The Tie That Binds: A Marriage of Convenience Novel

“You’re late,” Linda says. She looks worried. “The boss is in a terrible mood today. You’d better get to work quickly before he realises. He’s already threatened to fire Jake twice.”

“Oh damn. What happened?”

Linda shakes her head. “Nothing interesting, to be honest. Liam Evans called to book in an appointment with him to discuss phase two of Luxe’s implementation plan. The boss snapped at Kate when the call came in. Other than that, not much has happened. He was pissed off because Jake left a small typo in one of the memos. That one’s Jake’s fault, though. He should’ve waited for you to look it over, but he stupidly thought he’d get more credit if he went to give it to Daniel himself.”

I bury my hands in my hair and inhale deeply. Liam. Is that what set him off, or was it our argument this morning? Can you even call it that?

“Did he come in annoyed or was it Liam’s call that annoyed him?”

Linda blinks and tries to think back. “He came in annoyed for sure. He usually has a blank expression on his face, but this morning he was scowling. He didn’t even say good morning and slammed his office door closed. Even Kate was staring at his door for a couple of minutes before she dared to brief him on today’s schedule.”

I stare at his door and contemplate talking to him. I’m feeling uneasy about our argument this morning. The way he held me so intimately, followed by the things he said. He was opening up to me and I’m not sure what to do with what he told me. He seemed serious when he said there was nothing going on between him and Kate, and he seemed genuinely hurt when he mentioned Dominic. I want to make him feel better, but I don’t know what to do or say.

I bite down on my lip and get to work on my proposal for the Takuya project. At some point he’ll call me in. Hopefully, he’ll have cooled down then and I’ll be able to apologise.

I wait all morning for him to ask me about one of our projects or one of the documents that the rest of my team brings in for him, but he doesn’t ask for me at all. Instead, he keeps shouting for Linda. In the first hour she did fine, but her nerves are clearly getting the better of her, because she’s shaking as he shouts her name yet again.

“Give it to me,” I tell her. She looks at me, equally relieved and doubtful. “It’s fine. I’ll go.”

She exhales and nods, handing me the documents with both hands, almost reverently. She looks at me as though I’m her hero, and I can barely keep the smile off my face.

Kate sends me a tense warning look as I knock on Daniel’s door. I enter before he gives me permission like I always have, my heels clicking on the floor. Daniel doesn’t look up from his screen.

“Did I tell you to come in?” he snaps.

“No.” I’m tempted to ask him if I should walk back out, knock, and then enter again, but I’m sure he’d actually take me up on it today, so I rein the sass in.

“Why are you here? I asked for Linda.”

He looks annoyed to see me and looks back at his screen in dismay. My heart twists. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but annoyance and dismay wasn’t it. Did I misread the signs this morning? I hesitate before answering him, and he looks up again to glare at me.

“I asked you why you’re here,” he repeats.

I jump into action and walk to his desk. I hesitate and then decide to walk around his desk. Before we got married, I always maintained an appropriate amount of distance. Walking around his desk to stand right next to him isn’t something I used to do, but recently it’s always felt right. Today it feels like I’m overstepping.

Daniel frowns at me when he finally notices the dress I’m wearing. Somehow I expected at least a bit of appreciation, but all I’m seeing is dissatisfaction. I freeze, suddenly feeling vulnerable and insecure. When did his opinion start to matter to me so much?

He glances at the modest amount of cleavage I’m displaying and grits his teeth. He looks annoyed and my self-esteem takes a hit. I suddenly wish I could cover up. I feel like a fool for dressing up today.

“The document you requested.”

I place it on his desk and wait for him to respond or to ask me anything about it, but he remains silent. When he realises I’m not going to leave, he leans back in his chair and stares at me.

“Noted. Dismissed,” he snaps.

I sigh and lean back against his desk. “Can we talk?” I ask, my voice soft.

Daniel looks away and focuses on his screen, dismissing me without words. Part of me is ready to walk out and bury the feelings that have started to develop. I feel oddly humiliated, even though he hasn’t actually done anything wrong. All he’s done is treat me like the rest of my colleagues, but I guess that’s just it. Throughout the last few weeks I’ve started to think that he sees me differently and now I’m wondering whether I was seeing things.

I bite down on my lip hard and make up my mind. I lift myself onto his desk the way I did on the kitchen counter this morning, my feet dangling off. Daniel turns to me, looking so outraged that I’m certain he’ll push me off himself.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Ms. Moriani? Get the fuck off my desk or I’ll be making a call to HR.”

I’m taken aback but try my best not to show it. He hasn’t called me Ms. Moriani since before we got married, and even then he’d only do it when I was purposely annoying him. I look down at my thighs, second guessing myself already.

I breathe in deeply and gather my courage. “Enough,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper. I hook my foot through his armrest and pull his chair closer until he’s sitting right in front of me. He moves to get up so I place my red bottomed shoe against his chest and push him back down. He sits back, looking completely stupefied. Before he can respond, I spread my legs so they cage him in, my heels brushing his outer thighs. His eyes drop between my legs in shock. I’m giving him a clear view of my red lace panties, but at this point I don’t even care.

I grab his tie and pull on it. He looks bewildered and flustered when he looks up at me, his anger temporarily gone. I glance at his desk phone and pick it up, handing it to him.

“Go ahead. Call HR. I’d love to see how that goes. Go ahead and tell them Mrs. Devereaux, your wife, is harassing you.”

His eyes drop back to my thighs and the red lace that I know contrasts against my skin provocatively. He licks his lips and blinks.

“Hmm? Not calling?”

He looks back up at me and shakes his head. I place the phone back in its holder and tighten my hold on his tie.

“Come here,” I tell him.

Daniel stands up between my thighs and I hook my legs around his hips, pulling him in closer. He puts his hands on the desk, either side of my hips, preventing me from pulling him flush against me.

“Now tell me what’s going on, Daniel. What happened? One second we were having breakfast together and the next you stormed out. We had a great weekend together, so I don’t get where this is coming from. If you don’t talk to me, then how am I supposed to know what’s on your mind? If you don’t tell me where I went wrong, how can I learn from my mistakes?”

Daniel stares somewhere over my shoulder instead of looking at me. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I’m sorry I haven’t been putting you first. That’ll change now, if you’ll give me a chance.”

He shakes his head, his expression hardening. “No. Why would it? Why would you do that? When we got married, we said things would stay the same between us. Our marriage is nothing but a piece of paper. We have no obligations to each other. I’ve been too narrow-minded. My view of marriage has always been traditional, but this isn’t a real marriage. Fidelity and loyalty… they aren’t things I expect of you. Hell, they aren’t even things I want from you.”

My heart is shattering. Over the last month or so, I’ve started to see Daniel differently. I’ve started to see him as a man, but also just as my person. I didn’t realise it until he said it, but I do want fidelity and loyalty from him. Was Dominic right? Is he incapable of it? Is he already tired of the couple of months of celibacy?

“I’d really prefer it if you and I could remain the way we were before we got married. Let’s forget about the rules too. I’d like us to start seeing other people.”

I stare at him in shock. “You… you want to start seeing other people?” I repeat numbly. Daniel clenches his jaws and nods.

I shake my head. “No,” I say, panicking internally.

Daniel chuckles darkly. “You don’t have a say in this, Alyssa. Divorce me, for all I care. I love DM, but it’s just a company. It isn’t the same without your father here anyway. I have plenty on my plate with Devereaux Inc.”

I stare at him and barely even recognise him. Daniel is known for his ruthlessness, but he’s never shown me this side of him. I don’t even understand why it hurts so much.

I let go of him and cross my legs, deeply ashamed of my behaviour. Somewhere along the line I thought Daniel and I felt the same way. That the attraction was there, and that it wasn’t just me. Now it looks like I was wrong. He was just being nice to me and trying his best to behave the way he thought he should as a married man.

“What, you just can’t wait to get back to fucking a different model every weekend? Not having sex for a few months was too much for you?”

He looks as though he’s going to object to what I’m saying, but then he looks away, as though he knows I’m right and can’t be bothered to come up with an excuse.

My heart feels as though someone twisted a knife in it. The idea of him with someone else makes me feel sick.

I stare down at my fingers and nod. He’s right. He’s got Devereaux Inc. I’m the one that stands to lose everything if we were to get divorced. He’d be fine.

“Very well, Daniel. If that’s what you wish… if that’s what’ll make you happy, then that’s what we’ll do. It’s not like I can keep you from doing what you want.”

Daniel looks at me, his expression unwavering. “Yes,” he says. “That’s what I want.”