The Billionaire's Pretend Wife (Isabella) novel Chapter 35

After the incident with Claudia, Mr Grayson stopped making advances towards Isabelle. He no longer called her to his office frequently or offered to help her with her work. This convinced Isabelle that he had given up, and she was finally able to relax fully.

So it caught her by surprise when he approached her one evening after work and asked her to join him to have dinner with a client. Isabelle’s heart sank as she realised that he had not given up. Instead, he had been biding his time.

“I’m sorry but I can’t join you,” she rejected his invitation politely, hoping he would let it go. She gathered her stuff into her bag, wanting to make an escape quickly.

Mr Grayson stepped in her way. “You should come with me, Ms Cruz. I want to introduce some resources that can help you a lot here at work.”

“Thank you for the consideration,” she told him, “but I really cannot go with you. I have urgent matters to attend to, so I have to leave right away.”

“Do you think I wasted my time coming here to ask you to come with me because I have nothing better to do?” he asked, his tone becoming stern. His sudden change in demeanour surprised her, and she clutched her bag tightly. “I am your senior, and if I ask you to come with me to meet a client, you should come. I have even told you that this meeting can benefit you in your work. What do you have to do that’s more important than your job?”

Isabelle swallowed. “I–”

“It’s either you come with me or lose your job,” he said resolutely. “If you think you can do whatever you want, maybe you have no place in this company.”

“I’ll come with you,” she told him, having no other choice. It was just dinner. She wasn’t about to risk her job because of this.

Mr Grayson nodded curtly. “Wait for me, we’ll leave shortly.”

***

When they got to the restaurant they were meeting the client in, Mr Grayson led her to a private room.

The moment she stepped inside, however, she wondered whether they had gone into the wrong room. This didn’t look like the kind of setting she was expecting for dinner with a client. There were several men in the room, all sitting with skimpily-dressed women in their arms.

She stopped in her tracks and took a step back. “What is this?” she asked.

Mr Grayson wrapped his hand around her arm and pulled her forward. “Come inside,” he told her.

She tried to remove her arm from his grip forcefully, but his grip was too strong. “This does not look like a client dinner.” No, in fact, she was sure it wasn’t. This was just a private room full of men entertaining themselves with the women in their company. She was positive that the director had lied to her about a dinner with a client to bring her here.

While they had been making their way to the restaurant, share had cheered herself up with the fact that they would be in the company of the client, so Mr Grayson wouldn’t try any appropriate. In such a setting, she would have found a way to get through the evening without engaging his ulterior motive. But now, in this setting, there was no telling what his plans were.

“Tonight we’ll have fun, just you and me,” he told her, leaning in close to her ear. His voice and his breath disgusted her and caused her stomach to turn.

Now that he had revealed his true intentions, she fought him without holding back. “I don’t want to be here,” she said loudly, “let me go back.”