Husband By Contract, Lover By Heart

Juliana Stevens woke up and discovered she had spent the night with a man.

Silence filled the room. The air still carried traces of what had happened the night before.

Her eyes landed on a business card lying on the floor. It had fallen from the man's suit jacket. The moment she read the words on it, her breathing stopped, and her thoughts froze.

The card bore the name: Adrian Spencer, CEO of Spencer Group. He was known as the richest and most influential businessman in the city.

What stunned her the most was that this man was actually her husband, the one she had been married to for three years without ever meeting.

Their first encounter had happened under these circumstances.

Adrian remained asleep. A few light scratch marks could be seen on his bare chest. His features were striking. He had a straight nose and well-shaped lips. Everything about his appearance seemed almost too perfect to be real.

The face before her was nothing like the ugly man people often described.

People also claimed he was ruthless. Yet as he lay there, he looked refined and distinguished instead.

It appeared that those stories weren't true after all.

Juliana tightened her grip on the blanket. Anxiety and confusion made her heart race.

Their marriage had been forced by their families. Even their marriage registration had been handled by Adrian's grandfather, Hugh Spencer. That was why she didn't know what her husband looked like until now.

In another three months, the agreement that bound them together would come to an end. She had been counting down the days until she could finally be free. During the past three years, Adrian had never shown up, which made her believe he disliked this marriage just as much as she did.

The memory of the previous night made her let out a frustrated groan. Why did this have to happen when there were only three months left before their divorce?

Now, she could only hope that Adrian hadn't seen her face last night.

A storm of emotions swept through her. Juliana jumped out of bed, gathered her clothes from the floor, and got dressed as quickly as she could before rushing out of the room.

Keeping her head lowered, she rushed out of the hotel when her phone suddenly rang. It was her best friend, Maia Palmer. "Anna, weren't we supposed to have a meeting at the studio this morning? Why haven't you arrived yet?"

From her father, Juliana inherited both a sharp business mind and a gift for design. She skipped several grades, earned her master's degree ahead of schedule, and received multiple international awards for jewelry design. To the public, she was known as the vice president of Stevens Group. However, she also had another identity that very few people knew about. She was the founder and owner of one of the industry's leading jewelry design studios. Over the last two years, the studio had grown into a globally recognized name.

Today, she was expected to lead a meeting for the launch of a new product line. Right now, however, she had no interest in dealing with work.

Reaching the roadside, Juliana flagged down a taxi. "Maia," she said as she climbed into the car, "I'm not feeling very well today. Let's move the meeting to tomorrow."

After ending the call, she turned to the driver and said, "Garden Apartments, please."

During the ride, Juliana tried to piece together everything that had happened the previous night. It was the annual gala of Stevens Group, and she'd lost her bearings completely after only two glasses of wine. She remembered wanting to return to her hotel room and rest, but her dizziness became so severe that she couldn't even find her way back. Then she ran into Adrian in the hallway. Somehow, she ended up following him into a room.

Normally, she could handle alcohol very well. A few drinks were not enough to affect her. Then another memory surfaced. The previous night, her half-sister, Janessa Stevens, had accidentally spilled her drink and brought her a replacement.

Could the second drink be spiked?

While she was still thinking about it, a call from her uncle, Louis Stevens, came through. As soon as she answered, his furious voice blasted through the phone. "Juliana, come home this instant!"

...

Back in the hotel room, the man who had been fast asleep began to wake. His eyes opened little by little before he pushed himself upright. The blanket slipped down, revealing the firm lines of his body and his defined abs.

A sharp look entered Adrian's eyes as he surveyed the room in silence. He stepped out of bed, picked up a bath towel from the floor, and secured it around his waist.

Disorder filled the room, and the woman was nowhere to be seen.

His face immediately turned grim. At that moment, a knock sounded at the door. "Come in," he said.

The door swung open, and his assistant, Rylan Jenkins, entered the room. "Mr. Spencer," he greeted respectfully.

Without delay, Adrian asked, "Did you see a woman leave this room?"

Rylan shook his head. "No, Sir."

The look on Adrian's face became even colder. He walked across the room and noticed a pendant lying on the floor. Its workmanship was exquisite. Some characters had been engraved on the back, but years of wear had made them impossible to read.

She must have forgotten it here.

Adrian frowned, closing his fingers around the pendant.

The events of the previous night surfaced in his mind. During a business dinner, he had unknowingly drunk a glass of wine that had been tampered with. After realizing something was wrong, he returned to his hotel room and intended to wait until the effects passed. Before he could get inside, however, he crossed paths with a woman in the hallway. The instant they made contact, a powerful urge rose within him and overwhelmed his self-control.

He never even had the chance to see her face clearly before the two of them ended up inside the room he had reserved.

Given the situation-a drugged man and a woman in the same room-everything that followed seemed unavoidable.

Adrian's thoughts drifted back to the woman's uncertainty and vulnerability from the previous night.

No matter what, she had helped him during a moment when he couldn't control himself. He needed to find her and make it right.

Adrian placed the pendant in Rylan's hand and spoke in a cold tone. "Find out who that woman is."