Chapter 5
1529 Words
The following day, the conference room on the thirty-second floor of Ashford Holdings looked less like a place for legal negotiations and more like the sort of room where empires were quietly dismantled over coffee.
Alex sat at one end of the polished obsidian table with her attorney beside her. Her spine was straight and expression cool, though internally she felt as if she were signing away pieces of her soul one clause at a time.
Across from her sat Callan. His had removed his suit jacket and rolled his sleeves to his forearms again. It’s as though he enjoyed making business meetings feel unfairly distracting. His attention remained fixed on the contract in front of him. His jaw was sharp with concentration while his legal team reviewed the final engagement terms projected onto the wall.
Alex hated that he looked most dangerous when he was focused. The way his brow was furrowed just slightly, a dark determination in his eyes.
“Clause fourteen,” her attorney said crisply, adjusting his glasses. “Miss Adkins requires language specifying that the merger does not permit unilateral restructuring without her approval during the contracted engagement period.
Callan didn’t even glance up. “Accepted.”
Alex blinked and her attorney looked mildly surprised. “Immediately?”
Now Callan looked at her. “You think I’m trying to trick you into signing away your autonomy?”
“Yes,” Alex said flatly.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Fair.”
The negotiation continued for another hour. Control protections. Media obligations. Public appearance minimums. Confidentiality terms. Financial transfer structures. Exit clauses.
Then her attorney cleared his throat and adjusted the final page. “There’s one remaining issue,” he announced. “The cohabitation clause.”
Alex froze, then slowly turned toward Callan. “The what?”
His expression remained infuriatingly calm. “For appearances, we’ll need to live together.”
“No.”
“Alexandra—”
“No,” she said again, firmer this time, as she stared at him. “Absolutely not.”
His brows lifted as he straightened. “A fake engagement where the fiancés never share a residence invites scrutiny.”
Alex scoffed. “I do not care.”
“You should.”
“I would rather throw myself into the Hudson.”
A flicker of amusement lit Callan’s eyes. “Dramatic.”
“You are out of your mind if you think I’m moving into your house,” she continued.
“My penthouse,” he corrects.
“That is not better.”
Callan’s attorney cut in carefully. “Mr. Ashford believes shared residence will help support the authenticity of the relationship in the eyes of the board and the media.”
Alex turned to her lawyer. “Whose side are you on?”
“Yours,” he said quickly. “Unfortunately, though, he has a point.” She could only stare at him like a traitor.
Callan leaned back in his chair, entirely too pleased with himself. “You may keep your own residence, if it soothes your delicate sense of independence. But officially, you’ll reside with me.”
Alex narrowed her eyes. “Separate bedrooms.”
There was a flicker of something in his gaze, then slowly, his mouth curved into a slight smirk. “Of course.” She hated how much that sounded like a lie.
Her attorney moved on quickly before she could reconsider murdering everyone in the room. “Then we’ll address conduct terms between parties during the duration of the engagement.”
Alex folded her arms. “Yes. We need rules.”
Callan rested his elbows on the surface of the table and steepled his fingers. “Go on.”
“No interfering in my company operations beyond agreed merger parameters,” Alex started.
“Accepted.”
“No weaponizing private information learned during this arrangement.”
There was a pause, then Callan nodded once. “Accepted.” He glanced over her, the smirk already playing on his face. She wanted to smack it off immediately. “No dating other people.”
The room went quiet. Alex blinked. “Excuse me?”
Callan’s gaze moved to the contract page in front of him. “Publicly engaged people generally avoid sleeping with other people.”
Her arms tightened around herself as anger started to rise. “That wasn’t in the draft.”
Callan shrugged. “It is now.” His attorney scribbled it down.
Alex glared at the man across from her. “Fine, then no bringing dates around to make me jealous.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Jealous?” he asked softly, amusement in his eyes.
She immediately regretted every life decision that had led to this moment. “You know what I mean,” she said, rolling her eyes as an attempt at throwing him off.
“Do I?” He asked with a tilt of his head.
Her cheeks burned. “Please. Do not make this difficult.”
Callan leaned forward slightly, voice dropping just enough to make her pulse misbehave. “Alexandra, making this difficult is one of my favorite hobbies.”
Her lawyer coughed aggressively.
Alex shot him a murderous glare before looking back at Callan. “No physical intimacy beyond what is necessary for appearances.”
For the first time all meeting, Callan’s expression subtly changed. His eyes darkened as he fixed his gaze on her. “Necessary,” he repeated.
Alex nodded. “Yes.”
He held her gaze for one long moment, then nodded once. “Fine.”
The agreement should have felt like victory. Instead, it felt suspiciously like walking willingly into a lion’s den.
Two hours later, the final draft sat between them, waiting patiently for their signatures. Alex stared at the contract. Her name was printed neatly above the line where she needed to sign.
This was it. The moment everything changed.
She had spent years building walls around herself, around her company, her reputation, her life. Signing this meant tethering herself to the one man she had sworn would never have power over her.
Callan watched her from across the table, quiet and still. “Second thoughts?” he finally asked.
Alex met his eyes, unblinking. “Only homicidal ones.”
His mouth twitched, giving way his amusement. Then, she signed. The scratch of pen against paper sounded deafening in the quiet room.
Callan took the contract next. He signed it with infuriating calm, and just like that—It was done.
Their attorneys began gathering papers, discussing filing procedures, announcement timing, and press release coordination. But Alex barely heard any of it because Callan stood, walked around the table, and stopped directly in front of her.
She looked up…and up, until her head was tilted back. He was too close, far too close.
“You understand what happens now?” he asked quietly, eyes twinkling with an arrogant satisfaction.
Her throat tightened, but still, she lifted her chin. “We announce the engagement.”
Callan’s gaze quickly dropped to her mouth, then returned to her eyes. “No,” he murmured, leaning in. “Now…you come home with me.”
Alex’s pulse stuttered. Around them, the room suddenly felt too warm. She slowly rose to her feet, refusing to back down despite the way he towered over her.
“This is temporary,” she said.
Callan’s expression turned unreadable. “Keep telling yourself that.”
That evening, the financial world exploded.
Ashford Heir Engaged to Longtime Rival in Shock Corporate Merger
Billionaire Enemies to Wed in Strategic Alliance
Manhattan’s Most Infamous Rivals Announce Engagement
By the time Alex’s car pulled into the private underground garage beneath Callan’s penthouse building, her phone had accumulated over two hundred notifications.
She stared upward at the gleaming tower and muttered, “I’ve made a catastrophic mistake.”
Callan exited the car beside her and adjusted his cuffs. “Probably.”
She shot him a glare, and he smirked. Then, he placed one hand lightly against the small of her back and guided her toward the private elevator. The touch was brief, professional, and supposed to be meaningless.
So why did her entire spine light up?
The elevator doors shut behind them, and silence settled. The ride upward stretched long and quiet and entirely too intimate. Alex stood rigidly beside Callan, acutely aware of every inch of space between them.
Then Callan spoke, breaking the silence. “One more rule.”
She eyed him warily. “What?”
His eyes met hers in the mirrored elevator wall. “If you’re going to survive living with me…” His voice dropped. “…stop looking at me like you want to stab me every five seconds. It confuses the staff.”
Alex stared at him for a moment, then barked out the first real laugh she’d had in days. And then Callan actually smiled. A genuine one that changed his entire face.
For one, disorienting second, Alex forgot how to breath. The elevator doors opened, and neither one of them moved immediately.
For the first time since signing the contract, Alexandra Adkins felt something far more dangerous than hatred begin to take route.
Interest.
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