All Chapters of Fallon’s Reid: An Arranged Contract: Chapter 271 - Chapter 280

304 Chapters

Two hundred and seventy

~Fallon~The smell of coffee reached me before I even opened my bedroom door.Warm, rich, familiar.For one surreal second, I forgot.Forgot the press. The lawyers. The past.Forgot that my heart had been dragged over broken glass and left to pulse alone.I forgot because that smell meant something once.Comfort. Mornings in bed. His quiet voice saying, “Your turn to pour.”But then I opened the door.And there he was.Reid Callahan, barefoot in my kitchen. Like we hadn’t burned everything down.His shirt was wrinkled from sleep, sleeves casually rolled, his hair a soft mess that somehow made him look younger. He moved like he’d done this before—because he had. A hundred mornings just like this. Except none of them were like this.This one carried weight.History. Hesitation. Hope I didn’t ask for.He turned at the sound of the door and stilled when he saw me. For a beat, the world stilled too.“Good morning,” he said, voice hushed like it might scare the moment off.I swallowed. “Mor

Last Updated : 2025-06-18

Two hundred and seventy one

~Fallon~The apartment was too quiet after Reid left.That kind of quiet that doesn’t settle—it hangs.Heavy. Watchful. Waiting to be broken.I sat still on the couch, knees pulled to my chest, wrapped in the throw blanket he’d slept under hours ago. It smelled like him—cedar and clean cotton. It should’ve comforted me. Instead, it felt like a brand.The door had clicked shut maybe an hour ago.But he hadn’t really left. Not completely.His presence still lingered in the air, in my chest, in the ache behind my eyes.The half-finished mug of coffee was still on the kitchen counter. The one he’d poured for me. The one I hadn’t had the stomach to drink.And worse—my skin still remembered his hands.The warmth of them brushing mine. The pull of his arm around my waist.The way he’d looked at me like I still belonged to him.I didn’t.I shouldn’t.But I hadn’t pulled away.And that was the real problem.Dean.I hadn’t heard from him since the moment he’d walked out—anger and betrayal tight

Last Updated : 2025-06-19

Two hundred and seventy two

~Reid~I stared at the message thread on my phone for the third time that morning.REID: Hey. Just wanted to check in. Hope you’re doing okay.Nothing. No response. No “seen.” Just digital silence thick enough to choke on.It wasn’t like her. Not since I came back.Not since she let me stay the night.Not since we’d hovered in that space between something broken and something trying to be whole again.Now it felt like the door had quietly closed.And I couldn’t tell if it was temporary… or final.I tossed the phone onto the bed like it had betrayed me. Like it held answers it refused to give.Fallon’s silence had weight.She wasn’t the kind of person to ignore someone out of pettiness.If she went quiet, it was because something in her had shut down.Maybe it was me.Probably it was me.I dragged my hand down my face and sat on the edge of the hotel bed. The sunlight had started to crawl across the carpet—soft and golden, like it was trying to pretend this city hadn’t gutted me.Savan

Last Updated : 2025-06-19

Two hundred and seventy three

~Reid~The plane began its slow descent, cutting through the dense haze that always sat over Los Angeles like a worn-out veil. Familiar buildings emerged beneath the clouds, glass and concrete stretched endlessly across the horizon. A city that never slept. A city that had once shaped me into a man who buried his feelings beneath polished suits and tight schedules.Now, it just felt empty.The closer we got to the ground, the more the ache in my chest settled. That ache had a name. It always had.Fallon.Her voice echoed in my head, uninvited but relentless.“I don’t know if I can trust you not to hurt me again.”Not a rejection. Not forgiveness. Just the honest wound between us, spoken aloud.She didn’t close the door. That was something.But she didn’t open it either.Not yet.And if she never did?Then I’d live with that.But I wouldn’t stop trying.⸻The airport was chaos.Of course it was.Baggage claim buzzed with tired families and frazzled assistants holding signs. I moved thr

Last Updated : 2025-06-19

Two hundred and seventy four

~Fallon~Mia showed up on a Thursday like she always did—without warning, without permission, and with a smug grin that said you’re welcome before I could even form a greeting.She held up two drinks. “Iced matcha for you, oat latte for me. I brought snacks too. And no, I’m not leaving tonight.”I leaned against the doorway in Reid’s hoodie and frowned. “Seriously?”She breezed inside. “Yes, seriously. You’ve ghosted me for weeks. Your stories are dry. Your texts are dry. Your life? Probably even drier. I came to bring water.”I shut the door and followed her in, dragging my feet like some reluctant sitcom character. “I’m fine.”“You’re not,” she said, tossing her duffel on the couch. “You’re on emotional autopilot. You needed a hard reset. That’s what I’m here for.”I stared at her, exhausted by the fact that she was, as usual, right.She motioned at my hoodie. “Also? You’re still wearing his clothes.”I looked down. Damn it.I tugged the sleeves over my hands. “I didn’t notice.”“Yo

Last Updated : 2025-06-19

Two hundred and seventy five

~Fallon~By the time the soup had gone cold and Mia had dozed off with a blanket over her face like a corpse in a rom-com, Reid was still seated at the edge of the couch. His elbows rested on his knees, hands clasped like he was waiting for a verdict.I hated how seen I felt under his gaze.“I’m fine,” I muttered—for the twentieth time.“You’re not fine,” he said softly, like he wasn’t trying to start a fight. Just state a fact. “You were hit by a car, Fallon.”“It wasn’t a real accident,” I argued. “It was a slow, cautious teenage driver who barely clipped me and cried harder than I did.”“You were in an ambulance,” he said again. Like the words alone were enough to prove I was allowed to need someone.I shifted uncomfortably, trying to cross my arms until the damn sling blocked me. “You flew across the country for this?”“I flew across the country because you matter.”I looked away. Because I wasn’t used to that. Not anymore.Being someone’s priority had always come with strings. Ex

Last Updated : 2025-06-19

Two hundred and seventy six

~Fallon~The LA skyline looked different from above.Not bright or electric like the travel blogs promised—just muted, like someone had dialed the saturation down on a place I once called home. Maybe it was the tinted windows of Reid’s jet. Or maybe it was my brain, trying to protect itself from the inevitable crash landing of returning to a life I’d left behind.The descent was smooth, too smooth.Reid didn’t say a word the entire time. Not during the landing, not when the car picked us up, not even when I leaned my forehead against the glass window, watching the familiar blur of the city race past.But he watched me. Quietly. Constantly.Mia, of course, was her usual hurricane of comfort and sarcasm. She hummed to herself in the back seat, then leaned forward just as we turned onto the long private drive that snaked toward the mansion.“Okay. Breathe, bitch,” she said, not unkindly. “You’re not walking into the Hunger Games. It’s just a house. A stupidly large house. With better wat

Last Updated : 2025-06-20

Two hundred and seventy seven

~Fallon~I woke to the scent of citrus and the faint hum of classical music weaving through the halls like it belonged there.For a moment, I forgot where I was.The sheets were impossibly soft. The pillows smelled faintly of lavender and clean linen. The light spilling through the curtains was too filtered, too precise—no traffic noise, no rumble of neighbors or barking dogs.It was… still.And then it hit me.Reid’s mansion. Los Angeles.I was back.I sat up slowly, pain blooming behind my ribs and across my shoulder. Not sharp—just heavy. The way bruises feel when they settle, when the adrenaline fades and what’s left is just… you. Hurting. Healing.The room hadn’t changed.The cream-colored drapes. The antique dresser that looked like it had a trust fund. The balcony I used to avoid because it made me feel too much like a rich wife in a sad movie.I slid out of bed, careful not to twist my knee. Pulled on a robe I didn’t recognize but that definitely hadn’t come from my suitcase.

Last Updated : 2025-06-20

Two hundred and seventy eight

~Fallon~I was curled up on the couch—knees tucked beneath me, blanket high around my chin, laptop abandoned beside me—when I heard the front door open.Not a knock. Not a doorbell. Just the familiar groan of well-oiled hinges and the sound of deliberate, confident footsteps crossing into my quiet.Only one person walked into this house like he still had a right to.Reid.I didn’t lift my head right away. Part of me wanted to pretend I hadn’t heard him. That I was asleep or indifferent or frozen in one of the many walls I’d built since the day I walked out of this house with nothing but my suitcase and my pride.But pretending didn’t work with Reid anymore.He stepped into the living room holding a small paper bag, shoulders squared, dressed down in that black hoodie I used to steal when we still slept in the same bed. The sight of it made something old ache behind my ribs.He paused when he saw me. His expression softened instantly. That subtle shift I knew so well. His mask fell, ju

Last Updated : 2025-06-20

Two hundred and seventy nine

~Fallon~I was curled up on the back patio in Reid’s old hoodie, the sleeves tugged past my hands, the hem covering most of my thighs. It was slightly too warm for it, but I didn’t care. The hoodie was soft in a way most things weren’t these days. Familiar in the ways people couldn’t always manage to be.The LA breeze skimmed my skin, dry and weightless. It smelled like citrus and pavement and something nostalgic I couldn’t name. Nothing like Savannah. But the sun—it was the same. That gentle press of light that made you feel like the world might be okay, even if just for a moment.I hadn’t posted anything about being back. Hadn’t responded to the work emails piling up. The only people who knew I was here were Mia… and Reid.I thought I’d earned a pocket of peace.Until I heard the voice.“Is she here?”It came from the grand entrance of the house. Clipped. Familiar. Cold in that tight, elegant way that only one woman had ever mastered.My mother.I froze.A second later, another voic

Last Updated : 2025-06-20

...

26 27 28 29 30 31

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP