All Chapters of The CEO’s Revenge Bargain : Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

I went up on my toes and put my hands on his chest so I would not lose my balance. His shirt felt stiff under my palms. His heartbeat was even and strong. Mine was all over the place. I leaned in and pressed my mouth to his. The second our lips touched, a shiver ran straight down my spine.He did not move. Not even a little. No kiss back. His mouth stayed still against mine. Panic started fluttering in my chest. I eased back a fraction. One strap of the dress slid off my shoulder and more of my breast showed. I searched his face for anything. Some sign he was not standing there completely unmoved.I was about to step away, humiliation burning through me, when his hand caught my waist. His eyes were not cold anymore. They had gone dark and hot. In one pull he yanked me against him. His other hand went into my hair and his mouth came down on mine hard enough that I forgot how to breathe.This was nothing like the careful kiss I had started. This one took. It ate through whatever I had b

I almost ran through the doors of ImpacTouch. The receptionist called out a cheerful good morning and I went straight past her. My hair was shoved into a bun. I had dug a clean blouse and a pencil skirt out of the emergency stash I kept in my office. The taxi from the hotel had been a blur of Manhattan traffic and my own thoughts running too fast.“There you are!” Debby’s voice cut through it as she caught me in the hallway. “I’ve been texting you for the past hour.”“Sorry. Phone died,” I mumbled, and ducked into my office. She came right in after me.“Well, you picked a great day to disappear,” she said. Nervous energy all through it. “The Hayes Tech subsidiary representative is coming in less than thirty minutes for the pitch meeting.”I froze with my purse halfway off my shoulder. “Hayes Tech? As in…”Her eyes narrowed. “Yes. As in the company owned by the man you apparently spent last night with, if that Instagram post is anything to go by. Please do not tell me you forgot we hav

I fled my father’s Upper East Side mansion and went back to my Brooklyn apartment, looking for a door I could shut on all of it. Once I was inside my own place, I stood in front of the photograph that took up the center of my living room wall. My mother is smiling. Eyes still bright with life.In the quiet I finally let the tears fall. Perfect Esther Newton. The woman whose legacy I could never quite live up to. The space she left behind that my father’s new family had been eager to fill.“I’m sorry, Mom,” I whispered, touching the frame gently. “I’m making such a mess of everything.”My cheek still stung from the slap. The physical pain was nothing next to the humiliation of being hit in front of Mark and Lila. Five years after my mother’s death and the Newton household was unrecognizable. The home that once held laughter and warmth now felt like a battleground where I was always outnumbered.My phone buzzed with an incoming call. I thought it was Debby checking on me after our long