Contract of Deception

Chapter 7

Later that evening, Scarlett strolled out of her apartment and over to the sleek black car waiting for her. Once again, she wondered how Wade had information about her like her address but she ignored the thought, he was probably capable of finding out anything if he really wanted to and the realization was definitely haunting. His driver opened the back door for her as she got closer to the car.

“Hi, thank you.” She whispered to him, trying not to blush at the gesture.

“Good evening, Miss Thompson,” he nodded as he carefully shut the door after her.

She slid into the warm buttery leather seats and looked over at Wade beside her, he had decided to come with the driver afterall, disregarding his earlier text messages that said he’d send just the driver. He was focused in his phone— no doubt responding to work emails. She hadn’t known him for a long time, but it was obvious that he was almost always working.

Her breath caught at the sight of him in his perfectly fitted dark gray shirt and pants that would no doubt fit him just as well. She tried to ignore the feeling as his scent took over her senses.

“Wade.” She greeted, snapping out of the daze.

His piercing gaze snapped to her. If she wasn’t sitting so close to him, she might have missed his sharp intake of breath as he took in the sight of her. His eyes raked over her, from the curls of her hair to the single cross necklace on her neck and lingered on the creamy skin which the thigh high split of her dress had left exposed.

And then he simply nodded and went back to his phone.

“So where are we going? One of your restaurants?” She asked.

“No.”

“Oh?”

“Somewhere else, a lot of people frequent this place too, so we’ll be easily recognized.” He went back to typing furiously on his phone.

She didn’t try to continue the conversation, it was obvious that he was busy. She turned her attention to the window and stayed that way till they got to their destination.

Her door was pulled open, and she smiled appreciatively at the driver who escorted her to the other side where Wade waited.

“You ready?” He asked.

“Yeah.”

He placed his hand on the small of her back, which was bare due to the dip of her dress and steered her toward the restaurant. It was one of those fancy ones, men and women were classily dressed and carried on with their conversations in low voices as the click-clack of cutlery against plates sounded through the restaurant. The hostess took them towards the back of the room, and she didn’t fail to notice the attention on them as they walked through.

Wade pulled out her chair for her, and as she sat down, he whispered in her ear, “I like the dress.”

A shiver ran down her spine at the flirtatious gesture but she knew he was only playing his part, so she put on a big smile and touched his hand.

“Thank you.”

After they ordered a bottle of wine and their food, Wade cleared his throat.

“So I suppose this would be a good time to get to know more about eachother.”

“Huh?”

“We should at least know a few things about eachother if we want our story to be believable.”

“Right, what do you want to know?”

“Tell me about your family.”

“My family?”

The waiter returned with their food and drink, and Wade waited till he was gone to answer.

“Couples tend to tell eachother about their families, don’t they?”

She took a bite of her food and chewed, savouring the taste of all the flavors in her mouth. She took her time to chew super slowly, trying to put off the topic as long as she could, but Wade was surprisingly patient.

“Well…” she started, “you know my dad, we’re pretty close. My mom and him were separated for a while but he came back and it’s been good…”

She peered at him through her lashes and saw that his eyes were intently locked on her.

“My little sisters, Lily and Sophia are identical twins, you can probably already assume how mischievous they are. They love to switch up and confuse people, especially new people.” She chuckled, smiling at the fond memory of her family. They weren’t perfect, but she wouldn’t trade them for anything.

“You’re being evasive,” he accused when she didn’t go on.

“What about you?” She looked at him. Wade seemed surprised that she had asked, but he cleared his throat and answered.

“My father is probably on some island right now.”

She nodded slowly when he didn’t say more. “And your mom?”

“There’s not much to say about her.”

“Now who’s being evasive?”

She noticed his grip tighten on the wineglass and decided to drop the topic.

“So what’s our story? How did we meet? We need to set a story straight if we don’t want people to doubt us.”

“Easy. We met by coincidence since your father works with me and he introduced us to eachother and we fell in love.”

She smiled at how easy the lies rolled off his tongue. But she mentally agreed it was a good answer, not too deep or serious, totally believable.

They talked about a few more things, ranging from their favorite colors to other seemingly insignificant things and then they moved on in a comfortable silence, each one focused on their food, or at least she was… Wade ate slowly, occasionally directing all his attention to her. He didn’t touch her, but he didn’t have to, his unwavering attention on her was enough to convince any unsuspecting outsider that he was completely in love with her.

She shivered under the attention, slightly freaked out by how good he was at keeping up this facade. She wondered if how she felt was the same way other women felt in his presence, he had a sort of appeal that could draw anyone in. She shook her head and kept on eating, this was supposed to be a job at best, she would not allow herself to feel anything at all for this man.

They quickly finished their dinner and went on to the wine, she cradled the glass in her hand and cast a quick glance at the restaurant. Then she reached out her hand to touch Wade’s across the table, but he withdrew as the action made him jump, she silently hoped nobody caught that.

“Are you going to flinch everytime I touch you?” She c****d an eyebrow at him.

“I was just carried away, wasn’t expecting it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just pretend I’m one of the numerous women you hang out with, that should make it easier.”

“I could never pretend that you’re one of them.”

“Yeah I’m not exactly thrilled over being with you either, Mr pretty boy.” She shot back.

“That’s not what I —”

“It doesn’t matter Wade.”

She sipped her wine and looked around again, noticing more eyes on them, she reached out and gingerly placed her palm in his, looking adoringly in his eyes, this time he didn’t flinch.

“I wasn’t expecting people to pay us this much attention.”

“You’re with me, why would you expect anything less?” He smirked.

She rolled her eyes again, she was doing that so much on this fake date, her eyes would be lost in her head by the time it was all over.

“That’s not what I meant. I figured they would be used to seeing you out with different women in places like this.”

“I’ve never brought anyone here.”

“Huh… why?”

“I prefer to keep my business private.”

“Right.”

His eyes raked her body again. “And none of them have probably shown up in such a f**k-me dress.”

“This isn’t a f**k-me dress,” she gasped.

“Trust me Red, every single man in here would agree with me that that is in fact a f**k-me dress.”

“Well whatever, I suppose if it helps make our little show more believable then it’s fine.” She said and stroked his wrist. “What time is it?”

He looked at his watch and drank the last of his wine. “Time to leave.”

He sorted the bill and they strolled towards the exit, his hand on the small of her back again. Her skin came alive at the touch of his fingers, and she blamed it all on the alcohol.

As they neared the door of the restaurant, a woman walked in and she felt Wade’s hand on her back momentarily stiffen before he dropped it and grabbed on to her wrist instead.

This action didn’t go unnoticed by the woman who simply looked her up and down and then sneered at Wade.

“Wade.”