Chapter 10

I blinked multiple times with my jaw gaped. "Your girlfriend?" A frown appeared on my face.

"Yes, Imogen." He said through a fake smile. "This is my Mom and she has been dying to meet you." 

I frowned at him. "But—" 

"It's so nice to finally meet you. I never believed Hames already had a girlfriend. I didn't believe him a bit, not to mention believing she's a really beautiful one like you. I'm Trisha Hendrix." She smiled with the small of her teeth in view. 

When it was patent that his Mom wasn't looking, Hames glared at me; a glare that warned me to go along with the flow. That didn't stop me from feeling pissed off by his lie.

"Trisha?" Why did that name sound so familiar? "That name sounds familiar and you look very familiar." I squinted my eyes, trying to remember where I had seen her or heard her name. 

"I'm the owner of Risha's products; Risha's perfume, shoes, magazines…" she said proudly and I widened my eyes in realization. That explained why Hames had said I had a nice choice of perfume. So it was his Mom's.

"Oh. Wow." I nodded with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Hendrix."

"Oh, silly. Call me Trisha, you'll make me feel old by calling me that." She waved her perfectly manicured fingers in the air. 

"Oh, okay." I forced a smile, glowering at Hames when she turned to stare at him. 

"So… how did you know my son?" She returned her gaze to me, beaming with so much interest flickering in her eyes. 

"Uh… your son?" I nodded excessively. "I'm his Secretary."

"Wow, really?" She waggled her eyebrows at him. "I thought you were always against relationships at work."

"Yeah, whatever." He rolled his shoulders, massaging the back of his neck. "There was an exception for her."

"So…" Trisha stared between us but Hames rose to his feet, arching his back to rest his hand on the table. 

"Imogen, I'd like to speak with you privately." The tone he said that with and calling me by my first name sounded extremely weird coming from his mouth; my internals had a war against one another to stop me from cringing at that and forcing a smile. "Sure, why not, Hames?"

His eyebrows raised at that. "Yeah… Hames." He hummed, nodding. "Let's go." He turned around and held my hand. 

"Wait, where are you going?" Trisha snapped, gripping the arm of the chair. 

"Uh…" Hames avoided looking at her, scratching the back of his neck. "I have to say something to her privately."

"Why? Are you taking her away from me? I badly want to talk to her but you're keeping her away?" She didn't sound pleased at all.

"You worry too much, Mom." He admitted with a lopsided grin. "I just want to say something to her then we'll return. I promise." Without another word, he continued walking, tugging me along till we came to a stop beside a building by the corner of the road. 

"Do you care to explain what the hell that was for?!" I raised my voice at him. I was totally pissed off by everything; his lie, pulling me here, everything!

He held my shoulders, pinning me to the wall and let out a deep exhalation. "My Mother is desperate to have me married so you'll have to pretend to be my girlfriend because her pestering is killing." 

I shook myself from his grip on my shoulder so I could stand in akinbo. "And how's that my problem, sir?" My eyebrow raised at him.

He studied me with a hardened expression for a while. He seemed so lost in his thoughts so I had to snap my fingers in front of him to draw him out of his thoughts world. "I'll pay you $5,000."

I clasped my chest and gasped, widening my eyes. "You'll do that? Seriously? For this?" I tried to regain my composure, retrieving my hands to my sides and shook my body slightly to stand straight again, clearing my throat and putting on an uninterested face. "It's not enough."

"Not enough?! Just for half an hour or an hour?"

I picked at my fingernails. "Yes." I nodded, feeling in control. "I can easily go to your Mom and tell her it's a lie if you don't agree."

"Fine, fine. How much do you want?" He asked with a sigh of surrender. 

I folded my arms across my chest, turned my face away and cocked my head. "$10,000." Oops, had I gone too far?

"Fine. Deal. I'll send the money to you tonight." He took me by surprise by agreeing so quickly. 

I turned my head to him and snickered. "Well, okay."

"You could've said you're a Rich Man's daughter rather than saying you're my secretary." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, she didn't consider it as a bad thing."

"I wasn't agreeing at first so you can't blame me."

"Let's go." I flinched as his hand made contact with mine. I hadn't paid attention to his smooth skin previously because I was too furious about his lie but now, his hands felt way smooth and caused a tingling sensation of whose origin I wasn't aware of. 

We returned to Trisha. Her eyes flooded with relief at our sight. "You came back?" She was patently amused to know. "I was about to leave out of hope."

"Like I said, you worry too much." He rolled his eyes then sat on the seat Amanda had sat, tapping the one beside him. "Sit here, babe." Gosh, that sounded way more than extremely weird coming from him. I tried not to react to his word and sat beside him.

"So, how long have you two known each other."

"Six months," I replied at the same time he replied, —"Four months."

She stared at us in doubt. "Aren't you both sure?"

I drew my lips between my teeth and shared a glance with Hames.

"Well, to her, it's been 6 months but it's actually 3 mont— I mean, 4 months we've officially become a couple." He was quick to form that lie. 

"Oh, okay. So she liked you first," She nodded. "Do you both create time for dates and all, spend time together, because I know Hames is always too busy to ever spend time with me or anyone."

"Yes," I replied the same time he replied, "no." What was wrong with him?!

She peered at us in doubt again. "Are you both confused?"

"Yes, I mean no." He replied, clearing his throat. "Actually, I don't come to you because I'm always so busy but we spend time at Work so it's like we're on a date sometimes. I guess that's what she means, right Imogen?" He feigned a smile at me. 

"Of course, Hames." It felt nice to utter his name aloud. 

"Do you both have plans to get married anytime soon?" What was with all these questions?!

"No!" That came out quicker than I could control. I instantly regretted saying that, judging from the glare Hames shot at me. 

"What do you mean by that?" She sounded way pissed off than I could've ever imagined, judging from her calm and gentle demeanor a few minutes ago. "What's the point of the relationship if you don't plan on getting married? Do you just want to explore then toss each other away? Are you just after my son's money? You're aware of the fact that he's not getting younger by the day, right?"

"Mom," Hames shook his head at her. "She didn't mean it that way. We just met 6 months ago so it wouldn't be nice to do things in a rush. We want to explore our relationship and get to know each other better before we advance to the next steps." That lie rolled out of his mouth easily. 

"I don't trust you. You both don't seem… real." She shrugged. 

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying my best to hide my nervousness. I couldn't fuck things up and cause Hames to not give me money for failing to pretend well enough. I badly needed it.

"How don't we seem real?" He wrapped his arms around my shoulder. 

"I don't know, you don't sound like an actual couple and aren't acting like one. You're both confused." She stated. 

"We're not. You never trust anything easily." 

"Exactly!" She exclaimed. "You guys hug and kiss, right?"

"Why not? What's the point of being a couple?" Hames looked at her in disbelief. 

"Well, your father was a very spiritual and religious Man before we got married so we weren't allowed to make so much physical contact, not to mention kissing." She scoffed..

"What in the world is that?" I couldn't stop myself from asking. 

She chuckled, "Weird, I know. In the end, he was a dork." She hissed. "Since you both aren't that way, you should kiss."

"No!" I exclaimed. 

"Why should we do that in your presence?"

"To convince me," her eyes bored at us. 

"Convince you?" I creased my forehead in worry. I couldn't kiss Hames for his mother. Never in a million years was I going to do that, though he was paying me $10,000.

"We don't have to do that in public." He glanced around. 

"Why not? You're a couple, right?" She frowned. 

"I know, Trisha, but—" I retorted but was cut off when I felt Hames hand on my neck. I widened my eyes in shock. Was he going to do what I thought he was? Oh no Hanes, you're not.

He held my waist with his other hand and leaned closer to me, pressing his lips against mine. My brain melted to total liquid at his kiss. Why in the world was he doing it?! We could've made up an excuse or lied to her that I was a shy person that didn't like kissing around people. 

Hames didn't stop at a peck. He kept exploring my mouth in different ways that did things to my brain and stomach I couldn't explain. He was almost sucking every breath out of me, the feeling of his hand against my back through my shirt caused a weird spark I couldn't explain. I could feel the heat emanating from his body as well as the lovely smell of his cologne. 

He didn't seem like he was ready to break apart from the kiss so I pulled away from him.

"Wow, you were about to dive into a steamy session." She chuckled. "I love you guys, God bless you." 

"Yes, we were." I stared at Hames with a smile, sending him a glower when I was aware Trisha couldn't notice. I was going nuts already from the stupid kiss that was somewhat.. I don't know, good in a way. Arghhh, I hated this shit!

***

A/N: Hey, people. I'm so sorry for not updating this book in a while now. I had written almost half of the chapter 3 days ago then spent a really long time in the Hospital two days ago. I didn't return home until 4pm and was too damn tired to write anything anymore. I didn't have enough time yesterday as well because I had to return to the Hospital and felt the need to sleep since I hardly do that (though I didn't eventually sleep). Plus, I have other ongoing novels in which one of them is always daily updated (The Badboy's Pre-planned Future Bride).

Btw, I've finally updated it so don't be mad at me and appreciate my effort by leaving your beautiful comments and following me on social media, you'll be notified when I upload this book and can also vote for my ongoing stories you'd like for me to update first as well as try out my other books. I have 5 completed books at the moment (March 20, 2021. Saturday), you can try them out. 

Ignore any grammatical errors you might notice or nicely point them out.

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