HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Bianca

I stood in my entryway for a long moment after the voicemail ended.

“Don’t make me pull you away from everything you are doing, sweetheart”. I put the phone in my bag and left.

55 vouchers

The commute was the same as always. The same faces at the bus stop, the same smell of rain that hadn’t fallen yet, the sam lobby security guard who nodded at the without looking up from his desk.

I sat at my desk and opened my laptop and worked. I worked well, actually. Better than I had in days. I finished the brieing document before ten, sent it across, joined all three calls and said exactly what needed to be said on each one.

I did not think about the voicemail, I did not think about Adrian. I tracked down the billing office contact and spent twenty minutes on hold before speaking to a woman named Grace who walked me through a payment structure that would not break me, at least not all at once.

I wrote down the figures, confirmed the dates, and thanked her. I hung up and sat back in my chair and felt something that was close to relief.

It was only when I was in the bathroom just before lunch that I looked at myself in the mirror above the sink and understood something. Fred had said double the usual rate. He had said the client was requesting me specifically. I wasn’t sure if he mentioned a name but the only client I knew was capable of doing such a thing is Adrian.

I turned the tap on and washed my hands slowly. “So this was his plan all along? To make me feel more uncomfortable?” I dried my hands and went back to my desk.

The thing was, I wasn’t afraid of Friday. I wasn’t even particularly angry anymore. What I felt instead was something more focused,I have made a decision and my body has already caught up with my mind. I know what I was walking into and I intended to walk in on my own terms.

I went home that evening, stood in front of my wardrobe for some minutes and I finally found the best costume.

Velvet Night on a Friday was the same as it always was. Low music, low light, the kind of atmosphere that was designed to make everything feel slightly removed from the rest of your life.

I didn’t stop at Fred’s usual spot near the bar. I didn’t need a briefing or a reminder of the room number or any of the small rituals Fred liked to perform before these things. I went directly upstairs.

I was wearing red tonight. not the usual deep wine, not a dark burgundy, actual red. I had not planned it as a statement but somewhere between opening my wardrobe and standing in front of the mirror before I left, I understood that it was the

one.

I pushed the door open and stepped inside. He was already there. Seated, jacket still on, which was unusual, a drink in hand, Adrian looked like a man who had prepared for this.

His eyes found me the moment I came in, and I saw it, the way they moved over the red before they came back to my face. Something shifted in his expression and then arranged itself back into his usual non challant mood. I let the door fall shut behind me.

The music was lower in this room than in the corridors and I could hear my own heels against the floor as I walked toward him. I did not perform my usual approach, there was no slow build to it, no particular rhythm designed to hold attention. He already knew who I was. There was nothing left to perform.

I stopped in front of him.

“We already know each other,” I said. I kept my voice low, just above the music.

11:53 Wed, Jul 22

Chapter 18

943

55 vouchers

His expression didn’t change but I noticed his breathing did. The slight, almost imperceptible shift in the rise of his chest.

Is this all necessary or should I say, does that change anything?” I asked.

He looked at me for a long moment. “What are you saying?,” he finally said.

“Oh really? Two can play.” I turned around.

I pressed my back against his chest and sat down fully in his lap, no hovering this time, no careful distance. His hands came to my hips immediately, both of them, and the grip was tight.

I reached back and gripped his thigh and his mouth found the side of my neck. For a moment neither of us said anything. The music moved through the room and I stayed very still and so did he, except for his hands, which weren’t still at all.

Then his mouth moved to my ear, “One more mention about returning the hospital bill,” he said, “and you might have to come here again. Or we do this somewhere else entirely.” He paused. “My office, perhaps. Scarlet.”

He kissed the back of my neck slowly and I couldn’t help but lean towards him. “This isn’t the plan, push him away.” My thoughts scream at me, but I couldn’t.

He didn’t stop there, he continued and I kept my grip on his thigh and looked straight ahead at the low dark of the room and I thought about nothing because there was nothing to think about except the exact place his mouth and hands was.

Then the alarm suddenly rang. “Urghhhhh.” He took a deep breath in. He lifted his head, his hands stayed on my hips for one more second before they came away.

I stood up and stepped forward and smoothed the front of my dress without turning around.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify