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publish date:
2026-06-20 07:04:01
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Contracted to him 36
-Evangeline- I spent the entire drive home pretending I wasn’t thinking about him. I failed. Completely. The worst part was that nothing dramatic had happened. There was no grand confession. No life-changing conversation. No moment where everything suddenly made sense. It was just dinner. A conversation. A jacket around my shoulders because the night was cold. Small things. But somehow those were the things that stayed with me. Because grand gestures were easy. Anyone could buy flowers. Anyone could plan an expensive night. Anyone could say the right words when people were watching. But the little things? Those were harder to fake. And that terrified me. Because Theodore was becoming someone I looked for. Someone I wanted to talk to. Someone I missed when he wasn’t around. And that was dangerous. I leaned my head against the car window, watching the city lights blur past. I reminded myself of the contract. One year. That was the agreement. At the end of it,
Contracted to him 35
-Evangeline- I never thought I would see the day Theodore Duke would willingly stand in a kitchen. Not a metaphorical kitchen. An actual kitchen. The same man who had a personal assistant, a driver, a chef, and probably an entire team of people whose only job was making sure he never had to inconvenience himself was now standing beside me holding a wooden spoon like it was a foreign object. And somehow… It was adorable. I hated that word. Adorable was not a word I associated with Theodore. Intimidating? Definitely. Arrogant? Absolutely. Frustrating? Most definitely. But adorable? Never. And yet here he was. “You’re staring,” he said without looking at me. I blinked. “I’m not.” “You are.” “I’m observing.” “That’s a nicer way of saying staring.” I rolled my eyes, turning back to the stove. “You’re very confident for someone who almost burned onions five minutes ago.” “I did not burn them.” “You absolutely did.” “They were slightly darker.” “They were black.”
Contracted to him 34
-Theodore-I had faced people who wanted me dead.People who wanted to destroy everything I built.People who smiled while planning my downfall.I knew how to handle those people.You didn't reason with them.You didn't trust them.You watched.You waited.You struck when they least expected it.But Evangeline standing in front of me, holding my phone with a look of fear I had never seen from her before?That was different.Because for the first time, I wasn't looking at an enemy.I was looking at someone I cared about being hurt.And I hated that I couldn't immediately fix it.She stared at the picture on my screen like it had dragged her into another life.A life she had tried to leave behind."Evangeline."Her eyes lifted slowly."I'm sorry."Two words.The first thing she said.Not anger.Not explanation.An apology.And something about that immediately bothered me."Why are you apologizing?"She looked away."Because this is becoming another problem for you."I frowned.Another p
Contracted to him 33
-Evangeline-I should have known peace never lasted long in my life.It always showed up quietly, like it was testing the waters.Then it left the same way chaos entered—without warning, without apology.That morning, I woke up earlier than usual.Not because I wanted to.Because my mind refused to let me rest.There was something about the night before that sat wrong in my chest.Not Theo.Not Kennedy.Not even the dinner, which had gone better than I expected.It was something else.Something I couldn’t name.Something I didn’t want to name.I lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling, listening to the silence in the house.Too quiet.Theo’s presence always made silence feel different.He didn’t have to speak to fill a space.He just existed and somehow everything became aware of him.I turned over and reached for my phone.Nothing new.No messages.No threats.No Lucas.That alone should have been comforting.Instead, it made me uneasy.Because Lucas never stayed quiet for lon
Contracted to him 31
-Theodore-I hated surprises.Not because I didn’t appreciate them.Because surprises meant uncertainty.And uncertainty meant something was happening outside of my control.I built my entire life around eliminating uncertainty.Contracts.Plans.Strategies.Everything had a purpose.Everything had a reason.Everything had a predictable outcome.Except Evangeline.She was the one variable I had never accounted for.And lately, I was starting to think she was the only thing in my life I didn’t want to calculate.That realization should have bothered me more than it did.I sat in my office, looking through reports while my mind was somewhere else entirely.Again.It was becoming embarrassing.A man who could negotiate multi-million-dollar deals was losing focus because he remembered the way a woman laughed at his terrible opinions about books.Ridiculous.I closed the file in front of me.There was no point pretending I was working.My phone buzzed.Kennedy.I stared at the screen.Then
Contracted to him 30
-Evangeline- I had always believed that the hardest moments in life were the ones where everything fell apart. The screaming. The crying. The heartbreak. The moments where you knew something had ended and there was nothing you could do to stop it. But lately, I was learning something different. Sometimes the hardest moments were the quiet ones. The ones where nothing was technically wrong. The ones where you were supposed to be happy. The ones where you caught yourself smiling and then immediately wondered if you were allowed to. Because happiness after pain felt strange. Almost suspicious. Like it was something temporary. Something that would disappear the second I relaxed. That was how I felt waking up that morning. Not sad. Not angry. Just confused. Because for the first time in a long time... I was okay. And I didn’t know what to do with that. I stared at the ceiling for a while before finally forcing myself out of bed. My phone sat on the nightstand. No me
Contracted to him 27
-Theodore-I had spent my entire life learning how to read people.It was a skill.A necessary one.In business, people rarely told you what they wanted. They told you what they wanted you to believe they wanted.Everyone had an angle.Everyone had a weakness.Everyone had something they were hidin
Contracted to him 15
-Theodore-The elevator doors slid open.For a brief second, I was still caught in the haze of the moment we'd shared downstairs.Evangeline stood beside me, her cheeks flushed, her hair slightly disheveled from the ride home. She looked alive.Not broken.Not defeated.Alive.After everything that
Contracted to him 14
I tried to stop myself from shaking as I stared at my reflection in the private bathroom one of the waitresses had lead me to after a heated exchange with my father and former in-laws. The conversation replayed in my head, loud and clear.“You know, I didn’t believe it when I heard it.” My father s
Contracted to him 13
The drive to the gala was quiet, not uncomfortable quiet, just... quiet, the kind that gave me far too much time to think, usually I liked thinking, but not today, I didn’t want to think because it felt like the more I did, the more nervous I became.The city lights blurred past the tinted windows a
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