Chapter 8 Seven

As they were airborne, he retrieved a document from a drawer and passed it to her.

"What is this?", she asked as she opened it.

"A contract, for our little arrangement", he said and poured himself a glass of wine. "I'm going to need you to sign it", he said curtly.

Her eyes scanned the document for a while, then her brows furrowed in confusion, "It says here that I am to be compliant and submissive and to never call you by your name", she closed the document, "I'm sorry but I'm not gonna do any of that", she scoffed. Submissive? Compliant? What next? Was she gonna sign her entire life into servitude? He has got to be kidding.

"You are and you will", he said as he sat up straight. "You already agreed to it, right from the start, there's no going back now Stella".

"So I'm signing up to be your servant?", she asked sarcastically.

"You're signing up to be my wife, according to my terms", he said, "there's a difference". He downed the remaining wine in his glass and poured himself another.

"So what am I supposed to call you? Sir? My lord?", she scoffed.

His eyes became hooded as they settled on her and she felt the air leave her lungs. He was such a beautiful sight to behold, "honey, my love, baby", the words came out like smooth honey running down her skin. "We're getting married for God's sake. And we're going to act like it", he spat.

A moment of silence passed as she continued to read through the document. She laughed internally at some of the terms she saw. Grayson had got to be kidding her.

"Showering together? Sleeping together? Eating together? Every damned day?!", she half yelled.

"Do you have a problem?", he raised a brow at her.

She continued reading and when she stumbled upon the final term, she did a double-take, "loud sex?!"

"Fucking, not sex. We're not lovers obviously. We're going to have to fuck. Loudly. We have to make everyone believe we're really a couple", he said with a straight face. Stella couldn't believe what she was hearing.

As much as her body screamed yes, her head told her otherwise, "No", she said, betraying herself.

"Excuse me?"

"I said no. No sex, fucking, or whatever you wanna call it. This is strictly business, no pleasures attached". She said and watched as he carefully studied her. She nearly melted under his gaze.

Then finally, he shrugged, "alright. Just don't forget to sign below that you don't agree to that term. You're only allowed to refuse once".

She sighed in frustration.

"How long is this arrangement going to last?" she asked. Grayson was handsome alright, but he was one arrogant son-of-a-bitch. She wasn't sure she would be able to keep up with him for long.

"As long as I need it to", he sneered, "you see Stella, you signed up to be in my life, so you're gonna live according to my rules, we're gonna act like we're happy and in love do you understand?" she's not gonna mess this up for me, Grayson thought as he took another slug of his wine.

Stella was seething with rage on her seat, "excuse me", she said and left for the bathroom. She got in the bathroom and threw up her stomach contents. This wasn't what she signed up for. Sure, he was an asshole, but she didn't expect him to become a tyrant. What happened to the calm and collected Grayson Stone that donated millions to charity foundations? She wanted to cry, what had she gotten herself into? She realized she had romanticized the whole idea of coming to Monaco with Grayson, she dried her tears and resolved not to let him see how this was affecting her. She reapplied her lipstick and got out of the bathroom, it was a 12-hour flight from Seattle to Monaco, and she couldn't wait to get off the jet.

//////////////

They touched down in Monaco and as Grayson stepped out of the jet, he took in the fresh air and cool breeze. "It's time to fool the world", he muttered to himself and held out his hand so that Stella would take it.

"Happy and in love, happy and in love, happy and in love", Stella quietly chanted. She took a deep breath and as she reached out to take his hand, she missed a step and fell, but she was caught just before she hit the ground. Grayson caught her and she held on to him, he brought her body closer to his until they were only breaths away from each other's faces, staring into each other's eyes, the energy around them was magnetic, pulling them closer together. That single moment felt like an eternity.

Stella could feel her heart beating loudly in her chest, she inhaled the scent of him and it made her head swirl, was he going to kiss her? She wanted to kiss him so badly. "Are you okay?" She heard him ask. She nodded weakly and continued to hold on to him as he helped her regain her balance.

"There's my son!", a voice announced, interrupting their moment, they broke apart and Stella donned her sunglasses and looked towards the tarmac, an expensive looking car, probably the latest model, was parked by the side and a middle aged woman got down from it and was walking towards their jet, her eyes were hidden behind her huge sunglasses and she looked wealthy.

"Hey mum", Grayson said as he got down and hugged her.

"How was your flight?", she asked and then her eyes caught Stella following close behind him. "And who's the pretty lady with you?", she asked amusingly, moving Grayson aside to get a better look at Stella.

"This", he gestured towards Stella, "is Stella Marco", then he took her hand in his and kissed it, "and she's my fiancée".