Lena Voss had everything respect, a thriving PR career, and a future with the man she loved until one night shattered it all. Publicly humiliated when her fiancé ended their engagement before a room full of elites, she woke the next day fired over a scandal she didn’t cause. Overnight, her name became toxic, her career destroyed, and her savings gone. She lost her job, her dignity, and her future.

But someone was watching.

Nathaniel Cross, billionaire CEO of Cross Enterprises feared in boardrooms and untouchable by society was present the night she fell. A man of ice, power, and precise control, Nathaniel doesn’t believe in coincidence. He sees opportunity. And when Lena, desperate and furious, storms into his office begging for a chance to salvage her career, he makes an offer that changes everything.

Not employment.
A contract.
A proposal.

He wants her as his fiancée.

It’s not love. It’s strategy. Nathaniel is negotiating a billion-dollar merger and needs the perfect woman by his side to silence rumors, soothe shareholders, and present the image of a settled, committed man. A flawless public act. And the woman he chooses is the one already ruined Lena Voss, who has nothing left to lose.

Outraged yet cornered, Lena faces an impossible choice: reject him and watch her world collapse completely, or sign away her freedom for survival. She signs. And the game begins.

Thrown into a ruthless world of galas, flashing cameras, and whispered judgment, Lena is scrutinized at every turn. Every smile must be perfect. Every word must be calculated. One misstep could destroy them both. But the real threat isn’t the press it’s Nathaniel himself. Impossibly controlled, dangerously magnetic, he blurs the line between performance and something far darker. Every staged touch ignites a spark. Every choreographed kiss threatens the boundaries of their deal.

Yet Nathaniel Cross has enemies.

Chief among them is Isabella Rhodes, a socialite from his past who refuses to be forgotten. Poised, venomous, and armed with secrets, Isabella views Lena as nothing more than a placeholder a disposable pawn occupying the throne she still believes is hers. And Isabella will scorch the world to see Lena fall again.

But Lena is no longer the broken woman from her engagement night. This time, she fights back. She learns to navigate power, to stand in rooms meant to shame her, to meet every insult with a colder smile. She becomes exactly what Nathaniel wanted a flawless partner. But in becoming it, she becomes something he never anticipated… irreplaceable.

What Lena doesn’t know is that the true danger lies in the contract itself. Nathaniel’s calculated world was built on betrayal, and his rules are clear: never trust, never love, never succumb. She was supposed to be a pawn. Instead, she becomes his weakness an obsession he cannot control.

And obsession is deadly.

As alliances shift and secrets surface, Lena discovers that in Nathaniel’s empire, power comes with a cost. Every victory extracts a sacrifice. Every touch hides a truth. The higher they climb, the more fragile their bond becomes.

Because when the final betrayal comes and it will it won’t come from their enemies.

It will come from each other.

“Seduction by Contract” is a battle of hearts disguised as a business deal a collision of pride, desire, and power set against billion-dollar stakes and unforgiving social wars. It is the story of a woman who signed her name to save her future… and a man who believed he could control the fire he lit.

She thought she was surrendering.
He thought he was in control.
Neither was prepared for the price of pretending.

In a game built on lies, what happens when the passion becomes real?

The war room lights dimmed as the screens went black, then burst alive again with cascading lines of code. Ethan swore under his breath.


"They've seen us. Adrian's got someone on the other side someone good."


"Good?" Nathaniel's voice cut like glass. "They're in our system already."


On the monitor, the hijack bar stalled at 38%. The firewall Ethan had broken through was knitting itself back together in real time, patch by patch.


Lena gripped the back of Ethan's chair. "Can you beat them?"


He didn't look up, his fingers flying. "That's not the question. The question is, can I beat them fast enough."


The system flashed red: Unauthorized Intrusion Detected.


The hacker was baiting them. A phantom file appeared on Ethan's screen an old contract of Lena's, marked "Fraudulent." A taunt.


"They're trying to rattle me," Ethan muttered.


Lena leaned closer to Ethan, her voice sharp. "Don't look at what they want you to see. Look for what they don't want you to touch."


Ethan blinked, then his hands moved faster. "Right. Not the front door. The vents."


The code shifted as he slipped past the obvious blocks, tunneling deeper. The hijack bar crawled upward: 41%… 46%…


The hacker struck back. A flood of junk data poured into the system, crashing three monitors in bursts of static. Ethan cursed, sweat beading on his forehead.


Nathaniel stepped behind him, one hand clamping Ethan's shoulder like a vice. "Breathe. Stay locked in."


The seconds ticked away. 8:12. Forty eight minutes left.


Onscreen, another file popped up this time a forged email, Lena "confessing" to corporate espionage. The hacker wanted it to leak.


Lena's stomach twisted, but she forced her voice steady. "Ignore it. They're trying to win the story before the broadcast."


Ethan's jaw tightened. "Then let's write our own ending."


He launched a ghost protocol code that mirrored itself and fed false paths back to the intruder. For a moment, the screens stabilized.


Then the hacker struck harder. The main feed split, showing two live broadcasts: Isabella in the studio, smiling under hot lights… and Lena's own hacked camera feed from inside the war room.


The hacker wasn't just defending. They were exposing her. Turning her own move against her.


Ethan slammed the keyboard. "They're in our cameras. If they push this live, they'll show the world exactly what we're doing."


Nathaniel's voice dropped to a deadly calm. "Then you have three choices: win, die, or run. Which one's it going to be?"


Ethan's eyes flicked to Lena. She didn't waver. "Win."


The storm outside cracked lightning against the glass. Inside, the room felt like it might shatter first.


Then the hacker launched one final strike blinding white code that began eating Ethan's system alive.


"Thirty seconds and we're fried," Ethan hissed. "I need one more opening, or we lose it all."


Lena stepped forward, her hand on his shoulder, her voice steady as steel. "Then take it. Don't just play defense burn them back."


Ethan's fingers blurred one desperate gambit.


Chapter 18 - Duel in the Wires