The Red Rose of Manhattan Chapter 1

Lily Sterling was Manhattan's most stunning wild rose.

She was breathtakingly beautiful—one flutter of her lashes could steal any man's soul. People said the line of men willing to worship at her feet stretched from the Upper East Side all the way to Brooklyn, but Miss Sterling couldn't care less. She barely spared them a glance.

Until her best friend made her a bet: "Lily, if you can get my uncle Ethan Frost to fall for you, you can have any car in my garage!"

Ethan Frost—CEO of Frost Enterprises, cold and untouchable, a man who kept every socialite at arm's length. Rumor had it not even a female mosquito could get near him.

But Lily just smiled. She'd never failed to get what she wanted.

However, plans have a way of falling apart.

The very first day of the bet, she stumbled upon Ethan after someone had drugged him. Already planning to get close to him, Lily became his solution—quite by accident.

After that night, the iceberg that was Ethan Frost seemed to crack wide open.

For three years, Ethan couldn't get enough of her—in his office against the floor-to-ceiling windows, in the bathroom of his private jet, even in the locker room at the golf club... They explored every position, in every place imaginable.

And somewhere in all those intimate moments, Lily's heart began to fall.

She thought this man—this god among men—belonged to her too.

Until tonight. After they'd been together in his car, she noticed his sapphire cufflink had fallen off. She picked it up to return it to him.

The door to the private room at the end of the hallway was slightly ajar. She was about to push it open when she heard voices inside.

"Ethan, fresh from the bedroom, huh? That Lily girl—she's such a wild little thing normally, acts like she owns the world, but around you? She's all soft and sweet. Makes my heart itch just watching. So when are you going to put a ring on her finger?"

Lily froze, her heart inexplicably tightening.

Then she heard that familiar cold voice—the one she knew down to her bones.

"She's just a bed partner. Why would I marry her?"

Seven words. Light as air. But they hit like seven ice-cold knives, stabbing straight into Lily's heart, shredding it to pieces.

The room fell into an eerie silence. Even his friends seemed shocked by such blunt cruelty.

After what felt like an eternity, someone carefully broke the silence: "Wait... seriously, man? It's been three years... You still... you still hung up on that old flame?"

Old flame?

Lily's mind went blank with a loud buzzing sound.

Ethan had an old flame?

She stood outside the door like a puppet with its strings cut, listening as Ethan gave a quiet "Mm."

"When we broke up, she asked for three years. Said she wanted to try being with someone else, and I should do the same. If we still wanted each other after that, we'd get back together."

"She gets dramatic, needs reassurance. So I gave her what she wanted."

"Three years," he paused, his voice carrying the faintest hint of anticipation. "I've tried. She should be coming back now."

Lily felt like she'd been struck by lightning, her whole body turning to ice, even her fingertips trembling.

These three years of intimacy, all those moments she thought they'd connected—it was all just his experiment at "trying someone else"?!

"But what about Lily? With her temper, proud as hell—if she finds out..."

"BANG!"

Before he could finish, Lily slammed the heavy door open.

Everyone inside jumped, turning to stare at the doorway.

There stood Lily, deathly pale except for her eyes, which were red enough to bleed.

She looked at no one else. Her gaze locked onto the man sitting at the head of the table.