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 for me at 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 time I 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 to me himself 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 come on,” 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 home earlier.” He passed me a toothy grin.
“Tell your boyfriend about me and get him to invite me for 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 invite me first,” 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 offered me to work with him when I told him I wanted to start working again, so I
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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 greeted me by the door, persistently taking my work bag from me.
“It was nice. I made a new friend.” I grinned at her.
“Tell me about her. She fuelled my childlike enthusiasm.
“Him.” I corrected her and her lips parted in surprise.
“Oo!”

“Did Gabriel come back 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 tell me before he left, or even asked
Peter to. I didn’t expect him to let me know everything but I thought we were making some progress, 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 came back with slight hope that maybe
Luna had heard something from Peter about Gabriel’s return, and every day it was the same disappointment.
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 time with 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
drink 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 time this week without thoughts of Gabriel taking up my entire mind, and I got: home
a little before midnight and tumbled straight into bed, letting the buzz of alcohol knock me out, 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.