1. Desperate Desire

Elisha’s POV

"Get your hands off of me! Will you?!" I yelled at the man who kept touching me since it was uncomfortable for me to begin with, and he kept doing it. 

I'm here in this fancy bar by myself, trying to escape reality even as I watch everything becoming even more terrible than it already was.

But there’s a guy, who looked perv. So I faced him and slapped him across the face and pushed him away but he shook his head to show that he didn't like it, and just as he was about to grab my hand, a tall, masculine man stopped him and hurled the bastard man into the table. 

The guy who just ran away made himself a way to go to the exit without looking back. Then the tall guy slowly turned his head to look at me. I didn’t know how to react in front of him, or should I say thanks to him because he saved me. But there’s something in him that I couldn’t explain. I got up, and he blocked my way, and he asked. “Where the hell are you going? I have been waiting for you for an hour now.” 

“H-Huh? W-What?” I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I stepped back nervously, and he gripped my hand and he dragged me along the way to his VIP room. 

A dark and red theme inside could make my head spin in nervousness and confusion. 

“W-What are you doing?” 

"What do you suppose I'm up to?" He looked at me with a raised lip, walked up to me, and stared at my face. "Don't tell me you're not the woman I hired for tonight?" 

When I blinked slowly, my eyes rested on his pinkish lips, which had been pursed into a narrow line, and his dark golden eyes still stared at me right deep into my soul. His eyes were as piercing as a spear. While he waited for me to say anything, his perfectly shaped jawline tightened, and his sharp nose flared up in rage. 

I gasped when his face was so close to mine, and when I realized he had made a mistake and thought I was his hired woman for tonight, I was furious and pushed him away, "What?!" 

"I'm leaving this place!" I opened the door, but he grabbed me and pulled me so close to him that our bodies were crushed against one another, and we could both feel the heat. At this very moment, I could even hear my pulse rate increase. "Let go of me, Mister!" 

"I'm sorry, princess, but it's too late." He smirked at me, and the door opened to reveal a blonde-haired woman. She stared at me silently because she was too shocked to say anything. She took a few steps backward while her mouth hung open in shock. 

“Oh, I guess you are busy.” She lowered her head in embarrassment.

The strange man in front of me replied, “Yes. So please close the door, and leave me alone with my girl.” 

My mouth went open in shock at what the hell this man was talking about, and behind the woman was my parents’ bodyguard and the man who wanted my parents to get married to me as soon as possible. 

So they found me here, in the stranger’s VIP room. Oh, damn!

Harry with curly brown hair, and sharp eyes stared at me angrily and pointed a finger at me. “What the hell are you doing here?! You don’t know that I’ve been looking for you the whole night, and then—you’re here in Ashford’s VIP room doing nasty things?!” 

I don’t know how to deal with Harry but he was staring at me like I did an immoral act, he even grabbed my arm tightly and dragged me out. I was shocked for a moment when he was about to slap me, but then again—the stranger saved me from getting hurt. 

“She didn’t want you anymore, can you see? She wanted me, and not you. Back off, you little bastard!” 

My eyes rounded in disbelief, how could he even speak that in front of me without asking for my permission that I wanted him and not Harry Jameson?

Anger rose to the tip of Harry's nose as he said, "I might cancel the wedding, and let your family suffer in poverty if you didn't go with me tonight—"

I was about to say something, but the man interrupted and said coolly, “Do you think she wanted you? I don’t think so, moron.” 

"You back off! She's getting married to me!" 

"Well, not anymore!" 

The man put his mouth in my ear, and whispered in a husky tone, “Let’s go.” 

“Elisha! What the fuck are you doing?!” Harry exclaimed angrily, his eyes bulging from his sockets.

The man next to me, eyeing me like talking to me to go with the flow, so I bit my lower lip because I was desperate not to marry Harry. Harry is not the one I want to match, and I won’t make my life miserable. For as long as I have a chance to escape from him, I will. 

“I’m sorry, Harry. I do not belong to charity.” 

And Harry was too stunned to speak.

When we went outside, the luxury van was there, and because he was taller than me, I looked up at him and said, "I have to go, thanks." 

“Excuse me?” He said. 

I turned around and looked up to him, “I’m not coming with you.” 

His lips curled up, and smiled at me. “And why not? I saved you from him, and you are coming with me whether you like it or not. That’s your payment young lady….” 

“Are you that desperate to take me with you? You don’t know me at all, you just mistook me for your other woman.” I walked as fast as I could and took the pedestrian lane, but I didn’t know that he was still following me. 

I gaze at him, looking at him from head to toe, not bad, but I’m not that cheap to go with a strange man, especially a handsome man like him. He might be a serial killer or worse than that. 

I crossed my arms across my chest, “Why are you still following me?” 

“I want you.” 

“What?!”