The Billionaire's Favourite Indulgence.
Emily Parker has a simple life plan: write her steamy romance novels, collect her royalties, sleep whenever she wants, and avoid anything that sounds like responsibility.
Marriage? Absolutely not.
But when her aunt threatens to drag her back to the countryside and marry her off the traditional way, Emily makes a desperate promise-she'll find a husband in three months.
There's just one problem.
She's single. She hates dating. And she's far too lazy to fall in love.
So she does what any rational, comfort-loving woman would do-she signs up for a contract marriage. Temporary husband. Minimal effort. Clean divorce. Peace restored.
Except the man who accepts her proposal isn't just some convenient stranger.
He's Adrian Vale. Thirty-one. Devastatingly calm. CEO of a global empire.
And he remembers her.
Emily may have lost her childhood memories in the accident that killed their parents-but Adrian never forgot a single detail. Not the night that changed everything. Not the little girl who once held his hand. Not the name she would one day unknowingly choose as her pen name: Vale.
To her, it was just a contract.
To him, it was fate.
As secrets from the past begin to surface and the truth behind their shared tragedy threatens to tear them apart, Emily must decide whether to keep running from responsibility... or finally choose the man who has loved her long before she could remember him.
She wanted a temporary husband.
He's been waiting for her his entire life.
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Chapter 6
Emily Parker decided that lying was a skill.
And like all skills, it required confidence.
She sat on her couch with her phone balanced against her knee, scrolling aimlessly while rehearsing her tone in her head. Calm. Casual. Slightly smug. The tone of someone whose life was definitely not on the verge of implosion.
Her aunt would be calling any minute now.
As if summoned by thought alone, Emily's phone rang.
Aunt Lin.
Emily answered on the third ring. Not too eager. Not too distant.
"Hello, Auntie," she said lightly.
"I heard nothing from you after I left," Aunt Lin said without greeting. "Have you thought about what I said?"
"Yes," Emily replied smoothly. "And you don't need to worry anymore."
A pause.
"Oh?" Aunt Lin said. "Why is that?"
Emily smiled.
"Because I'm engaged."
Silence.
Not the shocked kind. Not the excited kind.
The dangerous kind.
"You're what?" Aunt Lin asked slowly.
"Engaged," Emily repeated, unfazed. "I told you I had a plan."
Another pause. Emily could practically hear the mental abacus clicking on the other end of the line.
"To whom?" Aunt Lin asked.
Emily didn't hesitate. "His name is Adrian."
She had practiced this.
"Adrian what?"
"...Vale."
The name tasted strange in her mouth. Too heavy. Too real.
Aunt Lin said nothing for a long moment.
Emily leaned back against the couch, crossing her legs, projecting ease she didn't entirely feel.
"He works in finance," Emily continued casually. "We met through... connections."
"What kind of connections?"
"Adult ones," Emily said without thinking.
Silence again.
Emily winced. "I mean-professional. Networking."
"I see," Aunt Lin said flatly. "How old is he?"
"Early thirties."
"Family background?"
"Good."
"Job stability?"
"Extremely stable."
Aunt Lin exhaled sharply. "You expect me to believe this appeared overnight?"
Emily shrugged, though her aunt couldn't see it. "Sometimes things move fast."
"Marriage is not fast," Aunt Lin said. "Marriage is serious."
Emily resisted the urge to laugh.
"Yes," she said solemnly. "Very serious."
"Then prove it."
Emily's smile froze.
"Prove... what?"
"That you're engaged," Aunt Lin said. "I want proof."
Emily's brain went into overdrive.
Proof.
Rings. Photos. Parents. Documents.
She had planned for none of these.
"What kind of proof?" Emily asked carefully.
"I want to meet him," Aunt Lin said. "And I want to see registration papers."
Emily's heart skipped.
"Registration papers?"
"Yes," Aunt Lin replied impatiently. "An engagement registered properly leads to marriage. If you're serious, there should be paperwork."
Emily laughed lightly, hoping humor would save her. "Auntie, you're jumping ahead. There's no registration for engagement. Only marriage "
"Exactly" Aunt Lin said. "I'm asking you to register your marriage"
The line went dead.
Emily stared at her phone.
"...Shit."
---
Emily spent the next hour pacing her apartment.
She rehearsed lies.
She imagined fake documents.
She even Googled "marriage registration" and quickly regretted it.
Too many steps. Too much verification. Too much effort.
"This is fine," she muttered, pacing. "I'll just... delay."
Her phone buzzed again.
Aunt Lin: I will come with you to register next week.
Emily stopped pacing.
Register.
With her.
Her gaze drifted slowly to her laptop.
To her email.
To the folder she had deliberately ignored since signing the contract.
A bad feeling settled in her stomach.
"No," she whispered.
She opened the agency's email.
Scrolled.
Scrolled more.
Her eyes caught on a line she had skimmed past before:
"Legal marriage registration has been completed in accordance with national regulations."
Emily blinked.
Once.
Twice.
"What?"
Her fingers trembled as she scrolled further down.
Attached was a document.
A marriage certificate.
Emily's vision blurred.
"No," she said faintly. "No, no, no-this was a clerical mistake."
She opened the document.
Names.
Dates.
Stamps.
Her name.
Emily Parker.
Spouse:
Adrian Vale.
Legally married.
Already.
Her knees gave out. She collapsed onto the couch, staring at the screen like it might rearrange itself out of pity.
"This wasn't supposed to be real," she whispered.
She remembered the contract.
The dense clauses.
The phrase "binding upon execution."
Her laughter bubbled up, sharp and hysterical.
"I'm married," she said out loud. "I'm actually married."
To a billionaire.
Without a wedding.
Without meeting his parents.
Without telling her aunt.
Her phone rang again.
Aunt Lin.
Emily answered weakly.
"Well?" Aunt Lin demanded. "When are we going?"
Emily swallowed.
"There's... no need," she said slowly.
"Why?"
"Because," Emily said, staring at the certificate, "I'm already married."
Silence.
"What did you say?"
Emily exhaled. "I signed the papers already. Legally."
Another long pause.
"You registered... without telling me?" Aunt Lin asked, incredulous.
Emily winced. "It happened quickly."
"Where?"
"In the city."
"To whom?"
"...Adrian Vale."
This time, the silence stretched so long Emily thought the call had dropped.
Finally, Aunt Lin spoke.
"Bring the documents," she said. "I want to see them. And come with your supposed husband "
The call ended.
Emily dropped the phone onto the couch.
Her chest felt tight.
This wasn't a lie she could undo.
This wasn't an engagement she could fabricate.
This was real.
Binding.
Permanent-at least for now.
She buried her face in her hands.
"This was supposed to be easy," she muttered.
Her phone buzzed again.
A new message.
Adrian Vale: Would it be convenient for you to visit my family with me during the weekend?
Emily stared at the screen.
Slowly.
Her blood ran cold.
Family?
Why was she meeting family?
Aunt Lin, Adrian Vale, her perfect life was crumbling down.
Emily Parker lifted her head, dread settling deep in her bones.
This wasn't a clerical mistake.
This wasn't temporary convenience.
She wasn't engaged.
She was already a wife.
And her aunt was about to find out.
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7.8
Alayna was working a grueling catering shift in worn-out heels to support her broke college boyfriend, Caiden, who claimed to be studying at the library.
But through the crack of a VIP suite door, she saw him wearing a bespoke suit and a Patek Philippe watch, sipping expensive liquor.
"It's a little poverty role-play. Keeps things interesting."
He was laughing with his rich friends, mocking her as his clueless "charity case."
To make matters worse, she was forced into a humiliating mascot costume just in time to watch him passionately kiss his wealthy ex-girlfriend.
That same night, Alayna's mother collapsed with gastric cancer, requiring a half-million-dollar surgery.
When a desperate Alayna begged Caiden for help, he refused.
"Why don't you just apply for Medicaid? That's the path for people like you."
For two years, she had starved herself to buy his textbooks, his tickets, and his shoes.
He had stolen her sweat and her sacrifices, all for a cruel game.
The sheer audacity of his betrayal made her blood run cold.
When a billionaire stranger stepped in to pay her mother's medical bills in exchange for a one-year fake marriage, Alayna didn't hesitate to sign the contract.
She slipped the flawless diamond ring onto her finger, opened a spreadsheet, and sent Caiden an invoice for every single cent.
This time, she was going to dismantle his entire life.
9.5
I returned to New York with two scuffed suitcases and a broken heart, ready to end my three-year exile as a ghost wife. All I wanted was to sign the divorce papers, move my dying mother to hospice, and vanish from the billionaire Spears family forever.
But the moment I stepped into the penthouse, I saw a pair of expensive red-bottomed heels by the door that weren't mine. Carlyle, the husband who hadn't spoken to me in years, was already moving his mistress into our home before the ink on our separation agreement was even dry.
The humiliation was only the beginning. Carlyle treated me like an intruder in my own house, yet he forced me to attend high-society galas as his "perfect" wife to protect his reputation. When I tried to leave, he froze my bank accounts, leaving me unable to pay for my mother’s life-saving treatment. He watched my desperation with cold, predatory eyes, flaunting his new romance in the tabloids while keeping me trapped in his freezing home. My mother’s doctors warned me she was running out of time, but Carlyle only used her illness as a leash to keep me from running.
I didn't understand why he was doing this to me. I had clearly signed away the money and the name, so why wouldn't he let me go? Why did he have me watched for years if he hated me so much? Why was he flaunting another woman while refusing to sign the papers that would set us both free? What did he want from a woman he claimed to despise?
When I finally cornered him with the final decree, Carlyle didn't pick up the pen. He snatched the folder, a flicker of cold triumph in his icy eyes.
"The terms are wrong, Beatrix. I'm adding an employment clause. You’re going to work for me, in my office, where I can keep you under my thumb 24/7."
He didn't just refuse to sign the papers; he had just turned my divorce into a permanent prison sentence.
9.5
For twenty years, Krista lived as the perfect daughter of the wealthy Cain family.
But a single DNA report shattered her entire world. Her adoptive parents coldly declared she was just a mistake and immediately replaced her with the true bloodline.
Desperate, she ran through the freezing rain to find her fiancé, only to hear him laughing with his friends.
"Marry a fake? I don't collect the Cain family's second-hand trash."
She slapped him, threw her diamond ring at his chest, and stumbled into a jazz lounge to drown her pain.
Drunk and heartbroken, she accidentally crashed into a stranger, clinging to him like a lifeline, which ended in a wild night in a luxury penthouse.
When she woke up, she realized the man she had ravaged was Jasper Stone, the most ruthless, cold-blooded billionaire on Wall Street.
At the same time, her phone lit up with notifications. Her bank accounts were frozen, and the Cain family had just released a brutal public statement permanently cutting her off.
She was completely abandoned, stripped of her home, her family, and her dignity in a single night. Why was twenty years of loyalty erased so easily?
But instead of kicking her out, Jasper tossed a prenuptial agreement onto the bed.
"Pay off your debt with marriage. Stay, and you are the untouchable Mrs. Stone."
Looking at the contract, Krista wiped her tears, put on bold red lipstick, and signed her name.
8.6
Lila Harper's perfect life implodes when she catches her fiancé cheating four days before their wedding. Drunk, heartbroken, and craving escape, she stumbles into the wrong hotel room and straight into the arms of Lucian Kane: a ruthless, sinfully dominant 45-year-old billionaire who gives her the first real pleasure of her life.
Come morning, he's gone until she discovers he's her new boss. What starts as filthy, forbidden office games spirals into obsession, possession, and a love that demands total surrender.
9.1
When Elena Rodriguez fled her abusive billionaire husband while pregnant, she thought she'd never see Alexander Blackwood again. Eight months later, a catastrophic accident steals his memories-erasing six years, including their marriage and the monster he became.
The man who wakes up is Alexander at 27: kind, humble, horrified by evidence of his paranoid jealousy and controlling behavior. As he embarks on an amends tour, apologizing to everyone he hurt, Elena watches the man she once loved fight to become worthy of redemption.
But Elena harbors a secret: their daughter, Sofia. When circumstances force them together at the hospital, Alexander meets his child for the first time-and Elena must decide if she can forgive a man who doesn't remember his crimes.
As Alexander's memories gradually return, both face an impossible question: Can someone truly change, or will he become the monster again? With Sofia's future hanging in the balance, Elena must choose between protecting her heart and believing in second chances.
Some scars run too deep. Some loves refuse to die.
8.2
Emily Grey comes to an elite university on a scholarship, determined to stay invisible. Julian Blackwell-the billionaire heir who rules the campus-has never been denied anything... until her.
One dangerous encounter turns into an obsession neither of them can escape. As rumors explode, enemies close in, and dark family secrets surface, Emily is pulled into a world of power, control, and scrutiny.
Loving Julian is risky.
Leaving him might be impossible.
The Billionaire Prince's Scholar is a high-stakes romance where attraction turns obsessive and love comes with a price.