THE NIGHT AFTER

EP 6

“No... no, no, no. God!”

The words ripped from my throat, drawing horrified stares from nearby guests.

One by one, heads turned toward the girl who had already looked out of place the moment she walked into the hall and now looked completely crazy.

Without another thought, I stood up abruptly, scanning the hall desperately for the nerdy guy, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Excuse me! Move!"

I shoved my way through the crowd, ignoring the irritated murmurs that followed behind me.

If he really with the flash drive, then I could still get it back. The vows hadn't started yet. There was still time. And when I found him, I'm going to break that ridiculously long nose of his.

But just when I got to the entrance, thunderous applause erupted throughout the hall, and my head immediately snapped back toward the altar.

The officiant had just pronounced them husband and wife.

Cheers echoed through the ballroom as the newlyweds turned to face their guests, hand in hand, radiant smiles lighting up their faces.

Everything around me seemed to fade into silence. My chest tightened until I could barely breathe.

It was over. She had won again, and I had lost... all because of that four-eyed bastard.

I didn’t last long at the wedding party. Barely an hour in, I found myself back in my hotel room. Rage churned inside me so violently that I felt like I might burst apart.

I unleashed my anger on everything in sight.

Vases shattered, frames crashed to the ground. Makeup palettes exploded across the walls. Anything breakable was broken, and the rest lay scattered across the floor.

"AHHH!"

The scream tore through the room until my throat burned raw.

I cried and screamed, my voice cracking into animalistic sounds that didn't feel like they belonged to me.

When my eyes landed on the cracked mirror, I barely recognized the woman staring back.

Mascara streaking down swollen cheeks. Lipstick smeared beyond recognition. The hairstyle I'd spent hours perfecting now looked like a bird's nest.

Staggering toward the minibar, I yanked open the refrigerator. My hand snatched the strongest bottle of whiskey I had. I didn't bother with a glass; I chugged it down my throat like water, like it could kill the pain.

The liquor scorched my throat, but it did nothing to numb the images replaying endlessly like some sick, slow-motion horror movie I couldn’t get out of my head, no matter how much I tried to drown it out with liquor.

Valerie's hand wrapped around Henry's. Their perfect smiles directed at each other. Her gown floating down the aisle toward the man waiting, exchanging vows, and...

"Shit!"

I slammed the bottle onto the counter so hard it rattled.

"She won again." A bitter chuckle escaped my lips.

"How... how's it possible? How does she always win every damn time?" I laughed harder, tears spilling down my face.

“That’s right. She’s a witch. Yes, that's it. A goddamn witch!” I cursed, but saying it didn't make the pain disappear, not even for a second. And neither did the whiskey.

Hours later, I found myself standing in the dressing room of one of the city's busiest nightclubs.

Piece by piece, Victoria disappeared, and the masked stripper took her place. Then I stepped onto the stage.

The music swallowed me whole. My body moved on instinct, hips rolling, hands sliding down my thighs as I wrapped myself around the pole.

Men watched and whistled at me. Usually, every cheer fed my ego, but tonight... none of it was working.

No matter how perfectly I danced, the ache inside me refused to loosen its grip. It clung to my chest like chains.

At some point, I thought I was going to die of heartbreak before Valerie. Maybe I should just jump off the bridge in her place and end it all.

Then Madam Rossy appeared at the edge of the stage, waving me over. She leaned in close so I could hear her over the music.

"A VIP requested you," she said, a grin stretching across her face.

I barely looked at her before responding.

"I'm not in the mood."

"Oh, you have to be in the mood." She slipped a black keycard into my hand. "He paid five times your highest rate."

I frowned. "Five times?"

Madam Rossy nodded eagerly.

"And before you ask, no, he doesn't look drunk, desperate, or creepy, but I know he'd been watching you dance from that dark corner," she said, pointing at the VIP section.

I was going to decline, but then I gave it a second thought.

Maybe... just maybe I needed someone reckless enough to silence every thought in my head, ruin me more than Valerie ever did. Maybe I needed someone to fuck the pain out of my head.

I slipped the keycard into my clutch and followed one of the waiters upstairs.

The private suite was tucked away from the noise of the nightclub.

I stopped outside a door, taking a slow breath before swiping the card and stepping inside.

A man sat alone on a leather sofa. Legs crossed. A fitted black shirt stretched neatly across his broad shoulders, the sleeves rolled to his forearms, muscles taut and veined.

One hand cradled a glass of whiskey, and the other rested possessively against his thigh.

He didn't look up when I entered. Instead, he calmly poured himself another drink.

I closed the door behind me and stood in the center of the room, nearly naked, my arms loosely at my sides, waiting for him to say something.

But he didn’t speak right away. He kept his gaze on me, taking in the way my thong clung to my hips and the way my nipples tightened beneath the tiny bra that barely covered my boobs.

Finally, he spoke, his voice low and smooth. "You're late." His gaze dropped back to the glass of whiskey.

Interesting. Most men couldn't keep their eyes off me for more than a few seconds, but here he was, acting all tough after paying five times my rate just to have a taste of my body.

Well, it was only a matter of seconds before I woke up the sleeping prince lying beneath his pants.

"So..." I walked closer, folding my arms.

"How badly do you want me?"

Only then did he lift his eyes. He studied me the way a chess player studies the board before making his first move.

Something about that gaze made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. And that face, it looked unmistakably familiar.

I moved around him, dropping onto his thighs and grinding my ass slowly against the growing bulge in his pants.

My hands reached back to guide his palms to my bare stomach, pressing them flat against my skin. I rolled my hips in a figure-eight, letting him feel the way my ass moved.

"You can touch me anywhere you want." My voice came out husky, almost a purr.

I guided one of his hands up to my breast, pressing his palm against the thin bra until my nipple hardened under his touch. I slid the other hand down between my legs, letting his fingers feel my clit.

I leaned my head back against his shoulder and let my tongue flick out to taste the corner of his jaw.

"Or," I whispered, "you can take me to the bed now... and make me loss my breath."