A one-night stand meeting wasn't just enough for the both of them. Zina just applied for a job at the top company, only for her to find out that the man, Neil, was the person she had earlier slept with and was supposed to be her boss. That means the chemistry was not far from them. After Neil lays a contract marriage for Zina, they are bound by drama—to keep the relationship real to the outside world—and a contract, but how far can they keep pretending that it was just a business proposal? For how long can they spell out the difference between love and lust? And when there are a million people out there to stop what they have for each other, how long can they put up together?
View MoreZina.
Fuck.
My dress was short. I knew. I clambered into the club with my friends around me. My hair was slicked with gel, reducing my bushy hair to beautiful, brunette, wavy hair. I tried to smile, but I couldn’t. My heart was empty, my soul was withered. Maybe withered was an extreme word for it, but the bottom line was: I was unhappy.
Wallowing myself into music brought out a small shade of happiness in me. The music beamed from the speakers, echoing into my heart, and sending water to my soul. The colored, disco light wasn’t helping matters. I couldn’t even see where I was.
I took a seat far away from the dancing floor–at a cold booth, where I waited to cool off. The air here was static and stank from sweaty bodies. I would have laid in my bed and cried. That would have been better.
“Come on, Zina, let’s go dance.” My friends tried to pull me from my chair to the dance floor. I didn’t want to dance. There was nothing to dance about. My boyfriend cheated on me with another woman and called off a relationship of five years. Was that something to rejoice in?
“I’m not ready to dance.” I take my stand, fixing my butt on the chair. “You three should go, I’ll stay back.”
They shot me with angry looks and scoffed away in annoyance. I didn’t want to get them angry, but I didn’t want to dance, either. I looked away from the dance floor and kept my face on my phone’s screen, waiting for my boyfriend to send a text, maybe to reconsider calling off the breakup. I’d forgive him. I always did.
After so much swiping, I gave my phone a break and wiped the tears on my face with the back of my already wet hands. I sat still, thinking and crying about what went wrong in my life.
A burning desire for a drink reached my throat. I needed a drink–a cold, tipsy, clear liquid. Alcohol would send heat down my cold body; something that would take me out of my sad state. Something that would stand as my therapy.
I stood up from the floppy booth and made my way to the bartender’s hub. A whole lot of people carried around in their drinks buying, smooching–which I always looked away from when I saw a couple doing that. A striper stood stark naked on a pole and danced her heart out, men turning toward the rhythm of her body.
I sat hard on the bar stool and waited for the bartender to serve the drink he was preparing for a red-haired man who tried to woo me by grinning. It didn’t work.
“What can I get for you, miss?” his voice is soft and soothing, too appealing for a man. I would have liked to talk with him, to cry out my heart and eyes before him, but I restrained myself.
“I’d like a cup of your strongest drink,” I said.
He gave me a look and seemed like he wanted to ask me to reconsider, but he shoved it away and said instead. “Rum or Tequila or Vodka?”
I didn’t know what to go for, so I picked the fanciful one. “Tequila. Add some lime to it.”
He nodded in appraisal and walked off with a shot glass. I might want another shot after this, depending on how well he mixed his drinks. I sat on my chair and held my hands to my chin, waiting. When he arrived, I smiled at him and went for the shot.
It was strong and furious, burning my mouth, then my gut, then my stomach. Somehow, it reached my brain and I felt the effect two seconds later: I was beginning to forget the name of my ex.
He wasn’t serving another one, so I asked. “Another?”
“Are you sure? That could do you dirty. Real dirty.”
I snorted so hard. “Dirty? I’m already dirty. It doesn’t matter what the drink would do to me.”
He didn’t say anything but went back to prepare the shot. When he passed them to me, I hurriedly gulped them all at once. The alcohol worked like the former, but it was stronger than before. It kicked in and my memory became fuzzy.
I burned for more. I laid the glass in front of the man, mouthing more. The bartender hesitated but took the shot glass.
“I wouldn’t go for another glass if I were you.” In between the loud music, I hear a husky voice speaking to me. My cheeks burned with embarrassment.
“I have every right to take any amount of alcohol. It isn’t your business.” I spat at him. Gradually, I was losing my mind. I couldn’t even make out the face I was seeing.
“Hmm.” He brought his clear liquid to his mouth and sipped. I waited for the bartender and took shots and shots. Maybe I should have listened to him.
As I stood up, I slipped and headed for the floor. Luckily. He was there and held me tight. Like the strength of Superman. I felt at peace being in his hands, but I slapped him anyway.
“Leave me alone.” I took in a whiff of his cologne, blended with the smell of alcohol on his lips. I wanted to kiss the alcohol away.
“You don’t look too good.” He grabbed me with his right hand and turned to the bartender. “How much for all our drinks?”
“About a hundred and ten bucks.”
He dug out several dollar bills from his pocket and gave them to the man. I couldn’t tell the exact amount, but I knew that there was a lot of tipping in there.
He turned to me. “Do you want to go home?”
I wanted to melt in his voice and his body. Probably I’d be a butter if I could see his face. I nodded. At that point, I forgot I came to the bar with my friends.
“Where’s your house?”
I slurred at every word. When he saw that my words weren't helping him, he took my purse for me and scanned my ID. “Okay.”
We walked out of the bar and toward his Tesla. Or so I thought.
We drove in silence. It had to be. I was a drunk girl with a man I didn’t know. I just watched him while he drove, making out his handsome features. His dark hair was invincible to the night. His own body was, but I knew this man was the real definition of what a handsome man would bear.
He carried me like a child to the house. He fit his hands under the doormat and brought out a set of keys, turned the lock of my house, and carried me in. The lights were turned off, but I didn’t let him bother about that. In his arms, I was dreaming of forever.
He plopped me gently off my ragged bed. I was ashamed of my untidy room, but he said nothing about it. “Never forget to get back up whenever you go to a bar. I might not be there to be your knight in shining armor.”
“I won’t,” I say. He turned to leave and I was tempted to draw him back. His whole body affected me at that point.
Something about his voice turns me on. Maybe it was the way he spoke or the pitch of his voice, I wanted to be inside of him. The alcohol gave me the boldness to hold his hands. I traced it with my fingers up to his lips and outlined it, calling in for a kiss. I jumped on him and intertwined my legs around his torso, smiling at him.
“Don’t you want me?” That was the only question I asked, the rest was history.
I kissed him hard like I was hungry for him. My hands were in his hair, trying to taste every bit of his mouth. I was drawn to him.
He kissed me back. His big hands were everywhere around my body: my thigh, my hips, and my breast, and slowly, he was making his way to my panties. He tore my gown like a wolf and my breasts fell limp and cold against his touch. He held it and caressed it, driving me further into him.
My loose bed was shaking now, his hands were doing magic all over my body, sending sparks of passion all over. I didn’t want this to end. I was glad I drank a lot of alcohol to give me the courage to fuck this guy. He was good in bed. Better than my boyfriend.
“Are you sure about this or are you still under the influence of alcohol?” his voice was something else. I knew it wasn’t the alcohol. I shook my head once and went back to do my job, kissing his ragged, rough lips. He was a good kisser, that I was sure of.
He slipped his hands into his pocket and dug out a condom. He was fully prepared. When he slipped it in, he thrust into me, giving me both pain and pleasure all at once. I bit my headboard hard as he got in further.
He was better than my boyfriend. I was sure.
After lapse and lapse of sex, I got tired and pulled out of it. He pulled me into a big embrace with his big biceps and I fell into his hard chest. We both slept in my small bed and I was worried he wasn’t comfortable in it. His leg probably would have been sticking out of the bed.
Maybe I should count this as a one-night stand, but it was beginning to be the best night of my life.
Zina’s POV:“You really know how to ruin a surprise.” I said dryly to Kathy who this time around screamed but opened the door widely for me to step in. Sandra was already on her feet when I stepped in. She had tears in her eyes.“Babe, if that make up isn’t waterproof don’t even think about it. I am here to walk you down that aisle to your happily ever after, think you can hold it all in till we are done?” I said to her and opened my arms to give her the hug we both needed. The tears now flow, I was grateful Neil forced me to come. I would not have traded this feeling for anything.We held on to each other until the other girls joined us in our hug. We saw some flashing lights and looked to see the wedding photographer.“I’m sorry, I could not help it. This was too precious to pass up. Wait, I just got an idea. We will do this outside, don’t worry we won’t mess anything up.” The photographer said in a rush but I was not paying any attention to her. I was fixated on my best friend who
Neil’s POV:The PI had to work with Matt and Ian and I did not care, I wanted answers which were pretty easy. The idiot’s name was Jeffrey. I of course remembered him but I could care less about him at the time, he was after Megan and she thought to use it to stir some jealous shit but it failed woefully because I never called him to order or ordered him away from Megan, it infuriated her to no end.So she ended up using him to get to one of the people I loved deeply. Yes, I was admitting that I loved my wife.They had tracked Jeffrey to the flimsy hideout he carved for himself, I say flimsy because it was not difficult to track him. Gabriel of course had skipped town but he was found eventually, and the lady of the hour was picked up from her apartment. She kept screaming that she never meant to hurt me, that Zina was the target. Like that was going to help?Anyway Zina had been by my side all through. My parents have moved to my place temporarily to help them commute to work easier.
Neil’s POV:I woke up feeling immensely tired, like I was run over by a truck. I blinked to try to recognize where I was. I was still in the hospital ward. I remember waking up earlier and I saw Zina who was running around, then some doctors came in.I sighed and turned to see a passed out Zina on the couch, how long she had been there was a mystery to me but I could tell that she had not been sleeping well, even the dim light could not hide the exhaustion from her face.She needed more sleep. Just then the door to the room opened and a nurse peeked in before trying to quietly step in, she did a good job of being quiet until she was next to my bed and saw that I was awake. She gasped but not loud enough to wake Zina.“Sir, you are awake. Let me call the doctor real quick.” She said to me and I nodded my head but I cast a significant look at her and thank goodness she understood and did not make any noise or wake Zina up. The doctor soon came in and after quietly examining me she told
Zina’s POV:Neil was supposed to wake up yesterday according to what the doctor said, but here he is, still lying there and not yet awake. I am really trying not to lose my head, this is becoming overwhelming as the hours pass by. I have seen too many movies and the worst case scenario kept playing in my head. What if he never woke up?What if they declared him brain dead?What if he became a vegetable?Did the last two not mean the same thing?Oh my gosh!I massaged my temple as I felt the beginning of a headache. “Please Neil, just wake up, please just wake up.” I said in my head and lifted my head to see that he was still in the same position. The door opened after a brief knock, a nurse stepped in with some towels.“Good morning ma’am, I am here to wash up Mr. Honduras. May I proceed?” the nurse asked me and I nodded my head. I stood up and stayed at a distance where I was sure that I would not interrupt her or block her movements and watched wipe him down with a towel, soap and
Zina’s POV:I followed the doctor with bated breaths, not really knowing what to expect but I was just glad that I was finally getting to see him. This was not my plan for the day, this was not my plan for any day. The meetings I was rushing out for seem so trivial right now. As we approached the door I felt the hand that I had been clutching unconsciously squeeze mine back. I looked up and saw my mother in-law give me a reassuring smile through the tears that filled her eyes. I nodded my head, bracing myself for this. The door opened and my eye zeroed in on the only bed in the room. The tears I thought were giving me a break came out, I could not control it. I didn't even want to, lying there looking pale with bandage wrapped around his body and wires hooked up to machines was my husband.There was a bandage wrapped around his head, his lip was burst at two places and it was a disturbing color of blue. From the amount of movies I had seen I was glad that the machines were beeping, m
Sandra’s POV:As soon as we arrived at the hospital, some men in suits immediately surrounded the vehicle and opened the door on Pascal’s side. Pascal turned to me, completely ignoring the madness that was the paparazzi. This was the first time I was experiencing them and this was crazy to say the least. From the ones receiving the news updates this was a favor, but to the families involved this was a major nuisance.“No matter what happens, do not let go of this hand and always follow where I tug you to. Do not answer any questions, do not say anything to them. And as much as possible keep your head down. Ready?” Pascal asked me and I nodded, I just wanted to get this show on the road.I nodded and he took my hand in a firm grip.He came down first, waited for me and took his own instructions. He did not say anything to any of them, he kept a firm grip on my hand and kept a steady pull until we got to the hospital entrance where they were banned from entering.“Where are they?” I hea
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