Accidently slept with a stranger.

Chapter 1

A month ago

The club filled with frantic energy and strobing lights sliced through the edge. Aria sat at the edge of chaos. Her untouched drink was sweating on the table. 

Her sequined top looked more like a costume.

"Aria, why aren't you dancing?” Khloe’s voice exasperated. She tugged at Aria’s arm. “We’re at a club, not a funeral! And those clothes—come on, you’re killing me with the sulky vibe. Let’s go!”

Aria shrank back. Her fingers tightened around her glass.

“Sorry, Khloe. I’m fine here. I’m... not feeling great.” Her voice was low, as if the club's clamor couldn’t pierce the heavy wall around her heart. Peter leaned against the table, scoffed.

“Nonsense, Aria. Khloe’s just trying to cheer you up, and you’re shooting it all down with that mopey face. You’re no fun.” His words stung. Yet his tone held a tint of restraint, like he was biting back something harsher.

Aria’s gaze dropped to her phone. its screen flashing with another missed call

from her dad. Her stomach twisted. If she hadn’t come tonight, she’d be trapped at home. Or she would have tangled in whatever plan he’d cooked up this time. The club was her escape. A place she didn’t belong, but at least it wasn’t there.

“Peter, try to understand. I’m just not in the mood to dance,” she forced a smile that felt like plastic. “You guys go ahead. I’ll... try next time.”

Peter and Khloe exchanged glances and shrugged. Within a moment they melted in the crowd.

Aria’s phone flashed again. The battery icon blinks red as if it's warning her. She needed air, space to think. She slipped away from the chaos.

As she rounded the bar counter, her breath caught. Under the dim glow of a flickering exit sign, there was Peter and Khloe. His hands cradled her neck with their lips locked. They were consumed by the kiss that they didn’t notice Aria was just behind.

"Peter..." Aria’s shout tore through the air.

Peter yanked his hand away from Khloe. Aria’s heart sank,pain twisted in her chest. She’d caught him before. last spring, with the cheerleader from their college football club. His apologies dripped with promises he’d never kept.

Now, here he was again, breaking her trust in the dim glow behind the bar. Shaking her head, Aria started leaving the club. She needed air. but Peter’s hands caught her wrist.

"Aria, wait. Let me explain." Peter said, trying to calm her down.

Reluctantly, Aria let him guide to the bar counter. Every sniff screamed alcohol. Aria stared past him, her gaze lost in the blur of neon lights.

“I can explain this,” he said as his hand enveloped hers.

“How would you explain kissing her? You accidently kissed her?” Aria asked sarcastically. 

His jaw tightened, annoyance flashing across his face. He reeked of whiskey. His usual charm unraveled into something uglier.

“So what do you want from me? I’m a Man, Aria. I have needs. If you won’t give me what I want, I’ll find it somewhere else.”

Her breath caught. This wasn’t just denial—it was defiance, unapologetic.

“What?” she whispered as she searched his face for a trace of the boy she’d loved.

"What?"

“You heard me. I have sexual desires, I didn’t date you just to kiss your knuckles, I tried to seduce you and yet you act so unaffected.” He seemed pissed off.

Aria’s chest tightened. She’d been clear from the start: no physical intimacy before marriage. It wasn’t about prudishness; it was about her past, the weight of her mother’s mistakes she refused to carry. Peter had agreed with it.

"Peter, I told you before dating that we can’t get physical before marriage and you were okay with it.”

Even after catching Peter cheating, Aria was the one explaining herself. That was pathetic.

"What agreed? . You can't spread your legs for your four year long boyfriend while your mother had spread her legs for hundreds of people. Stop being hypocritical."

The words hit like a slap, cutting deeper than any kiss could.

"Peter, please. This is between us. Don't drag my mom into it..." Peter knew this was Aria's trigger point. The wound she had never healed.

“Answer me, Aria. Are you coming with me or not?” His voice was raw. He slided the key of a room he booked for them. “I am fucking hungry, I need fucking hole for my damn dick, " Peter asked angrily.

He tried to come closer but Aria stopped him.

"Please try to understand.” Aria pushed him away. “I told you my boundaries.”

"Fine, If you won't come to my room within next half an hour, I will consider it a break up. Now choice is yours, me or your virginity, chose one.”

She was bullied by the kids in the school, transferred many times just because of her mother’s profession. Peter was the only one who accepted her and introduced her to his friends group. Without them she was alone.

She left alone, tears stung her eyes. She dreamed of a stable future- A loving

husband and a beautiful family. Now she watched it crumble.

Her head filled with the past trauma. Rumors, judgemental stares and curses.

She blamed herself for everything. Before that darkness engulfed her again, she gripped the glass from the counter. Its amber liquid was promising. She didn’t notice  had laced the drink with some drug. Aria downed it with one burning gulp.

The world tilted. Her legs wobbled as she stood.

“No. I can’t let Peter go. We have been together for a long time” Her fingers closed around the room key. She stumbled toward the inn attached to the club. The cold air from the hallway pricked her skin. Heat surged through her, her heart pounded. Her thought blurred as she fumbled with the key and opened the door.

“Ahh...”

The room was a haze—dark walls, a bed that seemed to swallow her. She

tugged at her clothes.

Morning sunshine made her heavy eyelids go up. Her body ached, as if she had been crushed under a heavy weight. Pain throbbed between her legs. She was inside a sleek hotel suite. Her clothes, Her bra and panty, sandals, everything scattered around.

The sound of running water snapped her to attention. Someone was in the

bathroom. Her heart seized.

“What the fuck I did here? Why am I in this room? Did I fuck Peter?”

She gathered her clothes with trembling hands. Pulled on her top with fumbled hands. When she noticed a coat lying on chair, her heart throbbed. It doesn't belong to Peter. Then whom she slept with?

She needed to leave, to outrun whatever this was. But as she reached for the door, the bathroom opened. A man stepped out with a bathrobe loosely tied around his frame. Aria froze. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with a jawline carved like marble—a stranger whose beauty clashed with the dread pooling in her stomach.

When her eyes met his amber one, her gaze dropped to the floor out of embarrasement.

"leaving already?" His voice was amused, yet carried a cold edge.  

She nodded, unable to meet his eyes. Her mind screamed that this couldn’t be real. a one-night stand with a man she didn’t know? It wasn’t her. It wasn’t possible.

He crossed the room and picked the stack bills from the nightstand. 

"Take your money and go.” His tone turned rough. “Don’t show me your face again. I don't sleep with the same woman twice, especially a woman like you."

Aria’s head snapped up. His words stung, but it was the assumption that burned. women like you. She saw it now: the way he looked at her, the same disgust she’d seen in others when they spoke of her mother.