HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Adrian

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“Excuse me,” I said, picking up the call the moment I saw the name flash across the screen. My mother, of course it would be her, and of course it would be now, right in the middle of everything that actually mattered tonight.

“Hello,” I said, trying to sound less out of breath than I actually was, glancing at Bianca as if she could somehow hear the other side of the conversation too.

She launched straight into it, no greeting, no warm up, just my mother doing what she did best, talking in circles around the same point until she heard me say the thing she wanted to hear.

The project, always the project, she wanted me to sign off on the numbers for the new site before the board meeting nex week, and from the sound of her voice, she wasn’t going to let the call end until I gave her something close to a yes.

“Okay okay, I got it,” I said, mostly to make her stop, though I wasn’t entirely sure I had agreed to anything specific. I thought that would be enough to wind the call down. It wasn’t, she found a new thread to pull on almost immediately, something about a contractor and a delay that wasn’t really mine to fix at this hour.

“Do you realize it is already late?” I said, louder than I meant to, my eyes flicking back to Bianca. She was watching me now, arms folded, something unreadable settling over her face that I didn’t have time to read properly.

“Are you busy,” my mother asked, catching the edge in my voice at last. “Call tomorrow for the explanation then, and…”

I ended the call before she could finish that sentence. It felt rude even as I did it, the kind of thing I would have to apologize for later, when there wasn’t a woman sitting across from me whose mouth I still hadn’t had enough of.

I shifted toward Bianca, expecting to pick up exactly where we had left off, but she had already moved, a few inches away from me.

“What?” I asked, because I couldn’t let that slide, not after everything that had happened in the last ten minutes.

“Sir, you…” she started, her voice careful, like she was weighing each word before she let it out.

I didn’t let her finish. I leaned in and kissed her again, cutting off whatever sensible thing she had been building toward, because sensible was the last thing either of us needed right now.

I couldn’t tell anymore what was driving me, the drinks I had with the CEO’s son earlier, the memory of some stranger’s hands on her waist, or just her face this close to mine under the dim light from the street outside. Whatever it was, it had stopped asking permission from logic a while ago.

She didn’t fight it, not at first. Her hands found the front of my shirt again, gripping it the way she had before, and for a few minutes the car held nothing but the two of us, breathing each other in like the conversation outside the club had never happened. Then, slowly, she pulled back, putting just enough distance between us to look at me properly, her chest rising fast.

“Should I take you to pick up your things at my place?” I asked, the words out of my mouth before I had fully thought them through.

It was a lie, and I knew it the second I said it. I didn’t care about her things. I just wanted an excuse to keep her close a little longer, to stretch this night out for as long as I could manage before reality came knocking again.

“Uhm. Sir,” she began, straightening slightly in her seat.

“Easy with the sir.” I said, cutting her off before she got any further. “We’re not in the office right now.”

She let out something close to a laugh, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I came with my friend,” she said. “I wouldn’t

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13:55 Thu, Jul 23

Chapter 47

want to leave her stranded like that. So I think I should just…”

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We could drop your friend off first,” I said almost immediately, the offer leaving my mouth before I had the good sense to

stop it

I couldn’t believe I had said that either. The friend in question was Amanda, who happened to work under me too, though she had never once given me the impression she paid close enough attention to anything outside her own circle to put two names and a club night together into something that looked like trouble.

Still, it was a reckless thing to offer, and some part of me knew it even as the words were leaving my mouth, knew exactly how it would look if word ever got back to the wrong person inside that office.

Bianca shook her head before I had even finished the sentence. “No sir, sorry, Mr Adrian,” she said, catching herself halfway through the slip with a small, almost embarrassed smile. “I don’t think that’s right. I will come and get my things another day, just not tonight.”

Her phone started buzzing before I could push back on that, loud enough in the quiet of the car that we both looked at it at the same time, the screen lighting up against the dark leather seat between us.

“I need to go now, sir,” she said, already reaching for the door handle, her voice picking up speed. “She might be wondering

where I am.”

“Bianca.” I said, but I didn’t get to finish whatever was supposed to come after her name. She was already out of the car, the door shutting behind her before I could even carry myself to follow.

I watched her walk back toward the club entrance through the window, quick steps, like she was trying to outrun whatever had just happened between us.

I hit the back of the seat hard with my palm, more out of frustration than anything else, it didn’t help. Nothing about the last twenty minutes had gone the way I expected it to, I watched until she disappeared past the doors, swallowed back up by the noise and the lights, and only then did I let myself, sit back properly, dragging one hand down my face slowly.

I should have let her go without another word. I should have let the night end exactly where it was always supposed to, with her walking away and me driving home alone like a reasonable man with a board presentation to finish reviewing.

I scrolled until I found his name and called. It rang longer than usual, long enough that I nearly gave up and decided to try again later, before he finally picked up.

“Sir?” Felix said into the speaker.

“Felix,” I said loudly. “Draft out a work contract. Have the lawyer involved too. I’ll send over the details now.”

There was a pause on his end, long enough for me to know he wanted to ask why, and long enough for me to decide I wasn’t ready to explain it, not even to him, not yet.

“A contract for who, sir?” he asked carefully, I didn’t answer right away. I looked out from the car, I thought about Bianca back into the crowd somewhere with Amanda, probably already trying to act like nothing had happened between us tonight, like she hadn’t just been in my arms in the back of a car twenty minutes ago.

“I’ll tell you when it’s time to fix the name.” I said finally, and hung up before he could push for anything more.

13:55 Thu, Jul 23

Chapter 48