LILY By the time I got to the office the next morning, caffeine had replaced sleep, and I was pretending my brain wasn’t still echoing with Jake Ryland’s voice. " Let’s get married. Secretly. " Now, sitting at my desk, staring at a spreadsheet that looked like it was written in another language, I was seriously considering that maybe I was hallucinating from lack of rest. Because no sane billionaire CEO just blurts out “let’s get married in secret” like a line from a bad soap opera. Except Jake wasn’t a soap opera. He was real. “Good morning, sunshine.” Henry’s voice broke through my thoughts . He appeared beside my desk with a paper cup in one hand and an eyebrow already raised. “You look like someone who either committed tax fraud or had a very eventful night. Which one should I congratulate you for?” I sighed. “Neither.” He leaned on the edge of my desk. “Then it’s worse. Spill it.” I pressed my lips together. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” “Lily,” he
LILY By the time I pulled up outside Jake’s penthouse, the city was cloaked in gold . My hands were tight on the steering wheel, knuckles pale, and my heart was running faster than it had any right to. I wasn’t supposed to be here. We’d agreed—slow.But here I was, sitting in my car, staring up at the glass building that had once felt like a dream and now felt like a test. The last time I’d been here, I’d left before dawn. Heart tangled between guilt and want. And even though the world never found out who I was, the risk still echoed in my chest every time I thought about it. I looked down at my phone, at the text he’d sent an hour ago. " Dinner’s ready. Elevator’s open. " I took a long breath and got out of the car, clutching the small bouquet I’d bought along the way — lilies, stupidly on the nose. Maybe part of me was trying to make peace with my own name. The elevator ride was quiet. My reflection in the mirrored walls looked calm, but my pulse betrayed me. Every floor it
LILYI left his office feeling like I’d walked out of a storm and into glass — the air bright and painfully clear, and every shard reflecting a piece of what I’d just done.My legs felt weak and steady at the same time. I hadn’t planned to say yes. I’d gone in determined to protect him, to protect myself. I’d wanted to be the sensible one. Instead I’d let him hold me hard enough for the world to feel smaller for a moment. I’d let him ask. I’d said yes. The word still hummed in my ears like a secret I wasn’t sure I deserved.The hallway felt narrow and absurdly loud. People pretended not to notice, pretending I was just another assistant carrying a stack of reports. I wanted to tell them. I wanted to shout it down the hall — that I’d just promised to be with him, that I’d walked out of his office and belonged to someone who would fight for me. But I didn’t. We’d agreed on careful.One step at a time.Henry was waiting by the elevators, leaning against the marble with his usual lazy grin
JAKEI stepped closer until the space between us was nothing but heat. Her breath hitched; I could hear it, feel it, like a flame inches from a dry leaf.“Enough,” I said again, softer this time but with the same steel beneath it. My hands came up—one on either side of her head on the desk—so she couldn’t move away even if she wanted to. The room tightened around us; the world outside the glass was irrelevant. There was only her, the sharp intake of her breath, the quick flutter of her pulse under my thumb.“You don’t get to walk,” I told her. “Not like this. Not when I’ve already picked a fight with the world for you.”Her eyes darted to mine, wide and wet. “Jake”“I’m serious.” My voice dropped, rough and close enough that she could hear the rasp of it. “If I told you I’d fight the board, fight the press, burn whatever needed burning—if I told you I’d give up everything rather than watch you erased—would you—” I hesitated, because the words themselves felt enormous, “—would you marr
LILYThe office had never felt so quiet. Not in the good way, not the productive hum of keyboards and phones ringing.Because everyone could feel it. The air between me and Jake Ryland. I avoided his gaze like it might burn me. Slipped out of meetings the second they ended. Timed my coffee breaks when I knew he’d be locked in calls. If I had to pass documents to his desk, I did it quickly, my voice clipped, my eyes fixed on the folder, never on him. And he noticed.Every time I dared a glance, he was watching me. Not openly, not enough for others to point it out, but I felt it. His eyes lingering too long when I typed, the pause before he spoke to me in front of the team, the way his jaw tightened when I kept my answers short.It wasn’t just me, either. The others picked up on it. Whispers spread like static. Did something happen? Why is she so distant? Why does he look ready to bite someone’s head off every time she walks past?I buried myself in work, desperate for the numbers and re
LILYThe afternoon sun slanted through the blinds, striping the walls of my apartment in pale gold. I should have been marking ski class schedules, updating invoices, anything productive—but instead, I sat curled on the couch with my phone in my hand, staring at the screen like it might bite. We’d spoken almost every night since the board meeting. Quiet conversations, sometimes only a few words, but enough to make the distance feel less sharp. He always promised the same thing—that he wasn’t bending, that he wouldn’t cave to their pressure. That one step at a time, we’d maneuver this together.I wanted to believe him.I did believe him.Until Henry called.“Don’t panic,” he said, which of course made my stomach twist instantly. “But your boy had an unexpected visitor today. Guess who?”My heart stopped. “What do you mean, visitor?”“Oh, you know,” Henry said breezily, like he was narrating a sitcom. “Tall, sharp, terrifying heels. Rich enough to buy a small island. Name starts with a C,