Chapter 37: Melissa's Gifts 2: Secret Hideout.

"Yes." Melissa stepped closer, pressed the documents into his hands. "I own an apartment in Downtown Paradise. And I'm giving it to you. As your secret hideout. For your own... activities."

Phei's eyes went wide—properly wide, couldn't help it. "You own an apartment in Downtown Paradise?"

Downtown Paradise. The section of the community that wasn't mansions but luxury apartments and condos. Not everyone could live there—it was still part of the gated community, still required obscene wealth to access—but it served a different purpose than the main residential areas.

Downtown Paradise was where the celebs stayed when they visited. Where the rich 2% who rented or bought places away from their real homes. Where wealthy men hid their mistresses and secret families. Where people came to do things they didn't want neighbors seeing.

It was also where Paradise Club was located—the most exclusive nightclub in probably the western hemisphere. Paradise Mall, where you could buy a pair of shoes for the price of a car. All the "necessary facilities" that the community needed but didn't want cluttering up the residential areas.

The hospital was still in main Paradise, but everything else—shopping, entertainment, nightlife—all of it was concentrated Downtown.

To Melissa owning a place there was a surprise Phei hadn't expected. Not because she couldn't afford it—anyone in real Paradise could buy a condo or two in Downtown if they wanted. It was the surprise of Why. How. When. What for.

But honestly? For all he cared about the answers to those questions, he'd just bloody take it.

"It's a two-bedroom," Melissa continued, watching his reaction with something that looked like nervous pride. "Top floor of one of the better buildings. Fully furnished. I've had it for... three years now. Harold doesn't know about it. I bought it with wine shop money, never told him. I thought..." She trailed off. "I thought I might need somewhere along the lines!"

And now she was handing it to him.

Phei looked down at the papers, at the keys, at the access cards. Felt something shift in his chest—emotion. Recognition, maybe. Understanding.

This wasn't just a hideout. Wasn't just some place to crash when he needed space from the mansion.

This was freedom.

A luxurious apartment—and not just any apartment, but one of the best apartments the world could offer, which meant even better than a penthouse in a four-star hotel—where he could live on his own.

Without Danton and his sisters breathing down his throat.

Without Harold's cold indifference.

A home. An actual home that was his?

But more than that—strategically, practically—it was a base for his harem operations; somewhere he could bring women without risk. Sneak married women away from their husbands. Cuck boyfriends in private. Build his taboo harem without anyone in the Maxton household knowing what he was doing.

A private space and a sex nest, all rolled into one.

"Melissa," Phei said, voice rougher than he meant it to be. "I—"

He didn't finish the sentence. Just crashed his lips into hers, hard and claiming, wrapping his free hand around the back of her neck.

She gasped against his mouth, stumbled backward, and they fell together onto the bed—Harold's bed, the bed where her husband had slept just last night while Phei was downstairs in his tiny room planning suicide.

The irony wasn't lost on him.

Melissa giggled—actually giggled like some kind of teenager—as Phei kissed her neck, her collarbone, her tits, tickling her with his stubble and making her squirm.

"Stop, stop!" She laughed, wriggling under him, thighs pressing together. "That tickles!"

He didn't stop. Kissed down her stomach, bit gently at her hip, made her shriek with laughter and arch off the bed.

"Phei!" She was properly laughing now, breathless and bright, nothing like the cold woman who'd made his life hell. "Stop it, I can't—I can't breathe!"

He relented, pulled back, grinned down at her flushed face and messy hair.

She was beautiful like this. Happy. Real.

Melissa caught her breath, smiled up at him, then sat up carefully, pushing him back slightly. "There's one last thing. Actually two."

"Two more?" Phei raised an eyebrow. "Christ, you're spoiling me."

"You deserve it." She reached over to her nightstand again—the other drawer this time—and pulled out something that made Phei's stomach do a complicated flip.

A phone. Brand new, sleek, still in its box.

iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Phei groaned inwardly. He couldn't be any happier—his current phone was an iPhone 8 with a cracked screen and a home button that barely worked, proper ancient by today's standards—but he'd been hoping to get an Android next.

Something different.

More customizable.

Still. He could buy an Android later with Melissa's money or his own. Have two phones. One for normal life, one for... harem activities.

"This phone is secured," Melissa said, pulling it out of the box and handing it to him. "It'll keep your secrets."

Phei turned it over in his hands. "Uncle Danny?"

Melissa nodded. "I called in a favor this morning. While you were sleeping."

Uncle Danny. Harold's younger brother. The one who ran Maxton Tech, the tech company side of the family business empire. The uncle who—Phei knew this despite nobody ever saying it out loud—secretly harbored a massive crush on Melissa despite being married himself, despite having his own family.

Well. Few men didn't have a crush on Melissa if they met her, to be fair. She was gorgeous and sharp and knew how to work people.

So, Danny would do anything she asked. Including securing a phone for her without asking too many questions.

"But," Melissa added quickly, seeing something in Phei's expression, "it wasn't Danny himself who did it. It was his assistant. You know, the one he's..." She made a vague gesture. "The one he's been sleeping with behind his wife's back. She came here this morning—I oversaw the whole thing. Danny doesn't know the details. Just that I needed a secured phone for family reasons."

Phei nodded slowly. If it was Danny's assistant—the woman Danny was stupidly banging in what he thought was secret—and she'd done the work here at the mansion with Melissa watching, then yeah.

He didn't have to worry about Danny secretly installing spyware or tracking software.

And Melissa wasn't naive about tech, either. That's what she'd graduated in originally, back before Harold decided she was more suited to be his decorative housewife than running Maxton Tech like she had to.

Before he'd pushed her out and given her brother-in-law the position that should've been hers.

She knew her way around code and hardware. Could tell if someone had installed anything dodgy.

If Melissa said it was clean, it was clean.

"Thank you," Phei said again. Meant it this time, all the way down.

Three gifts. A credit card with access to millions of dollars. A luxury apartment in Downtown Paradise. A secured phone.

In one day—one single day of conquering his aunt—she'd given him everything he needed to change his life.

To build his empire.

To take Paradise by storm and make every woman who'd ever looked down on him beg for his cock.

Melissa smiled, soft and vulnerable. "Use them well. Be smart. And..." She bit her lip. "Keep me involved? I want to help. Want to see you succeed."

Course he would.

"I'll keep you involved," he promised. Leaned down and kissed her again, softer this time. "You're mine now, Melissa. That means you're part of this. Part of everything I'm going to do."

She shivered under him. "Yes. God, yes. I'm yours."

"Good girl."

He pulled back, stood up from the bed, gathered the documents and keys and phone. Held them all against his chest like treasure.

Which they were, really.

"I should go," Phei said. "Before Harold gets home. Before anyone gets suspicious."

Melissa nodded, sitting up in bed, still topless and beautiful in the afternoon light. "Four hours until he's back. You've got time."

"I'll be in my room. Sorting this." He gestured with the documents. "Learning how everything works."

"The apartment keys have the address on them. And the access codes for the building. You can go there tonight if you want. After dinner, when everyone's asleep. I won't tell anyone."

"I see." Phei headed for the door, then paused. Looked back at her. "Melissa?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you. Properly. For all of this."

Her smile could've lit up the whole room. "You're welcome. Just... keep me satisfied, yeah? Keep fucking me the way you did last night. And we'll be fine."

Phei grinned. "Deal."

She laughed and Phei saw a flicker of emotions there!

He was almost out the door when she called after him, voice going a bit shy.

"Oh, and Phei? That last gift I mentioned?"

He turned back, eyebrow raised.

Melissa bit her lip, smiled in that secretive way. "That one's not for today. You'll get it when the time's right."

Phei smiled at that—properly smiled, the kind that reached his eyes. The mystery of it. The promise.

"Looking forward to it, then."

****

A/N: GUYS, FINALLY THE CONTRACT HAS BEEN GRANTED THIS TIME! THIS MEEEAANS THIS STORY WILL GO ON AND ON. I WONT'T BE DROPPING IT LIKE OTHER REJECTED NOVELS. THANK YOU EVERYONE, WE'RE HERE FINALLY!