Chapter 9 Eight

Throughout the drive to the house, Celine couldn't stop gushing about how pretty Stella was and how happy she was that her son got a respectable lady to marry. Oh if only she knew, Stella thought. When they arrived at the building, her mouth dropped open.

Stella had been in a big mansion before, but never one like this. The house was mostly covered in gold. It had a Victorian style to it that made Stella wonder if Grayson's family came from royalty.

"She's beautiful isn't she?", Celine, Grayson's mother, came up behind her as they walked into the house, "I always talked about retiring and living out my days in a place like this. And Grayson took it upon himself to make it come true", she said and smiled wistfully.

What a wonderful son, Stella thought, how come he's such a jackass?. She stole a glance at him on the balcony making a call, a beautiful jackass, she thought. She also noticed that he was speaking in hushed, hurried tones and Stella wondered what was wrong.

"So how did you two meet?", Celine's voice brought Stella back.

"Um...", they didn't really practice their story for this question, Stella thought fast, "oh he didn't tell you?", she laughed. "It's a really funny story, why don't he come down here and we'll tell it together", then she turned to Grayson. "Ste- uh, hey babe why don't we tell your mum how we met?", she said smiling with clenched teeth.

Grayson quickly got the message and came down.

"Oh it's like every other love story", he said and hesitatingly put his arm over her shoulder.

Stella was fighting every urge in her not to inhale the scent of him, he was so damn close. "Yeah", she said. Then she looked up at him, her face void of any expression, "it was love at first sight".

His eyes stayed on hers for a moment longer, the green of his eyes getting lost in the brown of hers, an unlikely, yet beautiful combination.

"I can see that", Celine said quietly, she had been watching them this whole time. They immediately broke away from each other's gaze and Grayson brought his arm to his side.

"I'm gonna go see if the help has gotten your room ready", she said and left the two of them.

"Nice work", Grayson said and laughed, "she almost believes we're in love".

Stella gave a sad laugh, "yeah", then she remembered something, "did she just say our room? Like the room we're gonna be sleeping in? Together?"

Grayson gave her a look that seemed like she was crazy, "we're pretending to be in love right? What do you think it'll look like if we stayed in separate rooms?"

"Like we're trying to keep chastity till after marriage", Stella said. Grayson chuckled and stared her down, the way he looked at her made her feel like she was bare assed naked and he was going to devour her. She squeezed her legs tightly together.

"Not a chance", he said with a low deep guttural voice and Stella felt her thong dampen.

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

At dinner later that evening, Stella and Celine talked and laughed like they were old college buddies that just got reunited. Celine Stone owned a lot of literary works and she and Stella bonded over their love of literature.

"So how long have you been working for The Scope Stella?, they're a really big magazine, popular too", Celine noted.

"Uhh, I just started recently actually, I'm actually doing a piece on this guy", she said and playfully nudged Grayson.

He faked a laugh, "yeah", he said and closed up immediately. Stella understood that he didn't want to bring that subject up, it was too close to the truth. She started to change the topic but Celine wanted more, "oh really?, how nice, what's this interview about?".

Stella groaned internally.

"Just work stuff, you know, the usual", Grayson said quickly.

Fortunately, Celine got the message, "oh fine!", then she looks to Stella, "i hope he's not like this with you my dear?, he never tells me anything", she says and downs her half empty glass of wine.

"Oh you're overreacting Mum, it's probably stress", Grayson said, dismissing his mother's tantrums.

"Probably", she scoffed. "What are your plans for tomorrow?".

Grayson and Stella looked at each other.

"Don't tell me you don't have plans?", she asked.

"I was thinking of taking a tour of the house, and maybe taking a walk around the area, maybe, it's such a beautiful place you've got here Mrs. Stone", Stella said, trying her best to sound humble.

"Oh please, enough with that, call me Celine, and you're not doing some silly walk or tour, Grayson's taking you on his yacht"

Grayson nearly choked on his meal and Stella stifled a laugh.

"What? You're always with some skank whenever you're there, how about now, you take your wife-to-be?", Celine suggested.

"I'll check with the captain", Grayson said.

"Good, so it's settled, the lovers are going to have a day out in the sea", Celine said, squealing like a little girl.

After dinner, they all retired to their rooms for the night. Grayson got out of the shower and met Stella typing away on her laptop.

"You brought that here? Do you ever do anything except work? Jesus", he said as he dried his hair.

Stella, trying her best to muster enough willpower so she wouldn't drool over Grayson's rock hard body, kept typing into her laptop, "incase you're forgetting, I've got an ultimatum for this piece, and I've also got to let my boss know that I wouldn't be coming to work for a specific period of time courtesy of your inability to decide when you'll free me of this slavery", she said without taking her eyes off the screen.

He sighed audibly, "Stella"

"What?"

"Look at me"

"I'm busy", she spat back. He chuckled and walked towards the bed. He was standing in front of her now, towering over her. Stella fought the urge to look.

"I took care of it". Her head shot up.

"What? What do you mean you took care of it?"

"I mean, the interview has been worked on and submitted and I told your boss that you were gonna be absent for as long as I needed you to. I need your head in this Stella, and I'm gonna get it", he said looking at her. He was dangerously close now, the only thing separating their bodies was the small space between them. Her eyes traveled down his perfectly carved body and noted every upward and downward curve of muscle, every scar and every dent, it would be etched in her memory forever, she was sure. His body started drawing closer, and as her hand reached out to touch it, he immediately stood upright.

She looked up at him and saw that he only leaned in closer just to grab a pillow, she felt silly.

"I'll take the couch while you take the bed, since you don't want your 'chastity' to be messed with", he mocked and went over to the couch and lay down.

She sunk further into the bed burning with shame and embarrassment. She wasn't embarrassed about the chastity talk, she wasn't embarrassed about being a virgin or anything like that, infact, that was what made Frederick fall for her the more. What made her cheeks burn with embarrassment was how close she was to ruining their plan. She had to stop letting Grayson get to her like that, it was going to be hard, but she had to try, she really had to try.

She drifted off to sleep that night and her dreams were plagued with Michael and his letters.