"Elena," I realized. "She's pregnant with his baby. When he gets bored"
"He'll destroy her too. Just like he destroyed Sophia. Just like he tried to destroy you." Damien crossed the distance between us in two strides. "But you're not destroyed, are you, Aria?"
"No." The word came out hard, certain. "I'm pissed off."
"Good. Because here's what we're going to do. You're going to work for me. Learn everything about how Titanium Holdings operates. In six months, we're going to launch a hostile takeover of Cross Enterprises. We're going to strip Nathan of everything his CEO position, his reputation, his father's approval. And we're going to give Chen Technologies back to you."
It was ambitious. Brutal. Exactly what I wanted.
"And in the meantime?" I asked.
"In the meantime, we'll be seen together occasionally. Business dinners. Charity galas. Just enough to make Nathan wonder. To make him paranoid. He'll think I'm stealing you away, which will make him want you back not because he loves you, but because he can't stand losing to me."
"You've thought this through."
"I've been planning this for five years. You just gave me the perfect opening." He pulled out his phone, typed something quickly. "I just sent you the employment contract. Read it, have your lawyer review it, sign it tomorrow. You start Monday."
My phone buzzed in the other room. This was moving fast. Too fast.
But fast was what I needed. Every day I waited, Nathan solidified his control over my mother's company.
"What about tonight?" I asked, gesturing between us. "What we did does it happen again?"
Damien considered me, his expression unreadable. "That depends."
"On?"
"Whether you can separate business from pleasure. Whether you understand that anything between us is just that between us. A side benefit to our arrangement, nothing more."
No emotions. No attachments. Just strategic alliance and mutual attraction.
It should have bothered me. Should have felt cold and transactional.
Instead, it felt like freedom.
"I can handle that," I said.
"Can you? Because when Nathan finds out and he will find out he's going to use it against you. Call you a whore, a gold-digger, say you seduced me for revenge."
"Let him." I moved closer, letting the robe slip slightly off one shoulder. "I don't care what Nathan thinks anymore. I care about destroying him."
Damien's eyes darkened, tracking the movement. "Dangerous words, Miss Chen."
"I thought we were past formalities, Mr. Cross." I was playing with fire, I knew that.
Damien Cross wasn't a man you teased lightly. But something reckless had awakened in me tonight, something that had been sleeping under years of being Nathan's perfect, proper fiancée.
"We are." His hand slid to my waist, pulling me against him. "Which is why I'm going to be very clear about the rules. One: what happens between us stays private. No falling in love, no expectations beyond what we agree to."
"Agreed."
"Two: business always comes first. If I tell you to do something for the plan, you do it. No questions, no hesitation."
"As long as you afford me the same trust."
He nodded slowly. "Fair. Three: if either of us wants out business or personal we say so. Clearly. No games."
"I'm done with games," I said firmly. "Nathan played enough for both of us."
"Then we have a deal." Damien's other hand came up, tangling in my hair. "Seal it?"
I answered by pulling him down into a kiss.
This one was different from the ones earlier. Less frantic, more deliberate. A promise and a threat all at once. We were two people who'd been betrayed by the same man, finding solace and strategy in each other's arms.
It should have felt wrong.
It felt perfect.
When we finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Damien rested his forehead against mine.
"You're going to be magnificent," he murmured. "Nathan has no idea what's coming for him."
"Neither does Elena. Or my stepmother. Or my father." I smiled, and it wasn't a nice smile. "They all thought I'd just disappear quietly. Accept the humiliation and fade away."
"And instead?"
"Instead, I'm going to rise up and burn their entire world down."
Damien laughed actually laughed, a sound I suspected most people never heard from him. "Now I understand why Nathan was so eager to control you. You're terrifying when you're angry."
"Good." I stepped back, retying the robe. "I should go. It's almost five, and I need to be seen leaving my apartment later this morning looking appropriately devastated."
"My driver will take you home."
"No. I'll take an Uber. Your driver would be traced back to you." I was already thinking tactically, planning moves ahead. My mother would be proud.
Damien nodded approval. "Smart. You'll do well at Titanium Holdings."
I gathered my black dress from where it had been carelessly tossed hours ago, slipping into the bathroom to change. When I emerged, Damien was fully dressed in a fresh suit, looking every inch the billionaire CEO despite the early hour.
"One more thing," he said as he walked me to the private elevator. "About tonight. About what we did."
Here it comes, I thought. The regret. The backtracking.
"No protection," he continued quietly. "We didn't use protection."
My heart stopped. In the rage and revenge and reckless abandon, that very important detail had slipped both our minds.
"I'm on birth control," I said quickly. "And I'm clean Nathan was my first, and he always insisted we both get tested regularly."
"I'm clean too. Tested monthly." Damien's jaw was tight. "But birth control isn't foolproof."
"No, it's not." The implications hung between us. "If something… happens…"
"We deal with it. Together." His eyes met mine, serious. "I mean that, Aria. This alliance goes both ways. Whatever consequences come from tonight, we face them as partners."
It should have scared me. Instead, I felt oddly reassured. Damien Cross might be cold and calculating, but he was honorable in his own way. Nothing like Nathan.
"Understood," I said.
The elevator opened, and I stepped inside. As the doors began to close, Damien spoke one last time.
"Aria? Welcome to war."
I smiled. "Let's make it count."
I arrived at my penthouse as the sun was rising over Manhattan, painting the sky in shades of pink and gold. My home the one my mother had bought me when I graduated from Harvard, the one thing Nathan hadn't been able to touch felt different now.
I felt different now.