Chapter 2
1041 Words
The Offer
Ava’s signature was still wet on the page when Lucian took the contract from her fingers, calm as if she’d just signed for a coffee delivery.
He didn’t put it in a drawer. He didn’t lock it away.
He simply folded it once, slid it into the inside pocket of his jacket, right over his heart and buttoned the jacket again.
The gesture felt more binding than the ink.
Congratulations, he said. You start now.
Now? Her voice cracked. I…I thought Monday.
Monday is for people I trust. He moved to the bar cart, poured two fingers of something amber and didn’t offer her any. You lost the luxury of weekends the day you disappeared.
Ava wrapped her arms around herself. The office felt colder than the street outside. What exactly does ‘personal executive assistant’ mean to you?
Lucian?
He took a slow sip, watching her over the rim of the glass. Everything I want, whenever I want. Meetings. Travel. Late nights. His gaze dragged down her body and back up. Early mornings. You’ll live in the penthouse. You’ll wear what I choose. You’ll smile when I tell you to smile. And when I tell you to get on your knees, you’ll ask how low.
Heat and fury collided in her chest. I’m not a prostitute.
No, he agreed, setting the glass down with a soft clink. Prostitutes get paid up front. You’re paying interest.
He tapped his phone. A second later the massive screen on the wall lit up with a live feed of a hospital room. Her father, thin, gray, hooked to machines, slept fitfully while a nurse adjusted his IV.
Ava’s breath left her in a rush. How did you…
I bought Harper Logistics three months ago, he said quietly. Quietly. The company was drowning in debt your father hid from everyone, including you. I paid for it all. Every creditor. Every line. I own the trucks, the warehouses, the name on the side of the building. And because your father signed a personal guarantee years ago, I also own his medical debt. All four hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollars of it.”
She swayed on her feet.
Lucian crossed the room in three strides and caught her elbow before she fell. The contact was clinical, but the second his skin touched hers, electricity snapped between them, sharp, undeniable, infuriating.
Five years disappeared in a heartbeat.
She remembered this hand sliding up her thigh in the back of his Aston Martin, remembered those fingers tangled in her hair while he kissed her like the world was ending.
He felt it too, she saw the flicker in his eyes before the ice slammed down again.
He released her like she burned him.
Sign the second contract, he said, voice rougher now and the hospital gets an anonymous donor who covers every cent, past and future. Refuse and I call my accountants. They reverse the payments by end of day tomorrow. The hospital pulls the plug on anything not strictly Medicaid approved. You know what that means.
Ava’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She didn’t have to look to know who it was.
She answered anyway.
Miss Harper? The nurse sounded apologetic. Your father’s blood pressure just dropped. We’re moving him to the ICU. There’s a new treatment protocol that is very expensive but if we don’t start it within the next forty-eight hours…
The woman kept talking, but Ava couldn’t hear over the roaring in her ears.
Lucian held out another folder. Thicker. Black vellum. Gold lettering.
Personal Services & Full Surrender Agreement
Her hands shook so badly she almost dropped it.
Clause 1: The Contractor shall reside exclusively at the Owner’s penthouse.
Clause 2: The Contractor shall be available for the Owner’s pleasure at any hour.
Clause 3: Safe word is required. Use constitutes immediate termination of medical funding.
She flipped to the last page. The signature line waited like a guillotine.
Lucian stood close now, heat radiating off him. You can hate me, Ava. You should hate me. But your father gets to live.
She closed her eyes.
Memory punched the air from her lungs.
Summer, five years ago.
The Hampton house he’d borrowed for the weekend. White curtains billowing in ocean breeze. Lucian laughed as he carried her over the threshold even though they weren’t married, spinning her until she was dizzy and breathless.
He’d laid her on the bed like she was something sacred, someone, precious.
Slow kisses down her throat. Whispered words against her skin. I love you, I love you, I’ll never let you go.
His mouth between her thighs until she sobbed his name. The way he watched her come apart like it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
After, curled together, his heartbeat under her cheek, he’d traced lazy circles on her back and promised her the world.
She opened her eyes.
That boy was gone.
This man would destroy her to feel whole again.
She picked up the pen.
Lucian’s hand closed over her wrist, stopping her an inch from the paper. His grip was iron, but his thumb stroked the frantic pulse point like he couldn’t help himself.
Say it first, he ordered, voice low.
Ava met his stare. Say what?
That you’re mine.
The words tasted like rust and surrender.
I’m yours.
He leaned in until his lips brushed the shell of her ear.
Not good enough. Say all of it.
She swallowed tears and pride in one bitter gulp.
I’m yours, Lucian. Until the debt is paid.
His fingers tightened, almost painful, then released.
She signed.
He took the pen from her boneless fingers, capped it and slipped it into his pocket like a trophy.
Good girl, he murmured.
He pressed the intercom. Send the car. Miss Harper will be moving in tonight.
Ava stood frozen as he shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. It smelled like him, expensive, furious, familiar and it swallowed her whole.
Lucian cupped her chin, tilting her face up. For one heartbeat something raw and aching flickered across his expression.
Then it was gone.
Welcome home, little thief, he said.
And the elevator doors closed on the only life she’d ever known.
- Writer
