His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 13 I kissed Gabriel Whitlock.

No, he kissed me.

And as good as that kiss was, kissing him was not good forat all because even more than twenty-four hours later, the kiss was still all I was thinking about though I was at my desk on my first day at my new job.

I needed to focus. So, I tried all day. And all day, I failed.

All I could think of was him, Kissing him. More than kissing hi "Girl, there's literally drool on your mouth. James commented as we walked out of the elevator together, and my cheeks. flushed.

"My husband... did a number on me." I bit my lower lip. Every tI replayed Gabriel's words to me, I was inevitably lost in thoughts of what he had promised me.

I would f*ck you) there's no tomorrow.

James was the first friend I met at work. He was the head of product design at Wales and even though our jobs were nowhere. interrelated, our desks were adjacent. He was tall and dark with buzz cut looking intimidating, but he talked tohimself when I first entered and hadn't stopped since.

He hot?" James asked in a heavy southern accent, and I laughed.

"Yeah, he's hot." When we got out of the building ready to grab dinneras per the spontaneous plan we had made, he paused, his eyes narrowing. "He loaded too?" "Huh?" I followed his gaze which had stopped at the car parked outside Wales, the driver standing outside, his eyes fixed at me.

"Oh con," I muttered under my breath, apologetically looking at James. “Rain check on our dinner plans?" 'Don't worry about it, girl. Steve would only be happy I made it hearlier." He passeda toothy grin. "Tell your boyfriend aboutand get him to invitefor dinner soon-ish. You've talked about his cooking all day. I'm tempted to have it already." "Get your hot-and-loaded-sounding-like-a-full-package man to invitefirst," He teased, "I accept sugar daddies.

"Ew!" I playfully slapped his forearm before waving him bye and then walking towards the car, driver at standing outside.

"I asked you to leave," I scowled in a whisper once I got to hiin. "I told you I'll take the train back"- "Sir's orders on your wedding day were to take you wherever you want, and get you back home. Not to leave you there." 1 glared at him. “Are you also going to tell him where I was at the end of the day?" "Only if he asks," My driver said, and I grit my teeth.

If he asks, the driver will tell him I was at Wales all day. His rival company. I was going to be so busted.

1 felt a bit of guilt about it, but not much. I was just one of the thousand employees of this company, doing my job. I was doing an ordinary job. Gabriel never offeredto work with him when I told him I wanted to start working again, so I 1/3 Chapter 13 found a job myself. He couldn't be mad.

I shook my head, getting into the car and pouting all the way back home.

"Sotta! How was your first day!" Luna greetedby the door, persistently taking my work bag from me.

"It was nice. I made a new friend." I grinned at her.

"Tellabout her. She fuelled my childlike enthusiasm.

"Him." I corrected her and her lips parted in surprise.

"Oo!" "Did Gabriel cback yet?” I asked her. I hadn't seen him all of Sunday, and I fell asleep early that night because of the lack of sleep on Saturday after what happened between us. I hadn't seen him after that incident....yet.

Her face fell a little. "No, he hasn't, she replied. "Peter called and did leave a message for you though.

"For me? What is it?" "He asked the to let you know Gabriel sir had to fly out to London urgently yesterday." She raised her shoulders in a helpless shrug "Oh. I couldn't help the disappointment from washing all over me. Yesterday? He didn't tellbefore he left, or even asked Peter to. I didn't expect him to letknow everything but I thought we were making sprogress, Especially after the kiss... I shook those thoughts out. "Do we know when will he be back?" "No, we don't. Her voice was apologetic. I'm sorry." "Don't be." I shrugged, smiling it off but I couldn't help getting lost in the what-ifs. What if he had been here tonight? Would there be more of that kissing? Would we acknowledge what happened between us, or would we treat it like it was nothing? Drowned in those thoughts. Tuesday passed. Wednesday passed Thursday passed. And then, so did Friday.

I was finally getting over the kiss, dismissing it as nothing, accepong that every day I I hppe that maäypcbackwith slight Luna had heard something from Peter about Gabriel's return, and every day it was the sdisappointment. Tomorrow was supposed to be one month of being married to Gabriel, of being his wife. It hasn't been a bad month, and I think the rest five would pass pretty smoothly if this is how we would remain.

I went out with James and his boyfriend Steve on Friday night, Saturday being off-work. That was James' reason to dri mine was to get my mind off my husband.

"So, you like him?" James whispered hastily between our second round of drinks when Steve excused himself to the bathroom.

My eyes slightly widened. "Are you asking me, your friend of barely one week, if I like your boyfriend?" I laughed, "I'm it's supposed to be the other way round." James pouted. "Hey! It's new. It's just been a month, and because of our schedules, I spend more twith you in a day than him. It's a valid question." "I like Steve. He's funny and hot. And... he's a professional chef. Way out of your league" James frowned. Tm hot too!" "Yeah, but do you cook as good as him?" 12:29 Tue, Jun 4 Chapter 13 "Touche"

We laughed while Steve returned with vodka shots with little cherries in them, looking all cute but burning my throat like b*tch A kink or two later, I left the couple by themselves with a good buzz on me. I had somehow managed to befriend the driver in the four days and convinced him to park a street away to not scare my new friends off by my husband's wealth.

Smiling about having a good day for the first tthis week without thoughts of Gabriel taking up up my entire mind, and I got: ha little before midnight and tumbled straight into bed, letting the buzz of alcohol knockout, not expecting to be woken up just an hour later with loud bangin on my room door with an anger and force 1 had unknowingly begun to recognise.

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