After Exposing My Identity, My Ruthless Husband Begged for Love

The silence in the car was heavy.

Sienna shivered. The heat was on, but the chill was deep inside her.

Julian watched her. She looked like a drowned rat, but she held herself like a queen in exile. He took off his tuxedo jacket. It was warm from his body, smelling of expensive wool and that faint tobacco scent.

He tossed it into her lap.

"Put it on before you ruin my upholstery."

Sienna pulled the jacket around her shoulders. It engulfed her. The warmth was instant, overwhelming.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "The library is closed."

"Home?"

"Not an option."

Julian's phone buzzed. He answered it on speaker.

"Julian!" It was his sister, Elena. She sounded frantic. "Leo just fired his fifth tutor. He hacked the school district's server and changed his grades to emojis. You have to do something."

Julian rubbed his temples. "I'll handle it."

He hung up. He looked at Sienna. He remembered the books she was holding that day on campus. Advanced Game Theory. Macroeconomics.

"You're a student at NYU. Business?"

"Yes."

"Grades?"

"4.0."

Julian studied her. She was desperate. He could smell it. But she wasn't begging.

"My brother is fifteen. He is a genius, and he is a nightmare. He needs a tutor who can outsmart him."

Sienna looked at him. "And?"

"And you have nowhere to go. I have a guest house. You tutor Leo. I give you a roof and a salary."

Sienna's mind raced. The Vanderbilt estate. The archives. It was the perfect cover.

"I'm expensive," she said.

Julian laughed. It was a dry, dark sound. "I'm a Vanderbilt. Try me."

"Triple the standard rate. And nobody knows who I am. I'm just the help."

"Done."

The car turned smoothly, heading toward Long Island. Sienna leaned back into the leather seat, pulling his jacket tighter. She was walking into the lion's den.

Good thing she was the lion tamer.