The CEO's Accidental Wife

Hannah woke up in the middle of the night, her entire body aching.

If she told anyone what happened last night, nobody would believe her. She had just slept with John Carter.

It was her first time, so there was no magical fireworks sensation, only lingering soreness.

What burned itself into her memory, though, was the contrast. When his stubble grazed her cheek, the air turned thick with heat. He breathed against her neck, kissed her ear, and spoke in a deep, raspy whisper. The skin-to-skin contact made her feel like she was catching fire.

The entire time, John kept whispering a name in her ear. She couldn't hear what name it was, but that didn't stop her heart from pounding out of her chest.

When she opened her eyes in the dark, John was still asleep. She stared at his sharp, cold features and felt an overwhelming sense of closeness to him.

She craved the warmth of his chest. Part of her foolishly wanted to stay in bed, pull his arm around her, and drift back to sleep.

But she knew better. Staying here meant inviting disaster.

John Carter was the CEO of Carter International. If word got out that Hannah, a mere intern, slept with him, the consequences were obvious. At best, she would be fired on the spot. At worst, she would be labeled a shameless climber, ruined, and run out of the city for good.

It had all started on the first night of the company retreat. John got completely drunk, grabbed her hand as she helped him into his room, and kissed her without warning.

At first, her mind went blank. She meant to push him away, but when she looked up at his face, her hands froze. She couldn't bring herself to resist.

Before that night, Hannah had never even spoken to him face-to-face.

Holding back her pain, Hannah forced her weak legs to walk her back to her own room. She swore to pretend nothing had ever happened.

By six the next afternoon, several company buses were lined up outside the hotel to take everyone home.

Hannah boarded the bus alongside another intern, Tina. The moment she stepped on, her heart leaped into her throat. Sitting right in the very first row, eyes closed and resting his head, was John Carter.

The rest of the bus was completely packed, leaving only the seat next to John and the row right behind him completely empty.

Hannah's face turned beet red. Since she and Tina arrived late, they had no choice but to sit directly behind him.

"Didn't Mr. Carter drive his own car here?" Tina leaned in, whispering in Hannah's ear. "Why is he taking the bus back with us?"

Tina had a naturally loud voice, so even her quietest whisper carried down the aisle.

"I don't know," Hannah replied, keeping her head down.

When she got on the bus, she had discreetly covered her face with her hand, terrified he might recognize her.

Still, a small part of her held onto hope. Maybe he was too drunk to remember anything from last night. Or maybe he remembered the night, but didn't know who she was. They had never interacted before, he was wasted, and the lights were off for most of it.

To pass the long drive, Tina pulled out her phone. Hannah wanted to scroll through hers too, but when she dug through her purse, it was missing.

She nudged Tina. "Can you call my phone? I think I misplaced it."

"Where did you leave it?" Tina murmured, dialing her number.

A sweet ringtone immediately echoed through the quiet bus. But the sound wasn't coming from Hannah's bag or her luggage.

It was ringing from the row right in front of her. To be exact, it was coming from the phone sitting right in John Carter's hand.

Every hair on Hannah's arms stood straight up.

With John Carter sitting on the bus, the rest of the team kept quiet.

Hannah's phone ringing was painfully loud in the silence.

When she helped him back to his room last night, her phone had been in her pants pocket. It must have dropped out when her clothes came off. In the aftermath of their passion, she had completely forgotten about it.

Once the initial panic wore off, reason returned. John hadn't taken the bus by chance today. He was waiting for his target to walk straight into the trap. Maybe he knew she was the woman from last night, maybe he didn't, but the moment the ringtone blasted through the bus, combined with Tina's loud commentary, there was no doubt left. He knew.

She had practically turned herself in.

Tina stared at her with wide, confused eyes, gesturing frantically toward the front. What is going on?

"Stop calling," Hannah whispered, pressing down on Tina's hand. She couldn't handle any more embarrassment, let alone figure out how to explain this.

"Seriously, what is going on? Why does Mr. Carter have your phone?" Tina asked in a low, gossipy hush.

"I..."

Before Hannah could come up with a lie, John turned around in his seat, scaring her half to death.

"Is this your number?" John asked, lifting her phone toward Tina. The screen displayed her nickname for Tina: Crazy Tina.

Tina immediately nodded like an eager puppy. "Yes, Mr. Carter! Hannah lost her phone, so I was calling it to help her find it."

Tina even dropped her name. There was no way Hannah could vanish into thin air now.

"Your phone?" John's gaze shifted directly to Hannah. "You were carrying luggage earlier. You must have dropped it on the seat up front."

His tone was completely calm, but his deep eyes held a clear, hidden message. His stare carried that familiar, bottomless intensity unique to him, one she could never quite read.

"Oh! Yes, I was so careless. Thank you, Mr. Carter."

Despite her racing heart, Hannah bowed her head repeatedly in gratitude. She reached out with both hands to take the phone, playing along with his act.

Having smoothly defused the awkward scene, John turned back around.

Hannah stared at her screen, pretending to scroll, but she didn't process a single word. The way John had handed the phone back was his subtle way of warning her. His tone made one thing crystal clear: Last night ends here.

She was an adult. She could handle it. She had planned on treating that night as nothing more than a passing dream anyway.

Still, having her name officially noted on his radar left her uneasy. Was it a good thing or a bad thing?

She tried to reassure herself. A CEO managing a massive conglomerate was far too busy to waste time thinking about a temporary mistake.

Two weeks passed without a single glimpse of John. When company-wide meetings occurred, they were strictly for high-level executives, while she remained a mere intern waiting to hear if her contract would be renewed.

Aside from worrying about her job at Carter International, thoughts of John occasionally drifted into her mind.

Specifically, she kept remembering the quiet heat of that night. After all, it had been her very first time.

Then, her desk phone rang.

"Hannah Baker?" the voice asked.

Her heart skipped a beat, her mind going completely blank. Why did the voice sound so familiar?

Ever since that night, his deep, magnetic voice telling her to turn off the lights had been playing on repeat in her head. She knew that voice instantly.

"Yes?"

"Come to my office."

"What?"

"Come to my office," he repeated clearly.

"Oh. Right away."

Her heart hammered against her ribs. It couldn't be about work. The gap between their positions was huge, and he would never contact an intern directly for company business.

Was it about the retreat? Was he going to fire her to keep what happened from spreading?

When she knocked and stepped into his office, John wasn't indifferent like he had been on the bus. He was scanning her from head to toe.

His intense stare threw her into total disarray. Yet, looking into those dark, unreadable eyes, a foolish part of her couldn't stop staring back.

She looked at him with an undeniable trace of longing.

John seemed slightly thrown off by her gaze. "Is there something on my face?" he asked.

Hannah snapped back to reality. "Huh?"

John didn't bother following up. Instead, he looked straight at her and asked, "How about marrying me?"

Hannah's brows knitted in confusion. "Huh?"

His question was a million miles away from anything she had imagined.

Hannah looked left and right. There was no one else in the office.

"I am talking to you," John said.

"What?"

"Marry me."

John repeated it, his voice calm and firm.

Hannah's brain finally caught up to those two words: Marry me.

She still could not quite process it. She was a month away from graduating college. Marriage was something she had considered for her distant future, but certainly not right now.

Was John testing her?

For a high-powered executive, waking up with an intern might not be a total disaster, but it certainly was bad for business. He was probably trying to see if she had any hidden motives or big ambitions.

Her feelings were complicated. John's warm embrace and his captivating eyes, plus the fact that they had slept together, made him different from any other man to her. But she was realistic. A union between them was impossible, not just in this lifetime, but in the next.

John proposing to a woman so far below his social standing was definitely not out of affection.

Remembering how he had subtly warned her on the bus when returning her phone, Hannah felt even more certain: he was terrified she would cause trouble for him.

So, she lied. "I have a boyfriend."

"Are you planning to get married?" John asked.

"Oh, no. We haven't even graduated yet, and we don't have the financial foundation for that." Hannah kept her cool, acting as composed as possible under pressure.

"How far along are you?" John showed an unexpected level of interest in her personal life.

Not knowing what he was driving at, Hannah blurted out, "We... we live together."

Her underlying message was clear: I have a boyfriend, and I sleep with him. I care about my relationship, so I won't go around telling people I slept with another man.

She was telling him that the night of the retreat would stay buried in her stomach forever. He could relax.

"You live together?" John frowned slightly.

That night, she was clearly...

Noticing his doubt, Hannah instantly realized what he was thinking. She quickly added, "We've been dating for several years. We only moved in together after coming back from the company trip. We had just moved out of the dorms and finally found a suitable apartment."

"You aren't even going to ask why I want to marry you?" John did not seem particularly shocked by her claim of having a boyfriend.

"Why?"

"My grandfather is critically ill. Before he passes, he wants to see me married, but I don't have a girlfriend," John said, leaning back in his office chair, his tone completely under control. "As for why I chose you, you know better than anyone. I looked around, and you are the most suitable option."

The words the most suitable option stung her pride. Since they had already slept together, she was indeed the most convenient choice. Anyone else would hesitate or bring unnecessary complications, but with Hannah, he could skip those awkward initial steps entirely.

Even though she knew he was not marrying her out of love, hearing his reason still brought a wave of disappointment.

It was clear he remembered that night vividly. Worse, his voice carried a faint trace of disdain. Even though he was asking for her help, he still looked down on her.

It made sense. In his eyes, she was just a calculating woman who had engineered a way into her boss's bed.

She had slept with him, accidentally left her phone in his room, and was now playing hard to get to hook a wealthy husband. She was pretending to be an innocent flower, so how could she expect him to respect her?

"Name your price," John added with mild detachment. "Though it would be best if it doesn't exceed five million."

Five million dollars was a huge sum, but for Hannah, it was not impossible to refuse.

After a moment of silence, she tried to offer a subtle alternative. "Mr. Carter, you could consider getting a fake marriage certificate."

"If my grandfather finds out, it will cause serious trouble."

"Besides, the certificate is secondary. The key is finding the right person. My grandfather needs to see her in person to rest easy." John answered her with surprising patience.

Hannah gave a slow nod, biting her lip as she scrambled for a way to turn him down.

Seeing her hesitation, John added, "This marriage will have a time limit. If you agree, we can register tomorrow. As for the end date..."

"I refuse!" Hannah said firmly, her voice leaving no room for debate.

John went silent.

Whatever he had been about to say died in his throat.

He could only stare at her, his eyes locked on hers.

For the first time in his life, someone had given him an outright, non-negotiable no.