His Betrayal, My Sudden Wedding Vows

For seven years, I was his property. The lover and most trusted operative of Damian Benjamin, Veridian City' s ruthless kingpin. I took bullets for him, balanced his bloody books, and foolishly mistook his possessiveness for love.

Then, he ordered me to seduce his rival, Earl Reid.

It was all a cruel scheme to win the heart of another woman. I followed his orders, luring Earl into a hotel suite at a gala, only for Damian to burst in with the press.

He publicly shamed me, leaving me naked and exposed as his true love called me trash. My seven-year devotion was shattered by the man I thought was my savior.

But as the camera flashes blinded me, Earl Reid, the man I was sent to destroy, shielded my body from the world.

He looked at me, his expression unreadable, and made an announcement that sealed my fate.

"We're getting married."

Chapter 1

"I own you," the old man from the syndicate had said, his cloudy eyes raking over my trembling body. "But that face, that body... they're not for the likes of us. They're a weapon. A gift for someone much, much more important."

That was seven years ago.

The next day, I was cleaned up, dressed in clothes worth more than my family' s entire medical debt, and delivered like a package to Damian Benjamin' s penthouse.

Veridian City' s uncrowned king.

I was terrified. The stories about him were the stuff of nightmares, whispered in the dark corners of the underworld I' d been thrown into. They said he was ruthless, cold-blooded, a predator in a bespoke suit.

My hands were clammy, my heart hammering against my ribs so hard I thought it might break free. The penthouse was silent, cavernous, the floor-to-ceiling windows showing a city that glittered like a galaxy of fallen stars. A city that now felt like a cage.

He was sitting in a leather armchair, a glass of amber liquid in his hand, the ice clinking softly as he swirled it. He didn't look at me. He just stared out at the city lights.

"Please," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "Please, I can work. I can do anything. Just... not this."

My stomach churned with a sickening mix of fear and bile. The thought of his hands on me, of what was expected of me, made my skin crawl. I felt a wave of nausea so intense I had to swallow hard to keep from vomiting on the pristine marble floor.

Damian finally turned his head. His eyes, the color of dark-smoked whiskey, moved over me slowly, dismissively. There was no pity in them. No warmth. Only a chilling sort of appraisal, like a man looking at a new piece of art he' d just acquired.

He set his glass down with a soft click and rose to his feet. He was taller than I' d imagined, his presence filling the room, sucking all the air out. He walked toward me, each step deliberate, predatory.

I flinched as he reached out, his long, elegant fingers brushing a strand of hair from my face. My whole body went rigid.

"You're shaking," he observed, his voice a low, smooth baritone that held no comfort. He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. "Don't be."

The force of his grip sent a jolt of pain and terror through me. Tears welled in my eyes, blurring his impossibly handsome, terrifyingly cold face.

"Don't worry," he said, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I'll take good care of you. You're mine now." His thumb stroked my lower lip, a gesture that was both intimate and utterly invasive. It felt like being marked.

He leaned in closer, his lips brushing against my ear. "Tell me, Alexa," he murmured, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper that sent a fresh wave of dread through me. "Me and Earl Reid... which one of us do you think is better in bed?"

The question, so bizarre and out of place, hung in the air between us, a harbinger of a reality I couldn't yet comprehend.

That was the beginning.

It all started because I was naive. Fresh out of college, with a diploma in one hand and a stack of my mother's medical bills in the other that was high enough to choke a horse. I took a job posted on a university forum-"Executive Assistant to a Private Investor. Lucrative pay. Discretion required."

I thought it was my ticket out of crippling debt.

Instead, it was a one-way ticket into hell. The "private investor" was a front for one of Veridian City's smaller crime syndicates. They didn't care about my degree. They cared about my face, my obedience, and the fact that I was desperate.

The place they kept us was a damp, lightless basement that smelled of mildew and fear. We were commodities, girls waiting to be sold, used, or broken.

One night, a drunken client, one of the syndicate's mid-level thugs, decided he didn't want to wait his turn. He cornered me, his breath hot and stinking of cheap whiskey. He tore the thin fabric of my shirt, his rough hands grabbing at me.

"Pretty little thing," he slurred, pushing me against the cold, damp wall. "Too good for us, huh? Let's see what you've got."

A scream lodged in my throat, choked by sheer terror. My mind went blank. This was it. This was the end of what little dignity I had left. My spirit felt like it was shattering, a fine crystal cracking under immense pressure.

Then, the door to the basement crashed open.

The room fell silent. The man holding me froze.

A figure stood silhouetted in the doorway, exuding an aura of absolute authority.

"Get your hands off her," a voice commanded, low and lethally calm.

The thug scrambled away from me as if I were on fire. He fell to his knees, his head bowed. "Mr. Benjamin, I... I didn't know she was..."

"She is now," the voice cut him off. A single hand signal, and two men in black suits stepped forward, dragging the whimpering thug away. The silence that followed was more terrifying than the screams.

That was the first time I saw him. Damian Benjamin.

In Veridian City, his name was a legend. To the public, he was Damian Benjamin, the enigmatic billionaire CEO of the Benjamin Corporation, a philanthropic mogul whose face graced the covers of business magazines.

But in the underworld, he was simply "The Boss." The apex predator. The man who owned the city's shadows. He ruled with an iron fist, his influence so vast it was said that not a single illicit dollar moved in Veridian without his silent approval. He was charismatic, ruthless, and utterly untouchable.

He had come to collect a debt and had stumbled upon me instead. A piece of distressed merchandise.

I scrambled to my feet, clutching the torn remnants of my shirt, my entire being consumed by a primal need to survive. I ran to him, falling at his feet, my fingers desperately grabbing the hem of his expensive trousers.

"Please," I begged, the word torn from my throat. "Take me with you. Please."

He looked down at me, his expression unreadable. And in that moment, he became my savior.

For seven years, I lived in his shadow. I became more than just a woman warming his bed. I became his most indispensable tool. I learned to navigate the treacherous currents of his world, to handle his illicit dealings with a cool head and an efficient hand. I balanced his books, the ones written in blood and secrets. I stood between him and the bullets of his enemies. I became his shield, his confidante, his most trusted operative.

And, fool that I was, I fell in love with him.

I mistook his possessiveness for protection, his control for care. He gave me a life of luxury, draped me in diamonds, and shielded me from the ugliness of the world he commanded. In return, I gave him my loyalty, my body, and my heart.

Everyone in his circle believed I was different. They saw the way his eyes would follow me, the way he' d let me into his private study when no one else was allowed. They whispered that I would be the one to finally become Mrs. Benjamin.

I believed it too.

Until last night.

After a night of searing passion, when he held me in his arms, his body still slick with sweat, his breathing evening out against my hair, he suddenly went cold.

He pulled away, sitting up on the edge of the bed, his back a rigid wall of muscle.

"Alexa," he said, his voice devoid of the warmth it held just moments before. "I have a job for you."

I sat up, a knot of unease tightening in my stomach. "What is it?"

He turned to face me, his handsome features cast in shadow, his eyes holding a familiar, chilling ruthlessness. "I want you to seduce Earl Reid."

My world, which I had so carefully constructed around the illusion of his love, shattered into a million pieces.

He didn't stop there. He laid out the plan with cold precision. I was to get close to Earl Reid, his arch-rival in both business and crime. I was to become Earl's lover, create a public scandal so explosive it would be on the front page of every newspaper in Veridian City.

"Why?" The word was a raw, wounded sound.

Damian' s jaw tightened. "Because Brooklyn is obsessed with him. She thinks he's some kind of romantic hero. I want to shatter that illusion. I want her to see him for what he is-just another man who can be brought down. When she's heartbroken, when her fantasy is destroyed... she'll finally come to me."

Brooklyn Mckinney. The city's premier socialite, the spoiled, naive heiress of the Mckinney empire. Damian's "white moonlight." The woman he' d been chasing for years, the one woman who consistently rejected him, her heart set on the one man Damian couldn't defeat: Earl Reid.