All Chapters of Contracted: The Billionaire’s Husband From The Commercial: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

CHAPTER ONE: INTEREST ON MY LIFE “Uncle Vinnie ain’t a charity, Louis. The vig don’t sleep. You’re two weeks light.” The voice was a low growl in the dark, right against his ear. Marco’s forearm pressed into Louis’s throat, pinning him to the damp brick wall of the alley behind his apartment. Louis could smell cigarettes and cheap cologne, feel the cold seeping through his thin jacket. “I have it… next Friday. I swear,” Louis choked out, the words scraping his throat raw. His thigh throbbed where Bruno had kicked him earlier…a deep, sickening ache that promised a brutal bruise by morning. Marco leaned in, his breath hot and sour. “Next Friday? Money’s grown, kid. Your five grand is now seventy-five hundred. Interest…it’s a living thing. Feeds on your delays.” He shoved Louis hard, sending him stumbling into a puddle of murky water. Louis hit the ground with a jolt, the impact rattling his teeth. The contents of his grocery bag…a single packet of noodles and a bruised ap

CHAPTER THREE: THE ART OF REFUSAL Louis's eyes fluttered open to white ceiling, beeping machines, and that smell. The hospital smell that hits him right in the gut and says "somebody's about to get a bill they can't afford." Then a face was hovering right above him. "GAH!" Louis jolted so hard the heart monitor spiked. Pain shot through his ribs. "What the…you can’t just…do you not know what personal space means?!" Lorenzo didn't move or blink but just looked down at him with those glacier-blue eyes, arms crossed over his expensive chest like he'd been standing there for hours. Louis noticed he'd changed clothes. New suit. Dark gray that probably cost more than Louis's life. Still looked like he'd stepped out of a magazine, Louis thought bitterly. Then he remembered he probably looked like he'd been hit by a truck. Because he had. Metaphorically and physically. "You are awake." Lorenzo's English was careful, deliberate... like each word cost him something to pull out of his br

CHAPTER FIVE: MARRIED TO A CRAZY ONE IN MILAN. The private jet felt ridiculous. Louis had never been on a plane that felt more like a hotel room. Leather seats that reclined into beds. A table set with actual silverware. A flight attendant who kept asking if he wanted anything…champagne, caviar, a foot massage that he'd said no three times, she kept offering. Lorenzo sat across from him, watching. Always watching, like Louis was a movie he couldn't look away from. "You don't eat," Lorenzo observed. "The food. You don't like?" Louis glanced at the spread in front of him from the smoked salmon, fresh fruit and pastries that smelled like heaven. His stomach growled, but his pride growled louder. "I eat," he said, grabbing a croissant. "I just don't... need all this, I’m not trying to have to my last meal” Lorenzo tilted his head. "All what?" "This." Louis waved at everything. "The jet. The food. The…" He gestured at the attendant who was literally polishing the window. "The

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE BLOOD ON THE STREET The private jet sat on the tarmac, engines humming, ready to take him to Zurich. Lorenzo stood at the bottom of the steps, one foot on the first stair, when his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. The estate. "What." The voice on the other end was breathless, panicked. "Signor Volterra…Signor Louis…he's gone. He told the staff he was going to the gardens, but the guards found him on the road. He ran. We tried to catch him, but he…" Lorenzo's hand tightened on the phone. His jaw went hard. "When?" "Twenty minutes ago. Maybe more. We didn't realize…" "You didn't realize." Lorenzo's voice was ice. "You didn't realize my husband walked out of my house and you didn't realize." He turned from the plane and walked back toward the car. "Signor Volterra." Anya appeared at his side, tablet in hand, face carefully neutral. "The meeting in Zurich. We've been planning this for weeks. The merger…" "Is canceled," Lorenzo said qui

CHAPTER NINE: THE BRANDING Louis lay in bed long after the morning light crept through the curtains, hoping the embarrassment from last night would fade with the dark. It didn't…if anything, it was worse now…every time he closed his eyes, he felt Lorenzo's hands on him, heard his own voice echoing in his ears, felt the heat crawl up his neck all over again. "Oh my God, I'm going to lose it," he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. He heard footsteps and immediately pulled the blanket over his head. The bed dipped beside him. Lorenzo's hand found his hair, fingers threading through the blonde waves, gentle and familiar. "If only he was soft like his hair," Lorenzo murmured, and Louis's heart stuttered because he wasn't supposed to hear that. He forced his breathing to stay even, slow, like he was still asleep. Lorenzo's fingers traced down to his neck, then back up, and Louis could feel him watching, could feel those blue eyes on his face like a weight. Then his phone buzzed