Secret Billionaire’s Contract Bride: Marrying My Enemy’s Lover

Chapter 23

POV: *Damon*

I’d first met Adelaide when I was six. And since that day, I threw myself

into her trap.

I’d run out of another one of my father’s lessons, hiding in the gardens between our houses. She’d crawled into a hole between the massive shrubs, ending up on our side of the spacious gardens.

She had wide, pretty eyes and long silky hair pulled into a single braid. Even covered in mud with twigs sticking in her hair, I remember I thought she was cute. She bent down to my eye level as I sat curled up with my back to one of the shrubs.

“Why are you crying?” she asked, so innocently.

I glared at her, my eyes perfectly dry.

“Leave me alone,” I spat.

“How rude,” her red cheeks puffed up with air as she placed her hands on her hips. “I’m only trying to help. That’s not very nice.”

“So?” I looked away, sulking. I didn’t want her help.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, her face crumbling up as if she was in pain. I was startled at the time to see tiny diamond-like tears fill the corners of her eyes. Was she crying for me?

She reached up one of her hands to touch my bruised and battered cheek, and I flinched away on impulse.

“I’m sorry,” she said, mournfully.

I stared at her, confused and wary of the strange girl who had appeared out of nowhere. Her eyes lit up all of a sudden, and she grinned. Her grin alone was enough to make me feel at ease with her.

“I know! My mama used to do this to me when I got hurt,” she told me, proudly before leaning forward and placing a tender kiss on my cheek.

“Pain, pain, go away!” she recited, throwing her hands into the air like it was a magic spell.

I grabbed the cheek she had kissed, stunned to my core as I stared at her.

Chapter 23

My cheeks began to warm-growing hotter and hotter.

“What’s your name?” I demanded, scrubbing her kiss off my check in my embarrassment. “You shouldn’t be here.”

She beamed, seemingly not caring about my threat. Even then she had the most beautiful smile.

“My name’s Addeway,” she said, her tongue slipping at the end. She frowned, repeating the word, but she was missing her two front teeth and she kept whistling out the end of her name.

She looked adorable, all frustrated as she kept trying to say her name and failing.

“Okay. Addeway,” I raised an eyebrow at her, trying hard not to smile.

“No, Adellay!”

“Sure thing, Addellay.”

shouted, her cheeks red with the effort.

laughed for the

and stuck out her tongue at me.

“Adelaide!”

of a

back to your

face fell as she

gonna be mad at me,”

like when my father was mad at me, I didn’t want her to have to go through that. I could see the fear

the terror in her eyes so

it,” I told her. “I messed it up

Chapter 23

did it all.”

down at her dress, and smiled brightly. “You are nice!”

what to do. Beneath the mud, she smelled like strawberries- so

to play again!” Adelaide grinned at me, waving to me as she made her way back through the hedge wall and to her own. house. I waved back at her, watching her go until she was out of my

a metal fence twenty feet high after that and the next time we

I did. I could never forget her

light I had in the house full of shadows. Every time my father’s lessons left me battered and bruised, I remember

go away. I could even hear it in her voice. It always made

to me because every time I got hurt and sang it to myself, the pain always stopped.

was bright, streaming into the room.

blew through the open bay window, the white curtains

against the headboard as I watched the sunrise, my hands brushing through her hair in a soothing

on the nightstand. I grabbed it quickly to keep it from making more noise.

sleeping woman

like to work with you,”

Chapter 23

come to sign the contract on Monday.”

I look forward to working with you on this deal,” I

he replied.

onto the nightstand, not paying it any more mind. A huge smile formed on my face as a deep feeling of satisfaction moved through

had wanted. The multi-million dollar contract was mine. We wouldn’t need money from our families; I’d made sure of that.

innocent look on her face. I was

a soft kiss to the ends of it and drinking in the smell of her

had loved her, how strongly I had ached for her all these

could finally hold her in my arms. She was finally mine. My

stirred, groaning as she shifted, her hands reaching out for me. She grabbed onto the nearest pillow, cuddling into

her finger-her engagement ring. I couldn’t wait for the moment when I could put

my sweet angel would be mine officially.

week? Only one week?

and groaned. Neither of us had planned anything for the wedding.

phone, already calling the number I knew could help me out. She owed me a favor

voice came through the phone,

Chapter 23