His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 115 MIA] "This restaurant is... fancy." I whisper to Alex, looking around. The place was huge, on top of a sixty floor building overlooking the rest of the city. Cream modern wallpapers, glass chandeliers and cutlery branded with the Versace logo. It was also surprisingly empty.

"Why are you whispering?" I let that settle in as I lean back in my chair. "Why is the place empty?" He sets down the menu he had been reading, c**g an eyebrow as if offended by my question. "You didn't think I would dine with other people?" My lips part in a gasp. "You booked the entire place?!" "Yes," he casually replied. "I like privacy." "This much privacy?" "What if I feel like bending you over in the middle of dinner and eating you instead?” His lazy smirk I had given my heart to lingers in his lips, but I cautiously look around to his guards who were standing a mere ten feet away.

"They can hear us!" "They work forme, not the other way around." I frown. "Can't you like... dismiss them for the night?" "And what do I do, pray tell, if we are attacked?" "I thought you're this bad-a** guy who can take on an army by yourself," I teased.

"Realistically, I can take on ten men while also protecting you. What if there are like... a hundred of them?" I gulp. "Someone can send a hundred men to attack you?" "Someone might," He sips his wine. "You are greatly underestimating the position I hold in the Mafia, Mia." "Why?" I ask, and the waiter interrupts us. We both give our orders, and I order a c**I while Alex enjoys the most expensive bottle of wine money could buy.

"You were saying?" He asked once the waiter left.

"Yeah, I asked, why?" I repeated. "Why did you choose this life?" "Why not?" "It's dangerous, and exhausting; I can't imagine what it would be like to not go out by yourself." "You better get used to it," He plainly replied. "That is how my life is, and by extension, so is yours." 1/4 Chapter 115 I gulp, staring into his eyes across the table, Our eye contact breaks when his phone buzzes, and he appeared annoyed the moment he checked it, but silenced it and handed it to Dom, who grabs it quickly before walking back to the place he was initially standing at.

"Are they going to watch us eat?" I ask Alex, voice falling into a whisper again.

He nods.

"Can we invite them to eat with us?" My suggestion makes him look atlike I was a madwoman. "Do I look like I was throwing a dinner party of fifty?" My mouth opens and closes. "I don't like that they're going to watch us eat." "Easy fix." He looked smug, and before I could ask him what he was thinking, he addressed his guards, "Turn your backs to us. Every single one of you." My jaw drops. "Alex!" "What? They're not looking at us eat anymore." "You... You..." I huff, but no words leave me.

He smiles proudly.

I shake my head at the man in front of me, and then dinner arrives. We eat dinner while chatting, and for a while, I forget about the number of guards around us when I tell him about my high school experience and he about his. I was the nerd, the introvert, the loner who liked to play football. He was the popular kid, the trouble maker, the captain of his lacrosse team. For a while, I forget he was in the mafia. He was their brains, their strategist. For a while, he was just Alex and I was just Mia, and everything was perfect.

After dinner, he takeson a long drive across the bridge and even letsplay music, talking toabout my favourite songs.

"You never toldwhy you chose this life?" I asked him when he was driving us hand it was just the two of us. "I mean, you have such a wonderful family. Why'd you want to join the...mafia?" "There is a certain thrill in..." "In?" "Taking a life." My eyes widen, and he smirks at my reaction.

"I'm joking," he adds for my benefit. "I didn't like mundane. I wanted more. So, I chose more. I chose thrill. Adventure. Mind games. Strategies. A world with no morals? I signed myself the f**k up." "It's so... dangerous." "And exhausting," He rolled his eyes, “Yeah, you mentioned a few times." "Don't you have to always look over your shoulder?" 15.15 AVION, Chapter 115 "It's second nature to me, Mia. I'm always alert and observing." 70% "Are you?" I lean behind on the passenger seat, hugging my arms close to my chest and look at him closely. So humane. So touchable. So real.

"Mh-hm.".

"What have you noticed aboutthen?" The question makes one corner of his lips turn up for sreason. "Your breath turns shaky every tyou're conscious, like if you're lying or you're turned on. Your eyes twitch when you're lying. Your nose flares when you're angry and you usually end up with tears in your eyes. Death is a sensitive topic to you. You fluster quite easily whenever you're embarrassed, which is a lot. Baking isn't a hobby to you, it's an escape. You're not a big music lover, because your choice is mostly mainstream and cliché." "Okay, stop." I chuckle nervously.

"No, I can go on. You hate eye contact so much, it makes you squirm. You only watch rom-coms and I assyou've either never had a fulfilling love in your life or one-too-many tragedies. Your favourite colour is black. Very boring, by the way, Mia. You say you didn't have tto date because you were so busy earning hand-to-mouth, but the fancy restaurant dishes didn't intimate you. You knew what you didn't like- including caviar, and you knew what you wanted. Either you're confident, or you're familiar, and I think it's the second one." "Okay, stop, seriously." I don't know why I chuckle under my breath even though tears glisten my eyes and I had no idea why.

He glanced my way. "Observing enough?" "Very," I mutter under my breath, inhaling deep before facing him again. “I had a friend; her family pitiedat a point and tookin for stime. They were wealthy, and that's how I know proper etiquette. That's also when my dislike towards caviar began." "Mh-hm." He buzzes in response, and I wasn't sure if he believedor not.

Nobody had ever noticed me. I always lived in the shadows. Nobody cared for me, nobody bothered to help when I was spiralling into depression or struggling to make ends meet. And here this guy was. He'd even noticed my eye twitching.

I keep staring at him with an emotion I didn't quite understand myself. "Do you notice everyone this much?" "Smore than others." "My favourite colour is blue," I tell him. "Black is a close second." A ghost of a smile lingers on his lips in acknowledgment.

"What's yours?” I add.

"Grey." "Grey?" I repeated in surprise. "That's so...boring. Why is your favourite colour grey?" "That's forto know, and you to never find out." I pout. "Mean." "I've done meaner things than deny an answer," he smugly replied. “You'll survive." 15:15 Mon, 1 Jul Chapter 115 70% The car pulls back into the gate of his house, and just like that, my little escape from reality was over. "Rom- coms are fun, you know," I tell him while we walk inside.

"They're corny." "How do you know if you've never watched?" I teased.

"I never said I hadn't watched them. Only that I harboured a dislike." A smile makes its way to my lips. "Can we watch one?" "Absolutely not!" He refuses it like what I had suggested was blasphemous.

"Please," I plead. "I was promised a date." "And I did take you out on one." He givesa pointed look. "Did you not have fun?" "I did, but a movie would be the perfect end to it. Please?" I basically beg.

He shakes his head, muttering something under his breath. "Okay," he finally answered get bored in fifteen minutes, we switch it off and you leteat you." I grin. "Deal." My mind breaks out into a hundred movie options, and before I could settle on one, Dominic barges in.

"Sir, you have company." He says, breathless, his eyes flickering to me. "He said he wanted to see you, and he wouldn't stop, not even when the guard pointed a gun to his head." Alex doesn't ask who it was. "Mia, go to your room," he instructs without givinga second glance.

My eyes flicker between the two men.

"Mia," he seethes, his tone sending a cold shiver through me. "Now."

I nodded, but I had barely taken a step away when a man enters the living room looking like he was m raging, his Blonde hair a mess, eyes searching for, I assumed, Alex, but they fall oninstead. I freeze.

He tilts his head, an immediate smirk playing on his lips in a psychotic manner.

"Xander," Alex greeted coldly before stepping in front of me, making sure I was completely hidden behind him.