HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Bianca

L

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We finally came down from the car and Felix walked ahead of me, I followed behind him with my box and my bag and tried to keep my face neutral, trying not to look like someone who had never done this before.

Felix suddenly stopped walking and I almost walked into him. I didn’t notice that he had come to a halt a few feet ahead of me and was gesturing toward the aircraft sitting on the tarmac ahead of us. I followed the line of his arm and I looked at it and I stood there for a moment longer than I should have.

A private jet, not a plane, not even a chartered flight. A private jet, white and clean and sitting there like it belonged to a different world entirely.

Felix glanced back at me. I closed my mouth. I stepped inside and the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. The second thing I noticed was Adrian.

He was already seated, jacket still on, a thick stack of papers resting across his lap. He did not look up when I walked in. Felix gestured to the row of seats on the opposite side without a word, and I sat. Then Felix moved toward the back of the cabin, drew a curtain between us and disappeared behind it and then it was just us.

I set my bag down at my feet and looked at Adrian for a moment. He was still reading, or at least pretending to. His pen moved occasionally. He looked unbothered in a way that felt almost deliberate.

“Why am I travelling with you?” I asked. I kept my voice steady. “You didn’t mention that part.”

“I should state the obvious to you?” He still did not look up. “You are my assistant.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it. The way he said it, quietly without any irritation, annoyed me more than if he had snapped.

“Next time,” I said, “give me some time in advance. I have responsibilities. I have people I take care of.”

He turned a page without looking at me.

“Speaking of which.” I sat forward slightly. “My sister. I was told she was moved to the VIP suite at the hospital and I know it was you.”

He clicked his pen once.

“What do I have to do,” I said. “for you to stop doing things like that? Things I can’t pay back? I really need you to stop.”

He looked up then, finally. He looked at me with that usual straight face.

“And if I don’t stop,” he said, “what exactly are you going to do about it?”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again and he went back to his papers.

The jet had begun to move at some point without me noticing and now I could feel the soft hum of it beneath us. I pressed my back against my seat and looked at the ceiling for a moment.

“Why are you doing all of this?” My voice came out quieter than I intended. “Is this your way of getting me to leave the company? Because if that’s what you want, I can do that. Just say it and I will go, I will…”

“Don’t His voice was low but sharp, different from before. He was looking at me now and not at the papers. “Don’t you dare think about that He paused.

Just be a good girl,” he said, “and do what you know how to do best.”

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11:54 Wed, Jul 22

Chapter 21

55 vouchers

And something in me cracked, I don’t know if it was the tone or the phrasing or the fact that I hadn’t slept properly in days or all of it pressing together at once, but I felt it crack and I could not stop what came out next.

“What I know how to do best.” I laughed, and it wasn’t a kind sound. “You know what? Fine. You know I am or let me say was a stripper, yes ou know that. And we had a moment, a stupid, weak moment that I let happen because I lost my mind temporarily and my emotions were all over the place.” My voice was rising and I knew it but I couldn’t hold it back.

“So if you think you can keep doing this, keep dangling things over my head, upgrading my sister’s room and showing up in my life whenever you feel like it because of that one night, because of one mistake I cannot take back, then you need to stop or just fire me. Put me out of my misery and fire me.”

By the time I finished I was breathing hard and my hands were pressed flat against my thighs. Adrian had not moved, he was just looking at me with that same blank, unreadable expression, like what I was saying didn’t affect him.

The silence stretched, then he set the papers down slowly on the seat beside him, and he looked at me, and he gestured once with his hand, pointing to the space directly in front of him.

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