3 Chapter 3: Scheming

Diana was still constantly questioning her decision to be involved with Adam Stone. But here she was again, sitting with him in the hospital cafeteria, out of all places, currently scheming their own fake love story.

"So... we have been secretly dating?" She asked carefully. "Will people believe that?"

"It's not quite hard to believe." He said it in a serious tone. "We both went to the same school for years. We occasionally met at events and parties. It's not hard to believe that we have been involved for years."

"For how long have we been secretly dating then?" She asked again.

"It doesn't matter."

"Why does it not matter? What if someone asked that?"

"Then you can say we have been in an on and off relationship for years."

She wanted to protest that, but then she remembered something.

"It's because of your dating track record, isn't it?"

Adam, who was drinking his black coffee, put his glass down slowly, his eyes looking at her, offended.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, it makes sense if we really want to make our story believable, despite your famous dating records with many women. An on-and-off relationship is the only good answer to that. How can't we have been secretly dating when you were dating women left and right?"

He looked at her, not amused.

"Whatever you want to believe. But the point is, since we are getting engaged in a month, people will see it as odd if we say that we have only been dating recently. They will question us more."

"But I still doubt they will believe this whole fake story. Particularly the press, which had been following you around."

"They will as long as we can convince them."

"How?"

"It depends on your act."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You will need to act like you are in love with me and let me manage the rest. Can you do it?"

"I need to act like I am in love with you?"

He nodded. "Yes."

Diana sighed. "But I don't want to look like some clingy type of woman," she despised the thought. If anything, she was very proud of her own independence.

She knew that most of the women he had dated were of that type.

He smirked. "No, what I mean by being in love is that you need to let me touch you in public. Don't look shocked when I do that. Will you allow me to do that?"

She looked at him for a very long time. Thinking very hard, she hated PDA the most. But if she wanted people to believe they were dating; she must at least allow him to touch her in public, which she found very uncomfortable.

She sighed again in defeat. "It's not like I have a choice, right?"

He smirked again. "Indeed."

She gave him a dagger look, and that smirk of his made her feel the need to erase it from his face. He seemed to be enjoying this too much for her own good.

...

Standing in front of his penthouse door, today was the day they would make their relationship public, for a day, leaving her father in the care of the nurse. Diana pressed the bell. We expected Adam to open the door himself, but it turned out someone else did that. Travis Collen looked down at her with surprise in his eyes, mirroring hers.

He was one of Adam's friends. They were dubbed the "Elite Five" by F magazine. Adam and his four famous and rich friends. The influencers in this generation. Diana knew they had been sticking like glue since high school, they were always popular back then. Five hot guys together are enough to make them popular, but now that they're all successful, they're unbeatable.

She cleared her throat, trying to make it sound as flat as possible, "Is Adam here?"

The blonde man didn't answer, but he still looked surprised to see her here.

"Diana Frost, you're here to meet Adam?"

"Yes, this is his penthouse, right?"

"Yes, but why do you want to meet Adam...?"

What should she say? that she was here to act as his future wife? That sounded very ridiculous.

"Curiosity will get the cat killed, you know," a deep baritone voice came from behind Travis, a voice she recognized as Adam's.

He came into view, his eyes boring into Travis before looking at her.

"Come in." He said,.Diana nodded and entered the penthouse. She could see from the corner of her eyes Travis looked even more bewildered as she passed him.

As she went further into Adam's penthouse, she saw the rest of his group. There were Ben, David, and Andrew. They were laying on the black leather couch with empty bottles of champagne on the tiny table. Ben and David were looking worn out, as they seemed not to be really conscious as of now, however, Andrews looked at Diana and wore the same expression as Travis: surprise and bewilderment.

"Ignore him," she could hear Adam say.

Adam took her hand and dragged her into a room that she guessed was his bedroom. She honestly did not expect that. As they finally had private time, he let go of her hand.

"I thought we were going to start the scheme," she questioned, quite upset with this sudden discovery that his close friends were here.

"We are."

"With them outside?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yes, in fact, it's the perfect timing since we need to fool them too."

"You won't tell them this whole fake thing?" This honestly surprised her more.

"No. "It's better that fewer people are aware of this entire hoax."

"Aren't they your friends?"

"Friend or not, there are things that we should keep to ourselves. I won't tell anyone so, will you?"

He stepped closer, but on instinct she backed away and hit a wall.

"What are you doing?" She looked at him cautiously.

"I'm going to tell them our engagement. You are in my room now; we are supposed to be madly in love with each other, remember? I have to make you look like one."

"Look like one?" she gasped.

"Do you think they will believe that we are in love if we come out of this room still fully tidy?"

"Do you want me to be half-naked when we go out there?" She glared at him.

"No to that extreme." He said closer now, she could smell his nice cologne. "Just a little hint that I have been ravishing you while we're alone here, in my bedroom." He said with low voice, making her body shiver.

He looked down at her clothes, roaming it before his hand slowly unbutton the two-upper buttons on her red blouse, showing her cleavage more.

"Stop," she protested and raised her hands to his chest to stop his action.

He simply looked up to meet her eyes. Deep-blue eyes peers at her through his long eyelashes. Hauntingly dark.

He touched her bottom lip slowly, looking at it intensely.

"Do you want me to actually ravish you?" She gasped at his suggestion, giving his thumb more access to wipe away the red lipstick on it.

"No." She said, she hated the way her voice sounded so weak.

"Then this is the best way to make you look like one." He untied her ponytail and let her long, curly black hair fall down smoothly on her back. He cared for them a bit longer than necessary.

"Now you seem more like it," he said with a very dark voice that made her lower body twitch uncomfortably.

"Satisfied?" She asked him, not hiding her annoyance.

He smirked. "Very."

"How about you? Still fully dressed and tidy like that? How unfair." she said, raising one of her eyebrows at his own neat appearance.

His eyes glinted for a few seconds. Then his hands started to move to unbutton all the buttons on his white shirt, but his eyes never left her. while he revealed his beautiful abs to her.

She gulped a little, suddenly feeling a bit too hot. Her cheeks were probably flushed by now, but she didn't want to show him because it would boost his ego even more if she checked him out.

She looked up to see his hair was still too neat, without any second thought, she raised her hand to his hair and ruffled it. She looked at her own creation, smirking, satisfied with the result. Now he was more like a man who had been kissed by a woman who was madly in love with him. Perfect, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, he was truly irresistible right now.

"Let's get out now." She spoke calmly, hiding her sudden increase in heat.

"As my lady wishes."