Engaged To The Ruthless Billionaire のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 61 - チャプター 70

Alexander's POV The rain was still hammering against the window, a relentless, drowning rhythm that matched the blood roaring in my ears. But inside the small, dim living room of Katherine’s apartment, the storm felt miles away.The only storm that mattered was the woman in my arms.Eliana pulled back just an inch, her forehead resting against mine. Her breath was coming in short, ragged gasps that mingled with my own. Her lips were swollen, red from the force of a kiss that had been months in the making—a kiss that tasted of forgiveness, salt, and a desperate, starving need.“Alexander,” she whispered.My name on her tongue sounded like a prayer. It broke me.I gripped her waist, my fingers digging into the soft wool of her cardigan, needing to feel the heat of her skin beneath the layers. I needed to know she was real. I needed to know I hadn’t hallucinated this entire moment in the depths of my scotch-soaked misery.“I’m here,” I rasped, my voice unrecognizable even to myself. “I’

Alexander's POV I had negotiated billion-dollar mergers while running on three hours of sleep. I had stared down cartel leaders in Mexico. I had destroyed Cassian Rivera’s empire in a single morning without breaking a sweat.But I had never, in all my years of life, seen Christian verify a text message three times in thirty seconds.I sat behind the desk in my home office, a tumbler of scotch untouched near my elbow. The penthouse was quiet, save for the rhythmic tapping of my pen against the mahogany and the soft whoosh of the air conditioning.Christian stood by the door, his hands clasped behind his back in his usual military-parade rest. He was wearing his standard black suit, his earpiece in place, his expression carved from granite.To the untrained eye, he was the picture of lethal professionalism.To me, he looked like a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown.“Christian,” I said, not looking up from the quarterly report I was pretending to read.He jumped. Visibly.“Yeah,”

Eliana's POV “I look like a disco ball had sex with a mermaid.”I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the dressing room, smoothing my hands down the fabric of the dress Katherine had bullied me into buying. It was silver chainmail, backless, and held together by nothing but prayers and gravity. It shimmered with every breath I took, catching the light in a way that was specifically designed to induce cardiac arrest.“You look like a goddess,” Katherine corrected, applying a layer of dark red lipstick in the reflection behind me. “And more importantly, you look single.”I spun around. “I am very much not single. I am married. Happily. To a man who owns the building we are currently standing in.”“Details,” Katherine waved a hand. “Tonight isn’t about you finding a man. Tonight is about Damien finding a distraction. And to do that, we need to look like the kind of women who attract chaos.”I sighed, adjusting the strap that was threatening to slip.“Damien doesn’t want a d

Eliana's POV The bubble had to burst eventually.For forty-eight hours, the Glass House in the Hudson Valley had been our entire world. We had existed in a vacuum of firelight, tangled sheets, and conversations that stretched until dawn. We hadn’t checked our phones. We hadn’t watched the news. We had just been.But as the helicopter descended toward the helipad on top of the Grayson Tower, the city rose up to meet us like a concrete beast waking from a nap.“You’re tense,” Alexander noted.He was sitting across from me, his hand resting on my knee. He was back in "CEO mode"—dark suit, pristine white shirt, the Rolex gleaming on his wrist. But the coldness was gone. His eyes, usually so guarded, were warm as they traced my face.“I’m not tense,” I lied, looking out the window at the sprawling grid of Manhattan. “I’m just… adjusting. Reality is loud.”“We can go back,” he offered instantly. “Say the word, and I’ll tell the pilot to turn around. We can live off trout and wine for the n

Alexander's POV Victory tasted like espresso and Eliana’s skin.I stood in the center of the kitchen, leaning against the marble island, watching the morning sun spill across the sleek surfaces of the penthouse. For the first time in months, the silence didn’t feel heavy. It didn’t feel like a waiting room for the next disaster.It felt like peace.I took a sip of my coffee, my eyes drifting toward the hallway. Eliana was still asleep. We hadn’t gotten back until 2:00 AM, and we hadn’t gone to sleep until 4:00.I smirked, the memory of her in that blue velvet dress—and then out of it—replaying in my mind.Last night had been a masterstroke. We had walked into the lion’s den, stared down the press, and rewritten the narrative. We had turned the rumors into a weapon and used it to fortify our position. The headlines this morning should have been glowing. The Power Couple. The Love Match.I set the mug down and picked up my tablet to check the morning briefing.Usually, I scanned the Ni