13. Cold-Blooded Eyes

“Did you and Ryan do it?”
Blood freezes in my veins as I hear his name.
A name that still haunts my mind after years.
A name that I never dared to take, even in my sleep. A name that brings back traumatic memories from my past and suddenly, I feel the pressure of panic rising in my body.
My chest rises and falls erratically as his devilish face flashes in my mind. Copper brown hair, whiskey brown eyes, pink bitten lips, masculine neck, and his roused scent of leather, tobacco and dirty sex, which still lingers in my head like a ghoul.
I was naive, and he was a sinner. I was attracted to him like a dumb moth to a bright warning lamp that clearly spelled *‘Danger.’*
My skin quivers as his ghost touch runs through my thighs. The way he touched them before spreading with his strong hands, then thrusted into me. I clench on to the fragile frill of my dress for support as it all comes rushing back with just his name.
*Ryan Damison.*
The man, who took my innocence, my virginity. My first love. My dark trauma.
Everybody warned me about him and his evil ways. But like Helen Keller, I kept ignoring all the red flags and at last, fell for him. And I fell so hard, I broke myself to never like anyone else.
“So he *did* fuck you!”
I hear Dakota’s casual voice in my head as if he already knew, just wanted to cross check his doubts.
My heart thumps heavily and I hear a crack. Pain keeps seeping out of that crack as I clutch on to the transparent net like a lifeboat. I was just a game for them. A sinful bet between the two devils.
*‘Whoever wins the fighting championship.. Gets the girl.’*
Me.
“It hurts to know he got you before me.” Dakota tilts his head and stares at me with his deep, unflinched gaze that only a prey deserves. “As I am someone who doesn’t share his toys.”
Something hot rushes through my veins and my chest rises with a snarl. “I am not a toy or a *fucking* trophy.” I realize its anger. Pure rage pumps through me as I fist my fingers in a ball and glare at the AI asshole.
“And I belong to nobody. Not even *you*.” I am so done with people treating me like an object, thinking I belong to play with.
Shadows unroll on his cold-corporate face. His full lips twist into an expression which I supposed a smirk, but it’s not. It’s incense.
Dakota keeps his glass down, *calmly*. My heart thumps as he looks at me like the sea holding back its waves, which could easily gulp down the entire city.
I wait for him to speak, growl, flick, anything. But he doesn’t. His heartless gaze sharpens in vex and pierces mine. I want to look away, but I can’t.
As if I am frozen in fear created by just his intoxicated eyes. After what felt like an eternity, he utters my name darkly.
“I don’t think you get it, Emara.”
His words ghost around me frantically as his fingers spade into my hair and close around it, *dangerously.*
He tugs back my hair hard enough to pull out a shriek from me, forcing me to meet his demon-fearing gaze. It’s like looking into the eyes of Satan.
I shiver. The adrenaline I felt before slowly crawls back to the hole it came from as the reality slowly settles in.
I am facing a man who could easily crush my bones, and more easily crush my dreams with a snap of his left hand. I am under him, in *all* ways.
“You were *mine* from the start.” His words are like fire.
“You were *mine* the moment I laid my eyes on you.” And his words burn me.
“And you were *mine* as soon as I bet on you. Even Ryan knew he lost you the moment I decided I want you.”
I take a weak gasp as his fingers clutch harder on my hair like his sanity depends on the little strands.
“That fight was just patience for me.” He breathes hotly on my skin. “And a slow mind-fuck for Ryan, because he knew he was gonna lose you to me.” He speaks every word from his memory as if he has lived that moment over and over again.
“And he did what any coward would have done.” He says, releasing my hair.
The second he lets me go, I feel breathless, like a person on life support whose oxygen mask has been removed.
The knowledge itself strips me bare of the fact Ryan slept with me coz he knew he was gonna lose the bet. *To him*. So he screwed me before Dakota could.
“STAND UP!”
My heart jolts to the mouth at his abrupt growl. I gulp nervously, my knees prick with a sudden rush of blood as I stand up on his command.
Dakota pulls out my phone from his pocket, which I had left on the table before changing. It looks cheap and small in his long, elegant fingers.
“Call your dad.”
My eyes widen in dread while his green orbs flashes darkly. “Tell him you are having a small session on Artificial Intelligence with my company, so you prefer staying in the city till the week ends.”
My chest rises and falls madly, but he does not even spare a glance on my cleavage, as if he has seen better and mine ain’t even worth his attention.
“Dakota.. Please.” I whisper like a beg.
“It’s Mr. Black for you.” He sternly warns me like he will pull out my tongue next time I called his name.
Hair pricks on my skin as he unlocks my phone and calls DAD from my contact list. Panic immediately seizes my body as he keeps the call on speaker and the rings goes…
“Emara? Where are you?”
My father’s voice pours from the phone and my throat dries on the spot.

* * * * *

**This is a complete stand-alone book!**
**But if you want to read the story(in details) behind each character for what happened 3 years ago between Ryan-Emara-Dakota .. you can read the book HIS EVIL WAYS, uploaded on my profile :)**

**P.S. It is a Romatic Comedy book, not erotic like this one!**