All Chapters of Sweet Temptations: My lover, My Ex's Father : Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

~Clarissa’s POV~Ugh. How much did I drink last night?. The question came out groggy, through my croaked voice, asking no one in particular. As my hand instinctively grabbed at my forehead that throbbed with pain from a hangover......the after effect of my drunken state. My eyes slowly peeled open, as I took in my surrounding despite the haze that fogged my vision. A soft glow of sunlight pierced through a gap in the heavy curtains, irradiating the room before me. My eyes snapped wide awake, as reality dawned on me that this wasn't my room but an unfamiliar place, as panic and fear now gnawed at my heaving chest. Where was this? and How did I even get here?. I pondered. The last thing I remember was having the time of my life at my bachelorette party last night. A rite of passage closing the chapters on my last moments as a single woman. The club, the laughters, the hearty cheers, the clinking of wine glasses, but everything else after that is a blur........a terrifying void.

~Clarissa’s POV~ The words echoed in the sudden silence, each one a hammered blow shattering the last fragments of my world. The engagement was off. My love, my future, my very identity, all obliterated in a single, brutal moment. I stared at him, at the man who once promised to love me forever, who kissed my scars and held me through my lowest moments, now cradling my treacherous sister, and the years we had spent together, the dreams we had built, felt like nothing more than a cruel joke. Now he looked at me like a stranger. An intruder. An infested rodent to be eradicated. “What?” I say, my voice a whisper, struggling to fathom the situation unfolding before me. “B….but she admitted it!” I cried. “Eric, she just said she drugged me! She set everything up!”But despite my pleas, his eyes didn’t soften. Not even a little. This couldn't be happening. Not like this. “Eric”. I shrieked. “Are you really choosing her over me? Your fiancee?” “Ex fiancee” he immediately retort

~Clarissa’s POV~I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. My throat was too dry, my heart too loud. He stepped forward, one slow step at a time, until the scent of him, warm leather, spice, and something darker.......commanding, wrapped around me like a hallucinative drug.I should have run.But I didn’t. He stopped just inches from me. Close enough that I could feel the heat and dominance.....radiating off him. His voice dipped, velvet and dangerous.“What’s your safe word?”I blinked, startled by the bluntness, but oddly comforted. “I… I don’t have one,” I admitted, suddenly aware of how unprepared I was. He reached out, brushed a strand of hair from my cheek, and gently cupped my jaw. The leather of his glove was cool against my flushed skin. “Then tonight, it's ‘Scarlet.’ If you say that word, everything stops. Understand?”I nodded.He tilted my chin up. “Use it if you need to. I’m not here to hurt you. Only to give you exactly what you came for.”His thumb brushed across my lower lip, an

~Clarissa's POV~ I paced the living room like a woman possessed, chewing the corner of my thumbnail and muttering to myself. Diane sat sprawled on the couch, with her laptop now perched on her thighs, scrolling with the dedication of a CIA analyst, after she had offered to assist me in my quest to get close to Mr. Gonzales. But despite our efforts in turning the internet upside down, we are faced with nothing but dead ends, because most articles describe him as reclusive. A ghost billionaire, that's what an entertainment blog called him. He single handedly built his company and business from the ground up to it's present glory, and now Magnesium Mechanics is one of the leading Tech company, not just in the city but across continents. It's the kind of success story you see in Forbes top richest magazine publications or in lifestyle biographical movies. According to an article I'm reading now, his forty-five years old. He doesn't attend alot of social events, if his not in the office

~Clarissa’s POV~ Oh. My. God. I can't believe this is actually happening, and not some made up illusion in my mind.....this was real. I'm literally staring into the eyes of Mr. Gonzales and I can't bring myself to look away. This is the exact moment I have looked forward to, but now that it's here, for some reason I can't help but feel tongue tied. And to think I had practiced this moment, over and over.Not just in my head, but physically standing in front of my bathroom mirror at ungodly hours, mimicking how I’d lean against a doorway, the exact tilt of my chin, the subtle way I’d cross my arms so it looked effortless but still flattered my collarbone.Don’t smile too much. You’ll look desperate.Don’t slouch.....posture is power.Don’t flip your hair. You’re not auditioning for a shampoo commercial.I’d even gone so far as to rehearse the eyebrow raise: one part interest, one part mystery.But now?Now that I was actually standing in a dimly lit corridor with Victor Gonzales sta