
CONTRACTUALLY MARRIED
NewEraCulture · Completed · 121.9k Words
Introduction
Do you know what consist of that 'so-called' arrangements? Well, let me tell you... it's just me and my name who and which is going to be tied 'contractually' to the end of the name of my jerk of a (so-called) husband.
You heard that---Contractually? Yes. We're just going to be 'contractually 'married' for five years.. for five long years. And since it's only for five years, we don't have to act like those typical husbands and wives or a lovey-dovey-couple that you can see everywhere holding each other's hands while walking, hugging, kissing.. and ohh.. eating each other's face. Because that's exactly the opposite situation of our 'marriage'.
He hates me with all his guts and the same with me, although I really don't know why and where his hates coming from.
So, here I am... Arriana Angela Kelley- Smith, married to Alexander Jonathan Smith who is known to be one of the successful and richest bachelor 'slash' womanizers in the whole business state of California.
Hmmp! little did they know, he was already married 'to me' four years ago.
Chapter 1
It's only 7:30 am on my bedside clock, but here I am getting ready for my 10:00 am appointment with our president and some higher officials in the publishing company where I am currently working as an editor in chief.
But today's appointment is actually a contract signing for me as one of their romance and fiction writer. Well, you can't blame me for seeking another job..it's not that I am in need of so much money, but writing is actually my passion aside from singing of course. I already finish two stories and when I tried to pass it to one of my bestfriend --- Gavin who is also an editor, he said I must try to give it on board because we are currently in need of professional writers. So, that's the story behind this contract signing.
"Good morning." I greet my friend and apartment mate Cari when I walked to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.
"Good morning. It's Saturday... you're going to work?" she has a furrowed eyebrows while getting her bottled water. She probably comes from jogging based on her outfit and sweats on her forehead.
"Nope. I'm actually going to the office but not for duty." I take my seat and open the cover of my favorite chocolate pancakes on the table. Thank you for this girl for being my breakfast maker.
"But for what?"
"Guess what?" I shoved the first pancake in my mouth.
" Wait--- for higher position?" she's already seated beside me.
"No, but for another position. Uhm... additional position."
"What? What do you mean?" her eyebrows were almost knitted in line.
I grab her water bottled water and take a drink before answering her question.
"It's actually a contract signing of me being one of the writer of our company."
"Wow, really? Congratulations." she said in a wide eyes and hug me. "But how about your current position? It's not easy having two jobs in the same company. How are you going to balance that?" she take her seat again while waiting for my answer.
"Don't worry, I already have plans for that and besides, my job is in the morning and since I go out at four in the afternoon, I always have time and plenty of time to write." I answered her with a wink.
"Okay. All I can say for now is good luck. But I'm warning you, Rian. I want to be the first one to have the copy of your books." she playfully narrowed her eyes on me.
"Of course, you'll always be my priority."
"Oh, you make it sure ah."
"I'll promise." I said with a giggle while hugging her.
"By the way, what's you're planning for today after your contract signing?" We're now going back to the living room.
"I don't know maybe going to the supermarket and buy some stuffs. Why?" I look at her with a raised eyebrow because she has this familiar grin on her face.
"Well, it's Saturday today...and..."
"And?"
"And...it's time to have some fun again! You know Saturday nights with girls and the boys!" she said excitedly while I just rolled my eyes. See? That type of grin on her face... I knew it.
"What can you say? We're going to invite our girlfriends Jenny and Sierra. You can also invite Gavin and Nick. Ahh... I'm so excited."
"Oh, don't forget Sierra's boyfriend."
Yeah, one of our friends have already been engaged. It's Sierra whose boyfriend is one of the top model in California's time magazine. While Jenny, Cari, Gavin and Nick are still single. And me... I'm married. Although not the typical marriage that everybody knows but I'm still married. And only Cari and Gavin knows it among the group.
We're not living in one roof since our wedding. I still lived with my parents, while him... he already had his own penthouse back then because he was already the CEO of their family's company. We never had a date or a formal meeting until I graduated in college and decided to live on my own, although only here around California.
"Of course! You know Paolo is so possessive with Sierra!" I was back in trance when I heard Cari's voice. "As if his girlfriend was made of crystals and diamonds. Hello!" she said with disgust expression on her face.
And that is the time for me to laugh. I really love Cari. She's always more a sister to me than a friend sometimes. It's a different story with Gavin, because he's one of my workmates and he's gay. But that's a big secret that me and our friends only know about it.
After the contract signing with Gavin on my Side, we decided to go to the supermarket where Cari is already waiting for us. We didn't take so much time in buying groceries, actually we spent all our precious time shopping on some dresses, shoes, makeups and accessories for our girls and gangs night's out tonight. And of course for the following occasions that needs formal dresses and accessories. As for Gavin, we accompanied him to some men's boutique as you all know his real him is still unknown to others.
After our long hours of shopping, we just stopped by to a pizza's store inside the mall for our lunch and then we headed our way home.
"Girls, I'm going to pick you up at 8 tonight. Be ready." Gavin said while kissing our cheeks.
" Sure. Take care, Gav." I also copied his gesture.
"Okay. Make sure with your style and outfit, you're going to turn the club upside down tonight."
Me and Cari just shook our heads and said our goodbyes to him.
When it's already 6 pm, Cari and I were both rushing in our each room taking a bath, because for sure we're going to use our remaining time on putting our dress and facial accessories----you know----makeups.
Well, not for me...but for Cari, yes. I'm not really a fan of it. It's just Cari who always insisting on putting some colors on my face. If it's just me, I will only put mascara, foundation and lipstick, but since it's her...you need to shut your mouth when she's in front of the mirror doing magic on your face.
"Okay done." I let out a long sigh of relief after almost an hour waiting for her to finish whatever she's doing on my face.
"Wow!" that's all I can say. She made my eyes alive by the eyeshadows she put on it, that also compliment to the dress I'm going to wear tonight.
"See? You know, you really are beautiful. You just don't know how to appreciate your beauty and use it sometimes." I don't know if she's really scolding at me because her tone is a little bit softer than scolding.
"Ouch." I jokingly place my right hand on top of my left chest.
"No. Seriously. You're beautiful. How can you explain those numbers of men who want to pursue you if you just really want to give them a chance."
-'haist...this conversation again'-
I thought while rolling my eyes and shaking my head.
"Well, because I don't want to. And I still can't feel the spark, the electricity that runs down my spine whenever they touch me." see... I'm a hopeless romantic.
Now it's her turn to roll her eyes on me.
"And besides, you and Gavin knows that I'm married. That I'm still married." I show her again my finger with my engagement ring...not my wedding ring because I already took it off and put on my favorite necklace as a pendant.
"Married? Forgodsake! Arrianna Angela! Your marriage was just on papers!"
Whoa..she almost screamed while throwing her hands on the air. She's not pissed by that.
"Yeah, I know. But still it's legal----"
"Legal? Spell legal, Rian?"
-'seriously? she want to spell the word legal...'
"What I'm just saying is that you're only married to him on papers and nothing more! Four years of being married for nothing! I mean look a him, still having the bachelor's title while the truth is... he's already been married to you. For christ sake!"
...ding...ding...
-'Oh! Thank God!'- I can't help myself not to let a silent prayer. Thank you for whoever is on the front door for saving my life.
"What time is it?" she suddenly stopped her tracks when she also heard the doorbell ring.
-'time for you to stop your preaching because its only Saturday today and not Sunday'-
I want to answer her that, but of course being me I won't do that.
"Well, it's 10 minutes before 8."
"Oh, I think that's Gavin. Let's go." she already headed to the door.
"Okay." I just got my purse, containing my first thing accessories...phone, lipstick, foundation, extra cash and my credit card.
I am currently heading downstairs when I realized that I haven't sprayed my favorite cologne. How did I forget that? So I climbed up again and go back to my room. After spraying some amount on my neck and some parts of my dress, I put it on my purse and decided to go back to the living room where Gavin, Nick, Jenny and Cari were already seated on the couch.
"What took you so long? I thought you're already behind me." Cari asked me with a crunched eyebrow.
"I forgot to spray some cologne, you know."
She just rolled her eyes.
"Hi, Rian." Nick kissed me on my cheek while Gavin on my forehead. And Jenny, we hugged each other.
"I missed you girl. I missed this night out." she excitedly throws her hands in the air.
"Me too."
"Come on guys, let's go. We're not going to our usual club tonight." Nick stated while standing up and walked towards the front door.
"What? Why?" all us girls asked in unison.
"Well, Paolo suggested that we can try to this newly opened bar not far from our usual night place." Gavin was the one who answered.
"Oh, okay. Let's try something new tonight."
Last Chapters
#60 Chapter 60
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#59 Chapter 59
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#58 Chapter 58
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#57 Chapter 57
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#56 Chapter 56
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#55 Chapter 55
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#54 Chapter 54
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#53 Chapter 53
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#52 Chapter 52
Last Updated: 1/21/2026#51 Chapter 51
Last Updated: 1/21/2026
You Might Like 😍
King of the Underworld
However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”
But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”
Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.
She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.
Goddess Of The Underworld
When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back
She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.
Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.
Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.
Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,
"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"
When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.
Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.
No more soft-heartedness.
No more groveling.
Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.
Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.
And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.
Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha
Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because My husband Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.
Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother
"What is wrong with me?
Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?
It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.
He’s my boyfirend’s brother.
This is Tyler’s family.
I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.
**
As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.
Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.
When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.
I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.
**
I hate girls like her.
Entitled.
Delicate.
And still—
Still.
The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.
Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.
I shouldn’t care.
I don’t care.
It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.
It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.
I’m not here to rescue anyone.
Especially not her.
Especially not someone like her.
She’s not my problem.
And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.
But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
The Alpha King's Human Mate
“I have waited nine years for you. That’s nearly a decade since I’ve felt this emptiness inside me. Part of me began to wonder if you didn’t exist or you’d already died. And then I found you, right inside my own home.”
He used one of his hands to stroke my cheek and tingles erupted everywhere.
“I’ve spent enough time without you and I will not let anything else keep us apart. Not other wolves, not my drunken father who’s barely holding himself together the past twenty years, not your family – and not even you.”
Clark Bellevue has spent her entire life as the only human in the wolf pack - literally. Eighteen years ago, Clark was the accidental result of a brief affair between one of the most powerful Alphas in the world and a human woman. Despite living with her father and her werewolf half-siblings, Clark has never felt like she really belonged in the werewolf world. But right as Clark plans to leave the werewolf world behind for good, her life gets flipped upside down by her mate: the next Alpha King, Griffin Bardot. Griffin has been waiting years for the chance to meet his mate, and he's not about to let her go anytime soon. It doesn't matter how far Clark tries to run from her destiny or her mate - Griffin intends to keep her, no matter what he has to do or who stands in his way.
The mafia princess return
Omega Bound
Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life.
Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
Survival Island
Zane, a powerful vampire and the island's owner, has spent centuries unable to feel desire for any woman. But when he notices Zara's intelligence, resilience, and determination to survive, she awakens something in him that no one ever has. For the first time in his vampire life, he is interested in a female, and his member is also starting to come to life. Who is this woman and why does he suddenly crave her and not just for her blood?
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
A PRINCESS IN DISGUISE; BOUND TO THE ENEMY KING
I fell to my knees, the cold marble digging into my skin. I had studied for years in the flickering candlelight, memorizing every herb and poison to pass the healer's exam. I wanted freedom. I wanted to save my mother from the servant's quarters. I placed second. I thought I had won my life back.
But the King didn't give me a badge of honor. He gave me a death sentence.
"Raven Thorne shall be wed to the King of Grok," he announced, his voice echoing in the silent hall. Princess Ellie, the woman who had tormented me for years, slapped her hands over her mouth to hide her cruel laughter. She was supposed to marry the Beast. Now, I was the lamb being sent to the slaughter in her place.
They say King Liam drinks the blood of his enemies. They say he is more monster than man. And now, I have to walk into his bedroom, wearing the Princess's silk gown, and pray he doesn't tear me apart.
I looked at the King, tears streaming down my face. "I'll do it," I whispered, my voice trembling. "But my mother must be safe."
I sold my body and soul to a monster to save her. But when the carriage door opened and I finally looked into the Beast's golden eyes, I realized the terrifying truth...
He wasn't a stranger. He was the man I met in the woods.












