Chapter 9: The Ghost of a Touch
1073 Words
**Axel's POV**
The heavy oak door of the master suite shut behind us, cutting off the distant chatter of the family dinner downstairs.
Hazel didn't turn around. She stood near the edge of the stone fireplace, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, staring into the rising flames. The firelight caught the edges of the emerald-cut diamond ring on her finger—the ring I had spent six months personally searching the diamond bourses of Antwerp to find.
Not for a contract. Not for a corporate strategy.
For her.
"Hazel," I said, my voice sounding incredibly rough, even to my own ears. I stepped forward, my shoes sinking into the thick wool rug, but I stopped exactly three feet away. I could smell her winter-rose perfume. It was making my head swim. "Look at me. Please."
She didn't move. Her shoulders were rigid under the delicate straps of her silk evening gown. "I heard the tape, Axel. I heard how you spoke about my studio. Like it was just a line item on a spreadsheet."
"Elena splayed those sentences together from a ninety-minute defense meeting," I growled, my fists clenching at my sides to keep from reaching out and pulling her against my chest. "The board wanted to let you drown so Blackwell Capital could absorb your assets. I told them to wait because I was manually buying up your business debt under a private shell company. I needed your loans out of the public market before Elena’s vultures could liquidate your life’s work."
Hazel finally turned, her dark eyes flashing with a beautiful, fierce anger that made my pulse instantly skyrocket. "And you didn't think to tell your best friend that you owned her livelihood?"
"If I told you, you would have looked at me exactly the way you're looking at me right now," I murmured. I took one dangerous step closer, closing the distance until the heat radiating from her body hit mine. "Like I’m a corporate monster trying to control you. I did it to keep you safe, Hazel. I’ve spent fifteen years keeping you safe."
"Safe from who?" she whispered, her lower lip trembling slightly. "From Elena? Or from you?"
The question cut through me like jagged glass.
I looked down at her face, my gaze dropping instinctively to her lips, still flushed from the slow kiss I had stolen from her in front of her sister downstairs. That kiss hadn't been for Clara. It hadn't been for the contract. It had been the starving of a decade of silence, and it had nearly brought me to my knees.
"You really think I brought you to Aspen to trap you?" I asked.
"I don't know what to think anymore," she breathed, her chest heaving.
I reached out, my movement slow, deliberate, and agonizingly careful. My knuckles barely brushed against the soft skin of her jawline.
Hazel didn't flinch. I reached up slowly, giving her every chance to pull away. My fingers barely brushed her cheek before stopping there. She didn’t move. Somehow, that scared me more than if she had.
"I have built a twelve-billion-dollar empire, Sterling," I murmured, leaning down until my lips were just an inch from her ear, the scent of her hair making me almost go crazy. "Every contract, every asset, every boardroom victory... it means absolutely nothing if you aren't standing next to me. I didn't agree to this fake engagement to save your pride. I did it because it was the only way I could get you to let me hold your hand in public."
Hazel’s eyes locked onto mine, a sudden, stunning realization shifting in her gaze. Her mouth parted slightly, her hand rising instinctively to rest against my chest, right over my heart. I knew she could feel it hammering violently against her palm.
For a second, I leaned in, my gaze fixed on her lips, my as the space between us closed—
A sharp, violent buzzing on the marble nightstand shattered the moment.
Hazel blinked, She stepped back quickly, her hand dropping from my chest as she cleared her throat, her face flushing a deep, radiant crimson.
I let out a ragged breath, rubbing a hand down my face as I walked over to the nightstand. It was my private secure phone. A notification from my head of global security was flashing on the screen.
I tapped it open, expecting a market update. Instead, my gray eyes darkened into pure, freezing ice.
It was a live audio intercept from the chalet's private library downstairs. Dominic and Elena’s voices were clearly audible, recorded just three minutes ago.
*"The contract negotiation is set for nine tomorrow morning,"* Dominic’s voice muttered on the tape, sharp and venomous. *"Once Richard signs over the Westbrook design patents as collateral for the merger, Hazel’s studio is legally liquidated. She won't even have a name left by noon."*
Elena’s melodic laugh followed. *"And Axel? What about his security play?"*
*"Blackwell won't be able to do a damn thing,"* Dominic scoffed. *"Because by nine tomorrow morning, Clara is going to find the original proxy contract Hazel signed in New York. I already planted it in her vanity case. The moment the fake engagement blows up, Blackwell's corporate standing will take a massive hit. We destroy them both in one shot."*
The audio cut out.
I stood completely still by the bed, a dark, lethal fury settling deep into my bones. They thought they could play with Hazel’s life’s work. They thought they could trap her in her own lie to strip her of her dignity.
"Axel?" Hazel asked, her voice quiet, noticing the immediate lockdown shift in my posture. "What is it?"
I turned around, my expression smoothly sliding back into that cold, untouchable billionaire mask. I walked back over to her, reaching down to take her left hand, my fingers firmly intertwining with hers, the heavy emerald diamond glittering between us.
"Your ex-fiancé just handed us the rope, love," I said, a slow, predatory grin spreading across my lips. "They think they're setting a trap for us at nine tomorrow morning."
Hazel looked up at me, her dark eyes narrowing with a sudden, matching determination. "What are we going to do?"
"We are going to let them think they're winning," I murmured, leaning down to press a soft, lingering kiss against her knuckles. "And then, Hazel... we are going to burn their entire merger to the ground."
- Writer
