chapter 2

ISABELLA POV

“ Damn it!” I cussed through grit teeth. I hated how I was feeling. I wish everything that had happened was a lie or at least that it didn’t affect me.

“ I always knew something was odd about him. I never liked how he acted,” Cario said.

“ I don’t want to talk to him,” I said in a low voice. “ I came here to drink till I forget everything that happened or at least till everything feels numb,” tears slipped out of my eyes as I hiccupped.

“ Are you stupid or just naive? Do you really think drinking is going to numb your pains?” A masculine voice beside me came.

“ Who the hell are…” my anger quickly faded away once my eyes met the older man beside me. His shiny black hair styled in a pompadour with intense grey eyes were all too captivating. “ Who the hell are you to butt into our conversation?” Cario raised her voice on him.

“ Your conversation wasn’t exactly private to say the least,” he sipped from his glass.

“ That doesn’t mean you can just butt in, idiot!” I insulted. “ Besides, what would you know? You all are scum,” I accused as I emptied another glass of alcohol into my mouth. I hiccupped.

“ And here you are crying over scum, you’re pretty much trash yourself, don’t you think?” He calmly dismissed me. What was his deal?

I stood up from my seat and grabbed his shirt.

“ Are you picking a fight with me, Grey eyes?”

“ And if I am?” He smirked.

“ Crazy bastard,” I cussed underneath my breath before letting him go.

“ Wallowing in self-pity is kinda humiliating, don’t you think?” He rested his chin on his hand. “ Sometimes, the only way to win is to fight fire with fire,” he tapped his fingers.

“ Do you like me, mister?” I leaned closer towards him. “ Interested would be the word,” he corrected. “ But you’re not my type,” he stated. This guy asked me for more reasons than one.

“ Too bad, I find you attractive even if you're a total asshole,” I grabbed his shirt and kissed him. He tasted like expensive wine - I like it. After a rather impulsive kiss, I let go of him.

“ You really are daring,” he snickered.

“ Don’t regret your actions now, Missy,” he grinned. As much as I hated his guts, I didn’t mind getting laid by him.

Pulling me close to him, he grabbed my neck from behind and returned the favour. My eyes fluttered open as the blinding rays of light slipped through the windows. Was it morning already? I sat up.

“ I feel terrible yet not terrible,” I muttered as I held my head in pain. I was having a hangover from last… My eyes widened as the word last night rang in my head.

I tried to recount everything that happened after I went drinking with Cario and the embarrassing clip of me forcefully kissing a stranger came to mind.

“ You’re pretty active for someone with a hangover,” an oddly familiar voice said. I looked up and saw the same stranger I had kissed back at the bar.

“ W-what are you doing here?” I stuttered, my voice raised. “ Are you stalking me?!” I pulled the bed sheet to cover me better. Wait… I looked under the bedsheet and I was…

“ Seems your memories from last night have finally come back,” he chuckled, finding my embarrassment and shock amusing. “ You really are not in any way aware of your surroundings for you to think that I’m stalking you when this is my house,” he sighed.

I wanted to bang my head against a wall right now. To think I actually had sex with a random man just because he was hot.

“ You didn’t tell me you were a virgin though,” he always had something to say.

“ Just go if you have nothing else to say,” I was too embarrassed to boldly and shamelessly answer him right now.  “ This is my room so well,” he shrugged, not budging. “ You said you dated your boyfriend for five years so why didn’t he touch you?” He kept pushing this question.

“ Maybe because he was busy knocking up my younger sister,” I said nonchalantly with a shrug.

“ Ahem, take a shower, get changed and come downstairs,” he said before leaving.

“ What was that all about?” I groaned.

A few minutes later

I wore the new clothes he had brought me. I guess even jerks can be thoughtful once in a while.

“ Have a seat,” he said as I walked in.

“ What’s this about?” I mumbled as I obediently sat down. My eyes met that of a man in a suit with glasses. I had seen him at the bar last night as well.

“ Why the hurry?” Grey-eyes teased.

“ I have classes to attend, genius,” I snapped. “ You didn’t seem as bothered when you drank to stupor and threw yourself at me,” he teased. “ But I do agree about getting over this because I’m a busy person,” he handed me a glass of lemon water for my hangover.

I adjusted awkwardly on my seat because now that the effects of the alcohol I had drank had begun to fade, it was embarrassing having to see him again. How did he not feel embarrassed? Or is it because this isn’t his first time?

“ Let’s get straight to the point. Would you be my wife?” He asked and for a minute, my mind had to process his words before I turned a bright pink.

“ I know I’m gorgeous and all but who falls in love with someone they just met!?” Was he out of his mind?

“ Forgive my boss’s teasing. He was just trying to pull your legs,” who I assumed to be his secretary sighed.

“ You’re very interesting,” he rubbed his chin. He loved my reaction to his bizarre words.

“ A-anyone would react the way I did,” I stuttered. “ Stop joking around and say what you have to,” I exhaled.“ I wasn’t joking about the marriage part though, I just said it vaguely,” he answered. “ And my name is Ryan. I’m well aware of who you are and everything that has happened to you so far,” he crossed his legs.

“ What are you? A stalker?”

“ Isabella Genovese, clocked twenty-one years this year. You’re also in Castro University and you’re pretty much a model student,” he read out with a straight face. “ Do you want me to go on?” He smirked.

“ No, anybody can get that sort of information from anywhere. I’m a Genovese after all, it’s not unnatural to have caught someone’s eye,” I said. As much as I despised my family, I was unfortunately still from a wealthy and influential family like the Genoveses.

“ Do you have any idea what I really want? If you can tell me that, then I’ll believe you aren’t some creep,” I folded my arms.

“ I heard that your fiance cheated on you with your younger half-sister. I also heard that she’s carrying his child,” he tapped the rim of his glass. “ You want to ruin them and your family in general right? You feel and are certain that the Genoveses killed your mom, isn’t it?” He knew too much.