LOGINAURIELLE Of all the people, of all the streets, of all the cars in this entire city, it had to be this one? Like a total idiot, I gawked at the person standing in front of me, the guy from the website. My face was so hot that I was surprised it didn't set off a fire alarm. "I'm not dealing with this." I turned and walked in the opposite direction. "Hey, wait!" His voice carried easily across the street. I walked even faster. "I said wait." I heard footsteps behind me, unhurried but gaining fast. "Where are you even going?" "Away from you, can't you tell?" I threw over my shoulder. "Goodbye mister." "You look like you had a rough day," Those words forced me to a halt. I turned around slowly. He was closer than I expected, hands in his pockets and watching me. "Excuse me?" I whispered savagely. "No, that came out wrong." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "I mean you look distraught, are you okay?" "I'm perfectly fine," I informed him, but my voice had crac
AURIELLE My scream woke the stranger up. He jolted upright and rolled away, falling to a messy heap on the other side of the bed. Instantly, he sat up and his head began to move every which way, as if expecting some kind of threat. When his eyes stopped on me, he relaxed. "Morning, princess." he offered, his voice rough with sleep. "Don't call me that, who the hell are you?" With the energy of the pompous gigolo that he was, he leaned back against the headboard and looked at me coyly. "Surprised you didn't ask me for my name, considering all the requests you made last night." My brain quickly scrambled backward through last night. He was watching me work through it with an amused look on his face. He was giving me time to arrive at the conclusion myself. "I ordered you from that website..." I announced, mostly to myself. "Oh, my God, I ordered you from that website!" "A website?" he asked, but I was already out of bed. I grabbed my dress from the floor, my panties from the la
AURIELLE All of my self restraints leaped out of my head and straight through the open windows.This man kissed me like a drowning man, and I could tell that he wasn't holding back. My hands found his shirt and his hands found my waist, pulling me in with a certainty that made my knees genuinely unreliable."Touch me!" I ordered, pressing my body against him."All in good time." He replied and reached for his shirt. The shirt came off, then followed mine. After throwing my shirt aside, he looked down at me. "Oh, fuck." He whispered.I resisted the urge to cover myself with my hands. It was the old reflex speaking, the one I'd carried for years. I had never felt secure in my body and Victor had never exactly helped with that particular insecurity. He had a way of making me feel like I was always slightly less than what he wanted. But this man looked at me like I was the best creation."Do you... like what you see?" I asked, half scared and half excited."Those nipples..." was all th
AURIELLE"Aurielle?" Came Victor's voice at my door five minutes later. I didn’t answer him. I could already hear the impatience in his voice."Oh, come on, you’re being dramatic. So what if I called another woman's name? At least let me finish first!""Are you kidding me right now?!" I roared at him. He didn’t even try to explain and pacify me. He just let out a low, annoyed exhale, and then his footsteps faded away.I really wasn't okay. I mean, outwardly, I looked fine, but I wasn't. I had packed a bag that same night and booked an Airbnb.What I needed instead was to feel something that wasn't humiliation, entirely on my own terms. I needed to be touched by someone who actually wanted to touch me, who would look at my face and see me and not some other woman he'd rather be with.Was it healthy? Probably not. Did I care? I ignored that question.Once I settled in the room I had booked, I swung my laptop open.The gigolo website I found was called something vulgar that I will not b
AURIELLE I knew something was wrong the moment I saw her. “Good morning ma’am,” she greeted me as I made my way to my old office. Now, Victor’s office. I watched a female employee scurrying away from Victor’s office, dressed in a pencil skirt that barely skimmed her thighs. Her eyes flicked toward me for a second, glistening with guilt, before she disappeared down the corridor. “Shit, not again,” I said under my breath. The familiar burn of jealousy and irritation crawled up my throat, but I forced myself to smooth my face into a polite fake smile. I had long mastered the art of pretending everything was fine when it clearly wasn’t. “Victor,” I said softly, trying to keep my voice steady. “I came by to say hello.” He didn’t look up right away. His eyes stayed fixed on the papers before him, his hand moving over them, like he wasn't dick down another woman a few minutes ago. When he finally met my gaze, his eyes were filled with annoyance. “Ah, Aurielle,” he said, his to







