One Night - Forbidden Hearts Series Book 1

1. Down the Rabbit Hole

"I'll have another Vodka-soda, please," I said to the bartender at Down the Rabbit Hole. I'd been here for over an hour. I couldn't stop thinking about how I'd ended up in this situation. When my parents first introduced me to Ryan Hale at a holiday party, I should have known they had ulterior motives. After dating him for three months, I was ready to end it. He was a sweet guy, but when it came to matters of the bedroom...the sexual chemistry was non-existent. He didn't do well with foreplay, and everything was so...vanilla with him. Not once when we had sex did he make me come. I usually had to tend to that on my own.

"Here you go. Vodka-soda," the bartender said, placing my drink on the napkin in front of me.

"Thank you," I replied absently. I mean, it wasn't I didn't try to teach Ryan the art of bringing some kink into the bedroom; it just wasn't his thing, apparently. When I told my mom that I wanted to end it, that's when she dropped the bombshell on me. My parents and Ryan's parents had masterminded a plan for us to get married. They were willing to send me off into a life of unhappiness for one reason: to merge their businesses together. I freaked out when she told me the truth. I hated that she trying to control my life. I hated that they set me up and kept this secret from me.

Ryan didn't care for it much either. He found out the day after I did and asked me to meet up with him at a local coffee shop to discuss this. We talked about the situation and after a few fights with our parents over dinner, we realized just how important this merger was-financially speaking. So, we agreed to do it.

Six months after that, brings us to tonight. He "popped the question" four hours ago. There was a big audience, fake tears, and then....I took off. I found this hole-in-the-wall bar and now I'm three drinks deep.

"Rough day?" A deep voice asked in a thick British accent.

I turned to the right and froze in my seat. Damn, this guy was sexy. He had dark hair that was short on the sides and a little longer on the top, which was currently slicked back. He had green eyes and high cheekbones. Even though he was sitting down, I could tell he was at least six-foot-three. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a black shirt that was just tight enough for me to see that he was extremely fit.

When my eyes reached his face again, he looked at me with a sly smile.

"Fuck me all you like with your eyes, princess. But it's rude not to answer a question."

That accent..."I don't-- I mean, I wasn't--" Come on, Harp. Get it together. "Yes. A very bad day."

He took a drink of his beer before he asked, "What happened?"

"Are we really going to do this?" I asked with an edge to my voice. I was so pissed with the whole engagement thing, the idea of talking about it infuriated me.

"Do what?"

"Are we going to do this bar-therapy-session thing?"

A small laugh escaped him. "Hey, talk about it or don't. I'm just offering to listen."

I thought about whether I should vent to this random stranger or not. Sexy random stranger, my inner voice reminded me. What would it hurt? I had no one else to vent to, anyway. Maybe getting it off my chest would make it better.

"I'm kind of in a fucked-up situation right now," I said before throwing back the rest of my drink.

He pointed to my engagement ring, which was currently sitting next to a bowl of Trail Mix. I had taken it off when I got here and hadn't been able to put it back on. "I'm guessing it has something to do with that?"

I pushed the ring farther away. "Yes. I just got engaged."

"And that's a bad thing?"

I shrugged one shoulder. "When it's to someone you don't love and it's something your parents are basically making you do, then yes. It's a bad thing."