She’s the billionaire who ruined her pitch. Now, she’s the patron paying her rent. And the terms of their arrangement are dangerously negotiable. Riley Chen is three hundred dollars away from eviction. A brilliant, fiercely stubborn indie game developer, she’s running on spite, instant ramen, and the desperate hope that her masterpiece will finally get funded. But when she pitches her game, she doesn't expect Vivian Hale—the notoriously ruthless "Ice Queen" of venture capital—to dismantle her business model with surgical precision, leaving Riley humiliated and completely out of options. Vivian didn't just see a doomed financial structure, though. She saw a game that cracked her perfectly controlled exterior, and a woman she can’t get out of her head. So, she offers Riley a private, highly unorthodox arrangement: a room in her luxurious Marina District condo, top-tier development hardware, and full financial backing. In exchange, Riley must act as her companion at elite industry events where arriving alone is a liability. As for the physical component? That’s strictly opt-in. Riley accepts out of pure desperation, determined to keep her head down, finish her code, and ignore the way Vivian’s tailored suits and devastating gaze make her pulse hammer. But keeping things transactional is impossible when you live across the hall from the woman you hate to want. As cold professionalism melts into whispered midnight confessions and heated encounters pressed against marble counters, the precise lines of their contract begin to unravel. Vivian’s icy control is a mask, and Riley is the only one who knows how to strip it away. But when the boundaries between patronage, possession, and real love blur, they’ll have to decide: is it time to walk away, or tear up the contract for good?
