Someone I’ve never even conversed with. Someone I’ve only seen in passing. Sure, we’ve locked eyes a time or two in the years since we met in the third grade, but nothing else.
Nothing but fantasies.
As if on cue, a dark shadow of a man crosses behind a group of people, and instantly I know it’s him. He slowly steps around the partygoers and our eyes lock. Immediately, I’m throbbing everywhere, and the awareness turns into a snake slithering over my body, touching me in secret places. Chase Huntington is the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. The most beautiful person.
Dark auburn hair. Sharp jaw line.
He licks his lower lip and grins.
Even sharper smile.
My heart stops, and I swallow hard, imagining and wanting all those things that tongue could—
“Drink?” Seth asks.
I tear my eyes away from Chase and the ridiculous notion that he could be interested in someone like me, and try to smile at Seth. “Uh, sure,” I say, not wanting a drink as much as I want Seth to go away. He looks to where my eyes just left and frowns. “Why is Chase here? He doesn’t even have money anymore, and these aren’t exactly his people.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, curiously, trying to sound bored.
“Chase had a falling out with his father. He was kicked out and disinherited years ago. Nobody has seen much of him. There’s no way he was invited here tonight,” Seth says with a look of disgust marring his otherwise handsome face. “Besides, the kid is a freak. There’s rumors you know.”
“What kind of rumors?” I ask, stepping closer to Seth.
Seth smiles and leans down to whisper. “Chase is dangerous. He has a dark side. Some even say that he kills for money now. Others say that in the hovel he rents, he’s erected a Saint Andrews cross right in the center of his living room.”
“So, he’s religious then?” I ask, scrunching my nose in confusion.
Seth laughs. “You innocent, beautiful girl,” he says slowly, playing with a ringlet of my hair draped over my shoulder, uncomfortably close to my breast. “Where have you been all my life?”
“Locked away in a tower, of course,” I say with a laugh that makes it sound like my words aren’t true. But never in the past several years have I ever been grateful for being locked away. Maybe Regina was right. Maybe she was protecting me from the outside world. From men like Seth.
Then again, since she was trying to push me toward him, probably not.
From men like Chase then.
“Whatever he’s up to, he still has money somehow because he’s been buying up large quantities of stock in Blanca Enterprises in an attempt to become the majority shareholder. Gradually, of course, probably in an effort to go unnoticed, but this is Manhattan and, in our circles, everyone notices everything.”
“Stock? In my father’s company? How is that possible? My father owned the majority of shares. Fifty one percent. Chase can try, but he’ll never be the majority,” I say as my pulse pounds in my temples.
Seth drains his drink and makes that weird noise that men do, a weird hiss-sigh. “Yeah, but your stepmother has sold him some of your father’s shares this past year. He might already be the majority holder. At the very least he’s bought himself a seat on the board.”
That motherfucker.
Maybe the fantasy of him watching over me wasn’t sexual in nature after all.
Maybe it was a warning.
It doesn’t matter that my stepmother sold shares that weren’t hers to sell to begin with. As of the stroke of midnight, Blanca operation is mine and Chase Huntington will never have the controlling majority.
NEVER.
I’ve never felt so determined, disappointed, and betrayed by someone I didn’t even know, but that last part doesn’t seem to matter because my heart sinks into my stomach.
“So, what about that drink?” I ask with a fake smile, needing to be alone to collect my thoughts.
“Why of course. Be right back.” He leans in close, his lips brushing my cheek. I do my best to try not to cringe as he trails the back of his finger over the swell of my breast. “Don’t you go anywhere.” Seth bows dramatically, then scurries toward one of several bars tucked against the walls of the room. Within a couple of steps he’s lost in the crowd, and I find myself releasing a long exhale of relief.
Chase Huntington is dangerous.
The second Seth said those words, I believed them.
I don’t know how I know he’s dangerous exactly, but I know it as much as I know to take my next breath. It’s second nature. Although, there is something very unnatural about Chase Huntington. I spend a lot of my time pretending that whatever it is doesn’t call to me, reaching for me like a rope wrapped in barbed wire and dark desire. Determined to tether us together.
Not anymore. Not ever, I tell myself.
“Planning my demise, princess?” A deep raspy voice whispers from behind, sending chills of pleasure and angry awareness up my spine.
I straighten my shoulders and ignore the tingling awareness vibrating between my legs and the rush of pleasure that brushes across the back of my neck with his words.
“Something like that,” I say, without turning around.
He chuckles, and I chastise myself for my reaction, which comes in the form of hardened nipples. “That’s too bad, princess. I find a good fight to the death can be quite…arousing.”
I’m glad he’s still behind me so he can’t see the deep blush I feel creeping up my throat, burning on my cheeks and pulsing between my legs.
I clear my throat, and he chuckles again, knowingly.
Stomping my foot, I spin around, preparing to face my enemy and be brave, stand up for myself. But that bravery waivers when I’m met with the bright green stare from my dreams. I still, mesmerized by what I see there. Depravity. Lust. It’s chilling and erotic at the same time, and I’m not sure what scares me more, the fact that he’s looking at me like I’m his next meal, or the yearning to offer myself to him on a plate. Either way, it touches me in a way that makes me want to experience what it would be like if he were actually touching me.
“Something wrong with your pretty tongue?” he asks with a smirk. He rakes his gaze down my gown to where my chest is bulging from the corseted top with my angry breaths.
I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest. I stare down at my shoes, then realize my error and chance another glance at my enemy. “No. There’s nothing wrong with my tongue.”
He lifts my chin with his fingers, and again our eyes meet. “Good. It would be a damn shame.”
On instinct I lick my bottom lip, and Chase groans. The sound vibrates within my chest. He leans in closer, and I’m a statue as his lips graze my jaw and then nip at my earlobe as he speaks. “I’ve dreamed of what that pretty tongue is capable of.”
I gasp, and my entire body heats with both rage and desire.
“So, I see you two have met?” My stepmother asks, her Dior gown sweeping the floor as she floats over to us and flashes her biggest, brightest smile at Chase, batting her eyelashes. She’s trying to flirt or appear girlish, but it only makes her appear as if she’s in the beginning stages of a stroke. Of course she’s being friendly. Chase’s family has more money than God.