5

Adrienne remained seated, the business card feeling like a hot coal in her hand. The cold anxiety in her stomach had been replaced by a boiling, furious disbelief. She stared at the space where Alexander had been, his words still echoing in the silent room.

​"I hear your mother needs money for treatment."

​That single line was a devastating blow, a final, ruthless demonstration of his control. How did he know? How had he, the untouchable billionaire, found out her most guarded, most painful secret?

​She crumpled the card in her fist, her carefully constructed persona of "Adrienne" crumbling into dust.

​She was Adrian again—a man who just wanted to save his mother, a man who was now trapped in a web of his own making.

​The "Adrienne" disguise was a fortress, a way for him to earn the astronomical sums needed for his mother's care while keeping his two lives separate. But Alexander had walked right through the front door, found her most vulnerable point, and weaponized it against her.

​She didn't have a choice. Her mother's life was on the line. Adrian's disguise as Adrienne was about to become his reality, a contract with the man who had bought him.

​She was no longer just an escort; she was a purchased bride. And the thought of marrying him, of being tied to this cold, calculating man for however long he intended, made her stomach churn with a new, bitter kind of dread.

​She looked at the business card again, smoothing it out. A cold, hard resolve set in. Adrian wouldn't break. He would play this game, even if it meant sacrificing his freedom. He would become Adrienne: the perfect fiancée, the perfect wife. He would get the money for his mother, and then, somehow, he would find a way out.

​But as she stared at the card, a terrifying question surfaced: What would happen when Alexander found out the truth? When he discovered that his purchased bride was, in fact, a man?

​She shook her head and drove that thought away. Alexander would never find out; she would make sure of that.

​Since he refused to send her money from the company, he would give it willingly through their contract. She was going to make her own demands; if he had the guts to ask a woman he met for the first time to marry him, then she, too, wouldn't hold back in her demands.

​She knew Alexander would even prefer it if she treated their relationship as a business transaction, because that was exactly what it was.

​Adrian's hand shook as he fumbled with the phone. He had just saved Alexander's number in Adrienne's phone, and he was about to send him a confirmation message.

​He'd tossed and turned the whole night, thinking about Alexander's proposal. He didn't have any other option, and he had only today to pay for his mother's chemo tomorrow.

​"Darn it," he muttered and sent the message, confirming his agreement to become Alexander's wife.

​"Fuck my life," he murmured, heart pounding against his ribcage.

​"Oh, shit!" His phone almost fell out of his hand as he received an instant reply from Alexander.

​The screen highlighted his face as he brought the phone closer to his eyes to read the message.

​"See you tonight, wife. Same location, same time," Adrian read out loud.

​"Oh, my God, oh, my fucking God! He called me his wife!" Adrian turned the phone over on the bed and panted, holding his hand over his chest as his anxiety kicked in.

​"Can I do this? My boss is calling me his wife!" He fanned his face to calm his heating cheeks.

​He was finally getting married to the boss he'd secretly crushed on for four months, but it wasn't in the way he'd imagined it.

​The stakes had just gotten higher than they had ever been. If Alexander found out that he was being fooled, Adrian could be kissing his future goodbye; he'd be spending the rest of his life behind bars.

​Adrian was suddenly startled by the alarm on his phone; it was time to go to work. To face Alexander as his boss.

​He turned off Adrienne's phone and slid it under his pillow, then grabbed his phone and threw it into his shoulder bag, and then proceeded to hurry out of his apartment.

​He barely slept last night as he tried to do the revisions Alexander had asked for on the designs. Now, he could barely keep his eyes open as he walked.

​He didn't realize he'd fallen asleep in the taxi until the bald driver grunted, "Hey, young man, we're here," in a flat tone.

​Adrian snapped his eyes open and jerked forward. He fumbled to get his bills and quickly paid the driver.

​"Thanks, bye," he muttered and hurried out of the car and toward the towering Devereux Autos company.

​He hurried into the elevator, glad there was no one inside it at that moment; he would use the few seconds of the elevator ride to organize himself. He couldn't walk into Alexander's office looking flustered and jittery.

​However, the elevator was about to slide closed when a very familiar hand slid between the doors, causing them to open again.

​Before the person even walked in, Adrian was already biting down hard on his lower lip, his hand instinctively reaching for the pen in his pocket.

​'No! Not the Boss!' he screamed in his head.

​He wasn't mentally prepared to set his eyes upon the handsome devil.

​He pressed his back against the wall as Alexander's intimidating presence strode into the elevator, making the space seem smaller than it actually was.

​Alexander had a way of triggering Adrian's claustrophobia, of making his heart pump blood at an unimaginable speed.

​"Good morning, sir," Adrian mustered the courage to speak; it would be more awkward if he remained quiet.

​Alexander briefly glanced at his secretary and turned away from him, ignoring him as usual.

​'Fuck, I should have kept my mouth shut,' he thought, biting harder on his lips.

​He glanced at Alexander's broad shoulders. Alexander's sheer height weighed down on him, scattering his thoughts. He couldn't believe that this cold, intimidating CEO in front of him was the same man he had met last night.

​Alexander had been sexy and irresistible last night, dropping his CEO vibes and adopting a playboy vibe; though he was still calculating and devious in his ways, Adrian saw another side to Alexander... another scheming side that made him decide that he was a fool for ever crushing on the heartless devil.

​Emotions meant nothing to Alexander; he thrived on people's vulnerability, using it as a stepping stone to achieve his goals.

​"Are you ignoring me, Mr. Cole?" Alexander's deep voice suddenly filtered into Adrian's ears, snapping him back to reality.

​Alexander watched with narrowed eyes as Adrian visibly startled, his pen falling from his hands as he tried to adjust his glasses.

​"Ah, no, no, um... I'm sorry, I dare not ignore you, boss," Adrian quickly bent over and picked his pen up from the side of Alexander's shoe.

​He straightened, adjusting his glasses that had slid forward due to his drastic movements.

​'Get a hold of yourself, Adrian. Act normal!' He breathed slowly so Alexander wouldn't sense his paranoia.

​"Then answer my questions. Are those designs ready?" Alexander asked again, his eyes not missing the way Adrian's lips reddened due to constant biting.

​He blinked his eyes away from that little detail and focused on Adrian's grey eyes. He couldn't understand why his secretary always seemed uncoordinated. If Adrian's work weren't standard enough for the company, he would have been dismissed a long time ago.

​Such clumsiness wasn't needed in his company.

​Adrian immediately did what he does best: fumble with his bag. "Y-yes, yes, boss, I have them right here, in my bag... and on my flash—oh?" Adrian gasped as he felt Alexander's hand on his, pausing his fumbling.

​"You want to present them here?" Alexander questioned calmly, his eyes studying Adrian's flustered face.

​Adrian shook his head. "No, of course not. I will bring them to your office," he answered, his pulse roaring in his ears as he realized how close he was standing to his boss.

​He hoped he didn't have a nosebleed in front of Alexander; the warmth of Alexander's hand was sending sinful tingles down his spine. He needed a savior!

​"Do that," Alexander said and stepped away from Adrian, taking his hand away as the elevator hissed open behind them.

​"Be in my office in three minutes," Alexander ordered and strode out of the elevator, leaving a panting and flustered Adrian behind.

​Adrian focused on breathing air into his constricted lungs; he called it the Alexander effect.

​He was always frozen and flustered after an encounter with the boss; he couldn't help it, not even if he tried.

​He could hear the ignored greetings from his colleagues as Alexander walked toward his office, but something else suddenly cut through his busy mind.

​"Good morning, my love. I've been waiting for so long," a sweet voice greeted, causing everywhere to fall silent.

​Adrian frowned, forcing his legs to move out of the elevator.

​His eyes immediately took in the scene in front of Alexander's office. A blonde woman had her arms possessively wrapped around Alexander's neck, her lips plastered on his in a claiming kiss.

​She was Chloe Grant, Alexander's rumored model girlfriend.