Finders Keepers

00 | prologue

prologue

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"Get off me right now or you'll regret it," I spoke through gritted teeth as I pushed on the shoulder of the woman on top me. She was straddling me and grinding her hips against mine in an attempt to make me lose control. How fucking stupid. Before trying to climb up my bed and try to make me submit to lust, she should totally hear on how many woman had failed at their chances.

"Aillard?" the woman gasped.

Anger simmered from within me as I moved myself off the bed and grabbed onto my suitcoat. Checking on the digital interface mounted on the wall, it indicated that the air condition had been turned down to the coldest temperature possible but my body was heating up with a dangerous kind of heat. The fire within was scorching my insides and impairing my ability to think. I glared at the woman on my bed. To think that this imbecile had the nerve to add aphrodisiac to my drink.

I attempted to leave the room but the woman rushed to hold me by my wrist, stopping me. My patience wore so thin that it was on the verge of snapping, but I only closed my fingers into a fist. If anything, I was brought up to be a man who wouldn't raise his hand against a woman.

"Aillard, you need me," the woman claimed.

"Harper, this is my last warning to you." I exhaled in a dangerously cold tone as my eyes pierced right into her shuddering brown one. "Let go, or I wouldn't hesitate to bring the entire Sutton Corporations into ruins."

Harper quickly withdrew her hands and I made no hesitation to walk right out of my hotel room. My vision was growing blurry and my mind was blanking out from the fucking stimulant coursing through my veins. I forced my feet down the hallway as I pounded onto the door at the end of it. My heart was racing and I released the second button of my dress shirt as my hand wrapped around my throat in useless attempt to ease the uncomfortable feeling.

When the door finally opened, I had already lost most of my logical sense. A deep inhale was all I heard before I impeded the person's ability to speak by pushing her up against the wall and claiming her lips. Pressing my entire frame against her smaller one, I gave her no room to escape even when she pushed weakly on my shoulder. I continued to kiss her deeply, drawing out all the air from her till I felt her tremble in my embrace before I paused to let her catch her breath. Her skin was cold against mine, giving me a sort of comfort that I needed at the moment while my entire body burned with desire and overwhelming lust.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Her breathlessness was driving me insane as those soft mellow sounds were causing me to throb harder with desire, following each of her exhales.

"I need you, please," I strained. My hands gripped so tightly around her arms out of sheer desperation at the moment. If I cannot have her, I would really be consumed by the blazing flames afire within me.

"You know who I am?" she gasped.

I felt a sudden surge of uncomfortable feelings and grimaced, "I don't really care."

The woman in my arms went silent immediately. She refused to say anymore words except to wrap her arms around my neck and lean her body closer to me. I took that as her consent as I swept her hair aside to kiss and nib on her neck. I was anything but gentle, my rationality had long been gone from me and I had moved in a manner that was fully driven by the primal lust the drug stimulated. The soft scent of her soap was evading all my senses and when she whimpered, it only made me want her entirely.

With her in my arms, I carried her to the bed and dropped her into the sheets. Things turned frantic really fast and within swift moments of passing seconds, I was positioned in between her legs and I cursed under my breath, "Fuck."

What in the actual fuck am I doing right now?

Infuriating feelings rose as I stared right into the pair of pale blue eyes that were glistening with tears. My eyes roamed to look at all the reddened marks that I left on her skin in my wake. My insides still singed with desire but I couldn't continue with what I was about to do. Biting on my own lip, I raked a hand through my hair as I drew in a sharp inhale. At this foolish point in time, maybe I'd rather let the poison kill me right now than to hurt her.

I would've really stopped until the woman beneath me folded her arms around my neck and whispered into my ear, "It's okay."

Then, I lost it. Threw the last bit of my restraint out of the darned window as I pushed myself into her and she cried with a suppressed voice. But I wonder how long she could hold her voice down when I moved over her and into her with vigour and almost recklessness. My senses were muted, and I was once again driven insane. Maybe it was no longer the philtre that I was tricked to drink that was driving me senseless, but her. The feel of her, the sound of her and the entirety of her was pushing me over the edge.

"What am I to you, Aillard?" she let out a shaky breath as I held onto her tighter in my arms when my release neared. At this point, I couldn't formulate an answer for her because the words wouldn't form coherently. Everything in my consciousness was obscured by the overwhelming sensation of tension and ecstasy. We just kept moving with one another until the tension snapped. My body slumped weakly against her, apologetic that she had to bear with my weight but I couldn't find any strength in me to get off her.

When I finally regained enough to move myself away from her, she had already fallen asleep from all the weariness that I put her through. My hand smoothed along her body that was currently marked with patches of red when I caught her skin in between my teeth a moment ago. She turned and slept on her side, her legs tucked nearer to her chest and she looked so small that my heart ached.

Pushing a lock of wig behind her ear, I said quietly, "You look beautiful with long hair, Wren."

My hand roamed down the curve of her neck and up to her shoulder, stopping when the tip of my fingers traced the jagged scar on her back. I swallowed hard on the guilt within me when I recalled her question from a moment ago: What am I to you, Aillard?

Moving towards the other side of the bed, I got under the blanket and lay beside her. I wanted so badly to pull her towards me and cuddle with her till we wake up in the morning but I refrained myself from it. Wren had her back facing me while I looked at her small demeanour and sighed, "You are a dream that is beyond my reach."

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a/n:

hello! thank you for taking the time out to read this new work of mine. i hope to bring everyone on another emotional ride again. this book would be different, very different. well, to be exact, the only constant in my books is romance and i love to explore all sorts of genre. i wouldn't call this story a dark romance, though maybe it has some semblance of it?