Claire thought her life couldn’t get any worse when her boyfriend broke her heart, but a night out with her best friends turned her world upside down. A spiked drink, an unforgettable one-night stand, and an awkward morning-after encounter lead her straight into the arms of Mackenzie Allister—a powerful CEO and the man who now claims she’s destined to be his wife. Mack’s offer seems absurd, but his charm, persistence, and a shocking family rivalry involving her ex-boyfriend, Liam, pull Claire into a whirlwind of passion, deceit, and schemes. Forced into a marriage of convenience, Claire navigates the complications of corporate power plays, bitter betrayals from her closest friends, and a family determined to tear her apart from Mack. As enemies close in, Claire must decide who she can trust and whether she’s willing to risk her heart for a man whose motives may not be entirely pure. Will she succumb to the chaos of revenge and ambition, or can love and loyalty triumph against all odds?
View MoreCLAIRE’S POV
“C’mon Claire, don’t be like this,” Aliana whined for the hundredth time that night. She was trying to get me out of my comfort zone and make me drunk as shit, but I didn’t want that. I wanted to feel every ache my broken heart had to offer me and I wanted to be depressed as far as depression went.
“If you’re going to keep sulking like a little bitch, we’re going to…” Aliana quickly covered Liz’s mouth, stopping her from exposing whatever sick plans they had for me tonight. Liz’s eyes widened in surprise but she quickly recovered and smacked Aliana’s hand away.
“Okay, I get it. Don’t smudge my lipstick.”
The sound of loud music emanating from the speakers of the club succeeded in making me almost hearing impaired, and the stench of alcohol and sweat got me reeling with nausea. I didn’t want to come out today. In all honesty, I would have very much liked to continue to wallow in self-pity back in my hotel room. But my friends had traveled all the way here to be with me during this difficult time that is the post-breakup period of my life, and I didn’t want to be a party pooper, so seven p.m. on Friday night found me in bosom of Manhattan’s most reviled clubs that had the audacity to camouflage as a VIP lounge.
“Claire,” Aliana called and nudged me when I refused to move. “Don’t make it obvious, but a man that is obviously not a man but a god just walked in now. Look!” Despite the loudness of the music, Aliana’s voice still managed to overthrow it and send a shiver down my spine. Reluctantly, I turned to see this so-called god-like-man that she claimed was present.
“That’s who you’re doing tonight.” Aliana said it with such finality that I actually thought twice about defying her before deciding to do so.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Ali. I didn’t come here to hook up with some random stranger.”
“Yeah, like sitting in your hotel room crying your eyeballs out will help you forget about that bastard, Liam,” Elizabeth spat angrily. The mention of my ex’s name drained me and it felt like a wet blanket was suddenly tossed over me and glued there, never to be removed.
“You know what they say, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone new.” Aliana wiggled her brows at me and then handed me a glass.
“Relax, it’s just apple cider,” she said when I refused to accept it.
“The same shit you’ve been drinking since we got here.,” Liz added with distaste. Most people preferred to get drunk and spend the rest of their day not being sober after a breakup, but I’d rather feel the pain and heartache associated with it than try to forget it. Plus, I had a very important interview in the morning and I didn’t want to be wasted and have a hangover then.
I drank it and set the empty glass on the table.
“This is the best city to have a one-night stand in,” Aliana said. “Think about it. You wouldn’t be here after your interview tomorrow. You’ll never see the guy again and you can get over Liam by having sex with someone that’s a million times hotter and sexier than he ever wished he was.”
“What if she gets the job? If she does, she’ll have to move here so there’s a chance she’ll most definitely see the guy again.” That question from Liz earned her a death glare from Aliana that was trying hard to convince me to give myself away to a random person for the night.
I didn’t want the job, not really. I only agreed to come for the interview because my mother wouldn’t stop nagging me about it. I’d probably flunk it and get sent back to Portland.
“Look at him! He’s totally checking you out!”
True to Liz’s words, the handsome god-like- man was indeed looking at me, but I didn’t have it in me to care. The weight of Liam’s betrayal was still hanging over me and hooking up with a random hottie was not in anyway going to make me feel better…
Unless he had amazing sex appeal!
I didn’t know why, but in that moment, I suddenly wanted to wrap my legs around him and let him do to me as he pleased.
“Oh, Claire is so getting pregnant tonight!” one of the girls screamed, but I couldn’t for the life of me tell which one. I was so focused on the person across the room from me whose entire being set my very self ablaze.
Every inch of him looked like it was carefully chiseled by the gods themselves. Broad shoulders that I couldn’t help picturing being carried on, a powerful chest that would look even better with my hands roaming it, and lean athletic frame that oozed strength, grace and amazing for doing a nude pose.
I felt the heat creep up my face the more I stared at him and he me. In between my legs became moist and I blushed even deeper from the sheer embarrassment of reacting this way just by a single look.
What the hell was I doing? I was supposed to be mourning the death of my seven-year relationship, not having naughty thoughts about a…
“He’s coming here!” Aliana squealed excitedly. Somehow, those words of hers had more effect on me than the three silly words spoken to me by Liam just the night before.
“Good evening, ladies.”
Sweet mother of God! I think I just had an orgasm from hearing his voice alone. It was a good thing I was sitting down because my legs turned to jelly and I was certain the floor would have been my new resting place.
“The moon goddess suddenly visited Liz so we have to get going now before there’s red everywhere.” Under normal circumstances, Liz wouldn’t have taken too kindly the idea of Aliana calling her period a visit from the ‘moon goddess’ but even she knew this was not a normal circumstance.
“Drink your apple cider,” Aliana whispered in my ear before scurrying away with our other friend.
“Not a drinker then?” he asked. My mind was finding it difficult to form reasonable sentences when all I wanted to do was jump him.
But why did I want to jump him all of a sudden? It was like my brain was rewired and programmed to only think sex.
“I have a work thing in the morning, so I can’t.” He smiled in a way that almost made me discard my home training and self-worth by taking off my clothes and letting him ravage me right there on that bar stool. My hands itched to crawl up his arm and I desperately wanted to smell his hair and stick my tongue down his throat.
“So, what brings you to the worst club in town?” he asked and I swear, my nipples hardened at that. The fact that he shared the same thoughts about the place as I did was such a turn on.
“My friends think they know everything but really they’re just blind people leading each other.”
Surrendering to the intense urge to touch him, I reached forth my hand and stroked his, drawing small circles the same way Aliana taught me how during Flirting 101 back in college. My heart beat spiked to an abnormal rate and a volt of electricity coursed through my whole body at the contact. He seemed to have felt it too because his gorgeous gray eyes darkened and he looked at me like he wanted to eat me.
“I know a better club downtown. Care to join me?” His voice got huskier and underneath my dress got moister. I didn’t even have the courtesy to tell my friends that I was leaving with a strange man. I was that intoxicated by him.
We got in the back seat of his car with his driver in front. I inched closer to him because my body couldn’t bear to not be close to him. Truly, I wasn’t in control of my own limbs. Whatever I ate or drank was making me act this way and I didn’t like it but liked it at the same time. I wanted to feel his hands on me. I wanted him to make me beg him to keep ramming into me until we both came, screaming and high from pleasure. I wanted his tongue to cover every inch of my body and know it like it knew his teeth.
“You are really beautiful,” he whispered against my ear. My breath caught in my throat at the nearness of him. This man was driving me crazy.
Slowly, with a calculated move that only he could manage, he lifted my left leg and placed it gently on his thigh. Then he began to stroke it ever so softly, like it was a little cat that needed to be pampered. I noticed that his hand went higher up my leg with each stroke, but I didn’t care. In fact, there was a destination I wanted him to reach so badly…
“That’s the cheesiest line ever,” I managed to squeeze out.
“Yeah, but it’s also the truth. Tell me, how often do you do this?”
It was becoming harder to answer his questions the further up my body his hands roamed. He had requested the assistance of his other hand, so while one hand romanced my leg, the other went up my abdomen towards my very exposed cleavage.
“Do what?”
“Follow unknown men to their cars and let them touch you like this?” he answered while cupping my breast in his hand. A gasp escaped my lips and I prayed silently that he would do more than that.
“Never,” I replied breathily. That smile of his was back on his face just as his hand found its way to my center. My brain just about exploded from the sheer pleasure shock that was sent to it.
“Good. I like to think that I’m special.”
Without wasting a second, he leaned in and claimed my lips with his while his two hands worked on various parts of my body. I let this strange man whose name I didn’t know, do to me as he pleased at the back of his car while his driver blasted the loudest rendition of Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Season’.
I, Claire Moore that was dumped because of how much of a goody two shoes I was – what he said – had sex with a mystery man at the back of a car. I knew for certain that I was going to regret it in the morning, but in that moment, I was soaking up every pleasure-filled moment of his kisses and touch.
I was most definitely going to botch that interview tomorrow just so I can avoid running into him ever again. All I had to do was get passed the first six hours without seeing him and he’ll be a thing of the past. How hard could that be?
**********************************Claire’s POV****************** The house was quieter than I’d ever known it to be. Not silent, no—silence was heavy, a void that pressed down. This was different. This quiet was alive. It carried the faint hum of distant voices, the occasional ripple of laughter drifting through the wide halls, the muffled chirps of birds beyond the terrace. It was the kind of quiet that told you everything was exactly as it should be. I leaned against the balcony rail, watching the gardens below. The grand fountain shimmered in the late morning light, each drop catching sunbeams as though even the water itself wanted to sparkle. For a long time, I’d been afraid I’d never stand here again—that I would remain trapped in Liam’s cage, forced into a life that was never mine. Yet here I was. Alive. Safe. Home. And in love. Behind me, the door creaked softly. I didn’t need to turn to know who it was. Mack’s presence filled a room even before he spoke. He moved closer,
**********************************Claire’s POV****************** The first thing I felt was warmth. Not the jagged fire of fear or the bone-deep chill of dread that had haunted so many of my nights these past months, but warmth that settled low in my chest, that wrapped itself around me like a silken blanket. My eyes fluttered open to a room flooded with pale gold light, spilling through the wide windows of the grand bedroom. The curtains swayed with a lazy breeze, and beyond them, the faint song of birds carried in from the gardens. For a moment, I didn’t move. I let the reality sink in, the quiet truth of it: I was safe. I was home. I was wrapped in sheets that smelled faintly of lavender and Mack’s cologne. My skin still held echoes of his touch, the tender ache of his love from last night. It almost felt like a dream, but then I turned my head and saw him. Mack stood near the doorway, balancing a tray with one hand like it was nothing. He was dressed casually—just loose gray s
***************************** Claire’s POV************************* Dinner had ended in laughter, the kind that warmed the soul and felt like sunlight after too long in the dark. Liz had been teasing Rowe mercilessly about his so-called “plans,” while Rowe turned the color of ripe berries and tried to dodge her barbs. Mack had been quieter, watching the banter with an expression I knew well—something caught between pride and longing, his hand resting at the small of my back as though afraid to let me out of reach. The plates were being cleared, wine glasses half full, when Mack suddenly stood and, without a word, bent and scooped me into his arms. I squeaked, startled, clutching at his shoulders. “Mack!” Liz’s laughter bubbled over, Rowe grinning into his napkin. Mack’s arms were steady, strong, as though I weighed no more than a feather. His grin was wolfish, boyish at the same time, flashing teeth and dimples. “Excuse me,” he announced grandly, looking at Liz and Rowe as
--- ****************************** (Mack’s POV)********************** The evening light washed over the terrace in shades of soft gold and violet, the kind of light that never lasted long but always lingered in memory. Beyond the balustrade stretched the garden, lush and alive, the roses heavy with late bloom, their fragrance weaving into the air with the scent of the sea drifting faintly from beyond the hills. We had finished dinner hours ago, yet none of us had moved far. The plates were gone, the table cleared, but the laughter kept us tethered here together—like None of us quite wanted the night to end. Claire sat tucked into my side, her hand resting in mine, her smile quiet but radiant in a way that made every scar and storm worth it. Liz and Rowe faced us across the table, the glow of the lanterns painting their features soft. For the first time in weeks, maybe months, there was no wariness, no weight of strategy or grief. Just four people—friends, family, survivors—l
**********************************Claire's POV********************* I woke to the hush of morning, a silence so soft it pressed against my ears like a blessing. For a long while, I just lay there, my cheek on Mack’s chest, listening to the slow, steady rhythm of his heartbeat. After everything—the running, the fear, the noise of war rooms and gunfire—I couldn’t quite believe that this was my life now. Safe. Held. Anchored in him. The light that spilled through the curtains was golden, the kind of sunlight I’d almost forgotten existed. I traced absent-minded circles on his skin, watching how his chest rose and fell beneath my palm. Mack stirred faintly but didn’t wake, only let out a sigh, his arm tightening around me as though even in sleep he refused to let me go. For once, I didn’t feel the itch to move or the panic of time rushing forward. I just wanted to stay there forever, memorizing the weight of his body beside mine, the warmth of his skin. When I finally slipped out of be
********************************Mack's POV*********************** The garden was a world of its own, carved out of centuries, glowing beneath the slant of the moon. I stepped barefoot onto the stone path, damp with dew, and let the coolness ground me. For the first time in months—no, years—there wasn’t the taste of gunpowder or metal in the back of my throat. There was just silence, threaded with the hum of night insects and the faint perfume of roses that someone, probably my mother once upon a time, had planted in neat rows along the hedges. Claire was ahead of me, her dress brushing against the grass, her bare shoulders catching the moonlight like porcelain warmed by silver. She had insisted we come outside, as though she could feel the walls of the house pressing in on me. She always knew when the air was too heavy in my chest. I slowed when I reached her, standing beneath the old stone arch that led into the heart of the garden. My chest ached in that familiar way it always d
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