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Chapter 2
Fecha de publicación:
2026-08-20 22:35:42By midnight, Elena had stopped caring where she was going.
She had left the Ashford mansion with one suitcase, a dead phone battery, and enough humiliation to last several lifetimes. After sitting in the back of a taxi for nearly an hour, she had ended up at one of the most expensive hotels in the city. She had no reservation, no plan, and absolutely no intention of going home. Home. The word almost made her laugh. She ordered a drink at the hotel bar and finished it before the bartender had even finished wiping the counter. "Another." The bartender studied her. "Are you sure?" Elena lifted her eyes. "Do I look like someone who makes good decisions tonight?" He hesitated, then poured another. By the third glass, the anger had become easier to carry. By the fourth, Adrian's face was beginning to blur in her memory. Vivian's voice followed. You always had everything, Elena. She slammed her glass onto the counter. "Then take it all," she muttered. "I don't want any of it anymore." The bartender glanced at her. "Ma'am?" "Nothing." Her phone buzzed. One message. From Adrian. Don't make this more embarrassing than it already is. Sign the divorce papers and disappear quietly. Elena stared at the screen for several seconds before laughing. "Disappear quietly?" She placed the phone face down. "Who does he think he is?" The bartender wisely said nothing. Elena ordered another drink. She had no idea how long she stayed there. At some point, the room became strangely warm, the lights became too bright, and her legs stopped feeling entirely reliable. She finally stood. "I need my room." The bartender pointed toward the elevators. "Your key card?" Elena searched through her handbag and found one. She squinted at the number. "Twenty-seven... twelve." She smiled faintly. "Easy." It was not easy. By the time she reached the twenty-seventh floor, Elena was leaning against the wall for support. She walked down the corridor, staring at the numbers on the doors. "2710... 2711..." "There." She held up her key card triumphantly. "2712." She tapped it against the door. Nothing happened. She tried again. Still nothing. "Why aren't you opening?" The door suddenly opened from inside. Elena looked up. A tall man stood in the doorway. He wore a black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms, his expression cold and unmistakably irritated. For a moment, Elena simply stared at him. Then she frowned. "You're in my room." The man's eyebrows lifted. "My room." "No." She shook her head. "Definitely mine." He glanced at the number beside the door. "2712." Elena looked at it too. Then she looked at the key card in her hand. "Exactly." His gaze dropped to the card. "You're holding 2713." Elena blinked. Silence. "Oh." She looked down the corridor. Then back at him. "That's embarrassing." The man said nothing. She turned around. The hallway suddenly seemed much longer than it had a moment ago. "Where's 2713?" He pointed to the door directly beside his. Elena stared at it. "Oh." She took one step. Then another. Her knees suddenly weakened. She reached for the wall. Missed. The man caught her before she hit the floor. "Hey." Elena looked up at him through half-closed eyes. His face was annoyingly handsome. She smiled. "You're very nice." "I've been called many things. Nice isn't one of them." "You're also very tall." He sighed. Elena rested her forehead against his chest. "I hate men." "Apparently." "My husband is the worst." "I gathered." "He slept with my stepsister." The man's expression changed slightly. Elena didn't notice. "They stole everything from me." She swallowed. "My husband. My home. My family." Her voice became quieter. "And they expect me to just disappear." The man looked down at the woman practically asleep against him. He could have called hotel security. He could have sent her to another room. Instead, after a long moment, he sighed. "You're going to regret this tomorrow." Elena mumbled something he couldn't understand. "What?" "I said..." She lifted her head. "...I want revenge." Then her eyes closed. The man stared at her. For several seconds, he remained completely still. Finally, he picked her up. She barely reacted. He carried her through his doorway and placed her carefully on the bed. As he pulled the blanket over her, Elena suddenly caught his wrist. "Don't leave." He looked down at her hand. "Why?" She was already asleep. The man slowly removed her fingers from his wrist. He stood beside the bed, studying her unfamiliar face. He had no idea who she was. But tomorrow, he suspected, was going to be interesting. He turned off the light. And for the first time in years, Lucien Vale wondered why fate had decided to place a drunken stranger in front of his door. --- Morning came far too quickly. Elena woke with a pounding headache. She opened her eyes. Soft white sheets. A strange room. A man's expensive watch sitting on the bedside table. She froze. Then slowly pulled the blanket closer to herself. "Where the hell am I?"
Último capítulo
I Offered My Body, He Asked for My Heart Chapter 14
Elena's father still worked from the same office he'd occupied for thirty years, a corner suite on the fortieth floor of Ashford Holdings with a view he never looked at and a desk he never let anyone else sit behind. Elena had spent half her childhood in the chair across from it, waiting for him to finish a call, learning early that patience was the only currency that worked on him.She wasn't planning to spend any of it today.The assistant outside his office rose the moment she saw them coming. "Mrs. Ashford, your father is in a meeting—""He'll make time.""I really don't think—"Elena pushed the door open.Her father looked up from behind his desk, phone against his ear, and the irritation on his face lasted exactly as long as it took him to notice who was standing beside her."I'll call you back," he said into the phone, and set it down slowly. "Elena. And Mr. Vale.""Lucien," Lucien said, in a tone that made clear the correction wasn't a courtesy.Her father's jaw tightened. "Th
I Offered My Body, He Asked for My Heart Chapter 13
Elena read the message four times before she called him.*Ask Lucien what happened to the last woman who got too close to this.*Lucien picked up on the second ring."I need to see you," she said, before he could speak."Elena—""Now."There was a pause on the line, the kind that told her he'd already guessed why."Come to the tower."---He was standing by the window when she arrived, the way he always was, as though the city gave him something a chair couldn't. He didn't turn when she walked in this time either, but his shoulders were different. Tighter."You already know," Elena said."I received the same message an hour ago."She stopped in the middle of the room. "An hour ago. And you didn't call me.""I was deciding how to say it.""Say what?"Lucien finally turned around, and for the first time since she'd met him, Elena saw something in his face that looked less like control and more like a man choosing his words the way other people defused something live."Six years ago, I w
I Offered My Body, He Asked for My Heart Chapter 12
Isabelle didn't go far.She stood at the end of the corridor, phone still warm in her hand, staring at the message she had just received until the screen dimmed on its own.Then she rebuilt her face.By the time she stepped back into the elevator, she looked exactly like a woman who had simply forgotten her handbag and found it right where she left it. She checked her reflection in the polished steel doors, adjusted one earring, and smiled at nothing in particular.She was good at that.She had always been good at that.---Inside the office, Elena was still holding the photograph in her mind even after Lucien had taken it from her hands."Marcus wouldn't meet Adrian without a reason," she said. "He barely tolerates him. My father used to joke that Marcus only shakes Adrian's hand because it's rude not to.""People shake hands with men they're using too.""You think Marcus was using him?""I think someone was using someone. I don't know which direction yet."Elena sat down slowly."Tw
I Offered My Body, He Asked for My Heart Chapter 11
Elena had expected Lucien to be alone when she arrived at Vale Tower.That expectation lasted exactly three seconds.The moment she stepped through the half-open office door, she found a woman sitting comfortably on the edge of Lucien's desk, one elegant leg crossed over the other as she laughed at something he had said. She was beautiful in a way Elena immediately recognized as dangerous—not because of her appearance, but because she carried herself like someone who had never once wondered whether she belonged in a room. Her dark hair fell over one shoulder, a diamond bracelet glittered around her wrist, and she was wearing a cream-colored dress that looked expensive enough to pay Elena's hotel bill for several months.The woman reached toward Lucien and adjusted his tie."You still wear this color," she murmured. "I remember you used to hate anything that made you look approachable.""I still do.""Then why are you wearing it?""Because my tailor has terrible taste."She laughed.El
I Offered My Body, He Asked for My Heart Chapter 10
Elena had barely stepped out of the hotel the following afternoon when she received an invitation she had no intention of accepting. The message was from Adrian's mother, politely requesting her presence at a charity luncheon hosted by the Ashford Foundation. Elena read it twice before laughing under her breath. Three days ago, they had stripped her of her position, her home, her husband's name, and nearly everything she had spent years building with them. Now they wanted her at their charity luncheon as though nothing had happened. She should have deleted the invitation, but then she noticed the final line.Your father believes it would be in everyone's best interest if you attended.That was enough.Elena put on a simple cream dress, tied her hair back, and went.The ballroom fell strangely quiet when she walked in.Conversations didn't stop completely, but they softened enough for her to hear the whispers following her across the room."That's Elena.""She actually came?""I heard
I Offered My Body, He Asked for My Heart Chapter 9
Elena had expected Lucien to take her somewhere intimidating. A private dining room in an expensive hotel, perhaps, or one of those restaurants where everyone spoke in low voices and the waiters looked as though they had been trained never to blink. Instead, twenty minutes later, the car stopped in front of a small Italian restaurant tucked between two older buildings on a quiet street. There was no line of expensive cars outside, no photographers, and no obvious security. Elena looked through the window at the warm lights inside and then at Lucien, who was already opening his door."This is it?"Lucien glanced at her. "Were you expecting a palace?""Considering your reputation, yes.""My reputation has nothing to do with where I eat.""That's disappointing.""You've known me for three days and you're already disappointed in me?""I've had a difficult week. Let me have this."He gave her a look that made the corner of her mouth lift."Come on."She followed him inside.The restaurant
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