The Contract
977 Words
Scarlett – POV
Three days.
It had been three days since she ran from his bed, three days of pretending she could erase what happened. Three days of washing her skin raw in the shower as if his touch would finally fade.
It hadn’t.
His fingerprints were still on her hips. His voice still echoed in her ears — rough, hungry, dangerous.
You’re mine. You don’t get to run again.
She had run anyway.
And now she was back at work, pouring overpriced liquor into crystal glasses, faking smiles for rich assholes in custom suits.
Her stomach twisted every morning — not from nerves, but from the baby she hadn’t told anyone about. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
She didn’t know what scared her more — being pregnant with the child of the man she hated… or the fact that part of her still wanted him to want her back.
The bell above the bar rang. Someone had entered.
Scarlett turned… and her world stopped.
Dominic Blackthorn. Towering. Ice-eyed. Wearing a tailored black suit like sin and power had stitched it by hand.
Her throat closed.
He walked up slowly, like he had all the time in the world. Like he owned the damn floor. The club went quiet around him. Even the air stopped breathing.
Scarlett froze.
He didn’t smile.
He didn’t speak.
He slid a folded envelope across the bar, eyes locked on hers.
“What’s this?” she asked, voice low.
“A deal.”
Her fingers trembled as she opened it.
Marriage License Application.
Her name. His. Pre-filled. Signed.
“What the hell is this, Dominic?”
“A contract. One year. You become my wife. We keep things quiet. You get paid.”
She blinked.
Then laughed — sharp and bitter.
“You think I’d marry you?”
“I don’t think,” he said coldly. “I know.”
Scarlett shoved the papers back.
“I’m not doing this. I’m not for sale.”
“You need money.”
“You think that gives you the right to own me?”
He leaned in. “It gives me the right to offer a solution before I take what I already own.”
She slapped the counter.
“Stop saying that! You don’t own me, Dominic. You never did.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Scarlett… I know.”
Her blood turned to ice.
He tapped the folder again.
“About the baby. You thought I wouldn’t find out?”
She staggered back a step, breath caught in her chest.
“You’ve been spying on me—?”
“No,” he said. “I’ve been protecting what’s mine. You should’ve told me.”
“You lost the right to anything five years ago.”
He smiled — slow and cold.
“Then I’m reclaiming it now.”
---
Dominic – POV
She looked at him like he was the villain in her story. Maybe he was.
But he didn’t care.
He had her scent memorized again. Her moans burned into his skull. The way she came apart in his arms — it haunted him.
He wasn’t letting that go.
She didn’t get to disappear again. Not now. Not pregnant with his child.
He tried staying away.
Tried pretending that night was a mistake. That her lips didn’t still taste like every unfinished dream he ever had.
But the truth?
He still wanted her.
Worse — he still needed her.
Now he had leverage.
And she would either say yes to the contract… or he'd expose the pregnancy to her family, her job, and every tabloid in the city.
Dominic Blackthorn didn’t beg.
He took.
---
Scarlett – POV
“You’re insane,” she said.
He didn’t flinch.
“You’ll hate me forever,” she whispered.
“Already do,” he said softly. “Now marry me.”
She stared at the contract.
Cold. Unforgiving. Like him.
“What happens after the year?” she asked.
“You walk away. Rich. Free. No claims.”
“And the baby?”
“You want full custody? Fine. You want me involved? I will be. But you don’t get to make that decision alone.”
Scarlett gritted her teeth.
“You’re doing this to punish me.”
“I’m doing this because I don’t want to spend another night not knowing where you are.”
Her hands shook.
“And if I say no?”
He leaned closer.
“Then I ruin you.”
---
Dominic – POV
He saw the panic in her eyes.
He didn’t like it.
But he couldn’t stop now.
“You’ll be safe with me,” he said, softer. “You’ll have everything.”
“I don’t want everything,” she whispered. “I wanted you. Once.”
“That was then.”
He reached out, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
“This is now.”
Her lips trembled.
“You want to own me.”
“No,” he said.
“I want to keep you.”
---
Scarlett – POV
She signed.
With shaking hands and a broken heart.
Because she had no other choice.
Because she was tired of running.
Because part of her still remembered the boy beneath the monster.
Dominic folded the paper carefully, slid it into his jacket.
“Pack your things. You move in tomorrow.”
She glared at him.
“Don’t touch me unless I say so.”
He smiled.
“We’ll see.”
---
Later That Night
Scarlett sat on her motel bed, the contract beside her, the pregnancy test still glowing pink from this morning on the nightstand.
She cried for the first time in months.
Not because she was afraid.
But because she wasn’t sure which was worse —
Being owned by the man who broke her.
Or falling back in love with him again.
- Writer
