All Chapters of Bound By The Heiress Revenge : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Amara’s POVThe boardroom was colder than any winter night I had ever lived through. Not because of the temperature, because the central air purred softly, spilling a carefully regulated chill through the vents, but because of the people sitting around the polished mahogany table.Executives in suits that cost more than my yearly rent. Faces carved from stone. Eyes sharp as glass. Every one of them carried the weight of empires on their shoulders, and I was the outsider.I adjusted the tablet in front of me, pretending to skim through figures I had already memorized. The numbers didn’t matter, at least, not to me. What mattered was the man at the head of the table. Damien Cole. My boss. My enemy. My unexpected savior.And right now, my undoing.He leaned back in his leather chair with the kind of composure only power could buy. One hand rested on the armrest, the other tapping idly against the folder in front of him as though the entire world’s economy would crumble and he still would

Amara’s POVThe kiss haunted me.It lingered on my lips long after I’d pulled away, long after I’d told myself it was a mistake. His mouth on mine had been fire and steel, demanding, consuming, and wrong. So terribly, unforgivably wrong.I had spent three years rebuilding myself, shaping every scar into armor, turning grief into a weapon. I had sworn on my father’s grave that Damien Cole would only ever be my target, never anything else. Yet my body had betrayed me in the space of a single breath.The worst part? I kissed him back.I sat on the edge of my bed in the small apartment I’d chosen for anonymity, my hands clenched tight around the watch that never left me. My father’s watch. Its steady tick filled the silence of the room, like a heartbeat reminding me why I was here. Why I could not falter.But my lips still tingled.I closed my eyes, and the memory rushed in, his hand at the base of my neck, his breath mingling with mine, the way the world had gone utterly still as if noth

Amara’s POVThe city never slept, but sometimes I wished it did.Because when everything outside went quiet, the storm inside me screamed louder.ColeTech’s tower loomed in front of me as I lingered at my office window, glass of water untouched on the desk. The fluorescent glow from the floor below bled faintly into the night, and the hum of servers carried up through the vents. To anyone else, this was just another corporate evening. To me, it felt like standing on the edge of a cliff, my feet too close to the drop.I had been living a lie.Every step I took in this place was calculated. Every smile, every answer, every flash of charm. Mara Vance, the identity I wore like a second skin, was supposed to be unshakable. A weapon. But somewhere between the lies and the truth, I had lost track of the mission.Because Damien Cole wasn’t supposed to feel human.He wasn’t supposed to look at me like I was the only person in the room. He wasn’t supposed to trust me with things no one else had

Amara’s POVI told myself I wouldn’t come back.I told myself I had left Damien Cole behind in that penthouse, standing in the wreckage of his questions, his hunger, his need for answers I could never give.But here I was.The storm outside hadn’t let up all night. Rain lashed against my apartment windows, wind howled through the streets, and I paced my living room like a prisoner with no door to break through.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him, his face tight with anger, his voice low with demand, his touch searing against my wrist when he held me. He’d looked at me like he could see straight into my soul. Like he knew I wasn’t who I said I was.And still, I wanted him.I pressed my hands to my face. “What’s wrong with me?”I should’ve been thinking about my father. About the files I’d found, about the possibility that Damien hadn’t been the one who’d destroyed him. But all I could think about was Damien’s mouth on mine, the way his presence filled every room, the way he made me

Amara’s POVThe slam of the door still echoed through my bones long after Damien was gone.I sat there in his bed, our bed, feeling like the air had been ripped from my lungs. My name. My real name. Spoken by him, not with tenderness, but with venom.No matter how many times I blinked, I couldn’t erase the image of his face. Betrayal cut deeper than any rage. He hadn’t just seen me as an enemy; he’d seen me as someone who had fooled him into believing in love.Love.The word clawed at me because it was true. Somewhere along the line, my mission had twisted into something else. Damien Blackwell was no longer the monster I’d painted him to be. He was the man who had held me when nightmares dragged me under. The man whose laughter, rare and raw, had melted every piece of ice inside me.And I’d ruined it.I stumbled out of the bed, clutching the sheet around me as if it could hold me together. His office door was still cracked open from where he’d stormed out. Papers littered the desk, th