All Chapters of BOUGHT BY THE RUTHLESS CEO : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

CLARA'S POV "Going once... going twice... Sold for fifty million dollars to the gentleman in the shadows." The strike of the mahogany gavel sounded like a gunshot in the plush, suffocating silence of the underground room. I closed my eyes, my nails digging into my palms until I broke the skin. I was standing on a stage, dressed in a silk gown that felt more like a shroud. Around my neck was a delicate silver collar—the symbolic brand of the Midnight Gala. I had just sold my life. My freedom. My body. Everything. Twenty-four hours ago, I had still been Clara Sterling—the daughter of one of the most influential shipping magnates in the country. My days had been filled with boardroom meetings, charity galas, and whispered promises about the future I was supposed to inherit. Now I was standing beneath blinding lights with a price tag around my neck, waiting for a stranger to claim me. I wanted to scream. To run. To wake up from the nightmare swallowing me whole. But dignity was the

CLARA'S POV The silence inside the cabin was absolute, insulated against the deafening roar of the rotors outside. As the helicopter soared higher into the dark sky, the city below transformed into a sprawling grid of distant, cold lights. The collar felt heavier now. Maybe it hadn't changed at all. Maybe it was simply the weight of reality settling over my shoulders. Every mile the helicopter carried me away from the city made the truth harder to deny. I had kept my father safe. Now I had to live with the price of that safety. I sat as far away from Ares as the leather bench allowed, pressing my shoulder against the window. My heart hammered against my ribs, but I forced myself to remain completely still. I used the quiet to study him. Ares sat with one tailored leg crossed over the other, staring straight ahead. In the dim cabin light, his jawline looked as sharp as carved marble. He didn't look like a businessman who had just spent fifty million dollars; he looked like a king

CLARA'S POV A sharp-eyed, silent housekeeper appeared from the shadows of the concrete hallway, gesturing for me to follow her. As we walked down the long, minimalist corridor, I braced myself, expecting a prison cell—a cramped, dark room meant to break my spirit and match the coldness of my buyer. Instead, she pushed open a heavy pocket door to reveal an incredibly luxurious suite. A massive king-sized bed stood in the center, draped in the finest charcoal linens. Floor-to-ceiling windows offered a stunning, unobstructed view of the glittering city, and an attached marble bathroom gleamed under warm LED lighting. A massive walk-in closet was already lined with rows of structured, professional corporate suits, all meticulously tailored to my exact measurements. My stomach twisted. They already knew my size. Someone had anticipated my arrival long before I had walked onto that auction stage. This hadn't been a last-minute decision. It had been a plan. The luxury only deepened

CLARA'S POV When the clock on my desk finally struck eight, Ares didn't say a word. He merely stood up from his mahogany command center, shrugged into his overcoat, and walked toward the private executive elevator. I followed a step behind him like a well-trained shadow, my hands clutching the handles of my briefcase so tightly the leather groaned under the pressure. The ride down to his private garage was a countdown, the heavy silence in the enclosed space pressing against my ribs until I could barely breathe. By the time his sleek, midnight-black town car pulled into the subterranean garage of his residential fortress, the city had completely dissolved into the dark. We rode the private elevator straight to the top floor. When the doors slid open, the familiar silence of the penthouse greeted me. Less than twenty-four hours ago, those towering glass walls and polished marble floors had felt impossibly intimidating. Now they felt different. Not welcoming. Just familiar

~CLARA'S POV~ The bathroom of the guest suite was as cold and sterile as the rest of Ares Volkov’s kingdom. I turned the heavy metal dial until the shower water ran near-scalding, letting the steam thick with the scent of high-altitude ozone fill the marble space. Stepping under the spray, I didn't cry. I didn't let myself freeze. Instead, I took the expensive, unscented soap provided in the stall and thoroughly scrubbed my skin, desperate to wash away the lingering warmth of his touch, the scent of his cedarwood cologne, and the absolute humiliation of being left broken and discarded on his floor. The heat turned my skin into a dark, angry pink, but it couldn't penetrate the permanent frost settling deep within my core. No matter how hard I scrubbed, I couldn't wash away the feeling that something precious had been taken from me. Not my dignity—I refused to surrender that—but the certainty that I still understood the rules of my own life. By the time I stepped out and pulled