Click.

Snaps.

Click.

The voice leaked into my subconscious until my eyes snapped open. I had no idea where I was for a moment. Sheets beneath me smelled like high-end cologne, exotic and addictive, the mattress too plush to be that of my bed.

Then I saw him.

High, broad shoulders rested on the wall, phone cradled. A beam of light flashed through the room, illuminating the chiseled line of his jaw, the subtle outline of his lips as he smiled.

He was taking pictures of me.

I sprang up, dragging the blanket around me so quickly that it almost ripped. "What the devil are you doing?" I snapped. My voice broke.

The man dipped the phone just a little, but his grin did not waver. "Ah, you're awake." He sounded slick, relaxed, as if he had been expecting this very moment. "Good morning, lovely. Sleep well?

I gazed at him, half awake, heart thumping in my throat.

His voice. Oh God, I remembered that voice. Deep, low. The sort that crept into your bones and left you forgetting who you were.

And within a flash I remembered last night, coming back in shards, sharp enough to cut. The gala. The way I’d smiled and nodded for hours, pretending my father’s world wasn’t collapsing. The weight of whispers behind me, of investors already writing him off. Then him.

Adrian Hunter.

He had presented himself with a risky sense of confidence, his charm wrapping around me like velvet. We had laughed, we had drunk, and somehow amidst the champagne and the soft glow of the ballroom, I had relaxed.

I want him to touch me. Kiss me. Take me.

And there I was, wrapped up under a blanket around my naked body as he stood opposite at the bedside, every inch the predator that he was.

You. " I swallowed. "Remove them.

Adrian stuck the phone in his pocket as if it was nothing, taking a step forward. It was measured movement that squeezed my chest. He wasn't even fully dressed, black pants that hung low on his hips, the flesh of his torso catching the pale morning light. He was overwhelming, and he was aware of that.

"Eraser them?" he repeated quietly, tilting his head. "Why would I do that?"

I glared, although it was feeble with the movement that my hands trembled on the blanket. "Because I did not agree to…"

You didn't conform to a great number of things last evening," he interjected suavely, his eyes glinting. "And yet… you didn't stop me.

Heat scorched my face, not from desire but from shame. He was twisting it, turning the memory into something he could use.

I compelled myself to gaze into his eyes. "That was a mistake.

He laughed, a rich, shadowy sound, as if I had presented him with the ultimate joke. "Mistake or no, it came to be. I don't delete important things.

The way that he referred to my name, as if he owned it, sent shivers through me. My stomach churned uncomfortably. Worth something. That word had nothing to do with me; it had to do with leverage.

I had committed the single reckless act, one night to escape the uproar of my father's failing empire, and I had chosen him.

So, I wasn't so sure that I awoke next to man… or a trap. I held the blanket so tight that my knuckles were white. I stuttered, trying to get the words past me.

"What… do you want to do with them?"

His grin expanded, his eyes lighting up as if he was anticipating that I would ask. He stuffed his phone into his pocket, as if my dignity, the very essence of my being was safe and sound there.

"These are the watchwords: violence, violence, violence."

I gazed at him. A deal? My stomach fell, ice cold. "A… deal?"

Yes." He used the word as a vow, smooth, even, measured.

"If I do this, the Montgomery Global board will throw a fit. And your father…" He stopped, his lip twisting up in something malignant. "Well, there is no need to speculate on the effect it would have on him."

My chest constricted so strongly I couldn't breathe. Montgomery Global. My father's firm. My father's name. My name.

My throat closed up. "H-how do you know my name?

His eyebrow rose as if the question amused him. He drew nearer, slow, like a predator that stalks his prey. "Aria Moretti," he whispered, relishing it. "Daughter of Edward Moretti. Montgomery Global's faltering princess."

Blanket almost slipped from my hands as warmth engulfed face, not shame, but incredulity. He knew it all.

"Your father's drowning," Adrian went on, his voice even, unforgiving. "Montgomery Global's on the verge of bankruptcy. And the only reason it's still breathing this very moment…" He stopped, his eyes glinting as they fastened on me. "Is me."

I shook my head. "You.what?

"Adrian Hunter," he stated deadpan, as if it was a statement. Then his mouth rose stiffly into a smile. "Owner of the Blackwood Corporation. your father's largest creditor. his only investor."

The room tilted. My heart thundered in my ears. No. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening.

The man I had been foolish enough to spend the night with wasn't some rakish stranger. He wasn't a mistake lost to champagne, lost to poor judgment.

My father's creditor. The man whose name was mentioned in each boardroom as a man you would never want to double-cross.

I gagged, making myself speak. "Why. why me? What do you want from me?

His grin expanded as if I'd finally posed the correct question. "Good. You're in a better mood." He stood up, nonchalantly putting his hands into his pockets. His being dominated the space, dense and undeniable.

"I want to marry you."

My jaw fell. I would've bet I misheard. A giggle threatened to rise to my throat, half hysterical, half fear-struck. "You…get…married…to…me?" I shook my head, clutching the blanket tighter. "You're joking."

"Oh, I am very serious," Adrian stated, his voice so composed that shivers ran down my spine. "You will marry me, Aria. Or those photos will end up on your father. And on every shareholder who still believes Montgomery Global is still salvagable."

The world was colliding around me, harshly, suffocatingly. My foolish night was no longer the mere misstep. It was a noose tightening around my throat.

And the rope was being carried by Adrian Hunter.

But his smile changed, darker, hungrier, as he drew close enough that his breath passed across my ear. "Say yes, Aria… because the wedding is already planned."