I Ran Away After Having My Enemy’s Baby

Alexander Sterling had become the talk of Westhaven.

He had taken control of the Sterling Group less than a month ago, yet he had already silenced every skeptic who had predicted his downfall. His rivals had been crushed one after another, their once-impressive empires reduced to little more than cautionary tales.

And no family had suffered more than the Bennetts.

Claire Bennett’s family was now teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Tonight, Alexander had claimed another decisive victory. To celebrate, he had invited a select circle of associates and business partners to a private club reserved for Westhaven’s wealthiest elite.

By the time the evening was well underway, he had consumed far too much alcohol.

Claire had been waiting for precisely this opportunity.

She slipped through the crowd and caught up with him just as he was leaving the main lounge. Looping her arm through his, she guided him toward the private rooms upstairs.

Alexander barely seemed to notice where she was taking him.

The moment they entered a room, Claire turned toward him and leaned in to kiss him.

His brows drew together.

Before her lips could reach his, his hand shot up and closed around her throat.

“Get out.”

The grip was sudden and frighteningly strong.

Claire’s eyes widened. She had expected him to be drunk, perhaps even careless, but she hadn’t expected him to be this dangerous.

“Alexander, I’m sorry.” Her voice came out strained. “I won’t bother you again. Just let me go, please.”

She had approached him because she needed something from him. She hadn’t come here to die.

Alexander stared at her through the haze of alcohol. Something about her voice sounded familiar, but his vision was blurred, and he couldn’t quite place her face.

His grip loosened slightly.

Claire seized the opportunity. Grabbing his wrist with both hands, she forced his fingers away from her throat and stumbled back, gasping for air.

She turned her head and coughed several times, her eyes watering as she struggled to catch her breath.

She should have left. Any sensible person would have walked straight out of that room and never looked back.

But Claire wasn’t here because she had sensible options.

Her family was finished—or close enough that the distinction no longer mattered. Her father and uncles had swallowed their pride and begged everyone they knew for help. No one was willing to get involved. The Bennetts had made too many mistakes, crossed too many lines, and left too much damage behind them.

Now that Alexander had evidence of their illegal dealings, no one wanted to stand beside them.

Claire knew better than to pretend this was an ordinary business dispute. If the Bennetts had simply lost a fair fight, she would have accepted the consequences.

But she couldn’t stand by and watch her family collapse without trying everything she could.

Alexander was the one driving them toward ruin. If she wanted to stop it, she had to go directly to him.

The problem was that Alexander had never liked her.

He considered her troublesome, dishonest, and altogether unworthy of his time. Getting this close to him had been difficult enough. Claire couldn’t bear the thought of walking away without even trying.

People liked to say that seduction was the most dangerous weapon a woman could wield.

Tonight, Claire intended to find out whether they were right.

She knew how underhanded her plan was. She wasn’t proud of it. But desperation had a way of stripping pride down to its bare essentials, leaving only the question of what a person was willing to do to survive.

She took a breath, steeled herself, and wrapped her arms around Alexander.

Then she kissed him.

At first, he resisted. His body stiffened, and he clearly wanted nothing to do with her advances.

Then something changed.

A familiar scent reached him—something he had encountered before, something his muddled mind couldn’t identify.

He couldn’t remember why it felt familiar.

But his resistance gradually faded.

The rest of the night passed in a blur of tangled emotions and consequences neither of them was ready to face.

“Alexander,” Claire murmured at one point, her voice breathless and unsteady. “After everything I’ve done for you tonight, you’d better not pretend none of this happened tomorrow.”

He silenced her with another kiss before she could continue.

For once, Claire had no answer.

Morning arrived far too soon.

Claire woke first.

Alexander’s arm was wrapped tightly around her waist, holding her against him as though he had no intention of letting her go. Neither of them was dressed, and it took Claire a moment to fully register the situation.

Heat crept into her cheeks.

She looked at the man beside her.

Alexander was still asleep, his features relaxed in a way she rarely saw when he was awake. He had always been unfairly handsome. She had known him for years, and she still hadn’t grown tired of looking at him.

It was his eyes that had always bothered her.

Whenever he looked at her, there was usually a trace of suspicion or impatience in them, as though he expected her to cause trouble simply by existing.

Claire wondered what those eyes would look like when he woke up and realized what had happened.

Would he explode?

Would he throw her out?

Or would he simply refuse to acknowledge anything at all?

Whatever he decided, she couldn’t afford to leave empty-handed.

Alexander was said to be generous with the women he dated. When relationships ended, he reportedly sent his former girlfriends expensive gifts and made sure they had little reason to complain about him afterward. Not a single woman in Westhaven seemed willing to speak badly of him.

Claire could only hope that his sense of responsibility extended beyond his romantic relationships.

She shifted slightly, wincing at the soreness in her lower back.

After the night she had endured, surely he could grant her one small favor.

She wasn’t asking for money. She wasn’t asking him to marry her or take responsibility for her future.

All she wanted was for him to stop going after the Bennetts.

Alexander’s eyelashes fluttered.

He was waking up.

Claire immediately closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. For good measure, she rolled over, nestling closer against his chest.

It was a terrible idea.

Alexander had already been drifting between sleep and wakefulness. The moment he felt the warm, soft body pressed against him, he became fully alert.

His eyes snapped open.

All he could see at first was the back of a woman’s head and the smooth curve of her bare shoulder.

He remembered enough of the previous night to understand what had happened.

He had been drunk, but not unconscious. Somehow, a woman had managed to get close enough to stir his interest, and they had ended up in bed together.

Now his hand was still resting on her waist.

His expression darkened.

He withdrew his arm and sat up, the movement abrupt enough to make the mattress shift beneath them.

Claire remained facing away from him.

She had expected anger, perhaps a sharp question or an insult. Instead, there was silence.

What was he thinking?

She moved slightly, preparing to turn around and steal a glance at his expression.

Then his voice came from behind her.

“Awake?”

Claire blinked.

There was no point pretending any longer. She was about to turn over when he spoke again.

“Tell me what you want.”

She paused.

Alexander was not the sort of man who denied responsibility for his own actions. He might be furious that someone had managed to catch him off guard, but he was prepared to pay whatever price he believed the situation demanded.

Claire’s heart lifted.

She had already rehearsed her answer in her head.

I don’t want anything from you. Just stop going after my family.

She turned toward him, arranging her expression into something carefully restrained.

But before she could speak, Alexander’s face changed.

He stared at her as though he had just discovered something impossible.

“Claire Bennett?”

“Good morning?” she said uncertainly.

Her heart began to pound.

Alexander’s brows drew together. “It was you last night?”

“Yes.” Claire swallowed. “You do remember what happened, don’t you?”

She pulled the covers aside just enough to show him the marks scattered across her skin, proof that the night had been real and that neither of them could simply pretend otherwise.

Alexander’s jaw tightened.

“Get dressed.”

“Oh.”

Claire’s irritation flared, but she forced it down. She was the one asking for a favor. Whatever she thought of his attitude, she couldn’t afford to pick a fight yet.

Turning away from him, she collected her clothes and began dressing, one item at a time.

Alexander watched her in silence.

His gaze lingered on her unhurried movements and the line of her back. His eyes were dark, his expression unreadable, but the tension in his face made it clear that he was anything but calm.

When Claire had finished dressing, she turned to face him.

“Does what you said earlier still stand?”

Alexander gave a cold, humorless laugh.

“For anyone else, perhaps. For you, the thought of it makes me sick.”

Claire frowned.

“What exactly is so disgusting about me? I was perfectly respectable before last night. You were my first, in case you’ve forgotten. I should be congratulating myself for surviving your reputation.”

For the briefest moment, something in Alexander’s expression seemed to ease.

Then his face darkened again.

“How many other men have you told that to?”

Claire stared at him.

Back in high school, she had developed a reputation for flirting shamelessly. She had dated more than one person, yet somehow managed to make each new boyfriend believe he was her first love.

Alexander clearly remembered.

“You’re the first,” she said, glaring at him.

The words came out with more confidence than she felt.

Her reputation was hardly spotless, and she knew it. But for all her flirting and all the rumors that followed her, she had never crossed that line with anyone else.

Not until him.

Alexander said nothing.

He simply watched her, a faint, mocking smile touching the corner of his mouth.

Under his gaze, Claire began to feel increasingly uncomfortable. Her embarrassment quickly turned into irritation.

“Fine. Don’t believe me, then.”

Of course he didn’t believe her.

In Alexander’s eyes, Claire Bennett was a woman who would lie, scheme, and manipulate anyone if it meant getting what she wanted.

And after what had happened last night, he had little reason to change that opinion.

He could see exactly what she had been trying to accomplish.

She had calculated her approach, taken advantage of his drunken state, and now expected him to reward her for it.

And she still had the audacity to ask whether his promise counted.

“Claire Bennett,” he said, his expression almost perfectly blank, “you’re the first person who’s ever dared to play me like this.”

There was a trace of amusement beneath the anger, but it did nothing to make him seem less dangerous.

Alexander had always been like that. The angrier he became, the more carefully he controlled what he showed the world.

Claire, who usually had no trouble standing her ground, suddenly felt a flicker of panic.

“Alexander, I wasn’t trying to play you.” She hurried to explain herself. “I only wanted you to give my family a chance. The Bennetts are already on their last legs. Even if you stopped doing anything to us, we wouldn’t be able to cause you any trouble. You’ve already won. Please, just let us go.”

She took a breath and pressed on before he could interrupt.

“You asked me what I wanted. You’re the head of the Sterling family, Alexander. Surely your word means something.”

He looked at her for a long moment.

Then his lips curled into a contemptuous smile.

“So what are you? A woman who sells herself?”

Claire Bennett stared at Alexander Sterling, her pupils contracting in disbelief.

In all her life, no one had ever insulted her quite so cruelly. For a moment, she was too furious to speak.

“Only a woman selling herself gets to negotiate her price,” Alexander remarked casually, watching her as though she were nothing more than an amusing inconvenience.

“I thought we both wanted what happened last night.”

His words struck her like a physical blow.

The anger that had been building inside her suddenly collapsed beneath the weight of humiliation. She wanted to argue, to tell him how wrong he was, but nothing came out.

She should have known better.

Alexander Sterling was never going to let her manipulate him so easily.

Still, some foolish part of her had believed he might treat her differently. They had shared a past. Surely that had to count for something.

“Alexander, can't you let my family go? Just this once, for old times' sake?”<