"This is the first time—and the last."

That's what Asher Keating told her, cold-faced and buttoning his shirt, after one night he never should have had.

Leah Sinclair was no one. A broke college student buried in debt after her grandmother's surgery, selling her evenings at a high-end escort club just to survive.

She wasn't supposed to end up in his bed.
He wasn't supposed to come back.

But he did.

After the second time and the third, Leah cursed viciously in her heart: "Damn man! You really can't trust a word men say."

Many years later, Asher looked at Leah sleeping beside him and sighed to himself: "Sure enough, you shouldn't be with the same woman more than three times, or you'll really be in for it."

Was it possession... or affection?

A choice that began as a transaction but became true love, with only the wish... to never forget their original intentions.

Leah Sinclair's eyes were still red, and so was the tip of her nose. That bump just now… yeah, it was a hard one. So hard that she still hadn't quite recovered.


"Do I look like an idiot to you?" Shawn Grant rolled his eyes at her.


Leah Sinclair studied him for a moment. "You do."


Leah Sinclair was on pins and needles. She kept catching the faint, crisp, woody scent wafting from Asher Keating next to her. She snuck a glance out of the corner of her eye—he hadn't brought a date.


A wave of bitterness and sorrow washed over her. The moment the ceremony on stage ended and the house lights came up, Leah told Shawn Grant she was going to the restroom and practically fled.


Ethan Shaw watched her run out and smacked Shawn's arm. "Damn it, Shawn! Leah's back and you didn't say a word?"


Chapter 167 - Chapter 167: Aunt Mabel Called Her Back for a Blind Date