The CEO's Pretend Wife

Chapter 9

After sucking the air out of Ruhi's lungs, Rafael let her go. Her face was on fire from the rush of blood and the realization of what just happened.

Even though she was twenty-five and considered herself an independent woman, she panicked about her parents' reaction when she saw the reporters continue clicking pictures. Her entire family, extended relatives included, were going to brand her a shameless woman with no values or self-control.

And Dhruv will probably say the same and break up with her.

"What did we do?" She whispered to Rafael in a panic. "What did YOU do?"

"I was left with no choice but to shut your mouth." His voice was husky but irritated.

"I have a boyfriend! What am I---"

"They don't need to know that. You have no filters or tact."

He ignored the crowd and picked her up in his arms. With the intimate contact and his pleasant perfume, it took all of her willpower to not nuzzle his neck and take in his scent some more. She came out of the trance when someone took their picture up-close.

"Rafael...! What are you doing? They are still taking pictures. I can't be seen like this!!"

She tugged at his shirt in an attempt to bury her face. He shoved her into his car once again and dismissed everyone with a goodbye wave.

The strange mix of emotions confused and overwhelmed Ruhi. She wanted to lash out at Rafael and run away from him. There was so much to say and yell at him about, but one look at him driving the car, she realized she wanted the kiss to happen again.

Her cheeks flushed at the thought of how he kissed her so passionately into submission while caging her in a hot embrace. She licked her swollen lips while staring at him unknowingly. His light stubble and the sharp jawline were screaming at her to be caressed by her lips. She wanted to run her fingers over them and hold his face between her hands.

She looked away quickly when his face turned to her side.

'Oh... he was just looking in the right side mirror,' she thought and sighed in relief.

She avoided eye contact and pressed her hands between her legs, wondering if anyone her age felt this helpless like a teenager, unable to control the rush of hormones and desire. The s****l tension was unbelievably strong and knocking her out of her mind.

She did everything she could to keep the thought of his warm hands and seductive touch away from her mind; avoiding eye contact, drumming her fingers on her thigh, tapping her feet, wiggling in her seat too often, chewing fingernails.

'Don't look at him! He will see the lust in your eyes.' She warned herself and continued tapping her feet nervously while playing with her hair.

She felt his piercing gaze, which left goosebumps on her skin. He was probably looking at the mirror again, or the car in the other lane, she thought and lifted her face slightly to take a peek at that gorgeous face again. Her fingers got stuck in her hair and she chewed on her lips fervently the moment their eyes met.

'Kiss me again, please, kiss me now,' her eyes begged him if he could read them. He gripped the steering wheel tight enough to make his knuckles turn white.

They were still in the city, driving around the small roads as the sun went down and the skyscrapers and small plazas lining the street lit up brightly.

He clenched his jaw when he saw how pink and swollen her lips looked.

"f*****g stop that!" He hit the steering wheel with both his hands and pulled over to the side.

"Stop what? You are the one who's driving." She was fidgeting with the strap of her handbag now, looking into his hazel brown eyes that turned dark with an emotion she couldn't understand. She had seen them change many shades of brown today, but they were the darkest right now.

"Get out." He said, unlocking her door from his side.

"What? Are you seriously mad at me after what you did?"

"I said get out. Don't make me repeat myself. I will pick you up and throw you on the street."

"Oh, right! Do I look like one of those lifting bars to you? Because that's what you have been doing today... pick me up and throw me into your car at a whim and now pick me and throw me onto the street. Do you think you can touch me and kiss me as you want and then dismiss me like I'm some piece of garbage?"

"Ruhi... please leave," he said in defeat.

"Fine! I refuse to attend that stupid press meet tomorrow. You can tell your dad what an asshole you are, in case he doesn't already know." She unfastened the seatbelt and grabbed her purse to get up.

"There won't be a press meet tomorrow. We already answered all their questions. Do me a favor and don't bother me until the wedding day."

She glared at him and shut the door with a loud bang. His car whirred past her in a fraction of the second and disappeared out of sight. Taking her phone out, she checked where she was. What was he doing anyway, driving in random neighborhoods without asking her for Dhruv's address? It occurred to her then that even she didn't tell him where to go.

Her stomach growled loudly, and her face scrunched in annoyance when she saw a dozen missed calls from her parents and Adira. Adira used to answer her calls maybe once a week until this nightmare with Rafael had started. She always acted like a big sister who had no time for Ruhi's nonsense or love life. She was married and lived in London, so the time difference was always her excuse.

She decided to ignore them all. It wasn't Rafael's fault as much as it was her parents'. Her phone rang while she was looking at the stores in the plaza where she was standing, to see if any of them had a quick takeout option to quench her hunger pangs.

Seeing Dhruv's name, she was filled with guilt and braced herself for his outburst as she tapped the call answer button. There was no way she could defend herself by putting the blame on Rafael. She obviously kissed him back with equal fervor and didn't want it to end. She decided it was better if she told him before he found out himself by looking at the pictures or video when the newspeople edit and publish the article by twisting the truth even more.

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

Her phone beeped with the onslaught of a dozen text messages from Lisa the next morning. She stayed up all night after the fight with Dhruv. He was sleeping on the couch in the living room.

It was 3 AM when she checked the time. The darn time difference! It was 6 in the morning in Florida and Lisa was up already, reading the news. She loved reading gossip columns and used to discuss them every morning when Ruhi was making coffee or eating breakfast.

'I will call you later when you wake up. You have to tell me ALL about it,' read her last message on the locked screen.

Ruhi went through all her messages to see that Lisa sent her a screenshot of the article published by three news channels. They came up with ridiculous titles: The stiff and the silly; The cold CEO, the sweet fiancée; and so on. She skimmed through the text in horror when she saw words like a hot pink sweater, wondering if they called the outfit tacky or ugly.

She was surprised by how good the pictures turned out. Her lines from the interview were all polished, and it made her sound like some ultrasophisticated woman who had everything under control.

They took her image and words and spun it around to come up with a completely different person and personality who she couldn't identify with. The torn sweater looked like designer wear, and she appeared very refined with her vibrant sunglasses and plum lips. Even her fifty-dollar purse was transformed into something worth three thousand dollars by enhancing the black and the shadows in the right places on it.

Her heart skipped a beat when she scrolled to see her pictures with Rafael. He was towering over her by almost one foot, and they looked great together, smiling and happy.

'This was definitely not how we looked,' she scowled some more when she felt the warmth instantly on seeing Rafael's arm wrapped around her in a few pictures. The thought of wanting him to hold her again made her furious at herself.

Their awesome chemistry was oozing out of the pictures and the one where he bent her slightly backward to kiss her was straight out of some fairytale book. She was gripping his shoulder at that moment of passion and her ring glinted beautifully.

She stared at the picture for a long time, zooming it in and out, feeling his perfume and his arms engulfing her and comforting her in a strange way. The thought of not seeing him for over a week had put her at unease all night. Watching him and feeling weird about missing him, she drifted off to sleep with the phone on her chest.