A Contract With A Billionaire Heir (Series)

After the peak, with her heart beating like a drum, Mira climbed into the church and slid to a pew near the back to listen to the memorial service from a safe distance. Dimitri Castor is well known in the city of Córdova. The dimly lit interior was packed with those who wanted to pay their last respects. A black and gold embroidered scarf covered her drooping head, and Mira trembled, lost in the dark abyss of sorrow.

She had been alone for as long as she could remember, but for a harrowing few months, she had Dimitri. Now he was gone, the warm, laughing man who had called her the joy he had been waiting for and the greatest love of his life. Tears welled up in her brown eyes, and she gazed down at the large, gorgeous emerald on her finger until it was a blur. So, who would love her now? She thought bitterly. Who would love her as much as now?

Silence and soft whispers finally seep in. She looked up in a daze to see that the service was over and the church was almost empty again. Panicked by her inattention, she straightened up and headed for the exit.

The corner of her scarf caught the end of the bench, throwing her head back so sharply that she tripped. She would have fallen if it hadn't been for that strong, masculine hand that had reached out of nowhere and grabbed her slender forearm, steadying her.

"Are you all right?" he asked in a deep, honey-scented drawl, her thick black eyelashes quivering in brief confusion that filled her with unbelievable pain. "Maybe you should sit down again—"

"No need—" Mira, torn apart by tension, straightened up, free from the man's grasp. She forgot that the scarf was stuck, and felt the pull almost imperceptibly, as the pull faded and her matted hair freed from its restraint.

She raised her head involuntarily and froze in terror, her breath roaring in her throat, her beautiful face was as rigid as pale, tear-stained marble, and fell into an utter stillness. The sheer shock slowed her heart to a numbing crash, echoing sickly in her eardrums.

Jacob Delrama looked down at her, apparently caught in the same immobility as she was. He is handsome, even more, gorgeous than his looks in Dimitri's pictures,

Mira reluctantly signed up. Thick black hair, amazing bone structure, and a wickedly sexy wide mouth. When she collided with the charming deep black eyes, a sense of dizziness swept over her. Her bewildered eyes locked on him with compulsive intensity. It's as scary as walking off a cliff and falling—falling—falling. She couldn't breathe or speak. It made her panic.

"Who are you?" he whispered gruffly, pulling her scarf closer and pulling it over her in one fluid motion.

Mira, pale as death, legs bent, stepped back, dark, ferocious violence and chaotic emotions engulfing her.

Jacob, the very best friend of Dimitri and his wife Clara!

"Your scarf—"

She trembled and reluctantly reached out to the child who had turned into a man. That was a mistake.

He held her slender, trembling fingers. "Please—" Mira gasped, trying to cut off the connection, her slender body twisted on the verge of fleeing, and panic swept through her whole body.

"Damn it!" Jacob yelled in disbelief when he recognized the antique emerald she was wearing. "Where did you get that ring?"

The surprised realization made him let go of his hands momentarily. Mira withdrew her fingers and ran down the steps.

With the cold breeze blowing her curly hair and long, loose black coat, letting them flow behind her like wings, she dashed through the crowds wandering outside and flew across busy roads, indifferent to the screech of brakes and horns.

***

Accompany her on a perilous journey. Mira wandered the silent room one last time. Without the legendary presence of Dimitri, this pretty little house would be nothing more than a shell.

After erasing all evidence that she ever lived within these walls, she would close the door behind her and step back into her own world. It won't last long anyway, she told herself. She values her freedom, yet allows Dimitri to clip her wings. He stubbornly persuaded, pressed, and finally pleaded until she gave in and moved in, willing to compromise,

He wanted to be who he wanted her to be if he pleased—but always knew she would be forced to rebel sooner or later.

"I'm an independent person," she had said to him tenderly once.

"Your independence is forced, and it's a most unnatural responsibility for a young girl," retorts Dimitri, adamantly against it. "Now that I'm here, you don't have to take on that responsibility anymore."

She laughed and argued, but not vehemently, ironically aware that he couldn't understand her life or her background any more than she could really understand his, and would get upset if she was too honest. Thus, through careful compromise on both sides, they built a bridge across the wealth and cultural divide,

Ironically, it's all so easy because there's this amazing sense of mutual recognition right from the start. She thought painfully that she was very lucky to have so much. Five months of perfect happiness is more than some people get in a lifetime. For five months, she was loved passionately, unconditionally, and selflessly. Good memories erase bad ones.

She swallowed the thick tears in her throat, and her smile suddenly brightened. No one can take those memories away. Or the century-old cluster ring, the only surviving heirloom, which Dimitri wore on her finger, his brown eyes brimming with shameless tears. "Now it will be worn again because only now it is where it really belongs."

Mira can't help laughing as she recalls Jacob's outrage and disbelief when he recognized the ring.

So I accepted a small souvenir; Jacob Delrama, you consider yourself lucky because I could have taken more if I had been greedy! Because Dimitri wants to put the world at her feet. His joy and pride in her overwhelmed dangerously all other devotion. It was the only thing they ever argued about.

Mira is guilty of realizing that she has been struggling to control her conscience. It wasn't his wealth that made her feel this way, but his—. She could never have imagined having that much money. No, it was squirming resentment she was trying to hide, and she knew how painful those feelings would be for him.

But she is also human, fallible, and, like everyone else, develops thoughts of self-pity and experiences jealousy. And why she's feeling that things may get worst—