The Billionaire's Contract Wife

His Office

The walk to Ethan's office felt longer than it actually was. I followed a few steps behind him, trying to ignore the dozens of thoughts racing through my head while employees moved around us, typing on laptops, answering phones, discussing meetings as though the world hadn't just quietly turned upside down. Nobody paid me any attention. Nobody knew that I had overheard a secret capable of bringing down the most powerful man in the building, and nobody knew I was currently following him to his private office like a woman walking herself to sentencing.

When we reached the executive floor, Ethan pushed open a set of glass doors and stepped inside, and I followed cautiously behind him. His office was larger than my entire apartment. Floor to ceiling windows overlooked the city skyline, expensive artwork lined the walls, and a massive desk sat near the center of the room like the throne it probably functioned as. For one strange, floating moment I forgot entirely why I was there. Then Ethan closed the door behind us, and the sound snapped me straight back into my own racing pulse.

He crossed the room and loosened his tie before gesturing toward one of the chairs facing his desk. "Sit."

I obeyed without argument. At this point, arguing seemed well above my pay grade.

Ethan remained standing for a moment, staring out at the city below, before he finally turned to face me. "You heard enough to know that my company is in trouble." It wasn't a question, so I only nodded cautiously. "A major investor is threatening to pull out of a merger," he explained. "If that happens, several years of work disappear overnight."

"And the wife part?" I asked, before I could stop myself.

A shadow crossed his face, and for the first time since I'd met him, he looked genuinely uncomfortable. "Certain members of the board believe my personal life makes me unsuitable to lead the company."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means they believe a married CEO appears more stable than an unmarried one."

"That's ridiculous."

A faint smile touched his lips. "Unfortunately, shareholders don't always care about what's reasonable."

I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing. A billion dollar company judging its CEO based on whether he had a wife sounded like the plot of a bad movie, not an actual Tuesday. "You could date someone," I offered.

"I don't have time."

"Hire an actress, then."

"Too risky."

"Find a girlfriend."

His eyebrow lifted. "Do you know anyone willing to marry a stranger before midnight?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. Fair point.

Silence settled between us, and I hated how aware it made me of him: the expensive cologne lingering faintly in the air, the quiet confidence radiating off him even now, the strange fact that despite being one of the richest men in the country, he looked, in this moment, entirely alone. I pushed the thought away almost as soon as it arrived. Feeling sorry for billionaires was not on my list of life goals.

"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked.

"Because you've become involved," he said, his expression turning serious again, "whether I wanted you to or not."

A knot formed in my stomach. "What happens now?"

He said nothing for several seconds. Then he walked to the desk, opened a drawer, and when he spoke again his voice had gone calm in a way that felt far more alarming than anger would have. "The truth is, Miss Thompson, I need someone I can trust." He placed a document on the desk between us.

I looked down. Blinked. Looked again, certain I had to be reading it wrong.

Marriage Agreement.

My mouth fell open. "No."

"I haven't even asked yet," he said, a strange smile tugging at his lips.

"You don't need to."

"Maya." The sound of my name on his lips sent an unexpected shiver down my spine, and I hated that it did. "I need a wife."

I stared at him. He stared right back, and neither of us looked away, until finally he spoke the four words that changed absolutely everything.

"Marry me."

The room seemed to spin. I laughed, not because any of it was funny, but because it was completely, thoroughly insane. Unfortunately, Ethan Vance wasn't joking, and judging by the look in his eyes, he expected me to say yes.