Gina made a pact with herself: marry before twenty-five or risk joining her cousins and aunts as perpetual spinsters. Balancing night shifts as a restaurant waitress with morning classes, she harbors a secret crush on Ace, her infuriatingly charming coworker who lives to tease her. When Ace shocks her with an unexpected proposal—delivered with all the romance of a business transaction—Gina sees her escape route from family curse and fate. She accepts, but only on her own terms. What Gina doesn't know: Ace Durant is no ordinary waiter. The undercover agent has a hidden agenda. He claims marriage is purely protective, a shield for her safety. Yet his carefully constructed walls crumble as their temporary arrangement becomes dangerously real. Caught between duty and desire, Ace struggles to maintain the boundary of a marriage in name alone. Can he resist her wit, her charm, and the magnetic pull drawing them together? Or will their contract marriage evolve into something neither of them planned?