Bound By The Billionaire’s Deal

Highway Strangers

Valerie’s POV

“Yeah, that tire is completely fucked,” Maya wiped rain out of her eyes, kicking the mangled rubber of her rear wheel. “I’m gonna have to call a tow truck. Ugh.”

Water was currently pooling inside my designer heels, my red dress glued to my skin like a second layer of frozen wrap. “Call Jules,” I yelled over the roaring downpour. “Maybe he can pick us up.”

“On a Friday night? Girl, please,” Maya scoffed, pulling her phone out of her leather jumpsuit. Her screen was flickering violently, half-drowned by the storm. “Jules is probably three cocktails deep in the club by now. He’s definitely not answering.”

She tapped out the call anyway, holding the phone to her ear. Five seconds later, she pulled it away, glaring at the screen. “Straight to voicemail.”

“Told you,” she muttered.

I was shivering so violently my teeth were practically clicking together. “What else are we supposed to do? Walk down I-90 in six-inch heels?”

Before Maya could launch into another rant, blinding headlights cut through the heavy gray curtain of rain behind us.

A sleek, black Maybach SUV, at least what I thought it was, pulled onto the shoulder, smoothly gliding to a stop just a few feet in front of Maya’s smoking hatchback. The engine purred with silent, terrifying precision.

Maya and I locked eyes instantly, a shared, silent look communicating- who the hell is pulling over right now?

The driver-side glass rolled down silently, revealing a sharp, shadowed profile.

“Looks like you two are stuck,” a voice cut through the sound of the rain. It was deep, smooth as velvet, and carried an effortless, commanding gravel that sent an electric shiver straight down my spine. “Mind taking a ride?”

Maya and I stepped closer to the window, shielding our eyes from the headlights to catch a glimpse of the driver.

My breath instantly caught in my throat. My brain hit a complete, screeching halt.

Carved jawline. Cold, striking features. Piercing, icy-blue eyes that could freeze water.

Damon Blackwood.

The Damon Blackwood. The untouchable, brutal billionaire CEO of Blackwood Corp.

Beside me, Maya’s hand grabbed my thigh in a vice-like grip, her long nails digging into my red dress as she frantically tugged at my leg under the rain. Her wide eyes were practically screaming, Girl, are you seeing what the actual fuck I’m seeing?!

I pinched her wrist right back, signaling a hard, silent play it fucking cool.

Neither of us said a word about who he was. Out in the real world, we were just two drenched women stranded on the highway, inside Blackwood HQ, we were workers on floor fifteen and twenty-two who had only ever seen his face on corporate press releases and high-floor elevator screens.

“We.….. yeah, we would really appreciate a ride,” Maya said, finding her voice first and putting on a smooth smile. “Except I can’t just leave my car stranded here.”

“Don’t worry about the car, I’ll handle that” Damon said smoothly, his icy gaze flickering to me for a fraction of a second before unlocking the rear passenger doors. “Hop in out of the rain, and give me your keys.”

We didn't hesitate. Maya scrambled in first, sliding across the wide, plush leather bench of the back seat, and I tumbled in right behind her, slamming the heavy door shut against the howling storm.

The sound of the torrential rain instantly vanished, replaced by the quiet, hummed purr of the custom engine. The cabin smelled suffocatingly expensive.

Maya fumbled with her dripping purse, her hands shaking so violently from the cold that her keys clattered against her designer clutch before she managed to pass the ring up to the front console.

By the time Damon picked them up, a black Range Rover serving as an escort vehicle had pulled over behind the Maybach and parked along the gravel. A towering security guard in a dark suit stepped out into the rain, marching directly to Damon’s window.

Damon rolled his window down two inches, handing Maya’s keys through the gap to the guard without even turning his head.

“Stay behind,” Damon instructed, his deep voice carrying effortless command over the storm. “Get this car towed to the corporate garage. Have Miller’s team fix it tonight and charge it to my account. Make sure it’s fully repaired. I’ll text you the address and have it parked out front by morning.”

“Understood, sir.”

The guard took the key and stepped back into the rain.

Damon rolled the window back up, draping his long, suit-clad arm over the back of the passenger seat as he smoothly checked his side mirror. He shifted the Maybach into drive, pulling us seamlessly back onto the slick, dark road.

“Give me your addresses,” he commanded softly, his eyes lifting to the rearview mirror.

For a moment, neither Maya nor I said anything. We still hadn’t fully processed what was happening. Just minutes ago, we’d been stranded trying to figure out what to do. Now we were sitting in THE Damon Blackwood’s Maybach, and somehow he was driving us home.

Maya blurted hers out first. I gave mine right after, my voice sounding impossibly small against the low hum of the engine.

Damon pulled out his phone with one hand and sent Maya’s address to his bodyguard before setting it back down.

“Your car will be at your house by morning,” he said, his gaze flicking toward Maya through the mirror.

Maya blinked. “Thank you so much.”

I swallowed. “Thank you.” His eyes lingered on us for a moment before his expression hardened with something more serious.

“Are you two alright?” he asked.

His gaze caught mine in the glass, and for a second, I forgot how to breathe. His eyes were an ungodly, razor-sharp blue.

“Oh, we’re totally fine,” Maya piped up instantly, her loud mouth running at absolute warp speed. “Well, if you don’t count the fact that my best friend Valerie here just caught her scumbag boyfriend actively fucking her stepsister !”

“Maya! Ugh!” I groaned, delivering a sharp, furious slap to her arm that made her leather jumpsuit react with a loud thwack. My face instantly ignited in absolute, searing mortification.

Damon’s dark brows twitched upward in the rearview mirror. His eyes locked onto mine through the glass, holding my gaze with a heavy, suffocating intensity that made my lungs freeze.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he murmured.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” I muttered, grabbing my dripping hair and pulling it over one shoulder just to have something to do with my hands.

As I glanced back up, I caught him. His eyes weren't on my face anymore. They dipped lower, slowly and deliberately tracking the sheer, wet fabric of my off-shoulder red dress, lingering on my boobs, and the outline of my chest where the rain had made my dress cling like liquid latex. The sheer heat in his gaze was so heavy it practically scorched my skin through the glass.

My breath hitched violently in my throat. I smoothed down the wet fabric of my dress, forcing my eyes toward the blurred city lights outside the window.

“No, it’s not fine!” Maya insisted, completely oblivious to the thick, suffocating air filling the back seat. “Gavin is an absolute douchebag, and Chloe is the literal devil. I should’ve pulled out more of her extensions.”

“I assume Gavin is the boyfriend?” Damon asked, his tone smooth, dangerously calm, and entirely unbothered.

“Ex-boyfriend,” I corrected sharply, my chest heaving as I looked back at the mirror. “You mean ex.”

A small, almost imperceptible smirk tugged at the corner of Damon’s sharp, sculpted lips.

“Well,” Damon murmured, his deep voice dropping an octave into something low, and lethal. “For what it’s worth... Any man would have to be a complete fool to cheat on a woman like you”

The sentence hit the dark cabin like a live wire, sending an electric shock straight down my spine. My mouth went completely, hopelessly dry.

The rest of the drive passed in a thick silence that felt heavier than the rain outside. By the time the Maybach pulled up to the curb outside Maya’s high-rise apartment building, the storm had finally died down to a soft, misty drizzle.

“This is me,” Maya said, gathering her wet clutch. “Thank you so much. Seriously, you’re a total lifesaver.”

As she unbuckled her seatbelt, Maya leaned across the leather seat, pretending to pull me into a goodbye hug. She lowered her head straight to my ear, whispering at a frantic, borderline-violent speed.

“Girl… he is DEFINITELY checking you out! The fucking Damon Blackwood! If he’s trying to get laid tonight, you should let it play out so you can take your mind off stupid-ass Gavin!”

My eyes widened. “Maya,” I hissed, barely managing to keep my voice down.

Before I could choke out anything else or smack her across the face, she pulled back, flashed me a manic, unhinged grin, and made a quick hand gesture telling me to call her. Then she wiggled her eyebrows up and down in absolute, shameless teasing.

I rolled my eyes. “Bye, Maya.”

“Call me,” she mouthed, pointing at me one last time.

I shook my head, fighting the urge to laugh despite myself. “Yeah, yeah. Go.”

Maya opened the door and stepped out into the night, slamming it shut behind her.

And just like that, I was completely alone in the quiet darkness of the back seat with the most ruthless billionaire in Chicago.