The ARRANGEMENT

CHAPTER 5(EPISODE 2): COUSIN WEDDINGS AND COMPLICATIONS

She should have stepped back. She thought about Holloway, about the contract, about the eight-figure account riding on six clean weeks with no complications.

Instead, she closed the distance herself, and when their mouths met, it wasn't performance, and it wasn't for Celia Marchetti's benefit, and it wasn't anything either of them could file under "arrangement" anymore.

It was slow, and it was real, and it undid three weeks of careful rules in about four seconds flat.

When they broke apart, Nate's forehead rested against hers, both of them slightly unsteady.

"That," he said quietly, "was not in the contract."

"No," Alex agreed. "It really wasn't."

"Regrets?"

She thought about Holloway, about Celia, about the six weeks that had just become something far more complicated than a business arrangement.

"Ask me again after the IPO closes," she said. "Right now, I don't trust a single thing that comes out of my own mouth."

He laughed, low and warm, and pulled her back in, not for another kiss, just to hold her there against the quiet hum of the party, the vines, the golden evening light, and for the first time since this whole arrangement began, Alex let herself stop calculating the risk and simply stayed.

End of Chapter Five.