my final project on it. Panic surged. My heart hammered against my ribs. I looked around and saw Vanessa at the far end of the hallway, smirking as she walked toward the trash chutes.
"Keifer!" I shouted, seeing him coming back from the restroom. "She has my laptop!"We sprinted. Vanessa was standing by the heavy metal bin, holding my MacBook over the edge.
"It would be such a shame if this slipped," she said, her eyes flashing with a bit of "Monster's friends's (apparently monster) daughter" crazy.
"Maybe then you'd be too busy crying to follow Keifer around."
Keifer stepped forward, his face hardening. The "gentleman" was gone; the "protector" was out. "Vanessa. Put it down. Now."
"Why? Because she's your 'whole life'?" Vanessa mocked.
I took a deep breath. I didn't scream. I just walked right up to her, looking her dead in the eye. "Vanessa, you think you're a threat because our fathers knew each other. But you're just a ghost from a past Keifer already buried. If you drop that laptop, I won't just report you. I'll make sure every business associate in London knows that the great Vanessa Christopher is a common thief because she couldn't handle being rejected."
Vanessa's hand shook. The silence in the hallway was thick enough to cut with a knife."Give. It. Back," Keifer growled, his hand tightening on my waist.
Seeing she had no cards left to play, Vanessa shoved the laptop into my chest and hissed, "You're both pathetic."
The Aftermath
As she stomped away on her ruined suede boots, Keifer let out a long breath. He took the laptop from me, checked it was okay, and then pulled me into a massive hug."You were incredible," he whispered, shaking his head in awe. "Tiger Mode is an understatement. You're more like a Lioness."
"Nobody touches my work, and nobody touches my man," I grumbled into his chest. Keifer pulled back, a devious smirk returning to his face. "Does this mean I get a reward for being a good boy and staying by your side all day?"
"Maybe," I laughed. "But if you mention Paris one more time, I'm using that rubber snake Angelo sent me to scare you in your sleep."
Keifer laughed, bright and loud, echoing through the halls of LSE. "Deal. Now let's go home. I think there's a crate of mangoes with our names on them."
The "castle" doors had barely clicked shut before Keifer dropped his keys and scooped me up into a dizzying hug, spinning me around until the London skyline outside our window became a blur of city lights.
"Finally," he breathed, resting his forehead against mine. "Just us. No professors, no macroeconomics, and definitely no human barnacles named Vanessa."
I laughed, feeling the tension of the day melt away. "I'm still not over the look on her face when I handed her that tiny napkin for her ruined boots."
"It was iconic. My wifey , the silent but deadly assassin," Keifer chuckled. He walked over to our speakers and hit play on a playlist he'd titled 'Jay's World.'
It was filled with everything from cheesy 2000s pop to the OPM songs my brother Angelo used to blast back home.
"Dance with me?" he asked, extending a hand like he was at a royal ball, though he was still in his rumpled LSE button-down."Here? In the living room?" I teased, but I already had my hands around his neck."Especially here. This is our territory, remember?"
He pulled me close, his hands resting firmly on my waist as we swayed to a slow, soulful beat. The chaos of the morning—the five snoozed alarms, the frantic toast-eating, the high-speed chase for my laptop—felt like a lifetime ago.
For a few minutes, we just moved in silence. Keifer's chin rested on the top of my head, and I could hear his heartbeat. It was steady, unlike the frantic pace he'd had in the hallway when Vanessa threatened my work.
"You know," he whispered, his voice vibrating through my chest. "When you stood up to her... I've never been prouder. My father spent his whole life trying to script my future, choosing people like Vanessa because they looked good on a balance sheet. But you? You're the only person who actually sees me."
I pulled back just enough to look at him. His eyes were soft, completely stripped of the "cool guy" LSE persona. "I didn't do it just for the laptop, Keifer. I did it because you're not a business transaction. You're mine."
"Yours," he agreed, his smirk returning. "Completely and utterly. Though I did notice you almost reached for that rubber snake in your bag during the library standoff."
"I was prepared!" I defended, laughing as he twirled me into a clumsy, uncoordinated spin that ended with us collapsing onto the sofa. "Angelo said it was a defensive weapon!"
"Remind me to thank your brother for sending me a bodyguard," Keifer teased, pulling me into his lap. He looked around our quiet home, then back at me. "Vanessa can try every trick in the book, but she's playing a game that's already over. We won the second we decided to be us."
I leaned in, catching the faint scent of his cologne and the lingering sweetness of the mangoes sitting on the counter. "We did, didn't we?"
"Every single time," he whispered, before leaning down to seal the victory with a kiss that made the rest of the world—and every Vanessa in it—completely disappear.
Cheesy peesy
After the spinning and the dancing, we were both out of breath and high on the adrenaline of a Vanessa-free evening. Keifer flopped onto the rug, looking up at the ceiling with that lopsided grin that still makes my heart do a little gymnastics routine.
"Jay-Jay," he said, propping himself up on one elbow. "We've defeated a socialite, survived a laptop heist, and danced to OPM in a London flat. I feel like I know you better than I know my own bank PIN. But… do I really know your soul?"
I snorted, grabbing a couple of cushions to make a makeshift throne on the floor. "My soul is currently 90% caffeine and 10% pure spite for Vanessa's suede boots. What are you getting at, Keifer?"
"I saw this thing online," he said, pulling a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. He'd actually printed it out at the LSE library.
"The Deep Love Language Interview. Since we're officially 'ruling our own destiny,' we need to be synced up. Like a super-computer. Or a really high-end toaster."
I rolled my eyes but sat cross-legged, ready for the challenge. "Fine. Hit me with your best shot, Mr. Destiny."
Round 1: Acts of Service vs. Words of Affirmation
"Okay, question one," Keifer began, putting on a serious 'interviewer' voice. "If you're having a bad day because a certain monster-associate tried to sabotage your project, would you rather I:
A) Write you a three-page poem about your glorious 'Tiger Mode' eyes, or
B) Quietly do all the dishes and hide your laptop so you can't work?"
I didn't even hesitate.
C) You hunt down a specific brand of spicy chips that are only sold three miles away and then leave me alone to crunch them in peace."
Keifer scribbled something down. "Noted. 'Acts of Service via Junk Food.' Very sophisticated."
Round 2: The Gift-Giving Test
"Question two," he continued, leaning closer. "If I were to buy you a gift to celebrate our victory, would you prefer
A) A designer handbag that Vanessa would envy, or
B) A framed photo of that rubber snake Angelo sent us?"
"The snake, obviously," I laughed. "It has sentimental value. It's a war hero now. Plus, I could use it to scare you whenever you try to snooze your sixth alarm."
"Hey! That's a violation of the Geneva Convention," Keifer joked, but he was smiling. "You're a cheap date, Jay. I like it."
Round 3: Quality Time
"Now, for me," Keifer said, his voice dropping an octave, getting into that flirty zone again.
"What is my primary love language? Guess correctly, and you get a prize."
I looked at him—really looked at him. This guy could have any life he wanted, but he chose to be here, in a messy living room, interviewing his fiancé.
"That's easy," I said softly. "It's Quality Time. But specifically, it's 'Quality Time where Jay is within three inches of me at all times.' You're a human golden retriever, Keifer. If I'm in the kitchen, you're in the kitchen. If I'm brushing my teeth, you're suddenly very interested in the bathroom mirror."
Keifer froze, his "cool guy" mask slipping. "Is it that obvious?"
"You literally followed me into the laundry room yesterday just to watch the socks spin, Keifer."
"In my defense," he said, pulling me toward him until I was tucked under his arm, "the socks were very interesting. But yeah, you caught me. My love language is just… you. Existing. Near me."
The Grand Finale
The "interview" eventually devolved into us just roasting each other's weird habits. We found out that my love language is "Acts of Protection" (aka Tiger Mode) and his is "Physical Touch" (aka The Octopus).
Bit too cheesy right? My book my choice!!
"Last question," I said, grabbing the paper from him. "What's the one thing that makes you feel most loved?"
Keifer didn't look at the paper. He looked at the ring on my finger, then back at my eyes. "The fact that when the world gets loud and monsters from my past show up, you don't look for an exit. You just grab your rubber snake and stand right next to me."
I felt that familiar warmth spread through my chest. "Well," I teased, trying to hide my blush, "the snake is very intimidating. It's a lot of responsibility."
"It really is," he laughed, pulling me into a kiss that tasted like home and a future that we were writing ourselves, one ridiculous interview at a time.
I grabbed a bright green marker—the most obnoxious one I could find—and scribbled "THE LAWS OF THE CASTLE" across the top of Keifer's interview notes.
"If we're going to be the bosses of our own lives," I declared, holding the paper up like a sacred scroll, "we need rules. Real ones. So the next time a 'Monster' associate or a girl in ruined suede boots shows up, we just point to the wall."
Keifer snuck up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. "I love it. What's Law Number One? Make it something about how handsome I am."
Law #1: The Human Barnacle Rule.
"Keifer is allowed to stick to Jay like glue," I wrote in big, messy letters. "Hugs are mandatory, especially when Jay is trying to do boring stuff like homework or laundry.""A very wise law," Keifer whispered, poking my cheek.
Law #2: The Spicy Chip Emergency.
"If Jay goes into 'Tiger Mode' to defend Keifer's honor," I continued, "Keifer must immediately find spicy chips to calm the beast. No chips, no peace."
"I'll keep a bag in my backpack at all times," he promised solemnly.
Law #3: The Snake Security System.
"The rubber snake from Angelo stays by the door. It is the official bouncer. If your name is Vanessa or you want to talk about arranged marriages, the snake says 'No.'
"Keifer cracked up. "We can call it the 'Anti-Socialite Shield.''
"Law #4: The Snooze Button Ban."
Since Keifer's five alarms are useless, Jay is allowed to use 'extreme measures' to wake him up for class. This includes, but is not limited to, tickling or cold water."
"Hey! That's a human rights violation!" Keifer joked, trying to grab the marker.
I dodged him and finished the list with a little drawing of a mango wearing a crown. Keifer found an old picture frame we weren't using, ripped out the boring art inside, and carefully tucked our "laws" into it.
He marched over to the hallway and hung it right by the front door. He stepped back, looking at it like it was a masterpiece in a museum.
"There," he said, pulling me into his side. "The old era is over. No more 'Monster' rules. From now on, we only follow the laws of the Snake and the Spicy Chips.
"I leaned my head against his chest. Our "laws" were ridiculous, messy, and totally us."You know, we're actually kind of crazy," I laughed."The best kind of crazy," he corrected, kissing the top of my head. "And if anyone doesn't like it, they can take it up with the snake."
The living room was finally "safe," but Keifer wasn't done yet. He grabbed his phone and pulled me over to our new wall of laws."We need a victory selfie for the group chat," he said, adjusting his hair in the camera reflection.
"The brothers need to know that we've officially upgraded from 'lost students' to 'rulers of the castle.''
"I grabbed the rubber snake and draped it over my shoulders like a fancy scarf. Keifer held up the framed Laws of the Castle right next to my face."Okay, on three," he directed. "Give me your best 'Tiger Mode' face, and I'll do my 'proud fiancé' look."
We took about twenty photos because we couldn't stop laughing. In half of them, Keifer was accidentally poking me with the corner of the frame, and in the others, the snake kept sliding off my shoulder.
The Winning Shot:
The Pose: Keifer is beaming at the camera, pointing at Law #1 (The Human Barnacle Rule) with one hand while holding the frame with the other. I'm standing next to him, making a "rawr" face at the lens while the rubber snake dangles heroically over my neck.
The Caption: "Vanessa: 0. Jay and Keifer: 1. (And don't worry, the snake is the new bouncer) 🐍🔥"
"Perfect," Keifer said, hitting send.Within seconds, the phone started buzzing like crazy.
Keigan: "Is that a snake or a necktie? Either way, Vanessa didn't stand a chance."
Keiren: "Jay looks terrifying. Keifer, blink twice if you need more spicy chips."
Angelo: "I see the defensive weapon is in good hands. Great work, Team Tiger!"
Keifer tossed the phone onto the sofa and pulled me into one last "Barnacle Rule" hug.
"Mission accomplished, Jay-Jay. The world knows who's in charge here."
"Yeah," I laughed, leaning against him. "We are. Now can we finally go to sleep? My 'Tiger Mode' needs a nap."
"One nap, coming right up," he promised, finally turning off the lights.
Keifer slowly backed me up against the wall, his hands resting on either side of my waist as he hovered just inches from my face. He had that dark, playful glint in his eyes—the one that usually means I'm in trouble.
"You know, Jay-Jay," he murmured, his voice dropping to a low, velvety growl that sent a shiver straight down my spine, "writing that 'Human Barnacle' rule was your first mistake. Because now that I have legal permission to be all over you, I don't plan on letting you out of this grip until tomorrow morning.
In fact..."He leaned down, his lips ghosting over the sensitive skin of my neck, sending a massive heatwave straight to my cheeks.
"I think I'm going to skip the 'sweet fiancé' act tonight and show you exactly why you shouldn't have challenged a man who's been wanting to devour you since the second we woke up."
My face went from pink to a full-blown tropical sunset as I stuttered, "Keifer, we—"
"Shh," he chuckled, nipping playfully at my earlobe. "Don't fight the Law, baby. You wrote it; I'm just enforcing it."
Before I could even find my voice to protest, Keifer hooked his arms under my knees and back, sweeping me off my feet in one smooth, effortless motion."Keifer! Put me down!" I squealed, my face feeling like it was literally on fire, though I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck to keep from falling.
"Not a chance, Tiger," he chuckled, his eyes dark and devious as he started walking toward the bedroom. He didn't even look winded; he just looked hungry. "The 'Human Barnacle' rule is very clear about the proximity of my fiancé. And right now? You're exactly where you belong."
He paused at the door, his grip tightening just a little as he looked down at me with that "ruler of his own destiny" smirk.
"Besides, you've spent all day defending me. It's about time I spend the rest of the night making sure you're... thoroughly rewarded." He kicked the door shut behind us with his heel, and for the first time all day, the only "Tiger Mode" I had left was the one trying to hide my massive blush against his shoulder.
Hello Hola readers!!
This is your author , I am really happy that our book is reaching the wider audience and I genuinely love your support and comments. Every comment of yours makes my day shine brighter ✨️
Kindly also comment if you like the chapter or if you feel it boring and also kind of give me suggestions that should I add some spicy scenes in the chapters and what do you expect next from the chapters?
Any guesses???????? 🫡