"The landlord is on the line," the realtor said, holding his phone toward Isabelle. "You can talk to him." When Isabelle took the phone and turned away, the man gave Jacob a wink-a sign that everything was going smoothly."Hello, I'm looking at an apartment here and I understand that the rent is only three hundred bucks?" Isabelle said into the phone."That's right," the man on the phone replied. "I know it sounds shocking, but I'm about to move abroad and wanted to get tenants before I leave. I figured I would get a tenant quickly if I lowered the rent.""Oh," Isabelle muttered. That kind of made sense, she decided. If the landlord was moving abroad, it made sense that he would lower the rent to quickly attract a tenant. She still thought the rent was too low, but as long as the landlord had confirmed it, she was willing to let it be."Feel assured and take the house," the landlord continued. "I was very happy to get a call that someone wanted the house. Please don't worry about the
When he didn't seem to pay attention to her plea, Isabelle grasped his arm and pushed it away. She was clearly only going to get out of this by having to-"Just a sec," Jacob said, his voice gentle. She went still as he reached up and touched her forehead, then wiped his palm over her skin. "You've got a bit of sweat here.""Oh," she mumbled, her face going hot. Was that it? He just wanted to wipe her forehead? He should have said earlier. And here she was, getting wild ideas...Jacob could barely keep his lips from splitting into a wide grin. So maybe he enjoyed seeing her frazzled by his proximity a little too much. And he was also guilty of enjoying having her trapped in his arm a lot. But he couldn't help it-she was just too adorable.He half-expected her to keep pushing against him after he said he was wiping her sweat, but she didn't. Instead, she stilled and let him go ahead, her struggle gone. What had she thought he was going to do?"Are you done?" she asked after a few secon
Isabelle picked up the form and ran her fingers around the edges nervously. "Even if there are side effects, they said that they will compensate me."Jacob gave her a look that suggested he thought that was ridiculous. "And you believed them?""It's in the registration form."His brow furrowed. "Let's say they are not lying, what if the drug has serious side effects on your health? Are you okay with that just because they'll compensate you? What if you suffer permanent effects?""Many people have done this before," she said, trying to calm him down. She couldn't understand why he was so angry about it. "You're overthinking, I'll be fine.""Overthinking?" he scoffed. "Don't you care about your health at all?""I need the money, okay?" she told him finally, dropping her gaze to the floor. "I need money urgently and this was the best option I could find.""What?" he asked, his voice full of disbelief. "You're putting yourself in danger because of money?"Isabelle clenched her teeth toget
Isabelle blanched at his words. Get this out of the way? If somebody heard him, they would think he was talking about something like doing the dishes."I cannot have my wife do something as dangerous as participate in a drug trial," he said. "Out there, everybody knows you are my wife. So if I have to act like a gangster to stop you from doing something stupid, I will."A gangster? What did he mean?His hand shot out again towards the zip of her dress. She held her hands in front of herself to stop his advance. "Okay, fine! I won't take part in the trial."His eyes dug into hers. "Are you only saying that so I'll let you go?"Well, yes, she didn't like how he was acting, and she was going to say anything to get him to back off. "You're right, it was not the best idea," she told him. "I'll stop.""If you're lying, I'll find out," he warned her.Isabelle glared at him silently but said nothing. She exhaled in big relief when he stepped back and buttoned up his shirt again.What a day!*
So he went for the next best thing-her bed. Walking past her, he threw his body onto her bed, resting his back against the headboard. He lifted his legs onto the mattress and took one pillow in his hands. This way, her sweet fragrance surrounded him."Wh...what are you doing?" Isabelle stuttered, turning to regard him. The embarrassment on her face was still evident, her ears red from how hard she was flushing. He enjoyed how flustered she appeared, but he wasn't going to mention it."Tell me what happened," he said instead of answering her question."What was so good that you screamed?""I can tell you in the living room," she said, her attention still on the fact that he was still lying on her bed as if he belonged there. Was she the only one who thought he was crossing a boundary?I'm okay here," he said, cradling her pillow in his arms.She couldn't exactly physically eject him from the bed, so she gave up and took a seat on her vanity chair. "I got an order from a client on Monda
When the assistant took back the shirt, Isabelle turned and headed towards where the two were standing. They stopped talking when they saw her approaching, but unfortunately for them, she had already heard everything."Excuse me, can you please stop mocking us? We came here to shop and it's quite unpleasant when you two are standing here making insulting remarks."The two exchanged a look, and then faced her. One of them frowned. "I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" She asked that with a confused expression, as if she truly had no idea what Isabelle was talking about."I could hear you two clearly," Isabelle told them, "so don't bother acting like you don't know what I'm talking about. Is this how you treat customers here?""Customers are people who buy clothes here," the other one said, not interested in playing pretend like her coworker. "You two are obviously just here to waste everybody's time. Look around and ask yourself if this looks like a store you should be in."Isabell
"It's not your place to tell us how to do our jobs," the manager snapped at Isabelle, taking a step towards her. "I'm telling you now, if you and your husband don't leave right away, we'll detain you and call the police to take you away."Seeing that the argument was getting heated, and that Isabelle seemed ready to lash out at the manager, Jacob grabbed her arm and pulled her back to his side. "It's okay," he whispered to her, "just let him be."Isabelle looked up at him, her face troubled. Her nostrils flared, betraying the fact that she was truly worked up and barely holding on to her civility by a thread. "You heard what he said," she told him, as if she couldn't understand why he was asking her to back off. "He is making false accusations to humiliate us. We cannot let him treat us like that.""Why don't you listen to your husband? He seems to understand what's going on," the manager butted into their conversation, sounding smug.Immediately, Isabelle tried to break from Jacob's
Since the owner of the shop had appeared, Isabelle had been stuck in a stupor. When he showed up, she had expected him to inquire what was going on, and she was curious as to how Jacob was going to engage with him.Instead, when the man appeared, he immediately took their side before listening to his staff's explanations. What followed, him asking the staff to apologise and then firing them, even shocked her further. Not to mention him saying that they could shop whatever clothes they wanted for free. It was all so unexpected.It wasn't until he left, after being curiously respectful towards Jacob, that she was able to snap out of her astonishment."What just happened?" she asked Jacob, looking up at him with wide eyes.Jacob shrugged and shoved his hands into his trouser's pockets, looking relaxed. "I suppose he's really concerned about the store's reputation, so he solved the issue as quickly as he could."She nodded, but couldn't help frowning too. It's true that the owner was conc
On her way home from work that evening, Isabelle came across Jacob jogging in the community. He was dressed in a pair of running shorts that left his long muscular legs exposed, and a t-shirt that made it easy to imagine the muscular physique hidden beneath.Soon as her thoughts went to forbidden territory, she stopped them and focused on the matter that had been on her mind all day. Jacob was the only person from last night who knew her identity and who took the incentive to stop Mr Grayson. There was a high probability that he was the one who had reported him to the police."How was work?" he asked when he got to her and fell into step with her on their way home."It was good," she said, and then looked up at him. "Some officers came in the morning and arrested the director. Are you the one who went to the police with the surveillance video from last night?""Oh, they did?" he nodded approvingly. "Good. Yes, I'm the one who gave them the video.""Thank you," she told him. "He was tr
When Jacob's finger tugged on the towel and it became a little loose, Isabelle snapped out of the trance he had distracted her into. Her face flushed afresh, and as her mind rattled back into work-mode, she realised how precarious her situation was.She had let this go too far.Pushing Jacob's hand away, she ducked under his arm and reached for her door. This time, he didn't stop her as she twisted the handle and pushed the door open. She slammed it closed behind her-as if to further emphasise that she was not up for whatever he had in mind. Rushing to her mirror, she pressed her hands to her face and took deep breaths. She had no idea who she was more pissed at-him for teasing her in her state of undress, or her for giving him any sign that she liked it.It seemed that she was getting too comfortable with him and forgetting that not only was he her pretend husband, but that she was also deceiving him about her identity. Nothing could happen between them as long as she was living a l
Jacob let go of Isabelle's face and looked away. "I was in the company of a friend," he replied to her question."Oh," she muttered, remembering how the men in the private room had all been there with women in their arms. What was Jacob doing there? Had he also been there with a lover? Did he flirt with the women there?The thought bothered her, but she didn't let it show on her face."I'll go and take a shower," she told him, getting to her feet. He nodded and shifted to let her leave the sofa.In the bathroom, she stood under the shower for a long time, enjoying the feel of the cascading water over her skin. Even though Mr Grayson hadn't succeeded in touching her the way he wanted, she still found herself scrubbing her skin thoroughly. Somehow, she felt as if washing thoroughly would not only wash away any trace of his touch on her but also wash away the memory of what happened.By the time she was done, she felt a lot better. Her body had also stopped trembling. It wasn't until she
Mr Grayson cursed and turned around, wondering who it was that had the nerve to barge in the room to interrupt him. In front of him was a tall dark-haired man giving him a cold glare.He wasn't familiar to him. And he was sure none of the men who were outside drinking with their dates would have interrupted him. He also didn't look like a security guard-he was wearing a suit and a long coat like an office worker.Supporting himself on his hands, he gotup and faced him, sneering. "Who the fuck are you?" He wasn't about to let anyone ruin this for him.When Mr Grayson suddenly released her and fell backwards, Isabelle shot up from the bed, thinking that perhaps one of the people in the room outside had finally come to help her. But when her eyes fell on Jacob instead, a happy cry left her lips as she crawled over the bed and to him.He took her in his arms and held her close as she hid her face in his chest, sobs causing her entire body to shake. She could hardly believe he was there,
After the incident with Claudia, Mr Grayson stopped making advances towards Isabelle. He no longer called ✓ her to his office frequently or offered to help her with her work. This convinced Isabelle that he had given up, and she was finally able to relax fully.So it caught her by surprise when he approached her one evening after work and asked her to join him to have dinner with a client. Isabelle's heart sank as she realised that he had not given up. Instead, he had been biding his time."I'm sorry but I can't join you," she rejected his invitation politely, hoping he would let it go. She gathered her stuff into her bag, wanting to make an escape quickly.Mr Grayson stepped in her way. "You should come with me, Ms Cruz. I want to introduce some resources that can help you a lot here at work.""Thank you for the consideration," she told him, "but I really cannot go with you. I have urgent matters to attend to, so I have to leave right away.""Do you think I wasted my time coming here
"Let go of me!" Claudia demanded, grabbing at a desk and digging her heels into the floor to keep Isabelle from dragging her any further. "What do you think you are doing?""What are you afraid of?" Isabelle asked, not relaxing her grip around her arm. "You said that you saw us with your own eyes. We are only going to confirm with the director.""You are crazy," Claudia accused. "This is harassment, I can report you to HR-""I'll accompany you to show them the video of you slandering me," Isabelle informed her.When they were almost at the director's office, the door burst open and Mr Grayson appeared, a frown on his face. He looked around at the gathered workers, and then his eyes zeroed in on Isabelle and Claudia. "What on earth is going on here?" he demanded.Isabelle finally let go of Claudia and faced the department director. This was her chance to stop everything once and for all, in front of everyone. "Claudia is spreading rumours that you and I went to a hotel together last ni
As the week wore on, isabelle realised that the man she should be worried about avoiding was not Jacob. Everything at home had gone back to normal, as if her drunken antics had never happened. It was a big relief, because she had no idea how she would have reacted had he brought it up again.Instead, the man she needed to avoid at all costs was unfortunately one who was around her all day long-her department director, Mr Grayson. After he had called her to his office on Monday morning to offer his help, he had been more and more direct with his advances towards her. He showed her way too much attention in the guise of work, but he never passed up a chance to make hints about what his true intentions were.She took every precaution she could to avoid running into him, but there was only so much hiding she could do when she worked under him. If only there was a way to put his advances to an end once and for all, she would not hesitate to do it.One day, while she was in the bathroom at
That morning, Isabelle's department had a meeting, but her mind was barely in the room as various teams presented their reports.She was busy trying to untangle the puzzle that the previous night had left in her mind. No matter how hard she tried to urge herself to not think about it, it didn't take long before her thoughts slid back to that territory.What had she been thinking? She had asked herself that question about a hundred times since she left the house in the morning, but she still had no answer. So she settled on the only one reason that made sense: the alcohol. It was the alcohol that was to blame for her behaviour. Otherwise, she never would have dreamed of clinging to Jacob the way she had, leave alone kiss him.It was true that he was a handsome man, and she thought he was attractive, and maybe he was totally her type, but she was in no position to be lusting after him. Or acting on that lust. The alcohol had done away with not only her sense of propriety, but also her s
Jacob's brain caught up with his body a second too late, and he froze, his hands going still around her and his lips freezing against her neck. No matter how much he wanted her, he couldn't do this. Not when she was drunk and asleep...Cursing softly, he withdrew his hands from her body and rolled away, creating distance between them. Lying on his back, he covered his eyes with his arm and took deep calming breaths. No matter what she did in her current state, there was no excuse to act on his desire. He would be taking advantage of her, and that's not how we wanted things to happen between them. Sighing, he turned to his side to watch her. His eyes were drawn to her face, and her beauty stole his breath. Everything about her seemed to be stealing his breath of late, and he wondered how he had thought, even for a moment, that he could ignore her while they lived under the same roof.If he had taken time to pay attention to her from the moment he first saw her, he would have realised