All Chapters of One Night With My Fiancé Ruthless Uncle : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Jennifer couldn't have said how she'd ended up here, in a sprawling high-rise apartment with floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the entire glittering city. But the stranger in front of her was watching her like she was something he intended to consume slowly."Something tells me this isn't a habit of yours," he said quietly. "I can call you a car, if you'd rather—"She shook her head. "No, this is exactly what I do. I wander into dive bars with terrible lighting and go home with strangers all the time."He was already working his shirt open, one button at a time, eyes never leaving her. Her mouth went dry. But she wasn't backing out now.The last button gave, and the shirt slid off his shoulders and pooled at his feet. Jennifer's breath caught. His chest was a canvas of ink, intricate and beautiful.He stepped closer, a slow smile curving his mouth. "Something wrong?""No. No," she managed, breath hitching as he closed the distance between them. She stepped back on instinct and hit th

The elevator doors opened with a soft chime, and Jennifer rushed out, breathing hard. She'd run the entire way, from the free spot she'd found three blocks over, through the lobby, narrowly dodging a courier wheeling a cart of boxes, barely making it into the elevator before the doors closed on her.She strode down the hallway, her steps quick and uneven, a single thought looping at the back of her mind. Please don't let it be as bad as it sounds. Please. This company is everything he has left.Her phone had been buzzing nonstop since she left Carter's apartment, and she had over a dozen missed calls from Gerald.She couldn't deal with him right now. Not the excuses he'd have ready, not the lies he was so practiced at twisting into something that almost sounded reasonable. Her father mattered more.She turned down the corridor toward the executive offices, her heart climbing into her throat. Marion had warned her, the last time the company nearly lost a major client, that she didn't w

"I need time," Jennifer said, taking a step back from the desk like distance might somehow slow the spiral of her own thoughts. "This isn't a decision I can make in the next five minutes."Carter's expression didn't shift. "You don't have days, Jennifer. You barely have hours." He tapped a single finger against the folder in front of him, unhurried, utterly certain of himself. "The board convenes tomorrow morning at nine. If I don't have your answer by then, I withdraw the offer entirely, and I move on to something that doesn't come with quite so many complications.""Complications," she repeated bitterly. "Is that what you're calling this?""I'm calling it what it is." He rose from behind the desk, closing some of the distance between them, his voice dropping into something quieter, harder to argue with. "Your father's company has thirty-one days of operating capital left. Thirty-one days, Jennifer. After that, there's no severance, no soft landing, nothing. Just a building full of p

Sylvia hadn't expected the invitation to lunch, least of all from Margaret Kane.The restaurant was the kind of place Sylvia had only ever seen from the outside, all white linen and hushed conversation, the sort of establishment where the prices weren't printed on the menu because anyone who needed to ask couldn't afford to be there. She'd arrived twenty minutes early, unable to help herself, and spent the entire time smoothing the front of her dress, painfully aware of how out of place she felt despite the designer label stitched into the collar, a label she'd charged to a credit card she still hadn't fully paid off.She'd almost turned around twice in the lobby. The last time she'd seen anyone from the Kane family in a setting like this had been the engagement party, the night everything had gone catastrophically, deliciously wrong, and she still wasn't entirely sure whether Margaret knew the full truth of what had happened in that guest room, or simply enough of it to be useful.Ma

The café Sylvia picked was small, tucked away on a side street far from anywhere the Kane family or their circle typically frequented. Jennifer noticed that immediately, filing it away as one more piece of information. Sylvia didn't want to be seen with her. That told Jennifer plenty on its own.She arrived ten minutes early, choosing a table near the back with a clear view of the door, an instinct she hadn't consciously decided on until she was already sitting in it. Carter's voice echoed faintly in her head. Don't underestimate how convincing she can be, even when you already know she's lying.She'd spent the morning going over exactly how she wanted this conversation to go, rehearsing her own composure the way she imagined Carter rehearsed his boardroom negotiations, every response calculated in advance so nothing Sylvia said could catch her off guard. It was strange, she thought, how quickly she'd absorbed that particular skill from him, the ability to walk into a room armored rat