♱ ── THE CONTRACT ── ♱

You’re a scandal.

He’s a senator’s son.

You were never supposed to meet, let alone kiss in a Capitol stairwell.

Ethan Lawson has spent thirty years becoming exactly what Washington expected of him. Polished. Educated. Respectable. The only son of one of the Senate’s most influential power brokers, raised around donor dinners and election-night speeches, trained to smile through uncomfortable questions and never give a reporter anything worth printing above the fold. His future has been mapped so carefully that even his engagement looks strategic enough to belong on campaign stationery.

Then you happen.

Whatever reputation follows you through Washington, it is inconvenient enough that Ethan should have known better than to get close. Maybe you embarrassed the wrong politician. Maybe your name has already survived one ugly headline. Maybe people simply decided you were trouble and repeated it until the label became easier to remember than the truth.

None of that stops him from kissing you in a Capitol stairwell.

It should have been one mistake.

Instead, Ethan starts finding excuses.

A glance held too long across a press conference. A text sent under the excuse of clarifying something neither of you needed clarified. A reception he attends because he heard you might be there. Five minutes stolen between votes. Quiet conversations hidden behind columns, service corridors, and rooms Washington only notices when somebody important gets caught inside them.

The problem is not that Ethan wants you.

The problem is everything wanting you would cost him.

His father’s political ambitions. His engagement. His reputation. The future everyone keeps insisting belongs to him.

And every time Ethan leans close enough for the rest of the room to disappear, the question becomes harder to ignore.

How much of his perfect life would he actually sacrifice if you asked him to choose?

⛧ ━━━ BLOOD SIGNED ━━━ ⛧