All Chapters of The Price of Ashbourne : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Elena hesitated outside the door, her hand hovering just shy of the wood. The hallway on the fifteenth floor was quiet, almost too quiet, the kind of silence that made every breath feel louder than it should. She told herself she was only exploring—nothing more—yet her pulse had other ideas.She leaned forward, testing the weight of the door with her shoulder. It wasn’t locked. The soft click of the latch gave way beneath her, and the door swung inward with surprising ease. Momentum carried her straight through. She stumbled, lost her footing on the polished floor, and landed hard on her hands and knees.The first thing she registered was the scent of soap and warm skin. The second was the man standing a few steps away.Damien had just stepped out of the bathroom. A white towel hung low on his hips, knotted carelessly beneath the sharp cut of his waist. Water still clung to him—beads tracing the hard lines of his chest, sliding down the ridges of his abdomen, catching in the dark trai

Chapter 13The suite was quiet when Damien returned.Elena had not turned on the main lights. Only the low lamp by the window glowed, casting long shadows across the polished floor and the large bed that now held both of their belongings. She sat on the edge of the mattress in a soft nightgown the staff had left for her, the torn pieces of Mia’s letter still folded inside the drawer beside her.He paused in the doorway when he saw her.“You’re still awake.”“I couldn’t sleep.”Damien closed the door behind him. He had changed into a black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms, the earlier tension from their argument still faintly visible in the set of his shoulders. He did not ask about the letter again. Instead he walked to the other side of the bed, removed his watch, and set it on the nightstand with quiet precision.“You can take the left side,” he said. “Or the right. Whichever feels less strange.”Elena chose the left. She slipped beneath the covers while he turned off t

Chapter 15Austin Blackwood’s words still clung to Elena’s skin like cold silk."You wear the family colors well… almost as if you were born to them." "Has my nephew explained yet what happens to people who try to take what doesn’t belong to them?" She had not moved from the spot where he left her. The ballroom continued around her—music, laughter, the soft clink of crystal—but all of it felt distant, muffled, as though she stood behind glass.A hand settled at the small of her back.Damien.He turned her gently toward him, eyes sharp as they searched her face. “What did he say to you?”Elena forced a small breath. “Never mind. He said nothing.”Damien’s gaze did not soften. “Whatever he said, stay away from him. He’s more evil than the devil.”She looked up. “Who is he?”“My father’s brother.” Damien’s voice dropped, controlled and cold. “He tried to usurp my position years ago. He’s only still breathing inside these walls because I allow it.”Elena said nothing.The weight of the

Chapter 17Elena had been standing outside Damien's office long enough for her knuckles to go cold against the wood before she realized she hadn't knocked yet. Through the gap in the door, his voice carried — measured, unhurried, the register he kept for people who wanted something from him and hadn't yet realized he already knew what it was. She'd learned to recognize that voice the way you learn a smell in a house: not consciously, until suddenly you can pick it out of anything.She knocked."Come in."Damien didn't look up right away. When he did, something in his face rearranged itself — not softened, exactly. Recalibrated. Like a man switching currencies mid-transaction."You're here.""I was looking for you.""You found me." He said it the way he said most things — as though the outcome had never been in doubt, only the timing.The man across the desk gathered his papers with the particular speed of someone grateful for the interruption. Elena waited for the door to click shut b

Chapter 19“You're not supposed to be doing this.”Damien's voice stayed even, but the disapproval underneath it was unmistakable.Elena turned toward him, the folder resting in her lap. “You've said that three times now.”“And you've ignored me three times.”“Consistency matters.”His mouth twitched despite himself. “You're impossible.”“You like that about me.”“Unfortunately.”The car eased through morning traffic, the Ashbourne estate already shrinking behind them. Elena kept the slim folder pressed against her knees, her credentials tucked neatly inside like something she was afraid might slip away if she loosened her grip.Damien glanced at it, and something in his jaw tightened before he spoke again.“You have everything you could need. A home. Money. Security.”“I know.”“Then why are we doing this?”She looked down at the folder before lifting her eyes to his.“Because I don't want everything handed to me, Damien. I want something that's mine. Something I earned.”He was quiet