One Night Stand with the Secret Billionaire のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 101 - チャプター 110

The morning after the celebration should have felt like a victory. The lights of the city were still glittering outside the floor to ceiling windows of the penthouse. But inside, the air was heavy and cold. Lucas stood by the window, his back to the room. He hadn’t taken off his dress shirt from the night before, but the top buttons were undone, and his sleeves were rolled up. He looked like a man who had been fighting a war in his head for hours.Selene watched him from the edge of the bed. She was still wearing the silk slip she had changed into, her skin pale against the dark sheets. She wanted to go to him, to wrap her arms around his waist and feel the steady beat of his heart. But something about the way his shoulders were set warned her to stay back. The warmth they had shared only hours ago, the way he had held her on the dance floor and whispered that she was his only truth, felt like it was slipping through her fingers.“Lucas,” she whispered. Her voice was small in the vast

The drive was silent. The city lights blurred into long lines of white and red as Lucas drove with a focused intensity that made the air in the car feel thin. He didn't take the main roads. He wound through back streets and industrial areas until the tall glass towers were far behind them. Selene watched his hands on the wheel. His knuckles were white. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but he felt like a live wire, ready to snap at any second.Finally, the car pulled into a dark, narrow alleyway behind an old brick building. It looked like a warehouse that had been forgotten by time."Stay close to me," Lucas said. It was the first time he had spoken in an hour.He led her through a heavy steel door and up a flight of creaking stairs. At the top, he pressed his thumb against a small glass pad hidden in the wall. A door clicked open, revealing a space that took Selene’s breath away. It was a large, open loft with high ceilings and brick walls. It was beautiful, but it felt like a

The warehouse was cold and smelled of old grease. Selene hid behind a stack of crates, her heart hammering against her ribs. She watched Lucas stand in the middle of the room, holding Sarah by her coat. His face was like stone, hard and scary.“I’m not playing, Sarah,” Lucas growled. “Is he in the basement?”Sarah just laughed, a nasty, sharp sound. “Go see for yourself, Lucas. Go see what you’ve won.”Lucas didn’t wait. He shoved Sarah aside and ran toward a heavy wooden door. Selene couldn’t stay hidden anymore. She ran after him, her boots loud on the concrete. They scrambled down a set of dark, wet stairs into a basement that smelled like mud.In the middle of the room sat a single chair. Selene saw a blanket and what looked like medical machines.“He’s here!” she cried, splashing through the water on the floor. “We’re here for you!”But when the flashlight hit the chair, her heart sank. There was no boy. There was only a pile of cold blankets and a small black speaker. The speake

The sun was fully up when Lucas finally made it back to the loft. Gold light poured over the brick walls, making the room look warm for the first time in days. He found Selene sitting at the small wooden table. She had not touched her coffee. It sat there, cold and dark, just like the mood in the room had been only hours before. Her hair was a tangled mess, and her eyes were red from crying. When she heard his key turn in the lock, she jumped up, her hands shaking so hard she almost knocked her chair over.“Lucas?” she whispered. Her voice was full of fear and a tiny bit of hope... a hope that felt like it might snap at any second.Lucas did not speak at first. He walked across the room, his heavy boots loud on the floor. He stopped right in front of her and gave a slow, firm nod. He wanted her to feel the weight of the news before he even said the words.“He is safe, Selene. He is at my private hospital. He is sleeping, and the best doctors are watching him right now.”Selene did not

"Ophelia," Lord Sterling said, his voice like gravel.She looked up, her eyes watery and wide. "Yes, My Lord?""Your story is a tragedy," he said, though his face remained like stone. "If Lucas Yates has done these things, he must be destroyed. But a woman in your position... a woman whose reputation has been questioned... you need protection. You need a name that Lucas cannot touch."Ophelia blinked, her fake tears stopping for a second."What do you mean?"Lord Sterling leaned forward, the light from the fireplace glinting in his eyes. "I have one son who is not yet married. Leonard. He is a director at the Yates empire, as you know. He has a seat at the table, just like you did. He is a Sterling, through and through."Ophelia’s heart skipped a beat. She knew Leonard Sterling. He was cold, arrogant, and just as power-hungry as his father."I am proposing a union," Lord Sterling continued, his voice dropping to a low, cold hum. "If you want the protection of this house, you must