CHAPTER 21

Aleara’s POV.

The sight of pure money was what hit me first.

Hundreds of people lined the ballroom, all spectacularly dressed for the occasion. A live orchestra played on the stage and bodyguards lined the walls and exits of the building.

I continued to stare in pure awe.

Atlas led me through the massive hall, people stared at us from every direction, apparently Atlas Drakov never bought people along with him to events.

I watched him as we walked, glancing up at his stone hard face as we effortlessly glided across the floor, his steps were cautious and calculated, sliding along the ground in a perfect rhythm, his eyes were yet again as cold as ice, unreadable, shining and reflecting the candle lit room. His tousled hair was set out neatly on his perfect head, this man looked untouchable. Every move he made was large and ominous, showing his dominance and power, he was the apex predator in the game.

One might have even mistaken him for a god if they hadn’t looked twice.

“Aleara, I recommend not leaving my side, these men here, well lets just say they don’t really have a great deal of self-control, and to them, you would be like a beautiful diamond to add to a collection,”

I nodded slowly, I think Atlas had just called me beautiful in a really twisted and terrifying way, but I’ll take it.

I continued to nod up and down, managing to rip my eyes away from him.

My lips trembled slightly and my whole body shook with fear as I allowed Atlas to lead me through the crowds of people.

“Atlas!”

I turned to see a young man of about Atlas’ age coming towards us. He was good looking enough, dirty blond hair and dazzling green eyes, in his early twenties.

He and Atlas shook hands in greeting.

“So glad you could make it, and with a date for once,”

The man nodded to me kindly, I offered him a slight smile, he had just roasted the hell out of Atlas.

“Aleara, this is Peter Barlow,” Atlas’ face went a slight shade of pink.

I smiled slightly; his face looked familiar.

“You wouldn’t happen to be in any relation with the Barlow Weaponry company?” I asked curiously.

“In fact- yes, I am, I own the company,” he smiled pleased that I had recognized him.

We continued to speak, our conversation was light and polite drifting from simple conversations of car preferences to deep and detailed conversations of arms dealings, I was doing my very best to not be annoying.

We were in mid conversation, in fact, I was in mid-sentence when we were rudely interrupted by a booming voice across the hall.

“Atlas Drakov,”

The voice that boomed was a thick accent of Russian. I turned back to see a dark haired man with scarred and terrifying eyes. He was at least six and a half feet in height, seemingly towering over all the lesser men, he smiled a bleached white smile. I took in all of the tattoos snaked around his arm as he plowed through the crowd towards us. The man’s suit had a mafia insignia designed into it, one that I didn’t recognise. Peter sank back into the crowd almost as though he was way too smart to get involved here.

Atlas seemed to freeze for a split second before he addressed the man.

“Victor, pleasure,” he said formally and politly.

“You’re a bit formal don’t you think? If we are to be business partners, why not friends?”

Atlas froze, almost as if he had nothing to say back to the man.

Atlas Drakov always had something to say.

“The term friends is a term which is thrown around so loosely nowadays, don’t you think?” And there it was, the smart remark we had all been waiting for, and this guy says he isn’t bitchy.

Victor smirked a sadistic grin, “Ahh, but you see Atlas, we are at a ball, the perfect opportunity to make friends,” At this, his eyes drifted to me and holy fucking god I wished they hadn’t. It was as if he was staring through me, he was glaring at me as if he had found something valuable, and I didn’t like it, something he had no intention of letting go.

What the actual fuck, I wanted to throw up, this man was disgusting.

His eyes paused on my necklace, my legs shuddered slightly as a slow and small smile played on his thin and cracked lips.

“I suppose we have all been making friends now, haven’t we Atlas? Would you mind introducing me to your date?” he said it as if he was testing the word ‘date’ for the first time on his tongue.

Atlas stiffened at my side, his hot hands gripping my back and around my arm, pulling me in closer to him.

“Certainly, this is Aleara,” he glanced at me carefully.

I nodded slightly at the man, terrified of him, he grasped my hand in his own, pressing a cold and dry set of lips to it. I felt myself cringe; I don’t like snakes like him.

“Lovely to meet you,” he turned back to Atlas, “She’s quite the trophy,”

I felt humiliated. A trophy? Something to be kept, to be won, to be a prize. Yes, a trophy. Something to be looked at by everyone, but to be cared for by no one. Atlas kidnaped me like a whore, and that was all I was intended to be.

I polite and upset smile didn’t quite reach my ears as I thought about punching this man.

He turned to Atlas, “How much was she?”

I felt myself turn sick, but I said nothing.

“She wasn’t bought,” Atlas replied coldly, giving the man one of his ice cold glares.

“I’m no fool Atlas, the little thing is shaking, I can tell she is here against her will,”

“She is here on her own free will, she is my date and a representation of stability to my mafia,”

I felt like punching someone, they spoke of me as if I wasn’t even here, all of my self-respect vanished.

“I’m not a whore,” I stated hardly. Victor looked taken aback that I had spoken in such a vicious tone towards his face, clearly this jackass wasn’t used to being opposed. I felt myself wanting to slap his stupid ass face, but seeing as I was in a room with the top 100 most dangerous people in the world, I probably shouldn’t. but hey, I’m an emotional bitch, so fuck it.

I made an attempt to launch at him but I felt Atlas hold me back, he totally knew I was going to punch this asshole out to next week.

“Aleara, let me formally introduce you to the leader of the Southern Russian Mafia, Victor,”

Yeah, it probably wasn’t the best idea to go out punching Russian mob bosses.

“So tell me, love, how is it to be an Italian mob boss’s whore?” he teased.

I made another weak ass attempt to launch myself at him again, this man was going down. I wanted to slap the ship out of this Russian fucker.

“Feisty slut isn’t she?” He laughed as if he had told an incredibly funny joke, “Tell me Atlas, how much did you pay for her, because I’ll pay double,” his eyes trailed me and I felt embarrassed beyond belief.

Atlas tensed, “She’s not for sale Victor,”

I felt tears well in my eyes, I was ashamed, I brought my head down and held it low.

“Besides, you could never afford Aleara,”

I shot my head back up, had Atlas just defended me? I heard a few people gasp as they listened into my conversation.

Victor stormed off and Atlas lead me away carefully, a soft hand pressed against my back. He lead me into a corner where I opened my mouth wide to say something, but I was in a complete loss for words. He actually defended me, against someone whose good side he was supposed to be on.

“Are you okay?” my eyes gazed into all of his beauty, and suddenly when he stared at me, I couldn’t breathe. I stared at him in silence, there were so many things I wanted to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything, so I just stared.

“Aleara?” his voice echoed down on me.

“Yeah I’m fine, thanks for defending me,” I offered a slight smile.

He looked back to where Victor had stormed off to before glancing back at me.

“Yeah that is probably going to cause some issues, but he was out of line,”

“issues?” I asked.

He shrugged slightly, “don’t worry,”

“Bu-” he held up a hand to silence me.

“Do you want to dance”

A small smile played on my lips, “I cant dance,”

He grinned boyishly and looked me up and down. “No, I thought not, but luckily I am an amazing dancer,” he grinned.

He lead me through a crowd of people and onto the dance floor, giving me the widest grin as we stood closer together, my breath hiked slowly.

A beautiful melody started to play as Atlas took my body in his hands and began to lead me in a dance around the floor, panic rushed through me.

“Atlas I really cant dance,”

“Just follow my lead,”

The music started off slow and keeping up with Atlas was seemingly easy. I memorized a pattern to follow, two steps left, two steps right, two sets forward, and two steps back. I felt myself begin to find a rhythm.

I stumbled a bit as I made a poor excuse of a turn, Atlas caught me and whispered his hot breath into my ear.

“Just lean in, you have to feel the music”

We danced to the music in perfect sync, to the beating of my heart, as the song continued I felt myself beginning to relax, finding pleasure in the seemingly perfect tune that echoed through my head. No one else seemed to matter as it felt like everyone else disappeared and nothing else seemed to matter.

“Hold on,” He whispered into my ear and as the last and glorious note of the orchestra played, I felt him dip me low, my arms wrapped securely around his neck, his hands holding my body as if I weighed absolutely nothing.

We seemed to stay like that for hours, our bodies pressed tightly against each other, when the song finished, Atlas set me back and up straight on my feet. I glanced around the room to see hundreds of people staring, the couples that were dancing had even stopped to watch.

“Everyone’s looking at us,” I whispered as a small grin left his lips, “Really? I hadn’t noticed,” he smiled.