Aran was quick to pull me to his side when we grazed the venue with our presence. I tilt my head up to look at the side of his face, wondering what is going through his mind as he wraps his arm possessively around my waist and shoots glares at every man who eyes me with interest.
He didn’t say a single word to me throughout our entire ride here and he barely spared me a glance. I know I’m beautiful but did I really look that bad in this dress? He didn’t even offer me a compliment. Not that I’m upset about it. Me? Never. Or maybe. Just a little.
“Now listen to me carefully,” He begins, stopping a waiter who passes by and takes two glasses of champagne from his tray, handing one over to me. “This is a business event but that doesn’t mean it’s safe to wander around. This place is crawling with people that are associated with the mafia and that means they are gonna have their eyes on you and probably abduct you if the opportunity presents itself.” He utters the last statement with a nonchalant shrug, tossing the content in the glass into his mouth in one go.
My eyes widens in shock. “And you brought me here?”
“Of course.” He answers, calmly, not once looking bothered by that known fact alone. “So don’t leave my side. As long as you’re with me, everything is going to be fine.”
“Aran.” A man walks over to us with a smirk and a glass of red wine in his hand. He seemed to be in his late thirties and had brown hair that was combed to perfection and beautiful green eyes. When his smirk broadened at the annoyed look on Aran’s face, I notice his silver tooth. Aran also has one but I don’t see it that often because the man barely cracks a smile or talks that much.
“Lorenzo.” He speaks curtly and stops another waiter, exchanging his empty glass for another glass of champagne while regarding Lorenzo with a look that indicated he wasn’t in the mood for any silly conversations. Lorenzo ignores him before his eyes widens in confusion when he sees me and then surprise.
I look at Aran, expecting him to introduce us or something but the man pretends like I don’t exist and continues to drink his wine silently.
“I’m Rayne Horton.” I say with a warm smile and extend my hand for a handshake.
He returns my smile with a grin and wraps his huge hand around my small ones, giving it a friendly shake. “And I’m Lorenzo Santini. Nice to meet you, Rayne.”
“Okay, that’s enough.” I hear a low growl of disapproval next to me before I pull my hand back and drop it at my side with a glare directed at Aran. I drink my champagne and watch as they converse about business with Aran giving a monotonous reply.
The event was mainly based on close interactions with entrepreneurs and business owners in order to grow and improve one’s business, and network with each other. Some are looking to merge their business with others when it suffers from bankruptcy and while others aim to seek for contract.
This is very important for every business owner but Aran doesn’t seem to take it lightly. He seemed bored out of his mind and irritated when other people approach him. Aran constructions is the most well known and influential company in the whole world and has branches in every country. They make billions every year and have so many investments.
I gotta admit, the man is brilliant in the business world.
“Why are you turning them down?” I ask when the men decide to leave looking disappointed. Aran grabs my elbow and leads me to another part of the venue where it’s less populated. “The list you can do is consider their offer.”
He sips his champagne and flashes me an unimpressed look. “Don’t be silly, Rayne. This is business. One has to have brains and be strategic when it comes to taking decisions about his very own company. You see them?” He points his index finger in the direction of a group of men who seemed to be in an intense conversation. “They are complete idiots. Almost all of them are. The ones with common sense and those that actually know what they are doing are rare. Going into business with any one of these fuckers is not ideal. They will just become a huge liability to my company.”
“Oh, I see.” I say, understanding his perspective quite well. He’s got a point there.
“When you’re a business woman, you will understand all this on your own. No one wants to incur a loss.”
“Yeah, no thanks. My focus is on the medical field.” I answer, wrinkling my nose at the perspective of starting up my own company. I’d rather own a hospital.
“Everyone wants to make profit, Rayne, including doctors.” He says.
I blink rapidly suddenly realizing something. This is the most longest and civil conversation we’ve ever had. It feels good to actually speak to him without it resulting to an argument. Why can’t he ever be like this all the time without getting angry over every little thing?
“There you are, Aran. I knew you were going to be here. Why weren’t you answering my calls?” A woman who looked absolutely stunning approaches us. She had on a dress that revealed way too much for a formal event like this.
Aran’s expression transforms into that of irritation and hate. “I am in no mood to entertain your presence, Hana. Do me a favor and get lost.”
Hana didn’t seem to be offended by his words at all. It only encouraged her. “Enough with the attitude, Aran. I may be your ex-wife but just remember that we have children together and I don’t want them to see their parents being at odds with each other. You better rethink about this whole divorce thing because there’s no way in hell that I’m going to let you go, dear husband.” She says. After a while, a frown creeps up on her lips. “My son called me right in the middle of the night and told me how you forced him to go to Princeton against his wishes. Why didn’t you inform me about this? We could have come up with a decision together.”
Aran drops his empty glass on a nearby table and turns to give her his undivided attention, anger skittering across his face in a fast pace. “Tell me, Hana, since when have you ever given a shit about the things our sons engage in? You call me a good-for-nothing father but what are you? The world’s most terrible and selfish mother who cares about nobody but herself.” He suddenly grabs her throat and pulls her closer to him, glaring daggers into her soul. “Don’t you dare challenge me when it comes to my sons, Hana. The next time you do, I’m going to rip your throat out.”
“L-Let me….go.” She chokes out, clawing at his hand for him to release his hold on her throat but he doesn’t budge. He was crackling with indescribable anger, eyes burning with contempt and jaw hardening.
“Aran, let her go. You’re going to kill her.” I place my hand on his shoulder to try and get his attention. Hana’s eyes darts to mine, finally acknowledging my presence. She stares at me with a sinister look which quickly morphs into a pained look when Aran tightens his hold on her throat.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I speak to him softly. That seem to have taken him aback because he looks back at me, an eyebrow raised in confusion and a frown flashing across his face. “Just let her go.”
Aran throws me a hard look which softens the longer he locks his eyes with mine. He slowly lets her go after a moment of silence and avoids anymore eye contact with me. Hana caresses the slight bruise forming on her skin with a huff, grumbling a few incoherent words under her breath.
When she finally recovers, she whips her head in my direction and crosses her arms against her chest, a frown forming on her lips once again. “Aran, who is she? Another one of your sluts? Honestly, you could do better. I mean look at her.”
“Excuse me?” I say. I may not be rich or powerful and I definitely don’t have a closet filled with the most expensive dresses but I do know how to defend myself against women like her. Before Aran can come to my defense, I take a step closer to her and retort, “Don’t you ever call me a slut. Between the both of us, you’re the only one who comes off as a desperate attention seeking bitch. Grow up, okay? You’re no longer a teenager who would throw tantrums and fight about a man who isn’t yours anymore.”
My eyes widens in surprise at the words that just flew out of my mouth. Did I just say that?
Hana’s jaw drops to the ground in utter shock, clearly not expecting me to respond at all with a sick comeback. She silently fumes, face going red like a tomato and fumes flowing out of her ears.
Aran’s face holds no emotions whatsoever except for the amusement glinting in his eyes. He turns to look at me and catches my eyes just in time, a tiny smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
My lips threaten to form a smile. No matter how much I fight it, it breaks free, the corner of my eyes crinkling from how wide the smile stretches on my face.
When it finally dawns on me that I’m actually smiling at Aran who responds with that same infamous smirk, I look away and force the smile off my face. But of course it doesn’t go unnoticed by Hana who takes a step towards me and raises her hand to hit my face.
Just in time, Aran grabs her wrist before her hand could land on my cheek, digging his nails into her skin to draw out blood. “Do not ever raise your hand at her. Understand? You misbehave with her, you indirectly disrespect me and I do not tolerate such behavior from anybody.” He seethes, twisting her hand in the wrong way like he’s trying to rip it off its socket. Her cries of pain didn’t go unheard by the people around us who silently watch the scene unfold before their eyes.
“Aran, just let her go. That’s enough.” I say to him, grabbing onto his arm to stop him from inflicting more damage to the crazed woman.
After a few seconds of glaring at her, he lets her go and watches with irritation as she quickly leaves, shielding her face with her hair to avoid further humiliation.
Aran takes in a couple of breaths to calm the anger that ravaged through him before he reaches for my hand and begins to make his way out of the venue, tugging me along with him.
“Take it easy, Aran. You’re going to make me fall.” I say to him as I struggle to keep up with his fast pace while trying not to miss my steps and fall to the ground with the way he drags me behind him like I’m weightless.
Once we get to his car, he yanks the passenger door open and urges me to get in.
“What is your problem?” I snap, narrowing my eyes at him as he settles in the driver’s seat and starts up the engine, driving out of the parking lot and heading for the road.
Aggravated, he whips his head in my direction and shoots me a pointed glare, “Will you keep quiet?”
“No, I won’t.” I say, defiantly. “I’m not some toy that you can just drag around and command to do your bidding. I have a life, you know?”
He blows out a breath and focuses back on the road, leaning his elbow against the window. I watch the way his chest heaves up and down, the clenching and unclenching of his fist on the steering wheel, the fury that glimmers in his eyes, his lips that set into a thin hard line.
I could see that he was struggling to hold onto what was left of his control.
It’s hard to watch.
Mindlessly, I place my hand on his thigh and give it a comforting squeeze. His breathing hitched, his body freezing in shock. He didn’t say anything or complain about my hand on his thigh, he just ignored my existence altogether but I couldn’t seem to care. I knew what it’s like to loose control whether it be from anger or pain. I’ve been there and yeah it might get better along the way but it takes time. And men like Aran deserved to be comforted every once in a while.
We stay like that for a while before I reluctantly pulled my hand away from him.
“We shouldn’t have left all of a sudden just because your ex-wife pissed you off. Just ignore her.”
“You don’t understand, Rayne. I wanted to kill her right there, to rip out her throat and feel her blood on my hands.” He says, a little much calmer this time but there is a hard edge to his tone, much deadlier and unnerving.
“But you didn’t.” I speak, softly. "Why?”
He doesn’t look at me or say anything further and I let it go, not wanting him to throw another anger tantrum.
When we arrive back at his mansion, I make my way over to my room without saying a word to Aran who looked like he was about to explode. He still didn’t compliment me or say a single nice word about how I looked.
I shouldn’t care but I do and it freaks me out.
Stripping off every piece of clothing I have on, I step into the bathroom for a nice long shower, taking my time to scrub every inch of my body while trying to block out thoughts of Aran.
I stand under the shower for a couple more minutes before I turn it off and dry myself off with a towel, tying it around my body as I step out of the bathroom.
My heart lurches in my chest at the sight that greets me.
Aran is seated at the edge of my bed, shirtless except for the sweatpants he has on. His head is hung low like someone who is deep in thoughts. And like he could feel my presence, he raised his head up and my breath catches in my throat.
He had taken off his contacts lense. His eyes were blue once again.
They devoured every inch of my skin that's on display, unabashedly, hot fire blazing in their depths.
"What—what are you doing here?" I ask, suddenly out of breath.
My hands tightened on the towel as he slowly stood up from the bed without taking his eyes off mine and approached me, my heart beating with every step he takes.
He finally stops when he's just a foot away from me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear which took me by surprise. "What is it about you that drives me insane?”
I almost choked on my spit. I honestly didn't know how to answer such questions.
Maybe this is one of his ploy to humiliate me again.
"Look, whatever you're trying to accomplish here, it's not gonna work. Now would you please get —" Just as I turn around to walk away from him, he grabs my elbow and whips me around to face him, pressing his body against mine.
"I tried. I fucking tried." He whispers, tightening his hold on my arm when I tried to weasel my way out of his hold. I raise an eyebrow in confusion at the words that flew out of his mouth. "I just don't think I can take it anymore and I know I'm going to regret this."
"What do you —" Before I can comprehend his actions, he buries his hand into my hair and tilts my head back so I have no choice but to look into his eyes before he crushes his mouth down on mine.
I freeze for what seemed like hours but it's actually a few seconds.
Aran is kissing me.
The man who has always hated me and rebuked every thought of us happening sexually, the very man who I can't stand but I've started craving for recently, the man who I regard as a ruthless bastard who murders people and is actually a mafia boss.
That very man is kissing me like a starved man who had just lost every freaking control he had.
He pulls away moments later with wide eyes like he can't believe he actually kissed me.
When he goes to create some sort of distance between us, my resolve snaps and I'm intertwining my hands around his neck and forcing his lips back on mine in a wild, fiery, passionate kiss.
I don't hold back like I've been doing for weeks now. I kiss this man like he's the very oxygen I need to breathe and he responds with a feral hunger that surpasses mine.
His hands slithers down my back and reaches underneath my towel to cup my ass, pulling me up flush against him. I wrap my legs around his waist to steady myself and feel him back me up against the wall.
We pull apart just for a few seconds to catch our breath before he's bruising my lips in a hard searing kiss, sucking my bottom lip and grazing the soft flesh with his teeth.
A soft moan slips out of my mouth when I feel his bulge graze my center. A low growl reverberates deep in his throat at that slight contact.
He transfers his lips to my neck and assaults the skin like a ferocious animal, biting, nipping, sucking and licking the tender skin while rocking his hard-on into my dripping center.
A tortured whine escapes my lips.
I thread my fingers through his long hair which is surprisingly soft and tug hard at the roots.
He lets out a groan and walks us over to the bed, placing me on the soft mattress with a gentleness I've never known. His hand finds their way to the towel that's tied around my body.
Then his eyes searches my face for any sort of discomfort or protest. When he finds none, he loosens the knot of the towel and it falls, revealing every damn inch of my body to his lust hooded gaze.
His throat bobs repeatedly as he continues to drink up my body with his blue eyes that shimmered underneath the fire and hunger.
He made it seem like I was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Just thinking about it causes an uproar in my chest. And before any discomfort could slip in, I cut his stare short by kissing him again, dragging a hand down his bare chest, scraping the hard ridges of muscles with my nails.
"Fuck!" He groans, sucking and biting down a path until he got to my breast. He salivates at the sight of my erect nipples and wasted no time in taking one into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the hardened peak and nipping it with his teeth. He does the same to my other breast while I try to control the sounds that keeps slipping past my lips.
"Damn! You're so wet for me, Rayne." He whispers, finding my lips once again while his fingers slowly drags down my folds and teases my clit. He swallows every moan that leaves my lips with his as he rocks a finger into me and moves at a slow pace.
"Are you going to fuck me?" I mumble, trying to meet the rapacious demands of his lips as I slip my tongue into his mouth, reveling in the taste of him.
"I would love to, sweetheart, but for now....." He locks his eyes with mine and goes on his knees, hooking his arm around my legs and opening them wide. "My mouth is going to do just fine....for now."
“Oh my God!” I let out a loud moan the minute his mouth landed on my sweet center. He slowly flattened his tongue down on my clit like he’s trying to savor my taste and begins to suck delicately, eyes focused solely on the expression that floats around on my face. The sound that continues to leave my lips causes a deep groan to emanate from him.
His beards brushing against my inner thighs makes a shiver to run down my spine. I feel him circle his tongue around my swollen bud, digging his fingers into my thigh to stop me from moving around too much at the electric current that charges through my body.
It was too overwhelming.
I try to shut my legs from all the emotions that came crashing down on but he keeps them wide open. I felt so sensitive down there. I haven’t been with any man sexually in a long time so everything felt so new but entirely different.
“Fuck, you taste so good.” Comes his raspy reply as he pulls me closer to him and devours me completely.
His tongue delves into me, in and out, repeatedly. I grab onto the sheets and bit down on my bottom lip. The sight before me; his head between my legs and his mouth working their magic, was going to be engraved in my mind forever.
I never thought I would find myself in this situation with Aran. I should be ashamed of myself because this man has brought nothing but misery into my life but right now, I didn’t give a damn.
I wanted him just as much as he wanted me, consequences be damned.
I feel the pressure build up in my stomach, my chest rising and falling, my breath coming out in short gasp from my impending release.
He gives my clit one last stroke with the tip of his tongue and I finally come undone, muttering a few incoherent words under my breath. He licks me clean and comes up for air, lips pink and glistening from my release.
He releases my legs and gives me a long hard kiss before pulling away, brushing my hair away from my face.
I trail my hand down the side of his chest and just when my fingertips grazes the hem of his sweatpants, he wraps his hand around my wrist and pins it above my head.
“Don’t.” He warns, breathing heavily.
“Why not?” I ask. I wanted to pleasure him just as he pleasured me. I wanted to make him feel good. “Don’t you want me to?”
He sits next to my naked body that’s still sprawled out on the body and runs his fingers through his hair that’s slightly damp from the perspiration. “As much as I want to fuck that pretty mouth of yours, I can’t.” He drags his thumb along my bottom lip. “I won’t be able to control myself when I let loose, sweetheart. I become a ferocious beast when I fuck and letting you suck my cock would awaken that part of me.”
I sit next to him, not bothered about the fact that I was still naked. I’m still horny, every part of my body is insanely aroused and sensitive. I want him inside of me just as much as I want to suck him off. “I can handle it, Aran. Just try me.”
He smirks, tilting my chin up and planting a swift but hard kiss on my lips. “I don’t want to hurt you, Rayne. Trust me, you can’t handle it.”
My heart stutters in my chest at his words. I watch him rise to his feet and walk towards the door to leave. “Since when do you care about hurting me?”
His hand freezes on the door knob.
And just when I think that he’s going to answer my question, he opens the door and before he can vanish from my sight, he whispers over his shoulder, "You looked lovely tonight."
He doesn't wait for any sort of reply from me before he's walking out of the room and shutting the door behind him, leaving me in a state of frenzy and fulfillment from whatever happened between us while I ignore the chaotic beating of my wild heart.
———————
AUTHOR'S NOTE
They finally kissed!!
I wanted to delay it for a few chapters but....it just seemed right for it to happen now regardless of what's to come.
I haven't written a sexual scene in ages and so I'm quite rusty in that aspect. I have been writing this chapter since last Sunday and had to rewrite that particular scene a couple of times. I'm happy it turned out quite well.
Hope you all loved this chapter.
Don't forget to VOTE COMMENT and SHARE.
See you next Friday, loves❤️