Mel POV

Life continued, Mel thought as the days turned into weeks. Life was not different from what it was before except now she was married, she missed going out with her friends and colleagues, but it just wouldn’t do for her to never be seen with her husband. She spent a lot of time alone.Even her relationship with her family remained strained these days. So she just threw herself into her work during the days.
One evening, Mel was working in her office when harry knocked at the door.
“Hi,” she said, looking up at harry. He was looking handsome in his work clothes. “What’s up?”
“Can you be free on Saturday night, Rose?” he asked.
“I think so,” she said, pulling her calendar checking to be sure. “What happening on Saturday?”
“There’s a charity benefit at the country club that night. My aunty and sister would be there. We should take advantage of that and introduce you in public.
She hesitated before asking quietly, “You’re sure that public is better than inviting them over here?”
“Yes.”
She looked up again. “Harry, do they know anything about the will or about the circumstances of our marriage?”
“They do not.”
“So they think...”
“That we fell in love and I proposed. Or that you managed to entice me into your bed, and trick me into marriage,” he said half-seriously.
Mel rolled her eyes. “You have to tell them, harry.”
“No. I don’t need to explain myself to my family.”
“They will wonder what happened to Lilli. And why you married me for such a short time.”
“How good of an actress are you, Rose?”
“Not that good.”
“And if I make it worth your while?”
“With what?” she asked. “Money?”I am not going to be bought by him with money because he has it and I have my pride. She closed her eyes and count to ten. “OK. What do you want me to do.”
“Pretend that you’re madly in love with me,” he asked.
“I barely know you,” Mel pointed out.
“You don’t know me enough to hate me,” he stated.
“Harry.”
He walked over to her desk with a serious expression. “I don’t think that my aunty and sister expect any woman to fall madly in love with me. Their reason would be because of my money. They would just see you worse than the rest of woman I normally date.”
Mel’s surprise must have shown in her eyes. “Harry. No wonder....”
“No wonder what, Rose.”
“No wonder you’re such a hard man. Your family don’t think that no one can love you for you? And every woman who loves you would be causes of you’re rich?”
“I’m not the nicest man in the world, Rose.”
“You may not be the warmest man I know, but you’re mean.”
“You know this how?”
She shrugged. “I’m a lawyer, harry. I’m a pretty good judge of character. Usually.”
“Harry, I can’t pretend to be madly in love with you but i would be by your side as you wife. And I wouldn’t say anything that will completely alienate your family or friends. True me, Harry”
“For some reason, I actually do.”
Mel laughed lightly.“Your aunty is going to eat me alive, isn’t she?”
“Well she is going to try,” harry agreed with a shrug. “But I’ll do my best to prevent it.”
“You have a very romantic view of relationships, don’t you?”
“Well relationships are not always about sex, money, and power.”
Harry pushed himself up to a standing position, looking down at her with disbelief. “I hate to point this out, but you married for something quite different from love.”
“Yeah. I did. But that wouldn’t have been my first choice,” she answered quietly. Mel couldn’t belief that harry would point that out to her face.
“You’ll find out that our relationship is every bit as successful as these others, where couple married for ‘love’.”
“We’re done in three years. Nobody else I know has a time limit on their marriage.”
Harry shrugged. “Maybe having a time limit on marriage is better deal than people think.”
Mel knew that it was a losing battle with to fight this with harry. She would never convince harry that love does existed. Unless he ever felt it himself, he’d never believe in it. How sad she thought. The only thing that he would see her providing in their relationship would be sex. So she needed to be very careful that they steered clear of each other. Physically yes, but her part, emotionally as well.


Harry POV
He just stood there looking at her, watching the emotions crossing her face and wondering how she would possibly be a good lawyer as she was when she was so easy to read. He saw the frustration, the sadness that their relationship would never be more than it was. And for that moment, he felt a twinge of sadness too. While the short term relationship with her had cross his mind, even from when he first laid eyes on her, he realised that he might need to back way off. He had no interest at all in emotional involvement. And Rose had ‘emotional involvement’ written all over her.
“I had better get back to my work. And what time on Saturday.” She said.
“8:00 will be fine.”
Pushing herself away from the chair, “Anything else, harry?” she asked.
“No.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll pull it off,” she said quietly.
“I’m not worried, Rose. If anyone can disarm my aunty, it’s you.”
He watched her go, as her eyes wary. He knew that he had thrown her with his talk of their relationship. But there was no way he could not get involved with her. And that included his hot, sexy and oh-so very emotional wife.