ADDISON

The silence in the back of the town car was a living thing. It was thick and heavy, pressing in on me from all sides, it was suffocating. Outside, the city lights blurred into streaks of gold and white, but inside, it felt like we were frozen in time. I could still feel the heat of his hand on my back, a brand that hadn't faded. I could still see the pure, cold fury on Axel's face when he'd looked at Feign. It was murderous in all forms.

I had to say something. The quiet was going to make me scream.

"Thank you," I started, my voice sounding too loud. "For what you did back there with Feign. You really didn't have to... I mean, the threat was a little..."

"It wasn't a threat," he said, his voice a low rumble. He wasn't even looking at me, his profile a sharp, dark cut-out against the window. "It was a fact. I would have done what I said and so much more Addison, I'm not your typical gentleman."

A shiver went down my spine. It was the way he said it. So sure. So final. Like he was just stating that the sky was blue or that water was wet. He wasn't boasting; he was just telling the truth. "Yeah, I know that now."

"Smart girl." He said, and somehow it felt like the best compliment ever, people have called me hot, beautiful, gorgeous but hearing a compliment from him felt so good. What the hell was wrong with me?

"How did you know?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of my fear. "How did you know that would work?"

He finally turned his head, and those green eyes pinned me in place. "Does it bother you? The way I handled it?"

I thought about it. I really thought about it. The memory of Feign's face, the fear that had replaced his anger. "It was scary," I admitted, being honest. "But it was also a relief. A big one. So, no. It doesn't bother me."

He gave a single, slow nod, as if my answer was important. "In my world, Addison, showing weakness is not an option. That applies to you now, too."

His world. The words hung in the air. What world was that? The world of billionaires? It felt like something more.

The car pulled up to the Castino, smooth as ever. The driver came around to open my door, and I stepped out into the cool night air, expecting Axel to just drive away. But he didn't. His door opened too, and he got out.

"I'll see you to your place," he said, falling into step beside me.

We walked through the glittering, empty lobby, our footsteps echoing. The night doorman gave a respectful nod, his eyes wide with curiosity. The whole city would know by morning.

We reached the bank of private elevators and I pressed the call button. The tension was back, that strange, electric feeling that seemed to buzz between us whenever we were close. I turned to him, wanting to say something else, to break the weirdness, to break the silence. I wasn't the typical yapper, but around him, I just felt I had to talk to speak to him every time. It was a pull towards him that felt and scary at the same.

Without really thinking, I reached out and placed my hand on his forearm, where his sleeve was rolled up.

I yanked my hand back instantly. "Oh my god!"

His skin wasn't just warm. It was hot. Like he had a raging fever.

"Axel, are you sick? You're burning up!" I said, my concern instantly overriding everything else. I reached out again, more carefully this time, pressing the back of my hand to his neck. It was like touching a radiator, he stared down at my hand on his neck, looking back into my eyes. Oh shit! "I'm sorry I was a bit worried, I didn't mean to touch you like t-that... Anyway, you have a fever. A really bad one. Why didn't you say something? We should go to a hospital."

He looked down at where my hand had been, then back at my face. His expression was unreadable. "I don't have a fever."

"What do you mean you don't have a fever?" I exclaimed, my voice rising. "Your temperature is through the roof! Why the hell is it that high? If you're sick, you should be in bed, not at a party!"

A muscle ticked in his jaw. "I have a naturally high body temperature. It's... normal for me."

I stared at him, baffled. "Naturally high? How is that even possible?"

He looked away, back towards the lobby entrance, his posture stiff. "It gets higher when I'm angry."

The statement was so absurd, so completely unexpected, that a startled laugh burst out of me. "What? You're kidding, right? Like a human thermometer? When you're angry, you just... what, boil over?"

He turned his head, and his gaze slammed into me. There was no humor in his eyes. None. Just a deep, aching intensity that shut down my laughter instantly. It was a look that said the conversation was over. A look that said I had just stepped over a line I couldn't see.

"It's not a joke," he said, his voice flat and final.

The elevator arrived with a soft ping. The doors slid open.

"Goodnight, Addison," he said. He didn't move to get in with me. He just stood there, a hot, angry, mysterious statue, waiting for me to leave.

"Goodnight," I whispered, stepping backward into the elevator.

As the doors closed, I saw him still standing there, watching me, his hands clenched at his sides. The last thing I saw was the fierce, hot light in his green eyes, and I knew, with a certainty that chilled me to the bone, that he hadn't been lying. He wasn't sick. Why on earth was his temperature that high?

Something was very, very different about Axel Rex. And I had no idea what I had just gotten myself into.

ADDISON

My mother was calling.

I stood there for a second, just staring at my phone like it might bite me. Then I forced myself to take a long, slow breath, trying to steady my nerves. I reached out and swiped to answer, bringing the phone up to my ear. "Hi, Mom," I said, trying to keep my voice steady and casual.

"Addison." Her voice came through sharp and clear, that businesslike tone she always used. But there was something else there too, something I couldn't quite put my finger on at first. It sounded almost like... satisfaction? Like she was pleased about something. That made me even more nervous.

I braced myself, waiting for what I knew had to be coming. The lecture. The disappointed speech about how I'd been reckless at the gala, how I should have been more careful, how I'd put myself and the family reputation at risk. I could practically hear it already in my head.

"What a catch," she said instead, and I swear I almost fumbled my phone right onto the floor. My fingers went numb for a second. That was absolutely not what I'd been expecting to hear from her.

"I always knew you would eventually do something worthy of praise," she continued, and each word felt carefully chosen, deliberate. "You have Axel Rex in your arms now. I would suggest you keep him there."

My hand tightened around my phone, gripping it so hard my knuckles started to turn white. This wasn't her being proud of me as a person. This wasn't her celebrating my happiness or my choices. This was her evaluating a business transaction, looking at the potential value I'd just brought to the family. I was a chess piece that had finally made a good move.

"Addison," she went on, and her voice got even sharper, colder somehow. There was a warning buried in there, clear as day even though she hadn't said it outright. "I don't want a repeat of what happened with Feign. This man is richer, more powerful than him. He would do absolute numbers for our business connections. So make sure you please him, keep him happy, and bring him home sometime soon. Your father is very eager to meet him."

My throat felt like it was closing up. I could barely get the words out. "Okay, Mom," I managed to say, my voice coming out smaller than I wanted it to.

"Good. Don't disappoint us," she said, and then the line just went dead. Click. Just like that.

I stood there in my kitchen, the phone still pressed against my ear for what felt like forever, even though there was nothing but silence on the other end now. Finally, I let my hand drop down to my side, the phone dangling loosely from my fingers. This wave of emptiness just crashed over me, and it actually hurt. Like a physical ache in my chest that made it hard to breathe properly.

She wasn't proud of me. Not really. Not of anything I'd actually done or accomplished on my own. Not my career that I'd built up piece by piece, not any of the long nights I'd spent sketching and creating and pouring my heart into my work. None of that mattered to her. What mattered was that I'd somehow managed to catch the attention of someone rich and powerful, someone who could be useful to the family business. I felt less like a daughter and more like a well-trained show dog that had finally dragged home the right prize.

I was still standing there, sort of staring at nothing, lost in that awful hollow feeling, when my phone started ringing again. I looked down at the screen, and this time I actually felt relief flood through me. Phillip. My manager. Thank god.

I tried to shake off the conversation with my mother and forced some energy into my voice. "Phillip, hi," I said, attempting to sound normal and upbeat.

"Sunshine!" His voice came booming through the phone, loud and cheerful and warm, and it actually made my cold, empty kitchen feel a little bit less miserable. He was the only person in the world who called me that nickname, and he was one of maybe three or four people in my entire life who felt genuinely real and honest. "Saw you absolutely lighting up all the gossip websites with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Devastating! Good for you, girl. Seriously, good for you. Now, let's talk business for a minute. How are we feeling about the fall collection? The big bosses upstairs are already asking me for a sneak peek of your ideas. We need the next big thing, Addy. Something that's really going to make people stop dead in their tracks and stare."

And just like that, the tiny bit of warmth and light that Phillip had brought into my morning disappeared completely. It got replaced by this familiar, crushing weight that settled right on my shoulders. I glanced over at my sketchbook sitting on the kitchen table, and my heart sank even further. It was filled with page after page of half-finished designs that all looked... boring. Uninspired. Safe and pretty, sure, but nothing special. Nothing new. They were all things I felt like I'd seen a thousand times before. I hadn't had a single genuine spark of real creative inspiration in weeks, maybe even months if I was being totally honest with myself.

"It's... coming along," I lied, staring at yet another blank page in my sketchbook. The white paper seemed to mock me. "Just fine-tuning some concepts, you know, working through the details."

"That's my girl!" Phillip said, and I could hear the absolute trust and confidence in his voice. He believed me completely, which somehow made me feel even worse. "I know you're going to blow them away. You always do. Let's talk soon, okay?"

"Yeah, sounds good," I said, and we hung up.

I immediately let my head fall forward into my hands, pressing my palms against my eyes. A catch. A valuable business asset. A fashion designer with absolutely zero ideas. That's all I was to anyone. That's all I amounted to.

The sudden buzzing of my door intercom made me literally jump, my heart racing. I walked over to the panel by my front door and pressed the button. "Yes?" I asked.

"It's your favorite disaster of a best friend," a wonderfully familiar voice crackled through the speaker, and I felt myself start to smile for the first time all morning. "And I brought bagels because I'm an angel. Let me in, I'm literally dying out here."

"Jules," I said, and pressed the button to unlock the building door.

A few minutes later, my apartment door burst open and Jules came sweeping in like a force of nature. She had a paper bag from our favorite bagel place in one hand and her absolutely massive purse slung over her other shoulder. She kicked my door shut behind her with her foot and immediately threw herself onto my luxurious white sofa (not that she even cared about luxury much) with the most dramatic sigh I'd ever heard.

"Okay, start talking immediately," she announced, getting comfortable. "Actually, wait. First things first, I need you to show me the dress in person. I saw all the pictures online, obviously, but I need the real details. Did it feel as absolutely amazing as it looked in those photos?"

I walked over and sat down on the chair opposite her, pulling my knees up to my chest and hugging them. "It did," I admitted, and I couldn't help but smile a little at the memory. "It was actually perfect. Thank you for basically forcing me to wear it when I was being all nervous and unsure."

"I know, I'm an absolute genius," she said with zero modesty, leaning forward with her eyes going wide with excitement. "Now. The main event. Him. Axel Rex. Oh my actual god, Addison. Those pictures online absolutely do not do that man any kind of justice. He is just... wow. I don't even have better words. Just wow. And that one photo I saw of you two near the bar area? The way he was looking at you in that shot? I genuinely thought my phone screen was going to spontaneously catch on fire from the heat."

I thought about the reality of last night-the awkward, cold, business-like way we'd introduced ourselves to each other, the tense and silent car ride to the gala, the weird moment when his skin had felt burning hot against mine and I kinda like it, the heat from his skin felt so good against my cold one. "It was... intense," I said carefully, not really sure how to explain any of it.

"Intense?Did you have something spicy going on with Axel Rex?" Before I could answer, Jules practically squealed. "Addison, he looks like he could bench-press an actual car and then casually buy the entire company that manufactured it. What did he smell like? Don't you dare give me that look, you absolutely have to notice these things! Was it like that 'dark mysterious billionaire' vibe or more like 'freshly printed money' smell?"

I couldn't help it-I actually laughed at that, the absurdity of her questions breaking through my gloomy mood. "I don't know, Jules! I wasn't exactly taking detailed notes! It was... good, okay? Like sandalwood and something else underneath that. Something a little bit wild, maybe. I can't really describe it."

She started fanning her face with her hand dramatically. "Wild. Oh, I like that description. I like that a lot. So, when's the next date happening? What's your plan here? You absolutely have to lock this down, Addison!"

"It's not like that," I said, and I felt my smile fade away completely. I hugged my knees tighter against my chest, making myself smaller. "My mom called this morning."

Jules's entire expression changed instantly, going from playful and excited to fiercely protective in half a second. "Oh, honey. What did the dragon queen have to say this time?" She rolled her eyes, I figure she hated my mom as much as my mom hated her too. In fact my mother wasn't even aware I was still hanging out with her, she could have crucified me then for sure.

"She said he was a 'catch,'" I repeated, and my voice came out flat and hollow. "She told me I needed to 'please him' because he'd be really good for the family business and our connections."

Jules was off the sofa in a heartbeat, coming over to sit right next to me and immediately pulling me into a tight hug. "She's such a piece of work, Addy. You know that, right? Her opinion doesn't mean anything about who you actually are."

"It just feels so empty," I whispered into her shoulder, my voice breaking a little. "Everything feels so empty. And then right after that, Phillip called asking about the fall line. Jules, I have nothing. Literally nothing. All my ideas are completely terrible. I look at my sketchbook and it's like my mind is just... blank. Completely blank."

She pulled back from the hug but kept her hands on my shoulders, looking me straight in the eyes. "Hey. Listen to me for a second. You are Addison Amber. You're not just some accessory on a rich guy's arm. You built your entire brand from absolutely nothing, from the ground up with your own hands and your own talent. The inspiration is going to come back. You're just under a massive amount of pressure right now, and that's blocking everything." She grinned at me suddenly, that mischievous look I knew so well. "Maybe your mysterious, wild-smelling, super-hot fake boyfriend can be your muse. Have you ever thought of that?"

I gave her a weak shove, but I was almost smiling again. "Stop it. That's ridiculous."

"I'm completely serious!" she insisted. "Live a little! This is literally the craziest, most out-of-character thing you've ever done in your entire life. Maybe that's exactly what you need right now. A little bit of chaos. A little bit of something... taboo and different." She wiggled her eyebrows at me suggestively.

I sighed deeply, looking past her toward my silence, my sketch book mockingly staring back at me sitting on the table. A muse, The Axel rex being my muse? no. My entire life felt like one giant blank page right now, empty and waiting for something to fill it. And for the first time since this whole insane arrangement started, the man I was supposedly dating-this stranger I was pretending to be in a relationship with-felt like the biggest question mark of them all. Maybe Jules was actually right about something. Maybe the only way I was going to find a new design, a new direction, a new spark of creativity, was to step fully into this beautiful, terrifying mess I'd somehow created for myself.

ADDISON

It had been three freaking days already since not just me but even my brain had gone radio silent, I just couldn't come up with any ideas at all. I used to have a thousand ideas packed and locked in my brain but now nothing, I looked down to see the heaps of crumpled papers that littered the floor. It was everywhere any way I would fix that later but now I had to keep thinking. I wanted to design a male suit, but it would be something different from my other designs, typically I had always designed female clothes but this time around for some weird reason I wanted to, and my resolve was strong. I wanted something new, that would strike my customers and fans, something that would leave people speechless before the year runs out. I was already running late, normally by this time I would have dropped a new design and new clothing but time had flown so fast, it was no November and I had to finish this design as soon as possible, I couldn't afford to break my streak.

I had to stay focused, but one person in particular kept invading my quiet, unorganized space in my head for some weird reason I kept thinking about him, in fact it was getting so intense, I felt like anytime I closed my eyes I could perceive him, I could smell him and he wasn't even close to me. As a matter of fact he hadn't contacted me at all for three days now. He was going strictly by the rules, he didn't contact me unless there was an event or photo he needed me or I needed him for. That was supposed to be what I wanted right? But it was just weird. I just wanted to see him. Most times I would walk aimlessly around the building just to see if he would come outside or I would bump into him. Oh god, Was I having a crush on Axel? A man I barely knew, he didn't even have any social media I could check, aside his networth and his company there was barely anything else out there about him, no family, no friends, no relations who lived like that? With absolutely no one to lean on. I had a family, not like they were the best but at least they were there and I had my brother and my siblings so it wasn't that bad, I mean it was but not as bad as whatever Axel was going through.

The door bell rang, it had to be Jules, She had told me she was going to get something and then come back for a sleepover, it was her own way of comforting me I guess and truth be told, I needed her here, I just needed someone here, maybe being around her for a while could draw in some inspiration or what about I got a man that could model for me maybe I could get some inspiration, If I talked to my manager philip he would probably help, I mean he is also my friend first right? so he wouldn't refuse me or-

The door bell rang again pulling me away from my thoughts, "Oh jules, chill I coming," I stood up from my chair, my shorts clinging to my things form how long I had been sitting, I grab the remote to door, I swiped open unlocking the door, from a distance. I didn't even have to go all the way there, that's why I loved this house. It always had its way of fueling my laziness and making life a whole lot better.

I turned around to drop the remote back of its stand, striding over to my chair again to drop it and continue wallowing in empty, soulless sketching. "Hope you brought coffee, girl? Because I still don't have any reasonable ideas, It seems like the art is leaving the artist" I joked in a dramatic tone trying to soothe my own grief. I expected Jules to laugh, but I didn't hear the typical hyena cackles. Instead at the click of the door, the hair on the back of my neck rose, but not in a terrifying, scary way but a way that felt good and familiar.

God that scent, I inhaled the scent covering me like a warm blanket, I turned around to meet his eyes, cold and warm at the same time, staring deep into my soul, his eyes traveled down each part of my skin from head to toe, briefly dropping that my shorts, I pulled my leaves closer together shyly, and he looked back up instantly, back to my face. I washed off the blush almost immediately. "Sorry, I thought it was Jules, what are you doing here? Do you need me for anything even today?"

"You should be careful who you let into your house, Addison. You could have checked before opening up." He scolded with a slight frown, completely ignoring my questions.

"Okay!" I sighed, " I would be careful next time, no need to scold me besides, I thought it was Jules and typically no one comes here except her."

I replied but noticed his attention was now completely somewhere else, the floor, the rug, the carpets were completely covered with rumpled paper, everywhere was filled with junk. Oh god, the time he comes to my house and everywhere is a complete mess, what must he be thinking of me? I thought my eyes were trailing his face, although it was stern, I could tell he wasn't pleased with all that. I mean no one would be pleased with a room this scattered.

"I know it looks bad, and I am going to fix it right away" I said going to fetch the vacuum cleaner "You know, you shouldn't start thinning this is what my room looks like everyday, It's just today, I had a very bad day, and I was losing track of what I was doing." I chuckled trying to sound funny but clearly he wasn't amused by it, he only nodded, steeping closer to me. My breath hitched. His scent was getting stronger, with every step he took stood me it was getting harder to breathe without every breath being filled with him. I tilted my head higher, trying to maintain eye contact, but this man was so tall it was hard to do without causing my neck to ache. He moved even closer, his feet against mine, my breasts slightly grazing his firm, hard, chiseled chest. I hope he didn't feel how hard my nipples were already from him just merely coming close to me. What was wrong with me?

His gaze dropped down on my face, scanning every feature, striding down to my lips. 'Oh gosh, was he going to kiss me, wasn't it too early for that? Should I stop him or let him continue?' Just when I was about to raise my head a little higher, he wrapped his hand around mine, taking the vacuum cleaner from me. The heat from his hands sent waves of what I couldn't explain all over me. 'What the hell? If he only wanted to take the vacuum on earth did he have to do all that? He knew exactly what he was doing? Such a jerk' I huffed silently, I could swear no one could have heard that at all, but it felt like he did as he slightly turned his head towards me. How was he able to hear something that low?