Engaged to the Ruthless Billionaire
Eliana Rivera is the firstborn daughter of business tycoon Cassian Rivera. When her father's company falls into debt, he marries her off to the arrogant and ruthless billionaire, Alexander Grayson, as part of a business contract and under the threat of blackmail.
Alexander, the billionaire CEO, never planned to marry, but the pressure of blackmail forces him into a union with a woman he barely knows. Although Eliana doesn't see Alexander as her ideal partner, she agrees to the marriage out of a sense of duty.
Once engaged, however, he barely acknowledges her presence and harbours disdain for her because of her father's actions and their relationship. But as they navigate their newfound relationship, the unexpected desire for each other's touch ignites-a twist neither of them planned, leading them toward an unforeseen love.
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Chapter 4
Alexander's POV
Damien looked like he wanted to bolt.
Christian looked like he was calculating how much longer until Damien got disowned.
I looked like I always did: calm.
"You're engaged?" Damien said again, like repeating it might change the answer.
"To Eliana Rivera," I confirmed, sharp and unbothered.
Christian's brow ticked up. "Wow. So it's officially that kind of day."
He didn't sound surprised. Then again, he'd been in on the damage control meetings. He knew exactly what was at stake.
"I-what?" Damien sputtered. "Since when? You haven't been seeing anyone seriously, and now you're engaged?"
"Since three days ago," I said.
Christian leaned forward, fingers steepled loosely in front of him. "Let's be clear. This isn't about love. This is about Cassian Rivera having leverage and Alex eliminating it before it hits daylight."
"I already said I was sorry-" Damien tried.
"You saying it doesn't make it less useless," I cut in. My voice stayed low, but the chill in it could've flash-frozen steel.
He shut up instantly.
"You were seen with the daughter of a married diplomat in a five-star hotel," I continued. "You didn't just screw around, Damien. You risked international fallout. If Cassian had leaked those photos to the right media outlet, or worse-to her father? You wouldn't just be a headline. You'd be a liability. You'd be dead."
Damien swallowed, his confidence buckling fast.
That photo, taken during his late-night rendezvous with the daughter of a very married South Korean dignitary, hadn't even been meant for me. But Cassian had it. And he used it.
Used it to push me into a corner. Into a proposal. Into Eliana.
"What were you thinking? Sleeping with a married woman from a dangerous family like that?" Christian asked him with an exasperated look.
"Shit, I didn't even know who she was until after we slept together. If I knew I would never have done it and gotten you dragged into this mess." he paced around the room with his fingers in his hair.
"This isn't about guilt," I said. "It's about strategy. I just need to be engaged to her long enough to get my hands on the evidence and destroy it permanently."
And then I could be free from Cassian and his threats.
Christian exhaled a soft laugh. "This is the most terrifying wedding toast I've ever heard."
"No one asked for your toast," Damien muttered.
Christian exhaled through his nose, slower. "We're tracking where Cassian's storing the backup files. He's not dumb-he didn't just keep one."
"Encrypted server," I said. "We'll find it. And when we do, we wipe every copy."
"I'm on it," Christian said. "My team's already working leads through two data brokers and his assistant's burner account. We'll get it."
Christian's voice was cool, confident-but I caught the flicker of tension beneath it. He understood the stakes better than anyone. He was head of security for Grayson Group, and the only man I trusted with secrets deeper than our family's.
He also knew what would happen if this didn't work.
Damien ran a hand through his hair. "So what-your brilliant plan is to marry his daughter and make this all go away?"
"It's not a plan," I said. "It's a fact. It's going to happen."
"And she agreed to that?"
"She didn't object."
"She probably didn't have a choice," Damien muttered.
"Neither did you," I said coldly.
He flinched.
Christian finally cut in, his tone half-light but laced with warning. "Damien, look at him. Do you think Alexander wanted to marry anyone let alone the daughter of that conniving fucker?"
"I don't know, okay?" Damien snapped, then looked instantly regretful.
"She's cold," I said. "Calculating. Every word out of her mouth is wrapped in silk and aimed like a knife."
Christian hummed. "Sounds familiar."
"I don't like her," I added.
"Also familiar."
"But she knows what's at stake. So she's not fighting it."
Damien let out a bitter laugh. "Wow. The foundation of a healthy marriage."
"She'll be fine," I said. "She knew what this was."
"Did she?" Christian asked, softer now. "Or did she just play along because she's as trapped in that family as you are in this deal?"
I paused.
Because even now, I could still see her face at that dinner in Boston. Perfectly composed, like she'd trained for that exact moment her entire life-and maybe she had. But there had been something behind her eyes. Something sharp. Controlled.
She hadn't been surprised. But she hadn't agreed either. She'd endured.
It should've made her forgettable. Instead, it made her an instrument of my curiosity.
Eliana Rivera was elegant, sharp, and beautiful.
She also hated my guts as much as I hated hers, maybe even more.
And she was going to be my wife.
"She and her father get more wealth and status. We get silence," I said. "We both play our parts. That's all this is."
Christian didn't say anything for a moment. He just looked at me. Then, finally: "And if she figures out what this really cost you?"
"She won't."
"You underestimate her."
"I'm not underestimating anyone," I said, voice harder now. "This is not about her. This is about him."
I stared at Damien.
He looked... small. Ashamed. Rightfully.
"You don't get to be reckless anymore," I said. "You don't get to act like the rules don't apply to you because you're my brother."
"I know," he murmured.
"Do you?"
"Yes." His voice cracked. "I know."
Christian shifted in his seat. "We're almost through Rivera's firewall. Give me a few more days, and I'll have something actionable."
"Good," I said.
"Then what?" Damien asked, quietly. "Once you destroy the photos? What happens to the marriage?"
I didn't answer.
Because even I didn't know.
Eliana Rivera was a problem. Elegant. Controlled. And smarter than she let on. I didn't like her, didn't trust her, and sure as hell didn't want to be married to her.
But I also didn't like loose ends. And she'd just become one of the most dangerous ones I'd ever tied to my name.
"I don't walk away from responsibility," I said instead.
"That's one word for it," Christian muttered under his breath.
"I'm serious," I said, eyeing them both. "This isn't about optics. This is about protecting what's ours."
"I didn't mean to screw it up," Damien said again, softer this time.
I looked at him. Really looked.
And as angry as I was-as ready as I was to let him twist under the pressure-I remembered something. Him, eight years old, walking into my office barefoot with a bloody nose because he didn't want me to find out he lost a fight. Because he thought I'd be disappointed.
"I know you didn't mean to," I said quietly. "But you did."
Damien dropped his eyes.
"And now I'm going to fix it," I added. "Even if it means marrying someone I'd rather never see again."
Christian finally rose from his seat. "Alright. I'll check in when I get something. And Damien?"
"Yeah?"
"Try not to be a walking PR crisis until then."
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7.9
One night of deception.
A lifetime of consequences.
A bond that cannot be broken.
Nadia Williams is an Omega living in the shadows of the pack she once called home.
Since her father's death, she and her mother, Estelle, have been treated as outcasts by her ruthless uncle, Alpha Edwards. When her mother is framed for theft, Nadia is forced into a deal with the devil.
To save her mother's life, she must become a virgin substitute for her cousin, Danielle.
Her aunt, Katerina, offers a devil's bargain to set her mother free: Nadia must spend one night in the bed of the most powerful man in the country, the billionaire; Alpha Conrad Bradley.
The catch?
She must swap places with her spiteful cousin.
Conrad demands a virgin bride to secure his royal bloodline, and Danielle, Nadia's cruel cousin, has already forfeited her purity.
What begins as a desperate night of passion in the dark spirals into a web of hidden identities and betrayal.
Nadia survives the night and disappears, hoping to bury the shame of the encounter forever.
But fate has a different plan.
Desperate for a fresh start away from her uncle's shadow, Nadia secures a high-level position at Bradley Group of Industries.
As Alpha Conrad unknowingly hires Nadia at his company, an undeniable connection sparks between them.
Conrad is haunted by the scent of the woman from that night-a scent that doesn't match his fiancée, Danielle, but seems to cling to his new, brilliant employee.
As they work side-by-side, Nadia finds an unexpected and beautiful second chance at a life she thought was lost.
Yet, buried secrets threaten to destroy everything.
When the Alpha discovers the woman he truly bonded with, the fallout will be legendary.
7.9
Elena Crane wakes up in a hospital bed after barely surviving a resort fire, only to discover the devastating truth. The kidney she donated to her husband Leo three days ago wasn't for him. It was for his mistress, Lydia. Worse, she overhears Leo instructing a doctor to kill her within five days and make it look like surgical complications so he can collect two hundred million dollars in life insurance. Their entire five year marriage was an elaborate scheme to steal her organs and murder her for money.
What Leo and Lydia don't know is that Elena is actually Roberta Alfred, the legendary jewelry designer and billionaire heiress who abandoned her empire for love. After enduring multiple murder attempts, including being locked in a morgue and losing her uterus to forced hysterectomy, Elena escapes. She divorces Leo, claims the insurance money herself, and returns home to reclaim her identity and her family's billion dollar empire.
8.4
Ayleen Avery was just a struggling hotel worker trying to survive her shift. But during a sudden blackout, she accidentally stumbled into the pitch-black VIP suite of a ruthless billionaire driven mad by chronic insomnia.
Calmed only by her unique natural scent of roses and rain, the terrifying man attacked her from the shadows and forced himself on her. Terrified and broken, Ayleen fled at dawn, unknowingly leaving behind her late mother's antique rose necklace in his bed.
Her greedy coworker found the necklace, claimed to be the woman from that night, and was instantly swept into a life of luxury. Meanwhile, Ayleen was blackmailed into a forced marriage with her attacker—Cassius Doyle—to save her adoptive father from prison. Deceived by the stolen necklace, Cassius believed Ayleen was a manipulative spy. He brought the coworker into their home and paraded her around the master bedroom.
"In this house, you are lower than the dirt on my shoes."
He choked Ayleen, forced her to sleep in a damp storage room, and treated her with violent disgust while pampering the thief.
Ayleen was suffocating in absolute despair. She had lost her innocence, her freedom, and her mother's only relic to a vicious liar. She couldn't understand how this all-powerful man could be so completely blind. Why couldn't he recognize the very scent that had cured his agonizing madness?
Staring at the dark bruises he had just left on her neck, Ayleen wiped the blood from her lip. She would endure this three-month marriage to secure her family's safety, but once the contract ended, she would expose the truth and tear down the fake savior he cherished so much.
8.7
Brought back from a humble life in Montana, Nora found out she was the true biological heiress of the ultra-wealthy Beaumont family.
But her biological parents didn't love her; they loved the fake daughter, Olivia, much more.
The moment she arrived, her father pushed an engagement termination agreement across his massive desk, forcing her to give up her wealthy fiancé so Olivia could have him.
Her mother looked at her with pure disdain.
"You should know your place. Don't reach for things that were never meant for you."
To break her spirit, they moved her into a cramped, dusty servant's room. They even ordered the butler to feed her cold kitchen scraps and gristle.
They wanted to humiliate her, to make her feel like a piece of trash rather than a daughter.
They expected her to cry, to beg, and to be absolutely crushed by the realization that her own flesh and blood saw her only as a liability to their reputation.
They thought the country girl would easily fold under their united front of cruelty.
But Nora felt no sting of betrayal, only the calculating clarity of a chess player.
She calmly signed the paper, pulled out the Beaumont family trust rules, and looked them dead in the eye.
"Since I am the legal heir, I demand what belongs to me. I'm taking the master bedroom."
8.5
Alexandrea woke up with a splitting headache in a strange hotel bed, terrified to find a brutally handsome, half-naked stranger beside her.
Before she could even scream, the door burst open. Her adoptive mother, Ivette, stormed in with a swarm of reporters and flashing cameras.
"How could you disgrace our family name like this?"
Ivette sobbed, putting on a theatrical performance of a heartbroken mother. It was a setup to completely ruin Alexandrea's reputation in front of New York's elite.
For ten years, Alexandrea had lived in a house of horrors. Her back and arms were covered in silvery scars and puckered cigarette burns left by Ivette's vicious abuse.
Yet to the public, Ivette had carefully crafted Alexandrea's image as a wild, ungrateful, and manipulative liar.
Trapped under the duvet, Alexandrea was drowning in shame, her voice lost in the storm of accusations.
She didn't understand why her adoptive family hated her so much, treating her worse than a stray dog while using her brother's future to keep her chained.
But what she understood even less was the stranger beside her.
Instead of panicking, the man slowly sat up, his presence alone silencing the frantic room. He was Ace Griffith, the billionaire heir who owned half of Manhattan.
He wrapped his suit jacket around her trembling shoulders, looked Ivette dead in the eye, and dropped a bomb.
"I will be marrying her."
Then, he carried Alexandrea away from her ten-year prison, ordering his men to dig up the Terry family's darkest secrets and her true identity.
8.8
Bella Danvers aka Isabella Powell is a 20-year-old college student who encountered the hot and ruthless CEO of the Rinaldi Corporation, Gabriel Rinaldi. They had a forgetful one-night stand that took a turn for the worst. Will he be able to find her before he is forced into an arranged marriage? Will she be able to tell him the news? Or will they be forced apart?