The Royal Contract

"Are you insane?" She shouted at the man in front of her. She could not believe what this man was saying to her.

"Surely, you also had done something you thought you would never do in your life." He stated as he looked at her from across the table.

"Well, yes, but I will never agree to do such a thing." She vehemently said as she studied him beneath her eyelids as she sifted through the papers in front of her.

"I guessed you are not that adventurous as I thought you are." He finally concluded as he also took some papers on the table to look at.

"Andrew, I do enjoy some challenges once in a while, but nothing as terribly stupid as what you were doing. Risking your life for some silly games of extreme sports." She voiced her opinion on the matter.

She was glad that she was able to convince Andrew, another junior partner in the firm, to help her with the case. She just wanted a head start tonight, but tomorrow, some of the associates would also be assigned to help her go through all the legal documents of the company they were investigating.

"Those were calculated risks. It is not a stupid sport, Dani." He pointed out as they continued with reviewing the files for their embezzlement case.

It was already late, so they decided to order a Chinese takeout. She suddenly missed the restaurant that she frequented in her old job. As they ate, they started arguing about their interest, particularly in sport.

Although she believed that all sports had their own merits, she felt that doing extreme sports was dangerous and senseless. No one should put their lives in harm's way just to show that they were capable of doing some dumb stunts.

"Ok, fine. If that is your opinion. Let's just go back to work. I want to be able to finish this first batch before I go home tonight." She told him, taking the empty box of food to the trash bin as they continued going through each folder in the box in front of them.

When she finally got back home, Jacky was already inside her bedroom. What did she expect, it was already past midnight? She quickly changed into something comfortable, cleaned herself off her makeup, and laid down on her bed.

She was expecting that sleep would easily claim her tonight since she was dead tired. But she was mistaken as her mind worked overtime.

She was once again reminded of her earlier meeting. Not the official one, but the meeting that occurred in her office during lunch. She reviewed the events once again, finding the entire scene extremely odd. She was not sure if he was pranking her or not.

"I want you to be my fiancé." That was the statement that kept circling in her mind.

She did love challenges, but that was one challenge she would never dare to accept.

He walked into her office as if he owned the place. Well, technically, she just found out that he did own the building that their firm was occupying. But that was beside the point. That was her office and he should respect her space.

"Are you insane?" She answered him. She just could not believe what he just asked her. They were not even dating and he dared to ask her to be his fiancé. If he thought that she would jump to the chance to be his wife, then he was gravely mistaken.

"Just hear me out first." He continued. "I am not asking you to marry me, but just to pretend to be my fiancé just for the night."

"Does my head have some kind of sign that says that I am incredibly stupid?" She felt like slapping the face of this man for insinuating that he could just come by her office and play games with her. "Please, look for someone else you can do your stupid pranks with. I have no time, nor interest to play your games."

"I'm serious." He placed a brown envelope on her table and stepped back away from her. "Just checked my proposal. Read it thoroughly if you must. Marcus will be more than willing to discuss the details with you if you don't want to discuss it with me."

"I'm telling you now, I am not interested to go on a deal with you. Why don't you ask Tyra Richards? You did look good together. I am sure she would gladly be your wife." She stated with a bit of too much emphasis on her name.

She felt that it did not sound good in her ears. It felt like she was jealous when she said her name. Well, she was not. She was just infuriated with the man in front of her.

"That is the problem. Tyra will easily say yes to my proposal. She wants nothing else but to be my wife." He stated with too much confidence in his words.

"Then problem solved." She reiterated as if there was nothing else to talk about. But why did she kept sounding like she did not like the idea at all?

"As I said that is the problem. I don't want to marry anyone. Not yet anyway. I am not ready for a commitment whether in a relationship and especially marriage." Stating his dilemma. "That was why I thought you would be perfect for the position."

He eyed her once again, examining her reaction. So far, he was liking the way she sounded like she was jealous of Tyra. That was a good sign as far as he was concerned.

"And you believe that I will agree to your insane proposal. You must be madder than I thought." She wanted to insult him so that he would leave her alone. What he was suggesting was crazy in her book.

"Just look at my proposal. I know this is unconventional, but nothing about my life is. I am sure that you also live in the same boat as me." He stated, learning a few things about her.

Just like the other girls that he tried to consider for this position, Marcus also made a thorough background check on her. Just as they suspected from the beginning, she was no ordinary girl.