Chapter 003

Chapter 003

----YOU'RE MARRIED?----

GABBIE

The music changed and it started slow, pulsing, it made the air feel thicker as I stepped closer, deliberately, letting the shadows kiss my skin until I was right in front of him.

Then I lifted my leg, slowly and placed it on the arm of his chair.

The slit of my bodysuit opened just enough to expose the full curve of my thigh, thick, smooth, glowing faintly with glitter.

I smirked, no man had ever resisted that. not once and even Alex Vaughn, the cold demon of my workplace wasn’t immune either.

His eyes dropped, just for a second... but God… that second was everything I needed to see I was in control.

His throat bobbed, a hard swallow he couldn’t hide. I watched his jaw clench, his fingers curling around the chair, like he needed to hold himself together.

I leaned in, just enough that I could feel his breath against my lips. Close enough that if either of us inhaled a little too deeply… our mouths would touch.

A dangerous inch, I was starting to enjoy this.

Way too much.

His eyes flicked to mine in a dark, steady and affected in a way he couldn’t disguise.

Then, very softly, he said,

“Sit with me.”

I blinked. “…What?”

He cleared his throat once, gaze dropping then rising again with an almost… embarrassed sincerity.

“You don’t have to drink,” he murmured. “I just want to talk.”

Talk, the one thing I wasn’t paid to do. The one thing men here never wanted.

But somehow… talking to him felt even more dangerous than dancing for him.

I slipped my leg off the chair, feeling the warmth of his stare on my skin, and let him lead me to the private bar in the corner.

The stool was cold beneath me, his presence was warm beside me.

I poured myself a drink, careless, letting the liquid slide into the glass the same way I let my shoulder drop forward just enough to deepen the line of my cleavage.

His gaze followed it, he stared at it intently and my lips curved into a slow smirk.

“Men,” I breathed, swirling my glass, “never resist cleavages. It’s practically a biological flaw. Even you couldn't resist it Mr Alex”

He didn’t look away, but his jaw tightened again.

“That’s not what I’m thinking,” he said.

I lifted a brow. Oh? The demon had thoughts deeper than tits? Shocking.

“So what are you thinking, Mr. Vaughn?”

He inhaled, eyes dragging from my mouth to my mask, stopping there, holding.

“How much,” he asked quietly, “would it cost me… for you to take off your mask?”

The glass nearly slipped from my hand.

My heart lurched violently in my chest.

Did he grow suspicious already? I thought I had him under control.

What if I took it off and he was disappointed? What if I don't open it and I’d just thrown away a lifetime of money for nothing?

No. I couldn’t risk it.

I leaned back, crossing my legs, acting unaffected while my pulse screamed.

“It’s priceless,” I said softly.

He studied me… and I swear his eyes darkened a shade.

“Everything has a price,” he murmured.

“Not this,” I whispered.

Not me, not my face and not the truth I was hiding under it because it meant my life.

But God… the way he stared at me now,

like he was willing to burn through the world just to see the skin beneath this mask.

It made a part of me tremble I didn’t know could tremble, Curiosity will ruin this all.

“Then maybe,” he said, voice low, “I’ll just have to earn it.”

He reached for the bottle again, not the glass, the full bottle.

And he drank, Hard. One swallow, after another.

Then another like he was trying to drown himself inside out.

“Okay...stop.” I grabbed his wrist, fingers digging into his skin. “You’re going to kill your liver in one night.”

He blinked at me, slow and unfocused... but when he looked up… our eyes met.

Everything in the room went still, his gaze softened but not in a lustful way, not greedy. It was something worse, Something vulnerable.

“You know,” I murmured, pulling the bottle from his hand, “I haven’t even danced for you.”

He let out a breath, rough and ruined.

“Fuck the dance,” he muttered.

My body went rigid.

His next words were slurred, too honest, way too raw...

“I just want to kiss you.”

My lips parted in shock but almost immediately, his eyes widened and he shook his head violently.

“No — shit — I'm so sorry. I didn’t— I shouldn’t have said that.”

He rubbed his face, groaning. “Fuck, I’m drunk. Ignore me. Please, just—forget I said anything.”

I crossed my arms, heartbeat stumbling.

“You are drunk, Mr Alex.”

He glared weakly.

“At least call me Alex.’

“Not when you’re like this.”

He slumped back against the bar, defeated.

I wasn’t used to seeing him this… undone.

The demon from work looked like he couldn’t even hold himself together.

“You have to go home,” I said softly.

“No.” His answer came instantly.

I frowned.

“Alex?”

He lifted his head, his eyes were glassy, unfocused, but what was inside them… wasn’t drunkenness, It was pain... So obvious.

“I’ll do anything,” he whispered, “not to go home tonight.” I froze.

That didn’t sound like a man with a perfect life.

Not the polished executive who walked through the office like the world was under his feet, he didn't look like the man everyone feared.

“What’s… waiting for you there?” I asked before I could stop myself.

He laughed... An empty laugh that sounded almost sincere.

“Nothing,” he said. “That’s the problem.”

I stared at him, I really did.

This was not the man who cut ten percent from my salary because he’d had a bad day.

This was someone cracked, aching and someone oddly attractive to me.

“I didn’t expect you to be like this,” I murmured.

“Like what?” he muttered.

“Human.”

That hit him and i felt it, he swallowed hard, looking away with his jaw clenched, his muscles tight like he was holding himself together by will alone.

“I don’t… do well with being alone,” he finally said, his voice barely audible.

“And you thought coming here would help?”

“No,” he confessed. “But seeing you did.”

My breath caught in my throat, “That makes no sense,” I whispered.

“It does to me.” He turned to me again, his eyes heavy, hurt, pleading. It all felt strange how his eyes looked so mesmerizing all of a sudden, I shouldn't be like this.

“I don’t want anything from you tonight. Not a performance. Not sex. Not a dance. Just...” His voice cracked.

“Just stay.”

Something broke in my chest, something I didn’t even want to admit existed.

His fingers brushed mine on the counter accidentally, but an electrifying feeling shot through my whole body.

I should’ve pulled away, shouldve reminded him of the rules, could've walked out.

But instead… I whispered, “Why me?”

“Because you’re the only one who doesn't even flinch when a stranger is this close...”

The room tilted, my pulse pounded and something hot curled in my stomach, something in between lust and shock.

“Alex…”

His name tasted dangerous on my tongue.

He leaned closer, breath warm against my cheek. “I’m sorry,” he murmured again, voice trembling. “I shouldn’t have kissed you in my head.”

The weight of those words… but before I could think, before I could even breath, before logic could pull me back...

I grabbed the collar of his suit jacket, pulled him closer, and kissed him hard. Deep, like I needed to feel something real in this room of masks and lies.

His breath hitched against my mouth, his hands stayed at his sides like he was too shocked to touch me or maybe he waited for permission.

But when I pulled back, just barely, our lips still brushing...

He whispered my name slowly "Ella." And that was the part that scared me the most. His mouth was warm against mine, too warm,too easy like something I craved.

I didn’t know who kissed who first after that.

All I knew was that we were both leaning in, both giving in, both breaking rules.

His hands finally lifted, rough but also Careful, like he was scared to touch me wrong.

I slid my hands up his chest, pushing his suit jacket off his shoulders. He helped me pull it free, never breaking the kiss. His breath was ragged and mine was worse.

He tugged me closer by the waist and I felt him trembling faintly. Whether from restraint or desire, I couldn’t tell.

I reached for his shirt buttons, undoing them one by one as his lips trailed down my jaw,

Slowing as he shrugged the shirt off, chest rising and falling fast.

He looked almost shy, almost embarrassed in the dim light, like a child.

Then he reached for his watch, to take it off but that was when I saw it.

A ring, a shiny ring. My whole body went cold, I couldn't think fast.

I grabbed his wrist, jerking it back before the watch slipped off.

“A wedding ring?” I whispered.

He froze, shocked and lost for words.

His eyes flicked down to his own hand like he’d forgotten the ring existed or had hoped I wouldn’t see it.

“Ella...” he started.

But the world tunneled, my chest squeezed painfully, tears stung my eyes before I could stop them, it hurt more than I thought it would, how could I do this for a stranger? For this man?

“You’re married?” My voice cracked. “You’re married.”

“I can explain...”

“No.” I stepped back, shoving him lightly but hard enough that he stumbled into the bar. “No, you can’t explain this.”

He reached out, desperate.

“Please, yes i am... I’m not...this isn’t—”

“You look like a man begging for sex,” I snapped, voice shaking. “That’s all I see right now.” he flinched like I’d hit him.

“ you don’t understand Ella, i...”

“I pity her." The words came out before I could stop them.

“Your wife. At home. Probably trusting you. Thinking she knows the man she married.”

He looked ruined.

“I thought you were different,” I choked out. “I thought you actually saw me as a human being but... ” I wiped my tears taking one last glance at him, "you're just like them."

“Ella...please...”

I turned away from him and every step felt heavier than the last.

I wiped my tears with shaking hands but they wouldn’t stop.

His breath hitched behind me, like he wanted to follow but knew he shouldn’t.

At the door, I paused... Steady now.

“I’m not that type of girl Mr Alex and... I hope we never meet again.” I walked out before he could say a single word.