Claimed by the Nephew, Craved by the Uncle

"This is my uncle, the actual head of the family empire," my boyfriend whispered as the heavy double doors swung open.

The second my eyes locked onto the man sitting at the head of the table, the blood in my veins turned to solid ice. My lungs forgot how to work. Gideon.

When I was eighteen, my family tossed me into his bed like a giftwrapped offering. I spent three entire years as his dirty little secret.

I gave him an ultimatum: claim me publicly, or I walk. He just fastened his bespoke suit, carved out a cruel smile, and said, "Suit yourself." So I vanished. And now, here I am.

Standing directly in front of him, my fingers tightly interlaced with his nephew's. Chapter 1 The thought never even crossed my mind that Nathaniel's uncle would be Gideon.

Before I could process the shock, Nathaniel pulled me through the threshold and straight into the lavish dining hall.

He led me directly toward the head of the table. "Uncle, this is my girlfriend, Thea." Gideon's gaze detached from the clinking crystal glasses and idle chatter, sliding over to pin me in place.

My fingernails dug so hard into my palms they almost broke the skin. His dark eyes swept over me for a fraction of a second. "Mm." A single, indifferent syllable.

His face remained carved from ice, detached. Like he was looking at an absolute stranger. "Don't mind him. He's always like that," Nathaniel whispered, leaning in closely.

He pulled out a chair for me directly to Gideon's right. The plates were already perfectly set. Resting in the center of the fine china was a massive piece of seafood.

Word around the table was that this was the spoils from Gideon's private yacht expedition, a toptier blue lobster exclusively prepared by a threestar Michelin chef. "Thea, you have to try this." Nathaniel grabbed his silver fork, expertly extracting a piece of the tender meat for me.

I stared at the seafood, my stomach instantly knotting. Nathaniel knew my throat would close up. A severe seafood allergy. The slightest bite triggered fullbody hives.

In fact, that was exactly how we met—he had to rush me to the ER after a restaurant crosscontaminated my order.

I pressed my lips into a thin line and gave him a subtle shake of my head. "I can't eat—" Nathaniel's voice dropped to a harsh whisper, cutting me off entirely. "Thea, look around.

Everyone is eating. It's bad manners to refuse." He subtly nudged my elbow. "This is your first time meeting him.

You need to make a good impression." "If you break out in hives later, I'll rush you to the ER.

Don't make a scene." He shoved a crystal flute of champagne toward my hand. "Just toast him first, take a bite, and show some appreciation.

Be a good girl." A bitter taste coated the back of my throat. I stayed completely silent. Nathaniel and I were dating, but it was far from a fairytale romance.

When I first met him, the crushing weight of reality was suffocating me.

I was pulling double shifts, running myself ragged between a cheap diner and a loud underground dive bar just to keep the debt collectors off my back.

So, when a guy with a trust fund and a seemingly endless bank account started chasing me, I caved. It wasn't about epic love; it was pure survival math.

Nathaniel threw expensive gifts at me, let me pick the priciest restaurants, and practically funded my life.

In a lot of ways, he felt less like a boyfriend and more like a sugar daddy. I stared down at the fizzing golden liquid in my glass and gave a rigid nod.

Forcing my spine straight, I turned to face Gideon and lifted the flute. "To you." Gideon's gaze was an unreadable abyss.

Not a single muscle in his jaw twitched as he watched me down the expensive alcohol in silence.

Right on cue, Nathaniel's silver fork hovered near my mouth, offering up the piece of blue lobster. The meat was an inch from my lips when Gideon moved.

His large hand swept out, striking the fork right out of Nathaniel's grip. The expensive lobster hit the hardwood floor with a wet slap.

He leaned back into his heavy leather chair, his dark eyes locking onto his nephew. "Haven't I told you before?

Once seafood gets cold, the stench is repulsive." He flicked his fingers toward the hovering waiters. "Clear the entire table." Chapter 2 Gideon's order hung heavily in the air, effectively shutting down Nathaniel's insistence.

Further down the long table, a guy in a sharp suit let his eyes drag over me. He suddenly leaned forward. "Damn, Nathaniel.

Your girl looks exactly like Gideon's old piece." The surrounding guests instantly perked up, murmuring questions. The guy waved a hand dismissively. "Ancient history, man.

Some girl was obsessed with Gideon. Chased him relentlessly, even stripped completely bare and practically threw herself into his bed." "No shame at all.

I can't remember her name, but I remember that face.

Total dead ringer for Nathaniel's new girl." He chuckled, tossing a look toward the head of the table. "Hey, Gideon, take a look.

Not the same chick, is it?" Dozens of eyes immediately zeroed in on me. Whispers hissed through the dining hall.

Nathaniel squeezed my hand, a deep frown carving into his forehead, but he kept his mouth firmly shut. Gideon's frigid gaze locked onto the man.

His long fingers suddenly clamped down, and with a sharp crack, the heavy crystal glass shattered into pieces against the tabletop.

Shards of glass mixed with amber liquor dripped down the wood. "Security. Throw him out." The entire banquet hall instantly plunged into a dead silence.

Two burly security guards immediately materialized, grabbing the guy by his arms and hauling him out the doors.

Only then did Nathaniel reach out to smooth my hair in a comforting gesture. "Don't listen to him. I know you're not like that." "Thea, let's go to the center of the room.

Let me take you dancing." I needed to get out from under Gideon's suffocating radar. I gave a stiff nod.

Nathaniel led me straight to the dance floor, sliding one palm onto my waist and lacing his other hand through mine.

He had taught me the waltz, even insisting on rehearsing twice before we arrived. But tonight, my legs felt like lead.

My steps were completely out of sync, the toes of my heels repeatedly scraping against his expensive leather shoes. The back of my neck prickled.

I could feel a heavy, searing gaze practically burning a hole through my dress, radiating a thin layer of suppressed rage. It felt like it was stripping me down to the bone.

But when I forced myself to glance over my shoulder, nothing was out of place. Gideon had his head turned, engaged in conversation with a business partner.

His eyes hadn't strayed an inch. I was still staring when Nathaniel abruptly yanked me closer, his large hand gripping my waist tight. "Thea, you're a million miles away tonight.

What's wrong? Did my uncle scare you?" He brushed a stray piece of hair behind my ear. "Don't let him intimidate you.

He looks ruthless, but he's actually a decent guy." "Especially when his fiancée, Genevieve, is around. He practically eats out of the palm of her hand.

Whatever she wants, she gets." My breath hitched in my throat. "He's married?" "Not yet.

She's his fiancée, but the wedding is happening soon." Nathaniel smiled, his fingertips tracing the low dip of my backless gown, slowly starting to slip beneath the expensive silk fabric.

That suffocating stare slammed into me again. Dark. Predatory. Suffocating with sheer displeasure. I slowly turned my head, my eyes dragging toward the head table.

This time, Gideon was looking dead at me. A perfect, inescapable collision of our gazes.

But before I could even blink, Nathaniel smoothly shifted his footing, his broad shoulders completely blocking Gideon from my line of sight.

He offered me a charming smile. "Thea, pay attention. Just focus on the steps I taught you." I rested my hand heavily on his shoulder, sealing my lips tight.

Nathaniel didn't know a damn thing. He didn't know I already knew how to waltz.

And he definitely didn't know that every single step, every twirl, had been personally taught to me by Gideon, his hands physically guiding my body in the dark.

My family used to have money. We weren't Wall Street billionaires, but we never had to look at price tags. That all shattered the year I turned eighteen.

Chapter 3 My adoptive father's business hit a wall and was on the verge of bankruptcy.

To fill the massive financial black hole, he tossed several dossiers of toptier power players onto the table, coldly ordering me to pick one to please and surrender myself to, all to save his dying business.

I only needed one glance to pick Gideon. He had superior bone structure, an impeccable face, and kept his twentysomething body in peak physical condition.

Next to a lineup of balding, middleaged men in their forties and fifties, he was dangerously striking. My adoptive father gave a satisfied nod.

Finding out Gideon was taking his yacht out, he pulled every string he had to smuggle me straight into his cabin. That night, my heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.

But I had no out. If I couldn't secure him, my father would just ship me off to some other ruthless billionaire, maybe even a married one.

So, I stripped off my clothes, my shaking fingers hooking around Gideon's neck. He grabbed my wrists, his muscles locking in rigid rejection, violently gesturing toward the door.

I clung to him, tears spilling over my lashes, and desperately pressed clumsy, trembling kisses to his lips, his jaw, the thick column of his neck.

He froze, his body going perfectly still under my touch. After a long, suffocating pause, his large palms came up to cup my face.

His rough thumb swiped the wetness from my cheek. "Stop crying. I'll try to be gentle." That night is still permanently burned into my brain.

He took me over and over again, his breathing ragged in the dark. He pushed aside my damp hair, pressing a relentless, searing trail of kisses into my skin.

The next morning, I woke up pinned beneath his heavy arm. He had already run a full background check. He knew who my adoptive family was, and he knew exactly why I was in his bed.

He looked down at me, his voice a cool drawl. "Thea. Do you want to be mine?

Three years." "In exchange, I'll inject enough capital into your father's business to drag it out of the grave." I had zero leverage to refuse.

I just let out a heavy breath, entirely missing the transactional reality of his offer. Those years with Gideon were actually surprisingly smooth.

Whether in or out of the bedroom, we clicked. He liked to blindfold me with his silk ties, leaning down to bite the shell of my ear.

Every time he flew back from a business trip, he buried me in designer boxes, keeping me tangled in the sheets until sunrise. Once, he got an invite to a highsociety gala.

I begged him to take me along. He finally caved, dragging me in front of the floortoceiling windows in the dead of night to practice my footwork. Later, I got my wish.

I even picked out a stunning gown specifically colorcoordinated to his suit, locking my arm through his as we made our entrance.

But the second someone asked who I was, he didn't miss a beat. He called me his new dance partner. Just a plusone. Nothing more.

That night, the moment the penthouse doors clicked shut, I finally snapped. Gideon didn't even flinch.

He sprawled casually across the leather sofa, his dark eyes locked onto me with chilling calm. "Thea, what exactly are you throwing a tantrum over?

You know exactly how you ended up in my bed. Don't tell me you actually expected to be my girlfriend?" I had been by his side for three full years by then. A lot had changed.

My adoptive father died in a car crash, his business empire shattered into pieces, and the family had long since cut me off. Maybe I was just young and too damn proud.

I gritted my teeth and laid down my cards. I wanted a real title. If he wouldn't claim me publicly, I was walking away.

A flicker of surprise crossed his face, quickly replaced by a slow, dismissive nod. "Walk if you want. Suit yourself." So, I deleted his number.

I packed my bags, boarded a flight to a completely different city, and erased myself from his world. Chapter 4 I grew up wrapped in luxury, born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

It wasn't until I walked away from my adoptive family—and Gideon—that I learned the brutal, bonecrushing weight of being broke.

Because I had no money, I was forced into a sketchy, lowrent apartment complex in a terrible neighborhood, spending every night terrified as police sirens wailed outside my window.

Because I was broke, I hit dead end after dead end, swallowing disrespect from people who wouldn't have dared look me in the eye before.

The relentless grind sanded down my pride until there was nothing left. That was exactly why it was so damn easy to cave when Nathaniel asked me out.

In the dead of night, when the apartment was suffocatingly quiet, Gideon would creep back into my thoughts.

I used to ask myself: if I could hit rewind and do it all over again, would I still walk away? The answer was always a hard yes.

No matter how twisted our beginning was, the brutal truth was that I had fallen for him. And because I actually gave a damn, the reality of our arrangement ripped me apart.

I started demanding more. I started hallucinating a future that was never on the table. Nathaniel's voice dragged me back to the present.

He was looking at me with a soft smile, his eyes tracing my features. "Thea, you look absolutely stunning tonight." Completely ignoring the crowded ballroom, his fingers clamped around my jaw.

He leaned down and captured my lips. The string quartet swelled into a crescendo.

The background chatter dropped away, immediately overrun by a wave of hoots and scattered applause from the crowd.

Nathaniel was usually the picture of polished, polite society, but tonight something had snapped in him. His hand dug into the back of my head, locking me in place.

He forced his way in, his teeth catching my lower lip so hard I tasted a sharp tang of copper. Suffocating under his sudden aggression, my eyes flew open.

And collided straight into Gideon's gaze. He was sitting just a few yards away, his deadeyed stare locked onto us. His expression was a perfect, impenetrable mask of indifference.

But the thick blue veins bulging against the back of his hand as he gripped his crystal tumbler told a totally different story. He violently snapped his head away.

Shoving his chair back, he disappeared into the cheering crowd without a backward glance. I lost track of how long Nathaniel kept me pinned there.

It wasn't until my lungs were screaming for oxygen that he finally let me go. Tonight was a networking bloodbath; he needed to shake hands and secure alliances.

He couldn't play my shadow all night. He guided me toward the velvet lounge chairs on the perimeter. "I need to go press some flesh with the board members.

Give me a few minutes, okay?" I gave a tight nod and sank into the corner, letting my mind go completely blank.

A few feet away, a cluster of socialites were buzzing about Gideon's fiancée. They were gushing about how she was the golden child of a Manhattan oldmoney dynasty.

Apparently, Gideon was thrilled with the match. They were the ultimate power couple, constantly photographed together at every major charity gala.

If the family patriarchs had their way, they'd be exchanging rings by the end of the year.

The gossip was making my stomach churn, and the ballroom air was suddenly too thick to breathe. I pushed myself up and slipped out into the long corridor.

The cool, quiet air hit my flushed skin, finally giving my shattered nerves a second to recalibrate.

I was walking past a row of private VIP suites when a heavy oak door suddenly ripped open.

A massive hand clamped shut around my wrist like a steel vice, violently dragging me into the shadows. The room was pitch black. I couldn't see a damn thing.

A solid, heavy body slammed me hard against the door panel, trapping me instantly. He leaned down, the soft brush of his hair grazing my forehead.

His voice was a cruel, familiar rasp. "Thea." Gideon was caged directly against me.

The darkness swallowed his features, but I could feel the freezing weight of his stare carving into me. He hovered over me.

A long, suffocating silence dragged out before his chest rumbled with a low demand. "When did you get together with Nathaniel?" It hadn't even been that long.

We just hit the hundredday mark. But I kept my mouth shut.

I forced myself up on my tiptoes, bringing my face mere inches from his. "Is that any of your business?" The muscles in his jaw flexed.

He abruptly pivoted. "Do you like him?" It didn't matter what the hell I actually felt for Nathaniel.

Right here, pinned under Gideon's interrogating glare, there was only one acceptable answer.

I gave a sharp nod. "I do." I lifted my chin, weaponizing my next words. "At least he claims me in public.

He doesn't treat me like a dirty secret he has to hide in the dark." The darkness thickened. Gideon's lips pressed into a harsh, bloodless line, and he didn't say another word.

Chapter 5 "If we're done here, let me out. Our current relationship doesn't exactly make locking ourselves in a dark room appropriate," I reminded him. He suddenly stepped forward.

His violently aggressive male scent completely enveloped me as his heavy body pinned me dead against the solid door.

His burning palm clamped around my jaw like a steel vice, his voice a low, gravelly rasp. "Thea. Leave him.

A little boy like that can't protect you." I wasn't surprised he said that. He never thought I was good enough, so of course he wouldn't want me polluting his family's bloodline.

I tilted my chin up, forcing a cold smile. "You think I'm too trashy for your precious nephew.

Is that it?" Surprisingly, a flicker of something crossed his eyes before he shook his head. "No. That's not what I think.

I just think you two are a terrible match." "Nathaniel has been a manipulative schemer since he was a kid.

He could be plotting murder and he'd only show you a smile." "Plus, he's a billionaire heir. Women are always going to throw themselves at him. You're too transparent, Thea.

You can't stomach the deception…" I cut him off, my brow pulling into a hard frown. "Gideon, it's been three years.

What makes you arrogant enough to think you still know a damn thing about me?" People change.

Three years of being violently chewed up by the real world had taught me exactly how to bend, how to fake a smile, and how to please people just to survive. "Looking back, I was a stupid kid.

I realized love is a useless luxury.

Having food on the table and a roof over my head is the only thing that actually matters." A sliver of amber street light cut through the blinds, catching the edges of his dark hair.

A muscle jumped in his jaw. He stared at me in heavy silence. When he finally spoke, the frigid edge in his voice had melted into something dangerously soft. "Thea.

You've lost so much weight. Your cheekbones are sharp. Have these past few years been that hard on you?" The intimate timber of his voice was a brutal ghost from our past.

My breath hitched.

Back then, every time he flew home from a business trip, he would cup my face just like this, studying me for entirely too long. "Did you skip meals again while I was gone?" "Look at your face.

I'm taking you out for a massive steak.

But right now, Thea… let me eat first." What always followed was a series of scorching, breathless kisses—from the leather couch to the floortoceiling windows, his burning breath searing my skin from broad daylight until dusk.

We wouldn't even leave the penthouse for food until the city lights came on. Right now, Gideon leaned in closer.

His intense gaze was exactly the same, his hot breath brushing against the sensitive skin of my neck.

Before I could even force a word past my dry throat, the heavy brass doorknob rattled. The door swung inward.

The harsh overhead lights flicked on, instantly blinding me and ripping away the shadows. It was Nathaniel