The Devil CEO's Contract Wife novel Chapter 217

Chapter 217: Take Me Back To The Day We Met

Five Years Ago

"Hey! The sign says "No Smoking!"

The voice made me turn, the lit cigar halfway to my lips. A girl with red hair in a high ponytail hastened towards me with a stern expression, like she was gonna give me an earful.

However, she tripped soon after, her glasses fell, sliding over to my shoes. Her palm pressed into the ground covered with dead leaves, and she groaned.

I tilted my head, scrutinizing this prompt disaster.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" She tapped her hand on the ground, searching for her glasses like a mindless cartoon character, pushing the leaves aside as if it did any good.

When she got close to finding them, I used my shoe to shove them beneath the bench.

She touched my shoes instead, rubbing against them as if trying to make out what it was. Then she lifted her face, and my heart stopped for a moment.

She squinted her eyes as if to make out my face, but couldn’t, and I just gaped, awed.

She’s beautiful. I don’t mean the kind you see and admire as if it were normal. Hers were distinctive, or maybe it was just my brain processing something it had never seen before. That sharpness in her hazel eyes, brightened by the sunlight, the slight part of her plump lips, which were moist for no reason at all. And then she bit the flesh as if hurt by the light directly at her face.

If I hadn’t had my cigarette between my fingers, I would have seized her chin and pressed my thumb down her lip and watched them spread apart more.

I blinked, confused at myself for a minute. I just met her, and I’m already...!

A jolt of electricity shot through my body. A fucking chill, by what? A lip bite?

She was on her knees right in front of me, and I wasn’t so sure she had the slightest idea of what this position meant. She was too busy trying to see me clearly to bother about anything else.

My eyes were concealed with sunglasses, and I wore casual clothes to stay out of the spotlight. I was just as normal in any sense. It’s not like she could tell.

"Great! I lost another pair." She pressed her hand against the bench to lift herself to stand, then sat, maintaining a respectful distance between us.

She searched through her bag, murmuring something under her breath, and whatever frustration she had reached its limits.

"It’s not like I can’t see without them, everything’s just..." She narrowed her eyes as if to zoom in on me like a camera. "...Foggy. Hopefully, it gets better. I’m not gonna spend my life squinting eyes like a fucking squirrel."

She had no idea who I was, yet she talked to me as if she knew me. Not many people could speak so freely in my presence; they are usually intimidated or frightened.

"You’re still smoking, aren’t you? Maybe you need glasses so that you can see the sign."

And then, the corner of my lips tipped, a smile forming, something I didn’t do often. I purposely brought the cigar closer to my lips and took another drag, releasing the smoke directly at her face.

Her lashes fluttered, and then she coughed harshly, waving her hand to ward it off. I used that opportunity to stand and check my Rolex. I had come here after a really bad day. The park was isolated and lonely, so I figured it was a good place to get some air, but I thought wrong.

I dropped the cigar on the floor and used my shoe on it before moving.

"Asshole."

I halted, but she kept coughing as if she hadn’t just insulted me. In a span of two minutes, she yelled at me, ranted, and then cursed at me. Only Athena had that privilege, yet this random girl pulled that off without thinking too much about it.

"Cat!" A voice came through, and I resumed my walk.

Still, I couldn’t resist throwing a look over my shoulder. Some guy came to her and kissed her on the lips.

I turned away and neared my car; the door opened for me, and I got in.

I took off my sunglasses and veered my gaze to the window where I could see her from here. The guy sat next to her, but then got up to search for her glasses.

They talked, mouth moving. She pulled some strands of hair behind her ear, giggling.

"Boss?"

I blinked away, looking at Nico, who observed me through the rearview mirror. It seems he had been trying to grasp my attention for a while.

"Drive."

~☆~

One Year Later

It’s her.

This must be what people call fate. I never believed in things like that until now.

I rubbed my jaw, observing her picture closely. I’m not the kind of person who gives accountants on the people I have engaged with, but she was one face that kept appearing for a bizarre reason. Always lingering at the corner of my mind that I had met someone... unique.

I scrolled down to the details of her employment. She was hired as a low-level staff member. She had been working rounds, and her contributions so far had been... good, in just two weeks.

She had been right under my nose the entire time. The same girl who kept recurring in my mind, but I dulled it, not allowing myself to... wonder.

And so it began.

She had lived rent-free in my head for one year, and now my eyes became the lens I used to capture everything, and the more I did, the more I couldn’t oppose. It became better and better.

I won’t sugarcoat it, but I was also her boss, which made this even more pleasing. I got to watch her in office hours and home hours. A bonus.

She reported me once, but there wasn’t much she could do. She didn’t know who.

No one believed her, and after that, she didn’t come forth with it, but every night her eyes would roam as if she could discern my eyes. She was more comfortable during the daytime, as if that even mattered, when I was always across the street.

And then the time came.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify