Bianca Chopra has a timeless beauty.
I knew it the moment I first saw her. She was just eighteen with a sweet smile playing on her lips and slender hands hanging on my stepbrother Niall’s arm.
Another thing that I knew, like a premonition? She was going to be my ruination.
Now seven years later, she stands in my arms while conflicting emotions swirl in her pretty brown eyes.
Young Bianca had an air of innocence about her, but the one staring at me is sassy and utterly breathtaking. A stunning spitfire. Even a little guarded like she’s holding mysteries close to her heart.
If only I cared enough to find out.
Our paths may have crossed tonight but I have no intention of repeating it. It’s for her own good that she stays as far away from me as possible. Because when close, I always have this need to orbit around her. She always manages to steal my focus.
It nearly cost me everything last time.
I had half a mind to pretend I didn’t recognize her, but that’s as hard as not breathing. She’s the kind of woman no man is capable of ignoring when she steps into their path. Her aura is so bright that you don’t care if it burns when you get near. Or dare to touch.
How did she even sneak past the heavy security here? Her father is powerful and influential but he certainly wouldn’t let his daughter roam freely around greedy men. I’m guessing she knows someone else.
Either way, I’m going to talk to the manager, because I didn’t pay a hefty membership fee just so anybody could walk in. I hate when my reputation is threatened, especially when I’ve built it with a lot of hard work.
I can’t seem to care about any of it right now, though, as I look at my little kitten. A smile threatens to tug at my lips when I remember this isn’t the first time she’s sneaked around.
She’s always been too curious.
“Answer me, kitten,” I softly demand, our mouths almost touching.
When I caught her watching me fuck raptly, I thought my mind was playing a trick on me.
The woman I never wished to see.
One I’d forgotten existed except in my drunken memories.
My breath had lodged in my throat when I took in her purple dress, because it should be fucking illegal. It barely hides every delectable inch of her. Beautiful tanned skin, tits spilling out of the top of her dress, and her long legs on display.
All I have to do is bend her over the nearest surface to get a glimpse of her wet cunt.
“Dash,” she whispers.
“Yes or no, kitten?”
When she opens her mouth to answer, I hear a commotion in the hallway. A lithe figure, dressed similarly as Bianca, rounds the corner and stops in her tracks.
Nova D’Cruz, sole heir to the Cruz Empire, casually strolls behind the strange woman and leans on the far wall. Dark amusement glimmers in his gaze which he keeps pinned solely on her. I know he’s betrothed, so she must be his fiancée, Rosalie Kapoor.
The tabloid showed them as a happy couple, which clearly is another lie.
Mutual hatred wafts between them, especially from her.
“Bee, are you okay?” Rosalie asks her friend.
Bianca, who seemed to be in a trance, finally rips herself away from me. I don’t grab her again this time. Instead, I let my fists clench by my sides at the sudden emptiness.
Damn it! She’s already fucking with my head.
I steel my expression into boredom when I notice Nova observing me intently from his perch. The man is a bloodhound and as sharp as a bull behind his charming smiles. Anyone who’s at the top of the world wears a mask. He happens to wear more than one.
Men like us have no room to allow our weaknesses to be exploited.
A lesson I learned the painful way soon after I made my first billion.
“I’m fine, Rosa,” Bianca assures.
“He didn’t touch you, did he?” Rosalie sneers in my direction and I arch a brow.
While my kitten is all light and graceful, her best friend is all bite and claws.
Justin has abandoned the girl and righted his clothes, watching the rest of us like we’re in a play. He came to visit me two days ago, and as it’s his last night here, I brought him to this club for a good time. Only for nothing to go as I planned. At least he’s entertained by the chaos.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” says Bianca confidently.
“You sure, kitten?” I taunt as I stare pointedly at her hard nipples.
I smirk when she crosses her arms and goes to stand next to her friend, who stares between the two of us curiously.
“You know him?” Rosalie questions.
“I’m hurt you didn’t tell your friend about me,” I tease. “Don’t women tell each other about their firsts?”
Bianca’s jaw drops while Rosalie’s eyes widen in surprise before she quickly masks it. She grabs Bianca’s hand when she steps forward and pulls her back.
“Don’t, Bee.”
“If only you were memorable enough.” Bianca scoffs at me.
Dirty little liar. Now that the haze of lust has vanished from her body, she’s back to hating me. Every time we spoke in the past, which was rare, we got into a heated battle. It fueled my fire to do it often and I did while enjoying each second.
I don’t know if I did it because she always gave back as good as she got. Or because I loved the flush that covered her skin whenever she was in my close vicinity.
Nova, who was quiet until now, straightens and announces, “You found your friend, Rosalie. Let’s go.”
Both the women glare at me and Justin, who shrugs in a gesture that says “what did I do?” before turning around. Nova waits until his fiancée walks ahead of him before following closely behind. Bianca stays a few steps behind and I catch up before she rounds the corner.
She gasps when I grab her elbow and shove her against the wall. Her nipples harden into tight peaks when I trail a single finger over the curve of her tits.
“Dash!” she hisses when I twist her nipple.
“That’s for lying that I didn’t make you see stars when I broke your virgin cunt.”
“It was a mistake choosing you to be my first, you asshole.”
I froze as rage thrums in my veins at the regret in her voice. Even though I have no right to feel this way, it fucking stabs me in the gut that she thinks our night was a mistake.
While she was my ruin, I was hers too.
Only she doesn’t know it.
I should pull away and let her go, yet there’s no stopping me as I put my mouth against her ear and sneer viciously, “You sure begged like mine was the only cock you wanted.”
“Whatever helps you to sleep better at night.”
“Is what you’ll tell yourself tonight when you lay in bed, kitten.” I step back and stare down, smirking, making her nose twitch adorably. “If your friend hadn’t showed up, you’d be riding my dick right now.”
“Go fuck your whores, Dash.”
“I’d rather you be mine.”
“Never,” she vows despite the slight breathlessness in her voice.
“Then don’t let me catch you again, Bianca.”
“I never make the same mistake twice,” she sneers with a perfectly arched brow. Her eyes were breathing fire. “You, Dash Stern, will always be my one and only regret.”
My eyes are glued to the sway of her luscious hips as she walks out.
Even hours after she’s gone, her last words still ring in my ears. I fooled myself into believing I got rid of the effect she had over me, only to be hit with the tumultuous reality in my face.
My little stepbrother’s ex is still as hypnotic as ever, now with more fire burning in her veins.
If I’m not careful, she’ll scorch me again.
