All Chapters of No Escape from the Billionaire’s Contract: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"You cannot order a wife through your assistant's inbox." Zariel pushed the contract back toward him. "Even if your assistant made a terrible mistake." Kaelen stopped the page with two fingers. "You sell this service. Explain why I cannot purchase it." "Because you are my boss, and this was a template." "A well prepared template. The asset terms are clear, the penalties are substantial, and neither party has to pretend this is a love match in private." Zariel looked at the signature again. She had imagined dismissal, humiliation, perhaps a lawyer asking unpleasant questions. She had not prepared for him to become a client. "The original customer needs a temporary spouse because of his family's trustees," she said. "You don't strike me as a man who takes orders from relatives." Kaelen settled back in his chair. "My uncle Harrison sits on the board. He would disagree with you." "Let him disagree. You own the company, don't you?" "I lead it. There is a difference, particularly whi

The first rule told Zariel where she could stand, the next told her how she was allowed to feel. She read them at Kaelen's kitchen island, turning the pages of the folder he had dropped in front of her. Her duffel rested on the floor beside her foot, the only familiar object in the room. "No changes to the decor," she read aloud. "No public appearances without approval. And you actually wrote emotional neutrality into a household agreement?" Kaelen unbuttoned his vest. "This arrangement must remain manageable." "You could have bought a second refrigerator. It would obey every one of these rules." He leaned against the other side of the island, waiting for her to finish. Beyond him, the windows showed the city spread out below, thousands of people going home without a folder instructing them how to live. "I won't interfere with your private life," she said. "But I have one too. You haven't hired furniture." "You have been hired to fulfil a specific role." "Which doesn't requir

Kaelen kissed her before she could decide what the room was allowed to see. For an instant Zariel held herself rigid. His hand remained around hers, the other steadying her close to him, and the voices at the table stopped. Somebody dropped a spoon. She heard it strike the saucer and remembered where she was, who was watching, what would happen if she recoiled. Elodia sat opposite them, ready to enjoy the mistake. Zariel had spent years teaching clients how to stay inside a role when fear made them want to run. She couldn't abandon her own performance under a roomful of cameras and curious eyes. She put her free hand on Kaelen's shoulder and leaned into the kiss. The movement was small, familiar enough to suggest they had done this before, and deliberate enough to keep her from shaking. His mouth was warm. That detail annoyed her more than it should have, because she had expected to feel only the embarrassment of a public lie. She could manage embarrassment. She had talked clien

Thirty cameras waited outside the house Zariel had accepted a marriage contract to save. She stared through the tinted window, recognizing the rosebushes beneath the lenses, the cracked path crowded with shoes. Somebody had stepped over the garden hose to get closer to the porch. "They're on Brenda's lawn," she said. "Your security had better keep them off the roses." Kaelen put away his laptop as Merlin left the front seat. Two guards followed, opening a narrow route between the car and the gate. The reporters pushed toward them. Zariel could see a microphone raised above a photographer's shoulder, a phone held sideways to record the car door. "Stay close to me," Kaelen said. "No answers until we are inside." "They already know about my family. Listen to them." Even through the glass she could hear her name, the question about debts, somebody asking whether the engagement was a way to change her reputation. Kaelen reached for her chin, turning her toward him. She disliked bein

Miss Thorne. Kaelen had put her back at her desk without leaving the car. Zariel watched him work, comparing the man bent over his laptop with the one who had held her hand beside her mother's boxes. "You were very convincing upstairs," she said. "Was it difficult to stop?" "We established how to answer questions about our relationship." "You managed to sound as though you could actually want somebody. I didn't realize you'd finish the conversation and put me away." His fingers stopped. He turned toward her, his face composed enough to make her regret admitting she had noticed the difference. "The story serves a purpose. It should not alter your understanding of our arrangement." "Thank you for clearing that up. I might have mistaken you for someone who enjoys company." "You know the terms," he said, looking toward his briefcase. "I also know you broke one of them at lunch. Perhaps we should spend less time reminding me." He took out another folder and placed it beside her kn