Ashley stirred slightly. She felt beckoning warmth around her and nuzzled deeper into it. Her bed had never been this comfortable, she felt she never wanted to leave. She would probably be late to her class today for the first time ever. But she wasn’t leaving this bed, or the arms wound tightly around her.
Wait! Arms?!
She struggled to open her eyes. A searing headache split through her head immediately. Why did she feel like someone smashed a sledgehammer on her head multiple times? And why was she in bed with Richard? She had made that rule at the beginning of their relationship. She didn’t like that much physical intimacy. She could count the number of times they’ve kissed. It seemed as though she would have to reconsider. She finally opened her eyes successfully, ignoring the throbbing in her skull.
Her eyes met with jet-black hair instead of Richard’s light brown. She blinked a few times to ensure that she was seeing right. This was not a trick of the light, neither was the man in front of her Richard. Richard cheated on her, and also only Rita’s brother could be this hot.
As soon as the thought pierced through her head, Ashley screamed and tried to roll out of his hold. The headache worsened and she saw his eyebrows creased before he tightened his hold. She was fucked! She was fucked! What was he doing in her bed? She looked around and dread fell upon her when she realized that this was in fact not her room at all.
Ian felt like he was holding a cloud, a wriggling cloud. He tightened his hold and felt more at peace. He should hold this cloud everywhere. The more he thought about it, the more he came to realize that he was actually holding a human being, a loud human being. Was it Rita? He hadn’t hugged Rita to sleep since the time she had a nightmare at fifteen.
He started to slowly open his eyes, the headache that was associated with the action struck him jarringly. It had been a long time since he felt this. It had been a long time since he was hungover. His eyes met the eyes of his sister’s ill advised best friend and he almost facepalmed.
Ashley held her breath.
“Mention this to no one”, he said and started removing his arms. Ashley’s heart skipped a beat. His voice, usually smooth and composed, had transformed into something entirely different. It was raw and deep and textured, like gravel being poured over velvet. She had to look away to avoid him seeing her blush.
The door was slammed open. “Rise and shine Hills!”, A shrill voice yelled and a lithe beautiful woman skipped into the room. Right in front of the bed stood a black-haired woman, effortlessly chic in blue cotton pajamas. Her silky, obsidian hair, usually draping down her back, was everywhere like it had a life of its own.
“Congratulations to the newest couple in town”, she gave them both weird looks and Ian sped up the process of extracting his hands from her body. He should’ve been done already, but they had somehow tangled their limbs so strongly together that it was hard for him to know who owned which limb.
“It’s really not what it looks like”. Ian said, pinching his brows after he succeeded. Ashley swallowed. This was not the time to fawn over his voice.
“Oh I know. A lot of things happened last night. You might wanna hold on to each other for this”, she said, suddenly nervous.
“Rita…w-what happened?”, Ashley asked, sitting up on the bed with some difficulty.
She honestly didn’t want to know. Especially not if she had slept with the condescending man. Oh the insults would never stop!
“You two are married”, She sped out.
“WHAT?!”, Ashely shrieked. Ian recoiled in disbelief. Rita sighed and pulled out papers from her back.
“I didn’t sleep a wink trying to look for a loophole but it’s ironclad”, she said, passing three papers to each of them.
The first thing Ashley saw was the contract. It said she and Ian had to stay married for a year or they’d forfeit everything they had. This was ridiculous! This was impossible! It had to be a prank! Her eyes caught on her signature and her brand new name.
Ashley Hills. This was a farce. This was horrible.
“We can still rip it up”, Ashley said decisively, turning the paper to the side to rip it.
“The stamp of the supreme court is on it”, Ian said coldly. “What did we do last night?”, Ian asked in his gravelly voice.
“Well, I got to your hotel and you were nowhere to be found, so I called you and you told me to come home”, Rita started, sitting at the edge of the bed. “I got home to discover the both of you in my living room, surrounded by paper and vodka bottles -I’m going to steal yours by the way-, discussing so seriously I thought someone was about to die”.
Ashley did get a flashback to a serious conversation with the arrogant bastard.
“You”, Rita said, pointing at Ashley, “told me you and Ian planned to get married to save Ian’s standing as the boss and to prevent your bitch of a step-sister from totally winning”, she looked down at her hands at this. “Sorry about that demon by the way”, Ashley waved it off, there were bigger problems on ground.
“I, of course, noticed you were both drunk, but unfortunately, I got drunk too. And in the process, I crafted this”, she pointed to the papers in their hands. Ashley chanced a glance at Ian and saw that his features were unreadable.
“While you were drunk, you crafted out a contract that can’t be breached”, Ashley said, holding her head. Rita was one of the best lawyers she had ever met, and now Ashley was regretting it.
“Yeah. So you both signed and you said it wasn’t legal yet, and so you asked big bro if he had contacts in the supreme court. Like some urban dictator, he dramatically whipped out his phone and skillfully explained things and asked the judge to come over with his stamp. The man really came over! And uh, he made the contract legal”, Rita sighed.
“We’re not actually married yet though”, Ian said, as if expecting Rita to hit him with something else.
“Uh I’m not done yet”, Rita winced. “Uhm, you got married in vegas and I was the witness”, Rita said, closing her eyes and opening them slightly to observe their reactions.
“HAHAHA, what a funny funny joke, it IS a joke, right?”, she asked, her voice hiding pain.
“Big bro called in his helicopter. We’re in your honeymoon suite. In Vegas. Ashley booked the church. I saw tapes of the wedding. You both looked like you were going off for war as you recited your vows”, Rita flopped lifelessly on the bed.
“I booked a church while drunk? He called in a judge and a helicopter while drunk?!”, Ashley asked, her headache multiplying by four times.
“What can I say? The Hills are talented with alcohol”, Rita said, a shining gleam in her eyes. Ashley recognized it for what it was. Rita was calling her a member of the Hills family, and legally, for at least a year she was.
“I’m telling the newspapers”, Ian said grimly, getting up from the bed.
“W-What?”, Ashley asked, confused.
“You’ve gotten your greedy wish, you're married to a billionaire, I have to inform the press”, Ian said, pulling out his phone from heaven knows where.
“HEY! You don’t talk to your woman that way”, Rita yelled before Ashley could drop the insult that was lingering on the tip of her tongue.
“I’m not his woman! And I’ll never be his woman!”, she said firmly to Rita. “And you!”, she faced Ian. “I’ve never wanted to marry a fucking prick! So I’ll be out of your fucking way, after a year, I’M LEAVING!”, she yelled, standing up to go to the bathroom. Whatever bathroom she could find. This was the honeymoon suite after all, she needed to empty out the contents of her stomach. She should have gone straight to her own home. She shouldn’t have talked to him at all. Now she was bound by marriage in a relationship where the only thing they shared was their hatred for each other.
A knock sounded on the door, Ashley opened it, hoping to find her best friend but when she saw the ruggedly handsome face of her new husband she slammed the door closed. He was a waste of good looks.
“The helicopter is coming down in ten minutes, get dressed or I’m leaving you here, there's a mask on the bedside drawer. I figured you wouldn’t want to show your face to the public. You have ten minutes”, his stupidly attractive voice sounded from behind the door.
Ashley sighed and slid down. She was tied to the man she hated most for twelve months. How bad could things get?
Chapter 5Ashley decided to take a bath. From what she knew so far, he needed her to be his wife more than she needed him at all, so she wouldn’t hand over the rod of power to him. The countertops, floors and walls were all marble, at least twenty beauty products lined up on them, with a giant mirror on the ceiling directly above the equally giant bathtub.There were also His-and-Hers sinks with well-lit mirrors, and a separate glass-enclosed shower with rainfall showerheads. Ashley had seen luxury but this was on a different level. She mourned the fact that she couldn’t indulge the whole day in the bathroom alone. It was the nicest bathroom she had ever seen, and she had seen Rita’s bathroom.She roughly shoved the clothes over her head, throwing them on the floor where she stood. Apparently, they had worn pajamas before going to bed, which begged the question of Ian seeing her naked. She ignored the bathtub and headed straight for the showers, fogging up the glass door with steamy
Chapter 6 Ashley twirled in the large mirror, the lights decorating it accentuating the flow of the gold form-fitting gown that made her look like a celebrity on the red carpet. It was her favorite of all the gowns she had worn. She smoothed it down and almost lifted her phone to take a video when she realized she didn’t have her phone in hand. Where the heck was her phone anyways?She didn’t hold classes on saturday but other people could need her. She wandered about the bedroom, if she couldn’t find it in there she would have to get a new one. After about ten minutes of searching, she found it under a pillow.She turned it on, fully expecting to be faced with a million missed calls and messages from Richard. There was none from him. However, she had four missed calls from Chloe, her other best friend, the previous night.Did Richard really not call her? Was he trying to pull some macho move? Did he think she would come crying for an explanation? Deep down, Ashley knew that she wou
Chapter 7 Ian glared at the woman asleep in the car. They had reached the hangar and she was out cold. He hoped she didn’t expect him to carry her like the previous day. He would stop drinking, it was what brought him into this mess.He shook her awake violently and she jerked up with an unholy yell. “I’m not asleep!”, she yelled, her arms flailing and hitting the side of his face. As she tried to get her bearings Ian had the niggling suspicion that the hitting was intentional. Deep breaths, that was what his therapist said he should do whenever he felt like throwing someone off a highway. “Get out”, he seethed, staying resolutely in his seat till she would leave his line of direct sight.She huffed and stepped out, aided by the guard that had been sitting in the passenger’s seat. He saw her slightly swaying till she climbed the stairs to the private jet. Ian debated the pros and cons of mysteriously ending his life as he realized that he had only been around her for eight hours
CHAPTER 8Ian prepared his briefing for the turning point meeting he would be having the next day. He supposed that it was the only thing he could thank the pretty leech – that roped him into being her husband – for. He had lost all hope after his grandfather’s call, but at least now he was married, he was back in the running.“You wouldn’t believe it but the Presley woman posted something backhanded on her page this morning”, Yu Zhen spoke up from beside him. The asian man was scrolling through his phone with a look of annoyance on his face. Ian didn’t really care whatever his ex-fiancee did, it ceased to be his business since he had found another alternative.“Humor me”, he said, not interrupting the proposal he was typing for an investor. He always did his best drafting in the air.“She said and I quote”, he made his voice take on a higher pitch in mockery. “I’m sorry to all my fans, friends and family. I called off my wedding, I can’t live with a man incapable of feeling emotions,
Chapter 9Hours later, Yu Zhen decided that his new best friend was Ashley. Whether or not Ian kept her in his life after their year long contract, he would not betray his brand new best friend. She was so witty, and had so many stories to tell. At some point on the flight they had abandoned the manwha they were reading to delve into times Ashley had purposely paired two people for a project so they would bond in forced proximity.As they walked to the car that would take them to Ian’s main home, he was extra conscious to make sure to stick close to the short woman so no prying eyes could see her. He wasn’t sure she would want news of her marriage spread everywhere before she even had time to come to terms with it.“So, when do I leave?”, Ashley asked Yu Zhen inquisitively, holding her phone in one hand and her gown in the other. She didn’t need the edges of the beautiful golden dress sweeping the floor of Ian’s hangar.“Leave?”, Yu Zhen sent back, sounding genuinely confused. Ashley
Chapter 10Ian felt a strange prickle of pride as she stared on in awe, almost drooling. He ignored Yu Zhen’s pointed glare and led the way inside, several men in black following them in. He could almost physically feel her itch to wander off on her own, Ian none too gently verbally shoved her to walk away. Like a woman under a spell, she immediately wandered to the gardens. Ian on the other hand branched for the mini-bar. He wasn’t seeking to get drunk, he just needed the slight tang of good wine to face his grandfather’s onslaught of questions when he’d meet him.“Why are you letting her stay here? This is your place!”, Yu Zhen questioned accusingly. He liked Ashley, but that didn’t eliminate the main probability that she wasn’t using Ian for her own selfish reasons. He couldn’t imagine what possibly moved Ian to let her stay in this house out of all the houses she could have stayed at instead. Ian sat on the barstool and picked a bottle. Yu Zhen folded his arms and raised an eyeb
Chapter 11“Oh my darling, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to break the news in such an insensitive way”, Chloe was immediately horrified as Ashley started sobbing into her bent hand.“No No, it’s- it’s not how you- how you broke the news I’m just really weak emotionally right now”, Ashley stuttered through her tears. A knock sounded on the door of the room.Both Ashley and Chloe’s attention were zeroed in on it. Chloe furrowed her brows even more as she saw the full-view of the room in Ashley’s run to the door. Was Ashley with Rita? That was the only thing that would explain the grandeur of the room. “Who is it?”, Ashley said in a phony composed voice, trying desperately to make sure she didn’t look like she just had a mini-breakdown.“I’m ze butler madam”, a prim voice said in an accent that sounded heavily french. It would be the biggest cliche of all time if he happened to have a mustache and balding white head. She opened the door and lo and behold, he had balding white hair. Thankf
Chapter 12"So let me get this shit straight", Chloe started, swallowing the bite of her Risotto, “You found the slimy bitches in bed together, then you and Ian had a fucking heart to heart, then you eloped and got married in Vegas, and you have to stay married for a year?”, Chloe ended, clearing her throat and looking at Ashley like she was crazy.“Yes, that’s exactly it.” Ashley groaned and flopped on the table. Chloe rolled her eyes at her best friend’s dramatics.“Well first things first, I think Rita’s definitely to be investigated, second things second, I can’t blame her, you and Ian? Power couple of the decade!”, Chloe whispered excitedly. Ashley raised her head and directed a powerful glower at her. Power couple? What power did she hold? Especially inside the ‘relationship’. It was a clear case of power imbalance with all the power tipped to Ian’s side.“No, I’m going to avoid him as much as I can”, Ashley nodded resolutely. “Fuck no you aren’t. This is a love story waiting t