BONUS SAMPLE CHAPTER
Andrea
“Sofia is getting married.”
My friends spat out their drinks. I looked away from the glass of wine in my hands, glancing up to meet their horrified expressions.
Gina was stunned, her green eyes sparkling with confusion, her lashes fluttering rapidly with shock. Julie, the most dramatic of our trio, looked like she had just seen a ghost. Her fair complexion grew paler.
“Snotty Sofia is getting married?” Gina repeated.
“Yup,” I replied, popping the “P” and chugging the rest of my wine in one go.
“How?” Julie asked.
“Oh, you know, she met a poor guy who decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her,” I chirped sarcastically.
Julie’s face fell, and she slowly exhaled. “I’m sorry.”
“If the devil’s spawn can get married, maybe there’s hope for me after all.” Gina shrugged, downing a shot of vodka.
Julie and I snickered.
I was at work this evening when I received a text from Sofia, or more like a picture of her scrawny little fingers with a big-ass rock on it.
I had barely reeled from that when my stepmother’s call came in.
I didn’t think she called to break the news to me, per se.
She wanted to gloat and rub it in my face that her daughter had the one thing I didn’t—a fiancé.
I wasn’t interested in dating anymore. I’d rather have flings and focus on the business that pays me.
Men were a total waste of time. It didn’t hurt to get the message.
I just dreaded what would come after it—but most of all, it was shocking how she managed to snag herself a man.
If anything, she and her mother were probably holed up in their lair, conniving on how they were going to make my life miserable with the engagement.
Sofia wasn’t just a bitch. She was pure evil—sly, condescending, and mean at her core.
It was no secret that we hated each other.
Her mother—my stepmother—was worse. She didn’t just take up my late mother’s place in the family, she managed to poison my father’s mind and blinded him to every horrible thing she did.
Whenever I was at home, I was stuck in the wolf’s den.
“So, what are you going to do now?” Gina spoke up over the music playing in the background. Chilling at the Skull’s Lounge wasn’t going as planned tonight. It was an escape plan, but here I was, talking about what I was trying to run from.
“That’s not all.” I refilled my glass as the girls waited with bated breath for me to continue. “The family will be having a getaway at the family villa in Venice.”
“No way. That trip is going to be chaotic.” Julie shook her head, something akin to pity flashing in her eyes.
“You know you can decide not to go, right?” Gina arched her brow.
I scoffed. “A Moretti family trip is always compulsory.”
“Sofia and your stepmom will be waiting eagerly to pounce on you like wolves.” Julie groaned.
“That’s why we need to come up with a plan.” Gina chipped in. Julie and I both snapped our gazes toward her. “Am I the only one who knows the solution here?”
“Yes.” I sounded bored. Julie rolled her eyes.
“Get a fake fiancé. People do it all the time.” She shrugged, taking a sip of her vodka.
“Gina!” we yelled simultaneously.
“I was just trying to help.”
“There’s no way in hell I’m doing that,” I refuted. “I’m not desperate, and I certainly don’t need to prove anything to them.” I eyed her.
Julie was quiet for a while. The neon lights in the room cast a colorful glow on her brown skin.
Her face shimmered with light nude makeup, and her dark hair was tied in a ponytail.
She looked like a snack in her ivory two-piece.
Gina, on the other hand, went all out with her sultry red dress.
Her ginger-red hair cascaded down her back in lush waves.
The vibrant color of her hair made her bloodred lips pop.
Once it clicked what was going through Julie’s mind, my eyes widened. “Julie, no—”
“Maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” she squeaked lightly.
“I don’t care. I’m not doing it,” I asserted.
The girls backed off, nodding their heads in agreement.
I wasn’t going to pay for destruction with my money.
Aside from not wanting a man in my space right now, what if my family found out that I was stringing them along and lying to them with a fake fiancé?
It’s bad enough that they already see me as the villain.
I won’t give them any more reason to shit on my actions.
I exhaled, taking a sip from my wineglass and glancing around the room.
That was when I saw him.
Nestled in a corner, he was almost tucked away from prying eyes. It was like he was hiding from someone. But he wasn’t really the first person I saw. It was a server with short dark hair, glistening lips, and a shirt so tight, I feared she wasn’t breathing in her attempt to flash her plastic boobs.
However, what I found unnerving wasn’t the way the server was staring at him like a piece of hot meat.
It was how he was staring at me.
Sharp angular features that could cut a rock in two, an even sharper jawline, and pristine cheekbones made him look like a medieval prince.
I couldn’t see much because the light was manipulating how he looked, but I could make out his head full of thick hair, and a simple black tee that molded against his lean, ripped torso.
The man was beautiful—so beautiful, in a way that oozed with a dark, deadly edge, in a way that reminded me of a fictional prince of hell.
My skin burned from the intensity of his gaze as it scored every inch of my body—my face, my cleavage, my body. He stared at me like he couldn’t care less about subtlety.
The corner of his thick, firm lips slowly tilted in a smirk.
Red spread all over my cheeks, heating them. I looked away sharply, only to see my friends gawking at me with a teasing look.
“What?” I feel flushed.
“Please, don’t do that.” Julie rolled her eyes.
“You were practically eye fucking the guy.” Gina grinned.
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you were. Why don’t you go say hi to him?” Gina smirked.
“No,” I said firmly.
“What? Are you scared he’ll turn you down?” Julie arched her brow at me.
Her words ignite a fiery sensation within me, bringing a frown to my face. I didn’t say a word. I knocked back the rest of my wine and rose to my feet.
“I’m no coward, Julie. If I want him, I’ll go talk to him.”
Gina squealed.
“Shoo, off you go, we’ll be fine.” Julie shooed me off, and I giggled.
I spun around, approaching his table.
His eyes were trained on me, watching me with keen interest, and if I wasn’t putting on a brave face, I’d have faltered.
The server shot me a mean-girl look once she figured out that I was the object of his attention and not her.
“You can leave now.” I knew he was referring to her without even casting a glance in her direction.
“I can—”
“Leave,” he insisted. His voice was harder now, sending shivers down my spine.
My throat softly bobbed as a brief silence ensued between us. We were both soaking in the presence of each other.
“Was I interrupting something?” I cocked my head to the side.
“She was irrelevant.” He spoke dismissively, grinning.
“Am I too?”
“No. Never.”
My breath hitched at those words. The way this man looked at me—like he was torn between feasting on me or just admiring me.
“My friends over there,” I jerked my thumb behind me, “thought I couldn’t approach you. I’m proving them wrong.”
He smiled. It leaned more on the psychotic side, and it was supposed to scare me off, but ... it intrigued me—so much so that I was trying to be unnoticeable with how hard I was clenching my thighs.
“Bold. I like it.” He grinned. “You can come sit, you know? I don’t bite.”
My lips twitched in an amused smile. I circled the table, then slumped on the seat beside him.
Our knees brushed, causing a rush of heat that seared my dress.
When I looked up, his heated gaze scorched me inside out.
Up close, he had the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen.
They were sadistic, electric, and breathtaking.
“Your eyes,” I swallowed, “they are so beautiful.”
He inched forward, his breath swiftly running across my skin, hot and scorching, and it instantly hardened my nipples.
“Is that so?” His knuckles came up, brushing my skin ever so lightly, and I nearly moaned.
“I want to fuck you.” I didn’t know where that came from. It took me a while to realize I said that. My cheeks burned with embarrassment, but the red wine I had earlier was more or less an aphrodisiac.
I was horny and needed something to take the edge off. There was no reason to hide what I wanted.
His blue eyes flamed with surprise, then slowly took on a darker shade. His smile didn’t falter for a bit.
“I don’t do vanilla sex, sweetheart,” he murmured. “I fuck. Hard.”
My stomach twisted into knots. “Good. Now, get me out of here.”
There was no reason for me not to cave in to my desires tonight. I didn’t know him. He didn’t know me. No strings attached. I’d never see him again, so what was there to shy away from?
End of sample chapter