Contract Marriage

He offers safety. She will not call it love.A Marriage With No Heart

A Marriage With No Heart

Ch. 1 free · 10 of 11

“No love,” he says. “No lies,” I answer. Thea Bennett needs to keep her mother’s care running. Warren Shaw needs a wife before a family vote. His offer is exact: a private marriage, a no-love clause, and enough money to make her safe. Thea signs with her eyes open. She keeps her job, her room, and her rules. Warren keeps the power. The marriage is real in law and empty in private. Thea tells herself safety is enough. She does not ask for love. She is less sure she can live without it.

He bought me a life. He forgot I had one.He Called My Love a Line Item

He Called My Love a Line Item

Ch. 1 free · 24 of 25

Rue Halloway can bring a cracked portrait back to life, but she cannot make her husband love her. Quincy Wainwright married her in a contract that saved her father's care and made her the polished wife his foundation needed. Then his first love, Diana Hoyt, returns to Manhattan with a secret child, Felix, and Rue sees where Quincy's warmth has always lived. His gifts become instructions; his concern becomes a schedule; her body flinches before her mind can explain. When the old-money Wainwright family closes ranks, Rue keeps her face still and her tools close. Her mother offers the family's last heirloom for a lawyer, and Rue begins the slow, costly work of buying back her own name. Quincy calls it sabotage and reaches for the one lever he has left: her father's care. What he cannot admit is that his public calm depends on the wife he keeps at arm's length—her work, her silence, her name. Rue will leave with her tools and her work. But some damage cannot be restored—and some should not be.

He married me as a stand-in. I won’t stay one.The Wife He Paid to Leave

The Wife He Paid to Leave

Ch. 1 free · 18 of 19

I married Declan Pryce to save my watch shop. He married me to keep his family shares. I told myself the contract was enough. 'It was only a marriage on paper,' he says. Then his first love comes home, and he ends it with papers and a check. I take the papers. I leave the check. He sees my work in his own auction house. He hears Vivienne call me a copy of her. I don't beg. I don't break. Now he wants to know what was real. I need him to prove he can love the woman he paid to leave.

“No love,” he says. “No lies,” I answer. Thea Bennett needs to keep her mother’s care running. Warren Shaw needs a wife before a family vote. His offer is exact: a private marriage, a no-love clause, and enough money to make her safe. Thea signs with her eyes open. She keeps her job, her room, and her rules. Warren keeps the power. The marriage is real in law and empty in private. Thea tells herself safety is enough. She does not ask for love. She is less sure she can live without it.

Chapter 1 free · 10 published · 1 to come

Read free

Rue Halloway can bring a cracked portrait back to life, but she cannot make her husband love her. Quincy Wainwright married her in a contract that saved her father's care and made her the polished wife his foundation needed. Then his first love, Diana Hoyt, returns to Manhattan with a secret child, Felix, and Rue sees where Quincy's warmth has always lived. His gifts become instructions; his concern becomes a schedule; her body flinches before her mind can explain. When the old-money Wainwright family closes ranks, Rue keeps her face still and her tools close. Her mother offers the family's last heirloom for a lawyer, and Rue begins the slow, costly work of buying back her own name. Quincy calls it sabotage and reaches for the one lever he has left: her father's care. What he cannot admit is that his public calm depends on the wife he keeps at arm's length—her work, her silence, her name. Rue will leave with her tools and her work. But some damage cannot be restored—and some should not be.

Chapter 1 free · 24 published · 1 to come

Read free

I married Declan Pryce to save my watch shop. He married me to keep his family shares. I told myself the contract was enough. 'It was only a marriage on paper,' he says. Then his first love comes home, and he ends it with papers and a check. I take the papers. I leave the check. He sees my work in his own auction house. He hears Vivienne call me a copy of her. I don't beg. I don't break. Now he wants to know what was real. I need him to prove he can love the woman he paid to leave.

Chapter 1 free · 18 published · 1 to come

Read free