Chloe stumbled into the opulent suite, her flimsy paper gown tearing further. Desperate for any semblance of normalcy, she quickly shed the tattered garment, grabbing a simple white dress she found draped over a chair and slipping it on. Her eyes then fell on a sleek smartphone left on a side table. Without thinking, she snatched it up, clutching it as she tried to step back, but her bare shoulders hit the cold, unyielding wall. There was nowhere to go. The man's shadow engulfed her, trapping her in the scent of whiskey and something else-a clean, sharp cologne that spoke of immense wealth.
She forced her voice to remain steady, though her insides were a knot of terror. "I can pay you. Whatever you want. Just help me get away from them."
A small, almost invisible earpiece in the man's ear crackled to life. "Sir," Cole's voice whispered from a world away, "the Foster security team is on this floor. Shall I have them removed?"
Damien gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head. This was far more entertaining.
The sound of heavy footsteps and gruff voices echoed from the hallway, closer now. "Check every suite! She couldn't have gone far."
A tremor ran through Chloe's body. She was out of options. She looked up at the man's shadowed face, her desperation overriding her fear. "Please," she begged, her voice cracking. "Just for a minute. Tell them I'm your girlfriend."
To sell the lie, to make him understand the stakes, she added more fuel to the fire of her own slander. "The man I'm supposed to marry... the Blackburn heir... he's an abuser. A sadist. If they take me back, I don't know what he'll do to me."
Hearing his own name paired with such accusations sent a jolt of cold fury through Damien. He masked it perfectly, letting a slow, calculating smile spread across his lips.
"My girlfriend?" he purred, the sound vibrating through her. "That's an expensive role to play."
Chloe gritted her teeth, assuming he was talking about money. The only thing her family had ever valued. "How much? Just name your price."
He didn't answer. Instead, he raised a hand and gently, almost clinically, traced the raw scratch on her arm with his thumb. The touch was electric, a spark of danger that made her flinch. His fingers were cool, his touch possessive. It wasn't a gesture of comfort; it was a claim.
Before she could react, his other arm snaked around her waist, yanking her flush against his hard body. The breath was knocked from her lungs. He was all muscle and heat, an immovable wall of power. She gave a small, involuntary struggle, but his grip only tightened, a silent warning.
The doorbell chimed, a sharp, piercing sound that made her heart leap into her throat.
"Play along," Damien whispered against her ear, his breath warm. He shifted his body, partially shielding her from the door as he called out in a lazy, irritated voice, "What is it?"
"Hotel security, sir," a rough voice answered from the other side. "We're looking for someone. A young woman in a white dress."
Damien pulled the door open a few inches, his body blocking the view into the room. He scowled with practiced annoyance. "You're interrupting something."
The guard, clearly intimidated by Damien's aura of authority and the opulent suite behind him, stammered an apology but held his ground. "We just need to take a look, sir. It'll only take a second."
Chloe knew they wouldn't give up that easily. Her mind raced. Acting on pure instinct, she reached up from behind Damien, smearing her lipstick with the back of her hand and running her fingers through her hair to make it look wild and messy.
Then, she did something that surprised even herself. She pulled out the sleek smartphone, switched it to the front-facing camera, and angled it to capture both of their faces, her head pressed against his chest.
"Darling," she said, her voice a breathy imitation of a lover interrupted, "let's take a picture. To remember our evening."
The move was so audacious it made Damien pause. The corner of his mouth twitched. The game had just become more interesting.
The guards outside exchanged an uncertain look. This didn't look like a kidnapping. It looked like they'd just interrupted a very private, very expensive tryst.
But Chloe felt it wasn't enough. The doubt in their eyes was still there. She looked up at the stranger, her voice a bare whisper only he could hear. "Help me out. Unbutton your shirt."
To Damien, her desperate, whispered command wasn't a plea for help. It was a move. A calculated, if clumsy, attempt at seduction to get what she wanted. He studied her, his dark eyes unreadable, weighing his options, calculating how to turn this little drama to his ultimate advantage.
He didn't move to his shirt. Instead, he lowered his head, his nose almost brushing against hers. His gaze dropped to her mouth.
Chloe's breath hitched. She had asked for a performance, but the intensity in his eyes felt terrifyingly real. To escape her fate, she forced herself not to pull away.
His gaze flickered over her tense face, and finally, he lifted his hand. Not to his own shirt, but to her lips, his thumb brushing over the smeared lipstick. The gesture was intimate, possessive, and it sent a clear message: he was the one in control now.
