Page 11 of The Revenge Plan

I gave her my best smile and excused myself wondering what I had gotten myself into.

I made it to the restroom and shut myself into a stall. I was glad to get away from it all for a few minutes. But it wasn’t long enough when I heard people coming in.

“Do you think it’s true?” I heard a voice say. It was familiar. One of the Cooper twins, heiresses to the Cooper beverage fortune, I didn’t know which.

“Of course, it’s true,” another voice I knew well answered, it was Sophie, one of my former minions in school, “It’s all a sham, at least that’s what Ax says. Five says they won’t last a month.”

Five as in five grand and not five dollars.

The other girl laughed, “Oh my god! You’re on.”

They talked about some other stuff and I held my breath the entire time, hoping they wouldn’t hear me. When they were gone, I came out feeling a little less confident than before.

???

By the time we left the reception, I was good to go. I didn’t want to spend more time with any of the people here. I was almost sleepy when we reached a large and beautiful apartment building in Upper East Side Manhattan. The doorman greeted Caiden with his first name beaming at me. He must have known who I was, and he congratulated us.

We went into a waiting elevator and he pressed a button marked ‘P’. I slouched back against the rail. We were both facing each other. His bow tie was hanging around his neck and two top buttons of his dress shirt were undone.

He looked like a nineteen-twenties rake coming out of a speakeasy. Not a mere patron though, the gangster kind. I smiled at the thought.

“What’s so funny?” his expression was serious and it made me feel like a schoolgirl caught being naughty. I straightened. “Nothing,” I tried to change the topic, “How long am I supposed to be here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Here.” The elevator dinged. We were on the Penthouse floor. We got out, and I followed him into his apartment. I waved around, “At your place. How long do you want me here so we can keep up the farce of being a married couple?” He glanced at me and kept on walking. I looked around. It was almost exactly as I had imagined it. The place was the modern equivalent of what a devil’s den would be like. The walls and most of the furniture were a mix of coal gray and black with yellow lighting strategically placed behind a wall feature or under the steps. It had a sunken living room that overlooked a beautiful view of the New York skyline. Opposite the living room was a state-of-the-art kitchen, which was separated from the living room area by a granite counter. There were vases with white orchids that accented the place but felt like an odd choice for the mostly masculine apartment. It was elegant and sophisticated.

Caiden went over to the bar that was on to the left side of the living room and poured himself a drink. He took a sip and turned to me.

“You’ll be living,” he waved his hand around sarcastically, “here for the foreseeable future. We won’t be faking being a married couple Hailey. That was the deal.”

“I didn’t think I would be staying with you.”

“Why the hell not?”

I had no answer to that except that I had mistakenly thought he wanted nothing to do with me after he had gotten his precious marriage certificate. He took another sip and began striding towards me, “If you had any other plans, I’m sorry to burst them.”

“Does that mean,” my throat tightened, “does that mean we’re sleeping in the same bed.”

He strolled towards me slowly, “What do you think married couples do?” he took a sip of his drink and stared at me. It was hot and unnerving. His undressing gaze made me feel naked.

“Do we have to?”

He took another step. He was so close I could smell the alcohol on his breath.

His voice lowered to almost a whisper, “It’s part of the deal.” My pulse raced, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

He was right about the deal. My crass father had made sure that part made it into the contract. If he had his way, he would demand the wedding bed sheets. Plus, it was better to have this part done with. It was tempting. He was tempting with his devilish look. But it didn’t feel right. I had fantasies, especially when I was young, of how my first time with Caiden would be. And those dreams were much more romantic and I would like to hold on to those instead. It would never be good between us anyway, so I might as well keep the fantasy.

I stepped back, putting space between us.

“Oh?” he lifted a brow.

“I’m not ready yet.”

“Huh. I thought I had read that wrong.” He took another gulp before finishing his drink. His mood seems to change and become colder, “Regardless, there’s a room for you upstairs. It’s the one that’s not mine. Bailey brought your things and left them there. Goodnight.”

I thought of the conversation between him and Axel. I wasn’t ready to go to bed yet. “I have something I need to talk to you about.”

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