The Cold Billionaire's Unexpected Love

Chapter 1

Selena's POV

The hallway seemed endless. The carpeted floor muffled my frantic footsteps as I ran to protect myself.

My bare feet stung with each step, but the pain was nothing in comparison to the terror pounding through my veins.

My dress, torn at the right shoulder, barely clung to my body, exposing my skin more than I would have liked. Tears blurred my vision, and my breathing was heavy and ragged.

My trembling legs were refusing to take another step forward, but I couldn’t stop. Not when he was right behind me.

“Stop right there, you b**ch!” his voice boomed, laced with anger.

I didn’t dare look back. I could feel him getting close to me, his heavy steps getting louder as they echoed in the deserted hallway of the forty-ninth floor of this five star hotel.

“Help… Anyone… please…help…” I kept screaming, even though I knew that there was no one on this floor.

I had heard my tormentor instructing his bodyguard to empty the entire floor so that there was not a single soul around to disturb him or to witness his atrocious act.

Fortunately, I had gained my consciousness by then and managed to struck that man in his head with a vase before sprinting out of the room to save my dear life.

But his bodyguard was fast. He managed to clear this place in such a short time that there is not a single soul around.

My only salvation at this moment was the elevator ahead. I stumbled toward it, slamming the button repeatedly, praying for the door to open.

“Please, please, please…” I begged under my breath, my fingers trembling.

A ding echoed in the silent hallway. The doors slid open just as I felt him getting closer to me. With a desperate leap, I threw myself into the elevator and hit the ‘Close’ button. My heart raced as I watched him lunge forward, but the doors shut just in time.

I collapsed against the cold metal wall, sighing in relief. But my moment of safety was short lived. The elevator didn’t descend. Instead it jolted upward. My stomach twisted as the display blinked fifty- the top floor.

‘Isn’t there a banquet hall on the top floor of this hotel? Does that mean there are going to be hundreds of people there?’

“God, no…” I whispered wiping my tears. The thought of encountering another stranger filled me with dread, but I clung to sliver of hope. Maybe they could help.

The doors opened.

There was no one.

‘Did the person who pressed the button on this floor leave?’

I stepped back, confusion mingling with fear, and frantically pressed the ‘close’ button. Just as the doors began to slide shut, a hand shot through the gap. My heart dropped.

“No!” I screamed as the doors reopened, revealing the man who had chased me, the bodyguard of the monster I’d just escaped.

“Come here,” he growled, grabbing my arm in a bruising grip.

I thrashed and struggled to get out of his hold, screaming at the top of my lungs. “Let me go! Someone help me!”

But there was no one.

He dragged me out of the elevator, ignoring my struggles, and started toward the emergency staircase. Panic clawed at my heart. My eyes darted around, desperate for something – anything, I could use. That’s when I saw it.

The fire extinguisher.

With all my strength, I grabbed it off the wall and swung it at his head. The thud was snickering but it worked. He stumbled back, releasing me.

I didn’t waste a second. I kicked him where sun doesn’t shine, sending him to his knees, and bolted back toward the elevator.

But it was gone.

“No, no, no!” I whimpered spinning around. The stairs? It’s not possible. He was already on his feet.

Then my desperate eyes fell on something.

There was a large door at some distance from elevator, in the opposite direction of the emergency staircase.

For my luck, the door was a little ajar. Once again the sliver of hope ignited in my heart.

I sprinted toward it, shoving it open and slipping inside. I made sure to lock the door before turning around to look at my surroundings. The space was dimly lit, the faint light revealing a maze of scaffolding and equipment. It felt like a backstage area, but I didn’t stop to wonder. I ran.

Not long after, the door slammed open behind me, his footsteps pounding closer.

‘Oh no! How did he unlock the door?’

“Get back here!” he shouted.

I pushed myself harder, my lungs screaming for air. A second door loomed ahead. Hopefully, my escape route.

Just as I reached it, he grabbed the torn edge of my dress. I screamed, twisting away with all my might. The fabric ripped, baring my shoulder and part of my chest, but I didn’t care. I pulled the door open and stumbled through.

Darkness swallowed me whole. The air was colder, as if this place was air conditioned, the silence deafening.

I couldn’t see, but I kept moving, my hands outstretched to avoid obstacles.

Suddenly, I collided with something solid.

A cry escaped me as I fell backward, bracing for impact with the ground. But it never came. Two strong arms caught me, wrapping around my waist and holding me securely. My back arched, my heart hammering in my chest.

For a moment, I was frozen.

Then a spotlight flared to life above us, flooding the space with harsh light. I winced, shutting my eyes against the glare. When I dared to open them again, my breath hitched.

My wide eyes were met with the pool of Gray ones. Piercing and cold as steel orbs stared down at me.

And it felt as if the entire world had come to a standstill. Everything else faded into the background. His gray eyes, sharp and striking, locked with mine, pulling me into their stormy depths. They were slightly widened in shock, his face just inches above mine as he hovered over me.

The man didn’t move. His grip on me was firm yet oddly gentle. For a fleeting moment, it felt like time had stopped, and the terror I had been running from dissipated.

But soon I was brought back to reality when murmur of voices reached my ears. Whispers, faint gasps and rustling filled the silent space around me. My gaze shifted from the man to my left, and my breath caught in my throat.

A crowd of hundreds of people was staring back at me.

They sat in neat rows, watching intently, their expressions a mix of confusion and curiosity.

I was standing in the middle of a stage, under a glaring spotlight, in the arms of a stranger. The blood drained from my face as I pieced together the scene.

I whipped my head toward the door I had come through and froze. The man who had chased me was there, glaring at me with great intensity.

His jaw was tight, his fists clenched, but he didn’t make a move. Instead, after a tense second, he stepped back and shut the door.

Did he leave?

I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Gulping I turned back to the man still holding me. Those gray eyes were no longer wide in shock. Slowly, the surprise in his gray orbs melted away, replaced by something darker. His gaze hardened, fury swirling in those stormy depths.

His jaw tightened, a muscle ticking violently as he clenched it. My heart began to race again, not from the fear of the man who had chased me, but because of the anger radiating from this one.

My panic surged when flickers of light began flashing around me. I looked toward the audience and saw dozens of cameramen standing near the stage with their cameras, snapping photos.

Oh no.

‘What’s going on here?’

Finally, I came out of the trance I was in and started wriggling in his grasps, desperate to escape. “Let… let me go”, I whispered, my voice trembling.

His jaw tightened further, his orbs turning even more darker as his gaze bore into me. The weight of his fury was suffocating. For a second, he looked like he was ready to kill someone. And that someone was me.

But instead, he straightened, releasing me so abruptly that I stumbled back on unsteady feet, almost falling on my butt. My chest heaved as I tried to steady myself.

Then his deep velvety voice thundered through the hall, sharp and commanding.

“Security!”

I flinched at his harsh tone. I instinctively took a step back, my body shaking. Every muscle in my body screamed for me to run, to flee, but I couldn’t move fast enough.

Before I could even react, two men in security uniforms appeared out of nowhere, their hands reaching out to grab me. One took hold of my left arm, the other my right, their grips like iron.

My heart thudded harder against my chest, panic flooding every part of me. “What are you doing? Let go of me!” I cried, my voice raw with fear and desperation.

“Please… let me go!” Tears blurred my vision as I begged and struggled against their hold, but they didn’t respond. They didn’t even acknowledge me. They just dragged me, unrelenting, toward the another side exit of the stage. I was powerless to stop them.

I managed to glance behind me, my breath catching as my eyes met his.

His gray eyes, cold and furious were still stuck on me.

The moment our gazes locked, my body went still, like time had frozen. His eyes didn’t waver, still filled with that same intensity, that same anger. For a brief moment, I thought I might die right there, in front of everyone, under those piercing eyes.

But then the guards pulled me away, dragging me out of the hall, away from the stage and out of his reach.

My feet barely touched the ground as they moved me faster than I could keep up. I begged them, over and over, to tell me where they were taking me, but they never answered. The silence felt suffocating, the air thick with tension and uncertainty.

I was helpless.

We reached another door—one that looked like a changing room, small and confined. The security guards shoved me inside, slamming the door shut behind me with a force that made me jump.

I stood frozen for a second, disoriented, my heart still pounding in my chest. I quickly composed myself and rushed to the door, my hands trembling as I tried to turn the handle. It was locked. My panic surged as I banged on the door, screaming for anyone to help me.

“Let me out!” I screamed, my voice hoarse and desperate. “Please, anyone! Help!”

“Save your energy, girl, and quietly stay in there until Mr. Stone arrives to decide what to do with you.”

With those words, I heard the retreating footsteps of the guards, slowly fading into the distance.

I stood there, alone in the cold room, my mind racing with thousands of questions.

‘Mr. Stone? Who is it? Is it that man with gray eyes? What did they mean by ‘he will decide what to do with me?’? What’s going to happen next?’

But among the questions flooding my mind, the one that kept repeating was: ‘Why did I ever come here?’