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Home / Romance / Lust & Love / Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

All Chapters of Lust & Love: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

101 Chapters

CHAPTER 91

She zipped the canvas duffel bag shut with a sharp, heavy tug and slung the thick strap over her shoulder. She grabbed her leather purse from the dresser.Hazel turned around, looking at his bedroom one last time. She placed a protective hand over her flat stomach, promising the tiny life inside her that they would never have to feel this cold again.She walked out of the room, pulling the door shut behind her with a definitive, heavy click.The walk through the living room was an absolute blur. She didn't look at the study door. She didn't listen for the sound of his footsteps. She stepped directly into the private stainless-steel elevator, swiped her access card for the final time, and hit the button for the lobby.When the elevator doors opened onto the ground floor, Hazel walked briskly past the overnight security guards. They gave her questioning looks—it was nearly one in the morning, and she was carrying a duffel bag—but no one stopped her.She pushed through the revolving glass

CHAPTER 92

Xavier didn’t sleep. He didn't even leave his study. He spent the remainder of the night sitting in the leather chair behind his desk, staring into the dark expanse of his office while the words I love you repeated in his mind with the relentless, maddening precision of a ticking clock.The early morning light was just beginning to bleed through the skyline when he finally stood up, his joints stiff. He needed to get a grip. He needed to handle the logistics of the situation. He walked to his desk and hit the intercom button for his private security detail."Miller," Xavier said, his voice a low, gravelly rasp. "Prepare the paperwork for Mrs. Evans' move. I want the new apartment finalized and ready for her immediate occupancy. I want her moved out by noon."There was a long, uncomfortable silence on the other end of the line."Sir?" Miller’s voice came back, sounding hesitant. "Sir, I… I don't think that will be necessary."Xavier’s brow furrowed, a dark, dangerous edge creeping into

CHAPTER 93

A week had passed. The penthouse, once filled with the warmth of Hazel’s presence and the scent of vanilla, had reverted to a tomb of cold glass and shadows.Xavier sat in the center of the dark living room, a half-empty bottle of aged scotch sitting on the coffee table in front of him. He hadn't been to the office in days. He hadn't touched a single file, hadn't looked at a single ticker, and hadn't cared if his empire crumbled to the ground. He was drowning, pulling his own defenses around him like a shroud, repeating the same lie until his throat burned.I don't care. She was a contract. She was an asset. She is gone.But the lie was losing its teeth. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her. He saw the way she had looked at him that night, the absolute, trembling bravery in her expression when she had confessed her heart. And every time that image surfaced, a physical agony tore through his chest, a sensation so sharp and so deep it felt like his ribs were being pulled apart from

CHAPTER 94

Xavier didn’t care about the laws of the road, the traffic, or the icy rain that hammered against the windshield of his Maybach. His mind was a frantic, terrifying loop of a single destination: Brooklyn. He arrived at the small, aging apartment building, his knuckles white against the steering wheel, his pulse hammering against his throat with a ferocity he had never known.He climbed the stairs two at a time, his breathing ragged, and pounded on the door. It wasn't just a knock; it was a desperate, primal demand to be let into the life he had so carelessly discarded.The door swung open, and Chloe stood there, her eyes widening into daggers the moment she saw him. Her face went cold, a mask of pure, protective fury. Before he could even open his mouth, she blocked the entrance, her hand gripping the doorframe."What are you doing here?" Chloe hissed, her voice vibrating with venom. "Get out before I call the cops.""Where is she?" Xavier rasped, his voice tearing through his throat.

CHAPTER 95

It had been eight days since Hazel walked out of the Vanguard building, leaving the towering glass skyline of Manhattan entirely behind her.She had traded the cold, sterile luxury of the penthouse for the quiet, frost-bitten woods of upstate New York. Her mother's house—a modest, two-story farmhouse with peeling white paint, a wraparound porch, and a rusted tin roof—had always been her ultimate sanctuary. But when she had shown up on the doorstep at dawn over a week ago, her eyes swollen completely shut, hauling a cheap canvas bag, her mother had known instantly that something was terribly wrong.Hazel hadn't even made it past the foyer before she broke down. She had collapsed into her mother’s arms, sobbing so violently her knees had given out. Sitting on the worn hallway rug, surrounded by the familiar scent of lavender and old wood, Hazel had poured out everything. She told her mother about the debt Liam had left her in, the contract with Xavier Sterling, the suffocating rule abou

CHAPTER 96

Hazel physically stumbled backward, her hand flying up to grip the edge of the door. Her brain completely short-circuited, entirely unable to process the sight of the multi-billionaire CEO standing on her cracked wooden porch in upstate New York.He didn't look like the flawless, untouchable king of Vanguard Holdings. He looked completely, utterly wrecked.He wasn't wearing his heavy overcoat. He was just in a dark, wrinkled suit jacket, the collar of his white shirt undone and missing its tie. His dark hair was messy, blown wild by the winter wind. There were deep, bruising shadows under his sharp blue eyes, making him look completely exhausted, as if he hadn't slept a single minute since the night he threw her out.And his hands—Hazel’s eyes darted down, her breath catching when she saw the dark, bruised scabs and dried blood cutting across his knuckles.Xavier didn't say a word at first. He just stood there, his chest heaving as he looked at her. His icy blue gaze swept over her in

CHAPTER 97

The afternoon slowly, agonizingly faded into dusk. The gray winter sky bruised into a deep, dark purple.Hazel stayed in her room, refusing to look out the window. But every time she walked past the glass, the dark silhouette of the billionaire was still there, completely unmoving, standing next to his car in the freezing wind.When dinnertime rolled around, Hazel went downstairs. She sat at the small kitchen table, pushing a bowl of chicken noodle soup around with her spoon, her stomach entirely too tied in knots to eat.Her mother sat across from her, nursing a cup of tea. She glanced toward the front of the house."I am still incredibly angry at him," her mother said quietly, breaking the heavy silence. "I hate what he did to you, Hazel. But... part of me thinks you should just listen to what he has to say. You are carrying his child. You are going to be tied to this man for the rest of your life, whether you want to be or not. Hearing him out doesn't mean you have to forgive him."

CHAPTER 98

The kitchen stayed silent for a long time after her mother left.The bacon hissed softly in the cast-iron skillet. The smell of butter and toast drifted through the old farmhouse, but Hazel no longer felt hungry. She just stood by the doorway, her arms wrapped tight around herself, staring at Xavier as if he were a stranger who had somehow wandered into the wrong life.He slowly set the spatula down. Then, without warning, he moved away from the stove, crossed the kitchen, and dropped to his knees right there on the worn wooden floor.Hazel froze. Her breath caught so hard it hurt. She looked down at him, her heart pounding with a strange, panicked rhythm. He kept his head lowered for a second, one hand braced on the floor, the other resting at his side like he wasn't sure whether he deserved to touch anything at all."Xavier—" Hazel started, but the rest of the word died in her throat.He looked up at her then, and the sight of him on his knees made something in her chest twist painf

CHAPTER 99

A full month had passed since Xavier Sterling had collapsed to his knees on the worn wooden floor of the farmhouse kitchen.In all those thirty days, he had not left Hazel’s side. The ruthless, untouchable billionaire who ruled Vanguard Holdings with an iron fist had completely vanished, replaced by a man who seemed entirely devoted to the quiet, mundane rhythms of rural life. It was a transformation Hazel still struggled to fully comprehend.He didn't demand control. He didn't issue orders. Instead, the man who used to wear five-thousand-dollar bespoke suits now spent his mornings in faded denim and heavy boots, quietly repairing the broken hinges on her mother’s back porch. He chopped firewood. He carried heavy bags of soil. Hazel had even looked out the kitchen window one afternoon to find the mighty Xavier Sterling crouching in the dirt, meticulously pulling weeds from the frozen garden beds just so her mother wouldn't have to strain her back.He was completely relentless in his p

CHAPTER 100

A month in the villa had changed the shape of Hazel’s days, but not in some big, movie-perfect way. Nothing felt magically easy. The nausea still hit her like a truck some mornings, and her moods could swing so fast she’d snap at nothing and then hate herself for it five minutes later. Her clothes didn’t fit right anymore. The baby bump was obvious now four months along, round and firm under her skin and she kept catching herself resting a hand on it without thinking, like she was checking it was still real.Xavier had turned the place into something that actually felt like home. The long white walls held the paintings she’d picked out herself. Thick rugs warmed the floors, and the living room was full of the cushions he used to tease her about. The garden out front was bright with flowers she’d chosen, not just neat hedges. He’d even set up a quiet medical wing with nurses and a doctor on call, not because he was trying to control her, but because the memory of almost losing her stil

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