FIFTEEN

THE dinner went as romantic as how Bain planned it to be.

He warned me before they left the car that he was so sure about her now it could be possible we would show on some socmed posts, just in case, so make sure to act in character.

That part had become easier, since I mostly followed his lead. I thought it would be daunting when he started ordering fancy-sounding food names, but as we ate and he told me what he expected I would enjoy in each dish, I relaxed and really started enjoying the meal in his company.

I didn’t know how the restaurant ranked among the city’s best-ranking fine dining restaurants, I just left that to him. He told me on the aside that should my trainer suggest I learn places in the city that a well-rounded young college woman like me should know, just relax and enjoy the experience because I would need it later. 

I didn’t tell him I already expected that whatever happens to me during my time of training, I would know to use later.

I planned to read more books that I might need, too, on top of finishing my paper.

All these came to me at the back of my mind while on the outside, I acted sweetly fixated on him, as he was supposed to leave in the morning, and I would not see him for a few weeks. 

Pretty soon, I didn’t even mind about the other guests anymore. I looked the part, I acted the part, and most importantly, I was with someone who did not need to act.

He was really one of the elites so if there was anyone who I could follow confidently, it was Bain and his instructions.

It carried me through the whole meal, until we moved to another part of the place where we could dance.

Oh, he could dance.

“Did you notice that middle-aged-looking woman with the bright red lipstick and shapely eyeshadows?”

“With the neon-green top?”

“Yes. I like her attitude. She’s kind of a known personality here in New York and very wealthy. And I’m here in the same restaurant as her and dancing with a millionaire. I’ve got a lot to tell my grandkids when I grow old.”

He snorted. “That’s a long while away to even think about,” he said near my ear as he turned me with his body in between two dancing couples.

“It’s tradition. Grandparents should have a lot of stories to tell to their grandkids, and I’m thinking this should be a good one to tell.” I frowned. “I’m not sure what my husband-to-be would feel about it, though. I should get someone who will not mind any adventurous story I tell. Or not get jealous of me.”

“You mean of me?”

I shook my head. “Any man who gets jealous of my involvement with someone I could line up with people who had clout and is handsome to boot is a man I will not want to stay with until I die, Bain.” I grinned. “My father had a lot to tell about my grandparent’s life. They seemed to have lived really well. I’d like that for my life.” As I thought about my father, I felt a little bad. “I wish he’s had a long life, too. But I think I would try and do that for him,” I added.

He was watching my face as we swayed to the sweet, slow music. And the next thing I knew, he had lowered his head to give me a slow kiss on my mouth.

When he raised his head from mine, I felt flushed and he was smiling tenderly down at me. And I couldn’t help but remember again he would be gone tomorrow.

“Have a safe flight tomorrow,” I whispered to him.

“After I’ve left with that contract, will start the act. I will start calling you when I have free time in the office, and when I am home. I will not care who listens, it will just have to appear that the reason I delayed my flight back home a few more days was that I’m in love.”

I nodded. “Okay. And I’m supposed to reply accordingly.”

“Yes, even in private messages. The only time we ever will talk about our arrangement from now on will be when we’re like this, up close and personally whispering to each  other.”

I nodded again. And in the privacy of his room in Texas. He did not have to say that. “How are you going to start the thing with Brooke?”

“We both will start it together,” he replied. “Synchronized act in the eyes of our family, work staff, and friends.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I think some people have taken a picture or two for their I*******m. That should take care of starting whispers in there,” he told me quietly. “We can go.”

I knew where we were going after this. “Contract signing in your room.”

He nodded. “You ready?”

I nodded, and his watching eyes noted I did not even hesitate, I knew.

We finished the song and left the place after that. The driver drove us to his hotel, and we were in his hotel room, both sober despite a few drinks we took in the dancing area with the bar, and he drew out the final electronic copy of the contract I first saw as a draft on his tablet.

He gave me time to read all the clauses we had discussed, and I did so seriously, including the numbers with which he also would send me a table of accounting with the contract on a new email connected to a private cloud subscription for all documents regarding our arrangement from hereon.

Then I signed it, finally.

Before the next five minutes were over, he had it all set up and sent to my email, and I downloaded it to a folder in my private cloud.

  When I was done, I looked up at him. He had stood up from his chair and had approached me on my seat after putting down his tablet, and waited for me to do all that I needed done.

His hand went down and his palm cradled the side of my face. “Shall we seal that with a kiss?”

He didn’t need to convince me. I stood up, and gave my lips to his.

The kiss deepened, I didn’t care, the same way I had stopped caring that the contract was really happening, and that I was going to have sex with him again.

“Gia…” he breathed hoarsely after lifting his head from my face.

I opened my eyes and watched his face, those hooded eyes feverish with the desire to take me, and I nodded.

“I will take care of this with all that I have,” he told me, and I knew he wasn’t talking about the contract, but about whatever happens as a consequence of our sexual desire for each other, and whatever personal relationship that might come out of it.

I nodded again. “When this is done, I want you to know that I will walk away gratefully, and there will be no drama between us.”

His arms were around me, and they tensed, while something dark passed through his eyes.

I tightened my hand that was cupping the back of his neck. “You know that, right?”

He watched me, his eyes more alert now, then he nodded.

Our lips went back on devouring each other as we helped each other shed our clothes, and we both ended up entangled on his bed like the last time I was here, and he was driving into me with all the focus he had always shown me, whether it was on our lovemaking, or when we were talking business.

I thought we both knew we had broken the rule about this one even before the contract, and it had become a rule in itself. But because of the contract, we also knew what I said about the end that needed to happen.

I couldn’t be truthful with him because of the deal.

But this… I thought as I moaned because I just couldn’t not, with the length of him sliding in and out of me, with his hands possessively holding my body, with his mouth burying my nipple deep inside its warm cavity, this we could do…

I fell asleep in his arms, not by my own design, but because his arms didn’t relent when I told him I would have to leave to get home.

“Stay…” he whispered. “You’ll be free of me tomorrow until you follow me to Texas.”

I fell asleep with my face buried in his chest, and woke up in the early morning on the bed alone…