"Move in with me."
The audacity of this man. Her fingers tightened around her bag strap before she forced them to relax. I will not give him the satisfaction of provoking any discernible reaction from me.
"You're lucky I don't have a cup of scalding coffee in my hand right now." Sera held back a snarl.
Evander tucked his hands inside his pockets, gesturing to the sleek chair in front of his desk. "Sit."
"I'm not a dog." She rolled her eyes.
"Then stop acting like one who bites before sniffing," His gaze swept from her curled chestnut brown hair to her rich hazel eyes. Evander;s scrutiny seared into her flesh. Hot and mocking.
Asshole, she thought. But curiosity was a wicked thing—and hers, laced with leftover fury and a dangerous dash of fascination, refused to stay quiet.
Sera sat. Stiffly. Arms folded. Legs crossed with enough attitude to power a runway walk.
Evander threw the freshly printed file against the desk. It was thick. Heavy.
Sera stared at it like it might explode. "What is this?" she asked cautiously, the skin behind her ears already prickling with bad vibes.
"A contract," He leaned with fingers interlaced and elbows propped over the desk. The perfect picture of power. "Everything is spelled out. No tricks. No surprises."
She snorted. "Says the man who knew I was pregnant before I did."
"That's exactly why we need this." He grumbled. There was a strange note in his voice.
Sera opened the file. "This contract is as thick as the Bible." Her eyes scanned the first few pages. Legalese. Corporate blah blah. Liability clauses.
She stared at the stack of pages with a contorted expression. Then she hit the big one:
Clause 3.4 – The Client shall reside under the primary supervision and care of the Requesting Party for the duration of the pregnancy. Accommodations, security, health personnel, and lifestyle maintenance shall be fully covered by the Requesting Party.
Translation: Move in with me, baby mama.
Sera blinked, looked up at him, and then backed down. Surely her eyes were playing tricks on her.
"You want me to do what?" Her voice pitched higher than she'd intended.
Evander didn't flinch. "Move in. With me. Temporarily. It's for your safety."
"Safety," she repeated flatly. "From what? Paparazzi? Morning sickness? Or the ghosts of past bad decisions?"
"From complications. From interference. From this spiraling into something worse than it already is." Evander continued staring at her with that indecipherable expression.
Her stomach swooped for no obvious reason.
"Oh, how thoughtful," It was a lame retort. Then she flipped the pages more forcefully than necessary.
Clause 4.1 – Upon completion of the gestation period and safe delivery of the child, the Client shall be entitled to a compensation of...
Her eyes bulged at the number. Her student loan–crippled brain short-circuited.
"That's... That's a lot of zeroes," she breathed, voice thinning into disbelief.
His muscles flexed under his suit as he unbuttoned the front of his coat. "You deserve to be compensated for your time and... inconvenience."
"Inconvenience?" Her head snapped up. "You're calling this an inconvenience? I woke up pregnant, Mr. Suit. Six weeks in, no memory of signing up for it, and now you want me to shack up with you like this is some VIP luxury surrogacy gig for hire?"
"I'm trying to make it right." For a second—just a flicker—Evander looked away. Like the glacier cracked. Maybe half a millimeter.
But then it was back. All business again. All polished edges.
"I don't care how many zeros you're offering," Sera lifted her chin in defiance, slamming the folder shut. "I'm not moving in with you. I don't know you. I don't trust you. And this..this little setup..is insane."
"You don't have a choice," he shrugged nonchalantly. "You're already in this. And now we both need to contain the damage."
"Contain the damage?" Sera repeated. "You sound like this is a PR scandal, not a human being growing inside me!" She rose, threw the contract on the desk and grabbed her bag off the chair.
Evander looked at her. Not like she was a problem. Not like she was just another woman he needed to manage. But like she was... a person. With a pulse. With fear crawling under her skin. With too many emotions fighting for space in a body that was no longer entirely her own.
Sera hated how that look affected her. She hated even more that part of her—some confused, traitorous sliver—wanted to believe he wasn't the monster she'd painted him to be.
But she didn't have the luxury of trusting someone like him. Not when her life had been flipped without her consent.
"You're going to walk away from a hundred million dollars agreement?" He flicked those whiskey gray eyes in her direction.
Her spine stiffened at the skepticism in his voice. Sera batted her lashes. "I don't adjust to men who treat me like a ticking time bomb they need to babysit." With one last glance, she turned on her heels.
His control over her slipped with each step she took away from him. "I will give you two hundred million."
Sera kept walking toward the door, completely ignoring him.
"Three hundred million!" She was now facing the door, her hand half-raised as if touching the handle might teleport her out of this skyscraper of madness.
A few seconds passed before she turned to face him. Annoyance got out the best of her. "This isn't a fairytale, Mr. Evander Thorne Ashford. And I'm not some paid princess in a glass tower. You can keep your money and your villa surveillance to yourself."