Owned by the Princess

My new coworker eats nothing but blue lobster. She smashes her computer the second something doesn't go her way. And the princess complex? Worst I've ever seen.

She clings to me all day, whining for attention like I already belong to her. So I went to my manager. I asked him to transfer her out of our department.

He grabbed me by the collar. "Princess complex?" His voice cracked like a whip. "Ms. Shen is an actual princess." Back then, I figured he was just covering for some spoiled heiress.

I had no idea. This "princess" turned my whole life upside down. And when I hit rock bottom, she was the only one who reached down and pulled me back up.

And the girlfriend I was killing myself to marry? She'd be the one who shoved me down there. Chapter 1 Thursday evening. I was packing up to leave my desk.

Iris Shen walked over and tossed a bag onto it. Dark crocodile leather.

That expensive kind of matte that doesn't shine. "Saw it while I was out," she said. "Thought it suited you." I didn't answer. I didn't touch it.

She let out a soft scoff. "A bag like that? You couldn't buy it on a year's salary." She tilted her head. "Anyway. I want seafood tonight.

You're coming with me." I looked up at her. "No. My girlfriend's in town. I'm spending it with her." The smile dropped off her face. "Gideon.

Last time you turned me down, do you remember how that went?" I remembered. Last time was Valentine's Day.

I'd rushed home to videocall my girlfriend, two cities away, and told Iris I couldn't make dinner. The next morning, my desktop had a full cup of coffee poured into it.

Security cameras? A power outage knocked them out at exactly the right moment. Convenient. No one ever found out who did it.

That afternoon she leaned against my desk, easy as anything. "Such a shame," she said. "All those late nights you spent coding.

Gone." There was a coffee in her hand while she said it. But this time, I turned her down anyway. "I'm spending it with my girlfriend." Her anger twisted into a smile. "Fine.

Go see your little girlfriend." "Just don't come crying to me later." Celeste and I had done two years longdistance. She was in grad school in Boston. I worked here in the city.

Once she graduated, we'd marry and settle down. Then Iris joined the company, and my boss started slipping an extra chunk into my paycheck every month.

The deal was simple: keep Iris Shen happy. So I put up with her. I was saving to marry Celeste. Today was my birthday. Celeste took the Amtrak down just to see me.

I picked her up at the station. She threw herself into my arms, lit up like it had been years. Then her face changed. "Babe.

Why do you smell like perfume?" "Probably one of the women at the office," I said.

She leaned in and breathed it in again, slow. "That's Baccarat Rouge, isn't it," she said. "Cold, but sweet underneath.

Really distinct." I laughed. "How do you even know that?" "I tried the sample at the counter once. Loved it. Couldn't afford the full bottle." I ruffled her hair. "Payday just hit.

I'll get you one." She hesitated. Then she smiled and shook her head. "Don't bother. Just buy me something good to eat." She said no.

But her eyes stayed on that perfume a second too long. I chalked it up to her being sweet. Easy to please. I didn't think twice.

I'd booked us a buffet downtown, one with good reviews. I paid. We'd just sat down. Then my manager called. "Gideon. Do you even want this job anymore?" "You know who Ms. Shen is.

You really don't get it?" "We pay you extra for a reason. You don't get to take the money and skip the work." I kept my voice low. Kept the anger down. "That money's filthy.

I don't want it." Two seconds of silence on the line. "Fine. Don't bother showing up tomorrow." I listened to the dial tone.

Slowly lowered the phone. "What's wrong?" Celeste asked. "I think I just got fired." She blinked. Then she laughed, light and easy. "It's okay.

Maybe this is a good thing." "I've hated this longdistance thing forever." "Just come to Boston. Find a job there.

We'll get married sooner." Chapter 2 I looked at that innocent smile of hers, and something twisted in my chest. I wanted to give her a real wedding. A steady home.

If I moved to Boston now, we'd be starting over from nothing. She saw me go quiet and only got sweeter about it.

She loaded a plate with the things I liked and pushed it in front of me. "Whatever happens, eat first." I picked up a grilled oyster. I was about to eat it.

Then Iris walked in through the front of the restaurant. White Chanel, head to toe. A thinchained bag on her wrist.

The manager rushed over, bowing, falling over himself to talk to her. She came straight to our table and held out her hand to Celeste. "Hi.

I'm Iris." "You must be Gideon's girlfriend. You're so cute." "How did you find me?" I said, low.

She smiled. "Saw you buy the online deal for this place yesterday." Her eyes flicked to my plate. Pure disbelief. "You turned down blue lobster with me.

For this?" Celeste looked a little lost. "Ms. Shen. Did you need something from my boyfriend?" Iris turned to her, and the smile deepened. "How careless of me.

Let me introduce myself again." "I'm Gideon's girlfriend. Here in the city." "These two years you've been apart?

I'm the one who's been taking care of him." I shot to my feet. "Iris. What the hell are you talking about?" Her eyes went wide. Innocent. "You've had it so hard, all this distance.

A temporary girlfriend on this end. That's pretty normal, isn't it?" A few people at the next table set down their forks. Their eyes went back and forth between me and Celeste.

Someone snickered under their breath. "Longdistance, and he's got one on the side here too. This guy's really something." I opened my mouth. It only made things worse.

I hadn't done a thing, and I was already the cheating scumbag. "Oh, right." Iris opened her bag and drew something out, her voice going soft and petulant. "Gideon, you were so bad last night.

How did this end up tangled in my hair?" "I didn't even find it until I was in the shower. Almost cut my hand." She opened her palm. A platinum cufflink sat in it.

Engraved with my initials. G.L. The blood drained from Celeste's face. She'd bought me those with her first scholarship check. Platinum doesn't tarnish, she'd told me.

It'll still look new in ten years. So you have to wear them. Always. And now one of them sat in another woman's hand. It took me a second. Then it clicked.

I'd pulled an allnighter at the office a few days back. Slept in the conference room. Left my suit jacket slung over a chair. She must have lifted the cufflink off it.

I turned to Celeste right away. "I lost it at work. She picked it up. That's all." "There is nothing between me and her." Celeste looked at me like she was looking at a stranger.

A long moment. Then her head dropped, the rims of her eyes going red. "Even if you lost it by accident." "I bought those with my scholarship.

How could you just lose one?" I scrambled to apologize. "I've been buried in overtime. I didn't mean to." Iris decided it wasn't messy enough.

She poured on more. "He really has been exhausted lately," she said. "Working all day. Then keeping me entertained." The last part came out warm. Intimate. My voice shook. "Enough.

Get out." She raised an eyebrow. "I just dropped ten grand on a membership here.

I haven't even started eating." She sat down, graceful, and smoothed a napkin over her lap. "You two don't mind if I join, do you?" Chapter 3 I caught Celeste's hand. "Come on.

Let's go somewhere else." She slipped her hand back out of mine, gentle about it. "Gideon. My head's a mess right now." "I don't think I can eat today." A soft pop.

Iris had opened a bottle of red. She rested her chin in one hand and watched me, smiling. Celeste broke up with me. Six years, over at 1:20 a.m. All it left behind was a few texts.

Celeste: [Babe, I know you didn't cheat on me.] Celeste: [But I can't do the distance anymore.] Celeste: [I can't stop picturing it. You laughing with other girls. Eating with them.

Out shopping.] Celeste: [And me? I only get to live inside your phone.] Celeste: [That Ms. Shen who showed up yesterday is gorgeous.

It made me feel so plain.] Celeste: [I hate feeling like this.] I read that last line and something in my chest went sideways. I called. She'd already blocked me.

She didn't hate me. I knew that. She just didn't know how to fix any of it, so she ran. I lay on the bed in my rental and it all felt like a joke. One night. My job, my girlfriend.

Both gone. And all of it traced back to one person. Iris Shen. Next morning, early, I went back to the office. I walked to my desk and started boxing up my things. Ready to quit.

Heels came clicking down the hall, unhurried. Iris stopped in front of me and looked me over. "Gideon. Here so early?

Couldn't sleep in a little?" I kept my head down, coiling a cable. I didn't answer. She leaned in closer.

Dropped her voice. "Don't tell me your little girlfriend left you unsatisfied." I finally looked up.

Cold. "We're done." The corner of her mouth lifted, then pressed flat again. "Well. That's just such a shame." I stood and headed for the break room.

She followed, keeping her easy pace. Inside, she pressed the button on the kettle. "Two years apart. Must've been torture, holding out that long.

Breaking up is for the be—" I reached back and shut the door. It clicked. She glanced over her shoulder. Her voice softened a notch. "Don't be angry. I'll make it up to you.

The manager's chair? Yours to play with." I took a step closer and leaned down until we were level. "Iris. Do you actually like me?" She looked up.

Her hand shot out and caught my tie. "You tell me." "My guess," I said. "You want to watch me lose it." Her back hit the wall. Her breathing came apart. The kettle hissed.

Steam bloomed white into the little room and closed the space between us to nothing.

I stepped back and drew my tie out of her fingers, slow. "Too bad." "I will never lose control over you." One month later. Iris and I were engaged.

She had me take my old boss's job. And once I married into the family, she'd sign fifteen percent of the company over to me.

The afternoon I walked back in, plenty of people looked up. They figured I'd left something behind and come back for it.

The manager pushed his office door open and pitched his voice loud on purpose. "Well, if it isn't Gideon. Back to visit your old coworkers?" The words had barely landed.

Behind me, the HR rep walked in fast. "Mr. Zhang. Could you step outside for a moment?" He frowned, impatient. "Whatever it is, just say it here." Chapter 4 The HR rep paused.

Her tone stayed strictly professional. "Mr. Zhang. You've been formally let go." "Everything on your plate now goes to VP Lu." His face locked up, inch by inch.

Then his head snapped toward me. "Gideon! You did this!" I walked over and fixed his tie for him. "Thanks for the promotion, boss." "And thanks for introducing me to my fiancée.

Iris." He glared at me, hate in it, until HR pushed him along and he finally started packing.

Ten minutes later, he carried his cardboard box straight through the middle of the floor. The staff kept sizing me up, something complicated in their eyes.

They looked down on me and envied me at the same time. I knew it. I sat down in the chair that used to be his.

Turned to face the whole floor. "We used to be coworkers." "Who gets to stay from here on? We'll see." 7 p.m. A RollsRoyce Cullinan pulled up outside the building.

The window slid down. Iris turned her face to me and smiled. For a second, the whole street's attention got pulled to her. Then it drifted over to me.

I ignored all of it and got in. She tilted her head, eyes curving. "Darling. Long day at work?" I shifted a little toward my door, not letting it show. "A kept man.

How tired could I be." She laughed, light and careless. "If you're tired, don't work. Manage my investments for me.

Or just come to a few events on my arm." "And then?" I said. "When you get bored of me, you kick me to the curb?" Her fingertip tapped the wheel.

Her voice stayed breezy. "If that day ever comes, you'll have more money than you could spend in a lifetime." "Compared to killing yourself over code?

Isn't this better?" I turned to look at her. "You have your pick of men," I said, low. "Why bother tearing me and Celeste apart?" At Celeste's name, Iris pressed her lips together.

Something stubborn set into her face. "What's so great about her, anyway? Her family's beneath mine. Her face doesn't come close.

Even her body." She leaned in, and her voice dropped. "None of it measures up to me." I turned away and watched the traffic slide by outside. "She's not like you.

People like you." She laughed at herself, quiet. "True. She's nothing like me. Whatever I want, I put it right out in the open. Clear as day." "A girl like her?

What she wants, an idiot like you will never figure out." Iris took me back to the Shen estate. A whole property, every light burning.

The staff already waited at the door, heads down, lined up in a row. The car had barely stopped before someone came to open my door. Iris handed off the keys without looking.

Then she took my hand and led me upstairs. Her grip didn't leave room to argue. My new bedroom was inside hers. When I said I'd take a guest room, she arched a brow. "Gideon.

You've got this backwards." She stepped closer. "This is my room. It's your room too.

And you." Her fingers moved unhurried over my bow tie, loosening it. "You'll be mine soon enough." She told me to go shower. Chapter 5 I went into the bathroom without a word.

The water came on. Steam crept out and filled the room. I looked up, at the blurred shape of her through the frosted glass. My nails pressed slow into my palm. Fine.

If it had come to this, then I'd find out. Who was playing whom. I came back to the bedroom and found it empty. A servant knocked, respectful. "Mr. Lu. Ms.

Shen is waiting for you in the study." The study sat at the end of the hall. Iris was behind the desk, a pen turning idle between her fingers.

She saw me and gave me a look caught between a smile and nothing at all. "All clean? Then let's talk about that bet of ours." A month earlier.

After they fired me, Iris had come to find me. She'd asked if I had the nerve to make a bet with her. For the next year, I'd be her fiancé. In name only. We'd live together.

I'd escort her to every event, smooth things over with her family, handle the people in her circle. If, a year from now, Celeste believed I was clean, I won.

I'd walk away with equity in the Shen Group. If Celeste didn't believe me, Iris won. And in that case. "Gideon. You become mine.

To keep." She slid the contract across the desk as she said it. "If you really think money can't buy you, take the challenge." Her eyes were bright. A dare sitting in them.

Celeste's face rose up in my mind. The way she always looked at me. Steady. Like I was the most trustworthy man alive. So I trusted her back. I took the contract and read it over.

Then I picked up the pen and signed my name