Chapter 6

"This is the amended contract. You only have to pretend that we're lovers in the presence of others, no intimacy no nothing. Both parties must not get emotional or be seen with another partner. Since you have a good business going on, I wouldn't want to stop you from expanding. Here..." She handed the contract to Eddie.

"You can go through it at your own convenient time, but it must not exceed today. If there's any other thing you'd like to discuss about the contract you let my manager know." She looked at Grace.

"And one more important thing, this contract must be a secret between only the three of us present here. No one must know about it." She concluded and made her leave.

"oooh... I'm so scared." He said with sarcasm.

"Excuse me, did you say something?" She asked.

"I mean, if we're going to start pretending we're lovers, how well do you think you can keep up with this attitude. I mean no offense but you need to loosen up." She opened her mouth to protest but felt her tongue cut. She grew speechless. She turned and left, slamming the door.

*************

"What is that guys problem?" She muttered to herself on leaving the room. She felt insulted and on the other hand, she felt he was right and that she needed to loosen her grip.

*************

"What is her problem?" He asked rhetorically and looked at Grace as if he were going to get answers from her, but she only gave a fake smile and hurriedly left the room.

*************

Grace

Don't forget the ball is tonight✓✓

4:36pm

Angel

What time does it start✓✓

4:36pm

Grace

9:30 sharp✓✓

4:37pm

Angel

Get him to sign the contract and

get him ready for the ball.✓✓

Grace

Got it...✓✓

4:39pm

**************

Buzz! buzz!! buzz!!!

Buzz! buzz!! buzz!!!

"Urgh..." Eddie groaned as the buzzing on his door continued.

"Open up!" Grace yelled at the other end of the door. Eddie forced himself up to the door.

"What?" He sounded harsh and wore this unpleasant frown on his face, but that didn't seem to scare Grace.

"Quit your whining, you have a ball to attend. Note; Boss's business partners, relatives, lawyers and you know all will be present there, so you really need to impress them." She said dragging him outside his room.

"You're going to put this on." She reached her hand on the cushion and lifted a glimmering black suit.

"James will come pick you up by 9 o'clock sharp. Don't keep him waiting."

"Who's James?"

"The driver?"

"What about her highness?" He said sarcastically, bowing to make a jest of it.

"Haha... funny." She laughed in sarcasm.

"She'd go first on her way from work."

"And you? Aren't you attending?" Her mood changed on hearing his questions.

"Don't you think you're asking too many questions? Just do what is expected of you and get this over with." She said with seriousness on her face and turned to leave.

"Is that all you've been doing your whole life? Doing only what is expected of you? What about what you want to do or how you want to do it? How pathetic." She halted. She felt chills run through her body. She didn't expect him to be this nosy.

"Mind your own business."

"Is that what you want? And what if I don't want to mind my own business?" He walked closer to her.

"What are you doing?" She was frightened as he came too close to her.

"Have you even been asked what you wanted before? Or let me guess, you've never even been in a relationship." He grabbed her left hand and used his right hand to caress her cheek.

"Let me recue you from this misery you call a life." He whispered to her in a serious tone. Grace felt her heart pound like it had never before.

"Let go!" She released herself from his grip. At a moment their eyes met and she went mute. Her eyes were red and almost wet. She quickly turned and walked away in what almost seemed like a run. She didn't want him to see how sad and regretful she was for all the things she had missed in life all in the name of loyalty.

"I will rescue you, I promise." Eddie muttered to himself.

*************

"Have you changed your mind?" Eddie said as he saw Grace approaching, and he wore this sweet, cute smile.

"Don't flatter yourself." She said handing an enveloped paper to him.

"You need to sign the contract before you could attend the ball."

"And what if I don't want to sign it?" He asked smartly.

"What do you mean by that? Enough with the games already." She was beginning to lose it. She felt cornered.

"Who's playing games? I just want you to understand your worth." He took two steps forward to her. She also took a step backwards and before she could take the second one, he grabbed her by the waist.

"But I'm willing to sign it on one condition."

"What makes you think you're in the position to make conditions." She said pushing him away.

"Don't you want to know what I have to say? I know you're curious."

"James is going to pick you in the next twenty minutes. Please just try and impress Angel. At least for tonight, this is really important to her." She pleaded.

"Okay. Anything for a princess like you." She felt her body tingling and her heart fluttering, and she didn't know when she began to blush. Only his smile towards her made her body shiver. She waited for him to sign it, he did and gave it back to her. After Mr William, no one had ever given attention to her needs or thoughts.

"I'll take my leave now."

"So quick? Aren't you supposed to get me dressed and stuff?" She felt shy at the thought of dressing him. She had actually never had any man in her life before, talk more of to help dress a man.

"Good thing I took my shower already." He teased her.

"Fine." She groaned and followed him to his dressing room. There was an awkward silence throughout the who time she prepared him, and he never removed his eyes from her which made her more nervous.

"Done." She sighed with relief.

"Wow, you really do have a nice touch." He teased and winked at her. As soon as she wanted to leave, he stopped her.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" He pointed at his neck, indicating that she hadn't wore his tie on him.

"What do you have two hands for?"

"For holding the woman of my dreams." He laughed. She decided to get it over with. As soon as she put the tie on his neck, he finally got his opportunity and pulled her to his arms.

"Now do you see what my two hands can do?" He teased. "And I bet you're dying to know what these lips of mine can also do." He said leaning closer to her. She grew speechless and was frozen. She couldn't move any part of her body neither could she breath.

He lifted his left hand and stroke her hair backwards. Now close enough to her that she could feel his breath on her face, and more scary, the suiting warmth from his body. Their lips finally clashed.

"You flirt." She muttered, preventing him from going deeper with the kiss or prolonging it.

"Correction, I don't flirt with girls, they are the ones who flirt with me." She looked at him straight in the eyes, she saw truth in his eyes but decided to doubt them. It was too sudden and too good to be true to her.

"You're here for Angel. You signed the contract so focus on your job and don't mess it up. You can't disappoint her no matter what."

"Actually, I don't think this is my thing. So I quit." He said, removing the tie she had just hung on his neck to knot. He was curious to hear or see her reaction. She was dazzled by his sudden change of mind.

"But I'm still going to help you. I have a plan that might just work. That's... If you want to hear it." He awaited suspensively for her reply.