Lila Hart jolted awake, her body stiff from the tension of the night before.
The penthouse was too quiet—unnaturally so. A silence that pressed against her skin like a warning.
She sat up on the vast bed, her heart hammering, and then she saw it.
A crisp white document lay waiting on the glass table.
Her name was stamped across the top in bold letters.
Bare feet against the cold marble, she stumbled over and snatched it up.
Her eyes devoured the words, each one a blade carving into her:
Lila Hart agrees to serve as Alexander Knight's fiancée for one year. In exchange, her family's debts will be erased. Refusal will result in the destruction of her family's livelihood.
Her stomach churned.
Fiancée? To him?
The man who had bought her at that cursed auction, who had caged her against the wall last night, his lips burning until she'd slapped him.
Her palm still tingled from the strike.
But it wasn't the sting that haunted her—it was his smile. That dark, dangerous curve that promised she hadn't escaped him.
Her mind flickered back to two years ago.
The storm. The rain-slick alley.
Her heart racing as she dragged a bleeding stranger from a wrecked car, flames licking at twisted metal.
She hadn't known his name. Just a man with piercing eyes, whispering thanks before he passed out.
She'd slipped away before he woke.
Never once imagining that stranger was Alexander Knight.
But he had remembered.
He had hunted her down.
And now, those same eyes burned with obsession, claiming her as savior… and possession.
"You can't own me," she whispered, rage boiling as she crushed the contract in her fists.
With a sharp cry, she tore it apart, letting the pieces scatter like ashes.
A low chuckle broke the silence.
Lila spun, her breath faltering.
Alexander leaned lazily against the doorway, his tailored suit molded to his broad frame, his blue eyes glinting with amusement.
"Did you really think that would change anything, little flame?"
He stepped into the room, his presence thick as a storm.
In his hand, a second contract, crisp and unmarked.
"I always keep backups."
"You're sick," Lila snapped, backing up until the glass table pressed into her hips.
"I saved your life once. And this is how you repay me? By chaining me to you?"
Something flickered across his expression—hunger, devotion, something raw.
"You saved me," he said, voice rough with certainty. "That night, you became mine. I've spent two years haunted by you. Searching for you. Dreaming of you. That fire in your eyes as you dragged me from death—" His gaze sharpened. "I need that fire. And now, I have it."
He closed the distance.
His hand lifted, brushing her cheek, slow and possessive.
Heat sparked low in her body, traitorous and unwelcome.
"Sign it, Lila. Be my fiancée for a year. I'll erase every debt. Your father's failing company? Safe. Your sister's hospital bills? Paid. I'll give you everything."
"And if I don't?"
Her voice was steady, but her pulse betrayed her, hammering in her ears.
His smile hardened, lethal.
"I'll burn your world to the ground. Your family's debts—I own them. Their home? I'll foreclose it tomorrow. Your sister's treatment? One call, gone. I always get what I want. And I want you."
Lila's chest rose and fell, fury and despair warring inside her.
His scent—sandalwood and sin—wrapped around her, clouding her focus as he leaned close, his breath hot at her ear.
"Sign, or watch everything you love collapse."
Her glare was sharp, though her body betrayed her with a tremor.
The contract lay between them, a chain disguised as paper.
Her fingers hovered over the pen, trembling.
A sudden knock shattered the tension.
Alexander's jaw tightened, but before he could speak, a woman's voice purred through the door.
"Alexander, darling, it's Veronica. Your real fiancée. We need to talk."
Lila's heart stopped cold.
Real fiancée?