HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 96

Chapter 96

Bianca

By the time I finished reading, I felt very happy. It was the moving approval and the date from the agent handling my house hunt. My sister and I can now move in the following week.

“You didn’t tell me you were this serious about the house. I could have…” he said, leaning in from behind me.

“You have done a lot for me and my sister already. That is enough and I…” I was cut off by the way he turned me around to face him.

“That reminds me.” He dipped his hand into his pocket and brought out a black card.

“Take this, use it to buy whatever you want,” he said, stretching it toward me.

“I can’t take that from you.”

“Oh, you will take it, Bianca.”

“I… I might not…” I started.

“Shhh.” He placed his index finger on my lips.

“Take it from me. See it as a gift for being a good girl,” he said, and after a lot of head shaking, I finally took it from him.

“Good girl. The most important thing is to use it. Don’t try to play smart with me,” he added, and I nodded even though I already knew I wasn’t going to spend a dime of it.

My phone buzzed in my hand. It was Amanda. “Almost home,” the message read, and I smiled.

“They’re on their way back home,” I told him, and he shook his head slowly.

“Let me be on my way before I lose my mind again with that intense look you’re giving me,” he said, releasing his hands from my waist.

He walked toward the door and stopped, then turned back and closed the distance between us again. He held my neck gently and kissed me slowly, after a few seconds he pulled back.

“Stay safe,” he said, and I nodded as he walked out and shut the door behind him.

I barely had time to breathe before I heard footsteps and keys jingling outside. Amanda and Emma walked in a few minutes later, both talking over each other about traffic and some argument they had listened to in a podcast. Emma dropped her backpack by the door and looked around the living room like she was scanning for something.

“Why didn’t you come home?” Emma asked, tilting her head at me.

I fumbled for half a second too long. “I was working overtime with my boss.”

Emma’s face scrunched up. “That your boss is getting too needy. I don’t like him and what he’s doing to you.”

“Don’t worry, baby girl, I’ll be fine,” I said, pulling her into a hug before she wandered off toward the bedroom, still muttering under her breath about bosses who didn’t know how to let people rest.

The moment Emma’s door clicked shut, Amanda rounded on me with her arms crossed and a grin already spreading across her face.

“Now gist me. Everything.”

I sighed, but I was already smiling too, because there was no point pretending with Amanda anymore. She knew a lot of things, plus every embarrassing detail included.

“He came to pick me up from that party,” I started, sitting down on the couch, “and one thing led to another.”

“Mm-hmm.” Amanda sat across from me, chin resting in her palm like she was watching a movie. “One thing led to another, how? Give me the details, don’t summarize like you’re writing a report.”

“Amanda.”

“Bianca. I have been patient. I did not ask you a single question the whole time you were gone. Now talk.”

I laughed and told her, piece by piece, watching her eyes go wider and wider until she was practically bouncing on the cushion.

“Wait, wait, wait,” she said, holding up a hand. “He said what to you? On the couch?”

“You heard me the first time.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” She crossed her legs, folding her hands over her knee. “Good things, mostly.”

“Mostly?”

She laughed, “I’m teasing. Adrian speaks well of you. He always has good things to say about the people who work closely with him.”

I nodded, sipping my coffee just to have something to do with my hands.

“How are things at the office? He can be a lot to manage, I know. Even I struggled with him sometimes, and we were together for years.” She said it so casually, but I felt the words land exactly where she meant them to.

“He’s been fine to work with,” I said carefully.

“Of course he has.” Victoria tilted her head, studying me the way someone studies a puzzle they already know the answer to. “He’s very good at being fine. Until he’s not.”

I said nothing, just waited, because I could tell she wasn’t finished.

“We’re still close, you know. Me and Adrian.” Her eyes stayed on my face the entire time, watching for a reaction. “We talk and meet very well.”

“That’s nice,” I managed.

“It is. He’s a good friend to have, even after everything.” She smiled again. “He always did have a type, you know. He likes to rescue people. Pull them out of whatever mess they’re in, make them feel safe, make them feel chosen.” She paused, letting that settle.

At this point, it was obvious what she was trying to do but I kept my smile in place and my shoulders relaxed.

“I appreciate you sharing that.”

“Of course.” She stood, smoothing down her dress, completely unbothered, like she hadn’t just tried to deduce my whole existence to pity. “It was lovely meeting you, Bianca. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

She walked away without waiting for a response, her heels clicking against the floor.

I sat there for a long moment after she left, my coffee completely forgotten, my hands pressed flat against the table to stop them from shaking.