The CEO's Unwanted Bride

Rule Four

Chapter 9 —

She found the rule list in the kitchen drawer.

She hadn't been looking for it — she'd been searching for scissors — but there it was, still laminated, slightly worn at the corners now. She picked it up and read it again for the first time since that first week.

Rule Four: Do not fall in love with me.

She set it down on the counter.

Then she picked up a pen.

She was still standing there when Ethan walked in, still in his work clothes, tie loosened, hair slightly out of place — which for him meant it had been a brutal day.

He stopped when he saw her.

"What are you doing?"

She slid the laminated card across the counter toward him.

He picked it up. Read it. His expression didn't change — but she watched his eyes, and she saw it. The slight widening. The pause.

She had crossed out Rule Four.

And written beneath it, in her handwriting: *Too late.*

The kitchen was very quiet.

"Mia—" His voice came out rougher than usual.

"I know," she said quickly. "I know it's not what this is supposed to be. I know the contract doesn't say anything about — about this. And if you need me to pretend I didn't write that, I can. I'm good at pretending by now."

"Stop."

She stopped.

He set the card down. Walked around the island. He stopped in front of her — close, closer than their rules allowed — and looked at her in that way he had, like he was seeing something he didn't have words for yet.

"I broke Rule Four first," he said quietly.

She blinked. "What?"

"The night of the fundraiser." A pause. "Lucas."

Understanding moved across her face like light.

"You were jealous," she whispered.

"Unreasonably," he agreed.

And then — slowly, carefully, like a man who had forgotten how — Ethan Cole reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I don't know how to do this," he said. "I should warn you."

"Neither do I," she admitted.

"Then we'll figure it out."

He leaned down. She rose to meet him.

And the laminated card with its crossed-out rule lay forgotten on the counter between two empty coffee mugs.

Neither of them picked it up.