All Chapters of A Contract With The Cursed Alpha: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Steven POVThe investigator showed up fifteen minutes late. Normally I would have fired him on the spot.. Not today.I watched him walk across the floor carrying a brown file. It looked really heavy. His face bothered me. A week ago he seemed so confident. Now his shoulders were tight his tie was crooked. He kept looking at the door like he wanted to leave.Something had scared him.. That was good. Fear usually means someone is going to talk."Sit down " I told him. I stayed standing behind my desk because I did not have time for talk.He sat down slowly. Put the file on the desk. He did not open it. "I did what you asked " he said.. He did not sound sure.I did not like his tone. "Then why do you look so upset?" I asked.He sighed. "Because I do not know what I found."For the time in weeks, I felt a little better. I was not sure what was going on. At least it was not just bad news.I opened the file. There were papers about land, companies, and taxes. There were also pictures and na

Lucian POVI found her in the library that afternoon curled into the corner of the emerald sofa with a novel open across her lap although she wasn’t turning the pages.She was watching the rain.Pretending to.I paused quietly in the doorway unwilling to interrupt the picture she made.She looked up anyway.Her expression softened the instant she saw me.“There you are.”Such an ordinary greeting.Such devastating words.She had begun saying them every day.There you are.As though finding me brought her world back into balance.“I was looking for you " she added, closing the book.“Were you?”“I wanted to make sure you were resting.”A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth despite myself.“I’ve become heavily supervised.”“You’ve become impossible.”She rose from the sofa crossed the room and stopped directly in front of me.Without asking permission…Without hesitation…She reached up. Straightened my tie.The gesture lasted a few seconds yet my body forgot how to breathe.“There "

Anna POVI found Luke in the west greenhouse that afternoon, where the gardeners had delivered several rare orchids that Lucian had purchased from an estate auction overseas. Sunlight filtered through the glass ceiling in golden bands warming the stone pathways between rows of flowers that smelled faintly of rain and citrus.Luke stood with a clipboard in one hand while quietly instructing two gardeners where each arrangement belonged.Everything about him radiated competence.Everything about him suggested a man who never made mistakes.Perfect.Perfect people always hated being surprised.I waited until the gardeners disappeared through the side entrance before stepping inside.“Luke.”He looked up immediately.“Mrs. Sterling.”His smile was warm practiced, almost fatherly.“I was wondering if I could steal a minute.”“Of course.”He rested the clipboard against the worktable.“What do you need?”I smiled back as pleasantly.“I’d like to ask you a question.”Nothing changed in his e

Anna POVThe morning sunlight felt almost insulting.It poured through the bedroom windows in warm bands of gold painting the polished floorboards and the rumpled sheets with the kind of peace that belonged to ordinary marriages. Nothing about the room looked different. I could not shake the certainty that everything had changed overnight.I stood before the mirror fastening the button of my blouse although my attention remained trapped somewhere else entirely. Every movement of my hands reminded me of another pair of hands resting against my face hours ago. Every breath brought back the conversation in Lucian’s study the scattered papers between us, the honesty that had almost been enough.Almost.The kiss should never have happened.It certainly should not have happened before he answered the questions that had been stealing my sleep for weeks.It had.Still…I had kissed him back.I squeezed my eyes shut.“What were you thinking, Anna?" I whispered to my reflection although the wom

Anna POVAnna woke up slowly still feeling the warmth of sleep. For a moment she forgot what had happened in Lucien's study the night before. The quiet talk, the questions, the kiss that she had thought about so many times that she could not tell what was real and what was just a dream.Then she woke up completely.Her eyes opened wide.The room was filled with soft morning light and the place next to her was empty.She sat up away thinking that it would be weird when she went outside. She had spent half the night thinking that breakfast would be bad that Lucian would go back to being polite and that they would both act as nothing had happened.The first thing she saw was the blanket.It was not the one she had fallen asleep with.This one was thicker and softer. She looked confused."I do not remember..."She touched the edge of the blanket. Then looked at the armchair by the window.The book she had been reading was closed and put on the side table.The lamp was turned off.Someone