Aria Lane tightened her fingers around the strap of her worn out handbag as she hurried through the marbled lobby of the Grand Sterling Hotel. Everything in this place smelled expensive from the polished floors to the guests in tailored suits who barely glanced at her.
Her shift wasn't supposed to start for another twenty minutes, but when you were a broke college senior with rent overdue, arriving early felt like survival.
The temp agency had sent her here for a one day assignment, something about helping with paperwork for a private event. Aria didn't care what it was. She just needed the money.
"Miss Lane?"
A woman in a crisp black blazer waved her over. "You're the temp, right? Come quickly. We're behind schedule."
Aria nodded and followed her through a side corridor to a quiet conference room. The woman dropped a thick folder onto the table.
"I need you to sign these acknowledgment forms so we can process your presence on staff today. Then organize the documents inside by alphabetical order."
Aria exhaled in relief.
Easy enough.
She sat, pulled a pen from her bag, and began flipping through the stack. The first sheet had a lot of legal text clauses, obligations, responsibilities but she'd seen similar forms before. Hotels loved paperwork. She signed at the bottom.
The second page looked almost identical.
She signed that too.
The third page, however, had a different seal.
Black. Silver. Intense.
ARCORE GLOBAL INC.
Her eyes widened slightly. She'd seen that name everywhere on skyscrapers, billboards, high end tech products.
"Wow " she whispered. But she shrugged and signed anyway. Probably partnership documents for the event.
Just as she finished writing her signature, the conference room door swung open.
A tall man entered, and for a moment, her breath simply stopped.
He wasn't just handsome. He was dangerously, unfairly, impossibly so.
Sharp jawline, dark hair, eyes like storm clouds cold, unreadable, and far too observant.
He wore a fitted black suit, the kind that whispered wealth with every step.
His gaze slid to the papers on the table, then to her hand still holding the pen.
"You signed it." His voice was deep, quiet, and disturbingly calm.
Aria blinked. "Yes? The lady asked me to."
A muscle in his jaw tightened. "Did you even read what you were signing?"
Heat rushed to her cheeks. "I..I mean, I skimmed it. It said something about responsibilities and"
"This," he said, picking up the page she'd just signed, "is a legally binding marital agreement."
Aria froze.
A what?
He placed the paper in front of her. Her signature Aria Lane sat neatly beside his printed name
Damian Arcore.
The Damian Arcore.
The billionaire CEO,The man every news outlet obsessed over, The man now glaring at her like she'd ruined his entire morning.
Aria's voice came out in a squeak.
"A marital as in marriage?" She stuttered
"Yes," Damian said. His tone was clipped. Controlled. Furious in a quiet way. "You just signed my marriage contract."
Aria's heartbeat shot up so fast she felt lightheaded.
"No, no, no, no. This is a misunderstanding! I thought it was hotel paperwork!"
Damian's stare didn't soften even a little. "And yet your signature is on a contract filed directly to the civil registrar this morning."
She felt the floor tilt under her.
"I can't marry you!" she burst out. "I don't even know you!"
"I didn't want to marry you either."
His voice sharpened. "But the contract is now active, and the registrar has already processed the submission. I needed a bride today for a critical merger meeting." His eyes narrowed. "And you have legally become that bride."
Aria shook her head. "There must be a way to cancel, he interrupted "Not before the meeting in three hours," he cut in. "And if I arrive without a wife, everything collapses."
"That sounds like a personal problem," she whispered.
Damian leaned forward, his presence overwhelming.
"Unfortunately, Miss Lane, it has become our problem."
Her hands trembled. Her entire body did.
Damian exhaled slowly, studying her like she was an equation he couldn't solve.
"You and I are now married on paper," he said. "And until I figure out how to untangle this mess, you're coming with me."
Aria swallowed hard.
She had come here for a paycheck.
She was leaving as a billionaire's accidental bride.