All Chapters of My Hockey Ex Rigged the Dating Show?: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

~Kiara~Chloe didn’t wait for me to change my mind.Her thumb was already moving before I had fully processed what I had agreed to, tapping through her banking app like someone who had clearly done this kind of thing before.Her phone beeped a few seconds later. “Sent.” She turned the screen toward me, just long enough for me to see the confirmation, before pocketing it again. “Check your account whenever you like. It’ll be there.”The room stayed dead silent.Maya’s mouth hung slightly open. Even Tinsley, who I had never once seen caught off guard by anything, was staring at Chloe like she had just watched her set something on fire.Chloe, for her part, looked nothing short of delighted.“Right,” she said, already turning toward the mirror to check her reflection, smoothing invisible wrinkles out of her dress like the last ninety seconds hadn’t happened at all. “I need to start preparing. Maya, sweetheart, be a dear and pull five dress options for me. I want to see them laid out bef

~Kiara~We finally arrived at the apartment.“This is home,” Jun-Kai said, leading me inside past a doorman who greeted him by name. “Just the two of us live here. Poppy and me.”“What about your parents?”“Our father passed away two years ago due to a heart condition with no warning.”He unlocked the door, motioning me in ahead of him. “Poppy’s mother…my stepmother isn’t in the picture anymore. She made choices that weren’t compatible with raising a child. I don’t like to go into detail. It isn’t a kind story, and Poppy doesn’t need to grow up hearing it repeated.”“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.“Don’t be. We’re happy.” And he looked it, standing in the doorway of an apartment that smelled like fresh flowers and something sweet baking.“I’m the only family she has left who actually shows up. So I show up.”A small voice shrieked my name from down the hall before I could respond, and then there was a blur of dark curls barreling straight into my legs.“Kiara! You’re really here!” Poppy

~Zane~To anyone watching the live broadcast feeds, I was the untouchable billionaire bachelor, the NHL enforcer who didn't blink at pressure.Right now, however, I looked like a man who had forgotten how to dress himself."Marcus. Tell me the truth."I turned away from the floor-to-ceiling mirror for the fourth time in ten minutes, glaring at my assistant, who was standing near the door with a tablet tucked under his arm."Is the tie too much? Should I take the jacket off? Does this look like I’m trying too hard, or does it look like I didn’t try at all?"Marcus didn’t even blink.He had worked for me through three playoff runs and a corporate hostile takeover, but nothing had tested his nerves quite like today. "Sir, you are wearing a custom-tailored Tom Ford suit. You look like you own the network which, legally speaking, you do. You look fine.""Fine isn't good enough," I muttered, running a hand through my silver hair, messing up the styling Marcus had spent twenty minutes perfec

~Kiara~"I'm sorry!" I blurted out, my hands flying up defensively as I pushed past him toward the door. "Forget you ever saw me. I'm leaving, right now, just pretend I was never here—"A heavy hand clamped onto the doorframe right beside my head, blocking my exit completely.Zane didn't move an inch, his broad shoulders caging me in."And just where do you think you're going?" he asked, his voice sending chills down my bone."Imagine what happens when word gets out that Kiara Thorne broke into the bachelor's private executive suite…"My stomach plummeted straight to the floor. I swallowed hard.He was right. Breaking into the bachelor's suite was a literal crime.If anyone else found out, I wouldn't just be evicted…I’d be thrown off the show in disgrace, heading home with nothing.No prize money and no clinic bailout for my dad, no way to fix the mess I had made for my family’s name. I turned back to face him, my chest rising and falling rapidly. "What do you want, Zane?""Not yet,"

~Kiara~I swallowed, freezing in the doorway.For a second, my eyes refused to obey my brain's commands.They dropped from his face, tracking the wet trail of water down his shoulders, over the carved lines of his chest and abdomen, and down…. to his little brother, only to snap back up with a violent jolt as heat scorched straight down to my toes."Oh—god—I am so sorry!" I stammered, slamming my hands up over my eyes and spinning on my heel, blindly scrambling to find the door handle.I wrenched my eyes shut, shoving against the wood, expecting the door to swing open so I could bolt back into the safety of the bedroom.Instead, my palms hit solid muscle.I opened my eyes, blinking hard, only to realise the door wasn't opening at all.Zane had somehow moved behind me. He leaned his weight against the wood and blocked my only escape route. “What have I done? I kept repeating the question in my head.”I spun around to glare at him, my face burning like a live wire, but he had a wicked