Mel POV
Mel was dressed carefully for the occasion, slipping into a sleeveless, long sage green dress with simple jewellery. She was doing her make-up when there was a knock on her door. She opened it and glanced up at harry, who looked handsome as ever in his tuxedo. The sight of him in that tux made her catch her breath. “Wow. You look amazing,” she said softly. There is just something about a man in a black tux especially her unemotional husband.
He smiled politely. “Thanks you. And you look beautiful as always.”
“Thanks. I think that might be more of a compliment if you didn’t sound so surprised,” she grinned.
“You’re a lovely woman, Rose.”
The serious tone of his voice surprised her, but when Mel looked up at harry, his expression was neutral. “Thank you, harry. That’s nice of you to say.”
“I’ve had the car sent around. Do you need more time?”
“No thanks you.”
“I’ll meet you downstairs, then,” he said with one last glance at her.
Mel then checked her reflection in the mirror. This was as good as it got, she thought.Her hair was tamed, her make-up looked natural. The only thing that she needed to deal with before she headed downstairs was the overwhelming attraction she was feeling for harry.Because God help her, the sight of him in a tux was breathtaking. She knew that she hid her emotions fairly well- not as well as harry, but that might be because he had not emotions, she thought. So she was pretty sure that he didn’t know that he was affecting her this way, and she needed to be sure that her attraction stayed hidden. The one thing she’d learned in the past six weeks was that harry was ruthless.If he thought that he could have a sexual relationship with her and still maintain the agreement they had, he would jump at the chance. Not because she was anything special, she reasoned. She was quiet sure that harry had a very active sex drive, which meant that she’d to be doubly careful, since he may want to sleep with her just to have a warm body next to him. Mel was under no illusions that harry could be interested in her. She was quite simply, not his type.
Tonight, she would go to the charity event. She would do her best to separate herself from his side. She would not look over at him, even if he was absolutely the hottest man in the room. She would talk to the society matrons and charm the older gentlemen as best as she could. And she would refuse to be intimidated by his family. That was her plan.

Harry POV
Harry was waiting for Rose in the foyer. To his credit, he did not check his watch as Rose descended the stairs, but instead he just watched her as she walked down, concentrating carefully on putting one foot in front of the other so she didn’t trip.
“You’ll be the loveliest woman there tonight, Rose,” harry said as he offered her his hand.
She smiled up at him. It was the first time he realised her beautiful smiled.
“If you’re trying to brace me for meeting your aunty, a glass of wine would probably be better preparation. Or a few shots of tequila.”
“You would want a clear mind when you spar with my aunty,” harry warned.
Rose sighed loudly. “Maybe. Though sparring with her drunk might be more fun.”
Well this would be fun since she going to be pretending to be madly in love with his, harry want her head clear because he hasn’t seem Rose drunk before and he wasn’t going to risk it by finding out tonight.

Notes

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