Drunk and heartbroken, Juliette spends a night with a stranger, wanting nothing more than to forget about it. Four years later, while trying to get her business off the ground and take care of her ailing grandmother, Juliette faces a severe financial crisis. When yet another client refuses to continue with her company’s services and her grandmother falls gravely ill, she has no choice but to give in to her uncle’s demands. The only condition? She must marry the youngest son of the Garret family, a man rumored to be hideously ugly and impotent after a terrible accident years ago. For the sake of her business and her grandmother, Juliette agrees to marry James Garret, the so-called ugly and impotent billionaire. But after the wedding, she discovers the truth. His family has imposed a condition: unless he gets Juliette pregnant within the year, he will be cut out of the family will and stripped of his billionaire status. When Juliette meets James for the first time, she is shocked to find that he is neither ugly as the rumors claimed him to be nor impotent. Why else would he, on their wedding night, lean in close and whisper in her ear? “Let’s make some babies, sweet thing.”
View MoreJuliette stumbled into a bar after catching her college boyfriend shacking up with her roommate/best friend. Hurt had slashed through her heart, and before she knew it, she was running.
Tears came down like storms, and no matter how much she tried, they wouldn’t stop. She got into her car and drove until the sky opened up and cried with her. Now, the city was flooded, and the vehicles were jammed on the roads.
That’s when she spotted the local bar on the roadside.
Juliette had never been one for alcohol, striving to be the perfect girlfriend for Tanner, her now ex-fucking-boyfriend. He always projected an air of superiority, pretending to be the guy she thought she could fall in love with. But just as she felt their chemistry had peaked and she was ready to commit herself to him, he revealed his true colors.
God, she hated him so much. She wanted to punch him and mess up his stupidly handsome face. Why, oh, why did she let herself be fooled by him? She was smarter than that, wasn’t she? She’d always been cautious about the people she surrounded herself with.
But this time, she made a mistake. She put her trust in not one but two wrong people: Tanner, her ex, and Jolene, her best friend. But that was more than an hour ago, and truth be told, she wanted to forget all about it.
To surprise Tanner on their second anniversary, she had dressed in a sexy black number and had invested a great amount of time in makeup and planning a date night. But all of that had gone to waste.
Juliette had let herself into the bar and ignored all the hungry eyes on her. To her huge disappointment, it wasn’t some high-class place her friends usually dragged her to. This was…sketchy. Like really, really sketchy. And dark. And creepy. And let’s not forget about all kinds of weird.
Juliette was pretty convinced that the last time this place had seen a health inspection was back in the Stone Age. Just the thought of touching anything there made her skin crawl.
She knew she wouldn’t last more than fifteen minutes in the place. There was something about the thick, lingering toilet smell in the air that made her certain of it. But then the pain in her heart surged back, along with a vivid flashback of Tanner’s betrayal, and she forgot all about her discomfort. With the roads jammed and the rain pouring angrily, she wasn’t going anywhere anyway.
So, why not do something wild for once? She could always blame herself in the morning and then cry again over another stupid mistake. Compared to being betrayed by the two people she trusted the most, drinking some cheap alcohol would be nothing.
Brushing away the painful tears, she snagged a stool at the bar counter and ordered the first drink on the menu.
By the time, Juliette was finished, she was drunk like a skunk and could barely tell the difference between a man and a woman. Her vision had blurred, and when the bartender finally cut her off, noting her slurred speech and endless ranting about her ex-boyfriend and backstabbing best friend, he had to practically drag her out of the bar.
What Juliette didn’t expect to happen was what occurred next.
Everything happened so quickly that she barely held herself awake.
Not even two wobbly steps towards her car she had taken when some men had surrounded her. They smelled of alcohol and smoke and perhaps a bit of peppermint which she couldn’t tell was doing the job. She had tried to walk past them, telling them to back off, but they were stubborn as hell and refused to let go.
Juliette let out a scream when one of them grabbed her arm and dragged her to a lonely one-way street. Despite being drunk and having experienced a moment of false bravery, fear rose in her throat rather quickly.
Her back slammed against a cold, unforgiving wall, and when she tried to resist with whatever consciousness she had left, one of them pinned her hands against it. They tore at her blouse, their dirty, icy hands tracing over her skin.
Juliette had never felt so dirty in her life before.
Her heart pounded in her chest as panic surged through her. She fought against the men with all her strength, but their hold on her was relentless. She cried out for help, but the empty alley swallowed her screams.
In a moment of desperation, Juliette’s hand groped for anything she could use as a weapon. Her fingers closed around a beer bottle in the trash crate next to her. With a surge of adrenaline, she swung the bottle at her attackers, aiming for anything vulnerable.
The sound of glass shattering echoed in the alley as one of the men cried out in pain. Seizing the opportunity, Juliette broke free from their grasp and sprinted down the alley, her heart pounding in her ears.
But she couldn’t run too far. Her legs refused to obey her brain. And before she could stop herself, she crashed into the waterlogged street. She was soaked through, and she felt like she wanted to die.
Of course, there was no time to dwell on that. Remembering her dire circumstances, she quickly tried to stand. Or at least she attempted to before everything around her started spinning, and she ended up on the ground with a splash.
The men were quickly closing in on her, and Juliette knew deep down that this was it. She was going to be preyed upon by these disgusting men and probably die of shame after they were done with her.
Why was this happening to her?
All she wanted was to live a happy life. Just to write and fall in love with a decent man. But because of her stupid mistakes, her life was being cut short.
Damn it, she couldn’t even make Tanner and Jolene pay for their betrayal. God should have given her some time for that at least.
“You think you can run, bitch?” one of the guys growled, his grip on her arm tightening like a freaking vise, hauling her back up.
“Please, let me go,” she begged, powerless tears streaming down her face, but they just scoffed and laughed, showing no mercy at all.
“That was the plan. But not anymore,” one of them spat, his voice dripping with venom.
“All you had to do was be a good little girl and cooperate,” the other sneered.
“But no. You had to make it difficult. Now don’t blame us for getting rough.”
“Come on, guys, let’s bring her to the den,” they started dragging her towards something. Perhaps a beat-up car. “Can’t wait to fuck her brains out.”
For the first time in her life, Juliette was glad that mind reading wasn’t actually a thing.Because if it was, she would have been screwed—big time at that.Dammit. The man was gorgeous. His face was like… like that of a model… carved so beautifully and carefully that not even a single inch of him seemed irrelevant.And then his eyes, so dark and so deep. Juliette was pretty sure if she had stood a little closer to the man, she would have gotten lost in them way back and for way too long.Shit. She didn’t even know such men existed on the planet.He was so… so… damn gorgeous.And maybe that’s why she couldn’t take her eyes off him.Which she probably should, considering she was probably creeping him out.“You okay there?”
Well, let’s be honest, that was one hell of an odd request.Especially when this big-ass palace-like house was full of maids and other servants.But Juliette didn’t think reminding the old woman of that now was going to do any good, not in the least. Besides, maybe it was a good thing—for her to get out and find some air to breathe, and maybe relax her muscles. Because God knows that ever since she sat in front of this woman, she had been way too cautious and stiff for her own good.“Sure,” she nodded, standing up. She looked at the door behind the older woman, and then back at the door where her uncle and aunt had been led outside.But before she could express her confusion, the woman spoke up.“Go through that door. Head upstairs when you find the stairs. My office is the second room to the left.” And then, the older woman grabbed a book from the side table and started flipping through the pages.Juliette sighed, and without another word, she headed toward the door the older woman h
It was terrible to see her aunt, uncle, and cousin being led out of the room, mostly because they all kept giving Juliette the evil eye.As if they almost already assumed her to ruin this, as if they were under the impression that if left alone, Jules was destined to do something stupid and make them look awfully bad.Well, Jules would be lying if she said she wasn’t tempted to try. But she couldn’t. Not in her dreams. The life of her grandma was in line. She knew if she did something to offend them again, all their threats would become too real and her grandma would be the one paying a heavy price.Hence, for the sake of the only person who cared about her after her parents died in the horrible car accident, Jules sucked in a deep breath and prepared herself for whatever lay ahead of her.“So, tell me something about yourself,” the deep voice of the older woman pulled Juliette out of her stupor. She sat up a bit straighter, her shoulders knotted like rocks.“Um. What would you like t
One thing Juliette was absolutely certain of was that her aunt wasn’t threatening her just for the sake of it. That vile woman meant every word she said, and if Juliette didn’t comply with her demands, that mother-daughter duo would undoubtedly make trouble for her grandmother.Frustrated and feeling cornered, Juliette got out of bed, resigned to doing what was asked of her.An hour later, she came downstairs dressed in a simple yellow dress and plain flats. Compared to the elaborate outfits her aunt and cousin had chosen, Juliette’s attire was modest and understated. Yet, despite her simplicity, she stood out in a way that could only be described as effortlessly graceful.But that wasn’t surprising. One of the many reasons her aunt and cousin despised her was because Juliette didn’t need to try hard to outshine them. She had naturally rosy cheeks, slightly red lips, and long, dark, glossy hair—a legacy from her mother, who had been breathtakingly beautiful in her lifetime. Her father
The next morning, when Juliette woke up, she was met with the angry face of her aunt.Juliette rubbed her eyes, wishing it was nothing more than a stupid dream. There was no way she wanted to deal with her annoying aunt right now. It was too early for that.“What are you looking at, you useless, spineless… blood-sucking creature?” The older woman snarled, hands on her hips as she continued to glare down at Juliette.Somewhere in the room, someone snickered. Juliette didn’t have to scan the room to know who that snicker belonged to. The only person who enjoyed her misery was Aunt Isabella’s dear daughter—and Juliette’s not-so-dear cousin—Sophia.Suppressing a yawn with the back of her hand, Juliette decided to sit up and deal with whatever her aunt and her daughter had in mind. They were clearly up to something. Why else would her aunt begin her greeting by calling her names?“Uh…” Juliette tried to find the right words. “What did I do now? Would someone like to enlighten me?”Her tone
Elizabeth Garret watched as Juliette bolted out of the room so fast, the last thing she saw was her dark hair flying behind her.Unfortunatley, the oldest lady in the house was having a seizure and Elizabeth could understand how that could be a cue for an emergency.However, what she couldn’t understand for the life of her was why everyone else seemed to be still sitting there, completely useless and speechless, looking like fools.It was probably the annoyance that danced on the tip of her nose that she quickly snapped, unable to help herself. “Shouldn’t you be calling a doctor or something?”The man of the house—the uncle of the girl they were here to see—falters, blinking rapidly. “Yes, yes. That’s exactly what I should be doing.”Thankfully, he found a little curtsy to grab a phone and call someone, probably for a doctor or ambulance.Afraid they are ruining their impression in front of the older woman, Isabelle tries to smooth things over. “That doesn’t happen normally. I take ve
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