Chapter 1 - THE KISS THAT SILENCED THE BALLROOM
“You mean this isn't taking?”
Evelyn Mercer's voice carried farther than she intended.
The folded document trembled between her fingers.
Grant Holloway stared at it.
Across the ballroom, the guests had begun whispering.
Cole Maddox stood beside Evelyn, his expression unreadable.
Grant recovered first.
“Put that away.”
“No.”
“Evelyn.”
She raised her chin.
“You told me our marriage would save my father's company.”
“It will.”
“You didn't tell me you already had an agreement to take it if I refused.”
Grant's jaw tightened.
“This isn't the place.”
“Then where is the place?”
She laughed bitterly.
“Your office? Where you explain how little choice I have?”
A woman near the front table gasped.
Grant's face darkened.
Cole glanced at the document.
“May I?”
Evelyn hesitated.
Then handed it to him.
He unfolded it.
Read the first paragraph.
Then the second.
His expression changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough for Grant to notice.
Cole looked up.
“Interesting.”
Grant swallowed.
“That's confidential.”
Cole smiled faintly.
“Then perhaps you shouldn't have brought it into a ballroom full of witnesses.”
He turned the page.
His eyes stopped on a signature.
Then he looked at Evelyn.
“Did you sign this?”
“No.”
“Did you authorize your father to sign anything on your behalf?”
“No.”
Cole nodded.
Then folded the document.
“Good.”
Grant stepped forward.
“Give that back.”
Cole looked at him.
“No.”
The word was quiet.
Final.
Grant's expression hardened.
“You don't understand what you're interfering with.”
Cole smiled.
“Grant, I've spent twelve years interfering with men who think contracts make them untouchable.”
He slipped the document into his jacket.
“Your problem is that you forgot the difference between owning a debt and owning a person.”
Evelyn stared at him.
For the first time that night, she felt something unfamiliar.
Hope.
Then Grant said something that made the entire ballroom go silent.
“You think Maddox is helping you?”
He laughed bitterly.
“Ask him why he came here tonight.”
Evelyn turned toward Cole.
May you like
Cole's expression changed.
And she realized the stranger she'd kissed had been hiding something too.
