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"...Hey, Robin, hey Xana," I said calmly, despite the tumultuous thoughts that were running wild in my head. He spun around, alarmed, recognizing my voice and put his hands over his mouth. "Oh, shit, honey this is not what you.." I raised my left hand, as a gesture of "Don't", and the first tear escaped from my right eye. "Robin.. why?" This was all I could say. I looked at him, speechless and flustered, with his dick - which dangled in front of him - now going limp and his bare body, which had once fascinated me, now disgusting me. "And, you.." I said, turning to Xana, but she didn't even care that I was hurt or that I was even there. She was gently putting on her clothes, unconcerned with the relationship she'd just ruined by spreading her legs. All the years of friendship, thrown down the drain. She knew how much I loved Robin, how much I'd loved her, and yet she'd done this, and had the gall to be so unapologetic about it. Then I looked back to Robin, and he was still speechless. His silence had told me all I needed to know. "And to think that I was going to come and celebrate my new job with you," I said, shaking my head, "I guess.. I guess that's a phase of my life you're not supposed to be a part of." And with that, I turned around and walked out of the apartment. I didn't know where I was going or what I was going to do there, but I just began to move, walking briskly, spurred on by my broken heart, and running away from the ones who had inflicted this damage on me. Would I heal? I could not tell, but I knew, for sure, that I had to get away and go somewhere.. Anywhere. *** After almost having a one night stand with a stranger due to the frustration of catching her boyfriend cheating on her, Juanita Reyes gets a job with Jefferson Danvers. Jefferson happens to be a CEO in need of a bride to solidify his grip on his inheritance and so he proposes a contract marriage to her. But, then, Juanita realizes that Joachim - the man she almost slept with - is the brother of her husband to be! Joachim, jealous that his brother would have Juanita - who he failed to get - employs a devious scheme and foils the marriage, all in a bid to steal Jefferson's spot. What starts out as mere family drama evolves into a story of twists and turns, all fuelled by greed and the family inheritance. Will Jefferson and Juanita - who have now fallen in love - be able to overcome these odds? Find out!
Juanita's POV:
"I got it, I got it, I got it!"
My screams of joy echoed rapidly within the cyber cafe, but the looks of disgust that were instantly directed at me from other customers prompted me to seal my lips and conceal my excitement and celebratory noises.
I had just gotten an appointment letter, via mail, from Danvers Tech, the biggest tech manufacturer in the country, to resume work the next day as the Personal Assistant to the CEO. Words could not describe how elated I felt, not just because I had gotten the job, but because it had come at a time when I desperately needed it.
I was barely scraping by; the electricity at my apartment had been cut off and all my gadgets seemed to have connived to develop faults at the same time, which was why I couldn't check my mail from my phone or home PC. Just today, I'd been fired from my babysitting job because the 4 year old I was caring for had begun to have scary nightmares of me. Incredulous. I'd come in here, hopeful, knowing that if the mail didn't bear the message I was expecting to see, I'd surely break down.
Using a computer here cost me a small portion of my overall savings, but for the news that I'd gotten a job which came with a company apartment and a monthly salary of $27,000, it was well worth it. My first instinct was then to break this news to Robin, my boyfriend, who'd been a lot of help to me during my distressing time. Getting out of the cyber cafe, I immediately hailed a cab.
"Where to, miss?" The driver asked.
"33rd Street. Drop me off just before the intersection," was my reply.
And so we began to move.
But, upon arrival at Robin's apartment, something felt immensely off: the lights were on and the door was unlocked; it wasn't untypical of Robin to be home by 12pm, seeing as he was a bus driver who alternated between shifts, but he never left his door unlocked.
Something wasn't right, and as soon as I stepped into the apartment, I discovered - to my dismay - what was going on: Robin was cheating on me; having sex with another woman. But not just any woman, though..My best friend, Xana.
Robin's apartment was structured such that if one came in through the front door, you would have to walk through a dark, short passage - which had no provision or outlet for a lightbulb - to get to the living room area, and when the living room lights were switched on, it was difficult for someone in the living room to see who was in the passage until they came through. So it was in this passage area that I stood, hidden by the shadows and stunned to my bones, as I watched Robin, the man I loved with every fiber of my being and who I knew I would do anything for, plow through the woman who I had called my best friend for the past 7 years.
I stood, transfixed, watching them and feeling invisible, as though I had meant nothing to both of them. And the hurtful part was that they were enjoying it.
"Robin, Robin, Robin!!" Xana, a slender blonde, screamed with pleasure.
"You asked for it, Xana, you asked for it.. All the times you'd been coming over on the pretext of wanting to say 'hello', dressed in skimpy clothing, enough to keep you clothed, but allowing me to see your tits.. You asked for it.. You.. Urrghhh, fuck!"
All the dirty talk had been going on as Robin had her pinned to his couch, the same one he usually pinned me against, and drove into her from behind. I could hear the clap clap sound of skin slapping hard against skin and from what I could see, they were both about to come.
Watching Robin vibrate like an epileptic patient as he shamelessly spilled into Xana, and seeing the disgusting look of satisfaction on his face afterwards, felt like watching a horror movie alone in a cinema, while being strapped to a seat in the front row. Up until this point, they didn't know they were being watched, so I decided to announce my presence.
"Hey, Robin, hey Xana," I said calmly, despite the tumultuous thoughts that were running wild in my head.
He spun around, alarmed, recognizing my voice and put his hands over his mouth.
"Oh, shit, honey this is not what you.."
I raised my left hand, as a gesture of "Don't", and the first tear escaped from my right eye.
"Robin.. why?" This was all I could say.
I looked at him, speechless and flustered, with his dick - which dangled in front of him - now going limp and his bare body, which had once fascinated me, now disgusting me.
"And, you.." I said, turning to Xana, but she didn't even care that I was hurt or that I was even there. She was gently putting on her clothes, unconcerned with the relationship she'd just ruined by spreading her legs. All the years of friendship, thrown down the drain. She knew how much I loved Robin, how much I'd loved her, and yet she'd done this, and had the gall to be so unapologetic about it.
Then I looked back to Robin, and he was still speechless. His silence had told me all I needed to know.
"And to think that I was going to come and celebrate my new job with you," I said, shaking my head, "I guess.. I guess that's a phase of my life you're not supposed to be a part of."
And with that, I turned around and walked out of the apartment.
I didn't know where I was going or what I was going to do there, but I just began to move, walking briskly, spurred on by my broken heart, and running away from the ones who had inflicted this damage on me. Would I heal? I could not tell, but I knew, for sure, that I had to get away and go somewhere.. Anywhere.
****
Joachim's POV:
Naked girls, champagne and loud music; my Achilles Heel.
Arriving at the nightclub area of Luxuria Hotel, where I was lodged - not because I didn't have a house but because I was trying to escape family drama and because the wild nightlife intrigued me more - I subconsciously began to smile because I was seeing the things which made me happy: naked women's asses and titties. Lots of it.
I stood at the entrance, taking it all in, and I was about to do my usual routine of finding a table and buying drinks for as many women as I could find when my eye caught something. Or, rather, someone: a young, thick woman, 26 at most, sitting at the counter with her back to the dancefloor and drinking shot after shot of Tequila. What caught my eye was not her curves but rather, it was the fact that she had clothes on. And I wanted to take them off...
Instantly, I moved towards her.
"Someone looks upset," I said as soon as I was within earshot, and then I waited for her reaction.
I was expecting something like 'go away' or 'I'm with someone' but instead, she looked at me, raising her head slowly, and I was taken aback to see that, although she looked drunk as hell, she was shedding tears.
"M-m-miss, are you okay?" I asked.
She shook her head vehemently, clearly not herself, and cried even more.
Continuing based on pure instinct, I asked:
"W-would you like me to take you home?"
And she nodded assuredly.
"Do you speak English?" I asked. She nodded again.
"So.. I'll take you home but I need to know, what's your name?"
After stuttering and muttering a few incomprehensible words, she finally said:
"Juanita."
Although it wasn't in my nature to be "Mr Nice Guy", this woman felt different from all the others who I'd encountered, so I was determined to take her home. But when I held her hand and led her outside, with her wobbly legs, she was too incoherent to state where she lived, her answer to 'What's your address' being:
"On the other side of the shore.. Through the valley of the shadow of.. Of the shadow of.. Tears," she said between hiccups.
This was a waste of time, and it was late, so I decided to take her to my hotel room. She'd pass the night there and tomorrow, she should be stable enough to go home. Sweeping her off her feet, I took her to my room. On the way, the hotel security saw me and although it was weird to them - me carrying a stoned lady to my room - they let it slide because, after all, I was Joachim Danvers.
We arrived at my hotel room and immediately I laid her on the bed. My natural, predatory instincts were to take her right there, peel her top off her and suck on her tits before relieving her of her leggings and driving my cock deep into her. She was knocked out so she wouldn't even know it, but there was something about her that was preventing me from implementing the thoughts I was having in my head. Something innocent and pure.. Try as I might, I couldn't get hard.
So I decided to do.. something else. Something which would serve as proper entertainment to me, later on.
Darya spent three years loving Micah, worshipping the ground he walked on. Until his neglect and his family's abuse finally woke her up to the ugly truth-he doesn't love her. Never did, never will. To her, he is a hero, her knight in shining armour. To him, she is an opportunist, a gold digger who schemed her way into his life. Darya accepts the harsh reality, gathers the shattered pieces of her dignity, divorces him, takes back her real name, reclaims her title as the country's youngest billionaire heiress. Their paths cross again at a party. Micah watches his ex-wife sing like an angel, tear up the dance floor, then thwart a lecher with a roundhouse kick. He realises, belatedly, that she's exactly the kind of woman he'd want to marry, if only he had taken the trouble to get to know her. Micah acts promptly to win her back, but discovers she's now surrounded by eligible bachelors: high-powered CEO, genius biochemist, award-winning singer, reformed playboy. Worse, she makes it pretty clear that she's done with him. Micah gears up for an uphill battle. He must prove to her he's still worthy of her love before she falls for someone else. And time is running out.
Becky endured three years of marriage to the cold-hearted Rory. In all that time, she naively reasoned that one day, he'd gradually come to like her. But the second he forced her to kneel down and humiliate herself, she knew she had been wrong about him. This man had no feelings for her at all. So why should she still love him? When Rory gave her the choice between kneeling down and divorcing, she didn't miss a beat and chose the latter. After all, why should she waste her youth on this scumbag? Wouldn't it be nicer for her to just have fun every day with her billion-dollar family fortune?
Chandler Su who had cheated by her boyfriend then got drunk at a bar. To take revenge, she grabbed a man randomly and took him to the room. After a crazy night, Chandler found the strange man was a super handsome guy the next morning. Shy and shocked Chandler run away after leaving 150 RMB and scorning the man of his poor bed skills. However, she never thought the story would become so dramatic as the next day, she found out that the new coming president of her company was exactly the man she slept the last night! Worse than that, this new boss seemed very narrow-minded as he asked Chandler to come to his office on the first day.
Rumors said that Lucas married an unattractive woman with no background. In the three years they were together, he remained cold and distant to Belinda, who endured in silence. Her love for him forced her to sacrifice her self-worth and her dreams. When Lucas' true love reappeared, Belinda realized that their marriage was a sham from the start, a ploy to save another woman's life. She signed the divorce papers and left. Three years later, Belinda returned as a surgical prodigy and a maestro of the piano. Lost in regret, Lucas chased her in the rain and held her tightly. "You are mine, Belinda."
The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life. To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers. When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance. Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?" Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."
Trigger warning!!! Intended for mature readers who enjoy morally complex, slow-burn, poseesive, forbidden, dark romance that pushes boundaries. ***EXCERPT*** Blood everywhere. Trembling hands. "No!" My eyes blurred. His lifeless eyes stared back at me, his blood pooling at my feet. The man I loved-dead. Killed by the one person I could never escape - my stepbrother. *** Kasmine's life was never hers to begin with. Kester, her stepbrother, controlled and monitored her every move. At first, it was all sweet and brotherly until it began to turn into an obsession. Kester was the Alpha, and his word was law. No close friends. No boyfriends. No freedom. The only consolation Kasmine had was her twenty-first birthday, which was supposed to change everything. She dreamt of finding her mate, escaping the sickening control of Kester, and finally claiming her own life. But fate had other plans for her. On the night of her birthday, not only was she disappointed that she wasn't mated to the love of her life, but she found out that her mate was none other than him - Her tormentor. Her stepbrother. She'd rather die than be mated to a man whom she had known as her big brother all her life. A man who would do just anything to make sure she was his. But when love turns to obsession, and obsession turns to blood, how far can one girl run before she realizes there is nowhere else to run to?