Damian Cross : The Stranger I Paid To Ruin Me

POV: Elena

I stood frozen in the marble bathroom of our penthouse apartment with three pregnancy tests lined up neatly on the counter like tiny judges ready to deliver a verdict I could no longer avoid. Two bright pink lines stared back at me from each one and my stomach twisted violently as the truth sank deep into my bones. I was pregnant. Eight weeks along with the child of a man whose name I did not even know until tonight. My hands trembled as I pressed them gently over my still-flat belly and I felt a strange wave of nausea mixed with something darker and more complicated. Fear and a quiet cold satisfaction warred inside my chest because this life growing within me was the direct result of my one calculated act of rebellion.

Two months ago Richard had sat across from me at our cold silent dinner table and proposed an open marriage as casually as if he were suggesting a new investment strategy. He had been cheating on me for years and now he wanted my formal permission to continue without guilt. That night something inside me finally snapped. I refused to remain the silent obedient wife he had molded for six years. If he could break our vows without consequence then so could I. I contacted a discreet high-end escort service and arranged everything with cold precision. I booked the hotel suite Richard often used for his own affairs and I paid for one night with a stranger.

The memory of that night flooded over me now and my breath caught as heat rose in my cheeks. The man who arrived at the suite was nothing like the polished and empty lovers I had imagined in Richard’s world. He was tall and powerfully built with dark hair and piercing blue eyes that seemed to see straight through my carefully constructed armor. The moment the door closed behind him the air between us shifted and became thick with raw electricity. We barely spoke at first. He crossed the room with confident strides and pulled me into his arms as if he had been waiting for me his entire life.

I still remembered every detail so vividly. His hands were large and sure as they slid over my body and stripped away my dress with deliberate hunger. He kissed me deeply and possessively and I moaned into his mouth as years of suppressed desire and anger poured out of me. He lifted me effortlessly onto the bed and his mouth trailed hot kisses down my neck and across my breasts until I arched against him desperate for more. When he finally pushed inside me with one slow powerful thrust I cried out at the overwhelming fullness and the way he filled me so completely. We moved together in a frantic rhythm and his deep strokes dragged pleasure from places I had long forgotten existed. I clung to his broad shoulders and wrapped my legs around him as he took me harder and deeper his piercing eyes never leaving mine even in the heat of passion.

“Tell me what you need,” he had growled against my ear while thrusting with long controlled movements that made my entire body tremble. I had gasped and begged him not to stop and he answered by driving into me even more intensely until we both shattered together in a release so powerful it left me shaking. We came together again and again that night and each time felt more desperate and intimate than the last. He worshipped my body with his hands and mouth and I gave myself to him completely in ways I had never given to my husband. By the time dawn approached I was sore and thoroughly satisfied in a way I had never known before.

Yet shame had crept in with the morning light. I slipped out of bed while he still slept and I left an envelope of cash on the nightstand as a final act of reducing what we had shared to a mere transaction. I needed to believe it was nothing more than revenge against Richard. I needed to walk away and pretend it had never happened.

Now weeks later those two pink lines proved I could not escape it. I was carrying his child and the reality of it made my knees weak. Nausea rolled through me again and I pressed my hand more firmly against my belly as if I could somehow protect the tiny life already growing there. Part of me felt a dark fierce satisfaction that Richard’s casual cruelty had created this consequence. Another part of me trembled with genuine terror at what this would mean for my future.

That same evening Richard insisted we attend the high-profile corporate merger gala together. He had been buzzing with excitement about securing a deal with Cross Industries and he wanted me there as the perfect polished wife on his arm. I tried to refuse but his temper flared and I knew better than to push him when he was like this. So I dressed in a sleek black gown that hid any hint of my changing body and I accompanied him to the grand ballroom with my heart pounding heavily in my chest.

The moment the host announced the CEO of Cross Industries my blood turned to ice. Damian Cross stepped onto the stage with commanding presence and the entire room seemed to hold its breath. He was even more striking under the bright lights than he had been in the hotel suite. Tall and powerfully built in a perfectly tailored tuxedo with those same piercing blue eyes that had looked into mine as he moved deep inside me. Our eyes met across the crowded room and recognition flashed between us like lightning. A slow dangerous smirk curved his lips and my stomach dropped as I realized he remembered everything.

Richard noticed nothing. He was too busy networking and calculating how to use this connection to his advantage. When the formal presentations ended and guests began mingling Damian made his way through the crowd with purposeful strides. He stopped in front of us and exchanged polite handshakes with Richard while discussing the upcoming merger in smooth professional tones. But when his gaze shifted to me he leaned in slightly closer under the guise of casual conversation and his voice dropped to a low intimate murmur meant only for my ears.

“A call boy, huh?”

The words sent a violent shiver down my spine and my hands began to shake as I instinctively clutched at my barely-there belly. Richard was thrilled at the personal attention from such a powerful man and he beamed with oblivious greed completely unaware of the storm now brewing around us. I stood there frozen beside my husband while the father of my unborn child smiled with dark amusement and walked away leaving me with the devastating realization that the stranger I had hired and paid had turned out to be one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the country.

And he remembered every single second of the night we had shared.