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Bella Cameron, a young woman frustrated by the betrayal of a lover, removing her precious crown and spends the night with a strange man as revenge for a fate so cruel to her. Her lover to have sex with her own cousin. Unexpectedly, the stranger sleeping with her would be Gabriel Asahavey, the new CEO of the company she works for? Bella's once peaceful life turns into a mess after Gabriel makes a deal that leaves her helpless.
Gabriel Asahavey entered his regular club. The loud music rattled his eardrums as he opened the black glass door. He would come with his friends, but they seemed to be busy with their own business, so he came alone. His gaze searched all over, looking for a place that would be comfortable. He settled in a corner of the room that was quite dark, then smiled at the sight before his eyes. He groaned in annoyance.
Los Angeles is the place that legalized sex, but it made him shudder a little to see a couple making out in a club. Wasn't there somewhere more discreet? Would they choose to be together in a crowd and be a public spectacle? However, it was most likely only he who found the scene disturbing, as the people around seemed to take it for granted.
The man in the gray suit sat in one row of seats opposite the bartender, ordering a margarita and enjoying the tangy sour taste. It wasn't for nothing that he had come here. Frustrating having his job transferred to him, as well as the headache of the arranged marriage his grandfather was always planning, made his brain want to explode. He didn't want to get married, but an arranged marriage wasn't the way to go. He could find one, with no help from the old man.
If you think about it, what can gained after marriage? What was so special about the relationship? Sex? Even if he didn't get married, he could fuck a lot of women. Children? He can have children outside of marriage. Gabriel can pay a foreign woman to lend him her womb and host his child. Isn't there something you can do if you have money? Everything can buy if you have money. Including a woman's body.
"Hey, did you come alone?"
Gabriel looked at the foreign woman sitting beside him. "Yes. As you can see. I don't have any friends."
"Do you have a lover?"
Gabriel's brow furrowed. He wanted to ignore the question, but his mouth betrayed him. Was it because the woman beside him was pretty? So his brain and mouth were out of sync. "No. I have no interest in a relationship like that."
The woman's pupils widened. This was the perfect prey for her. She just needed to bait the man. Frustrating, being cheated on by her lover convinced her to do some pretty strange things that she had never done before.
"Do you like sex?"
Gabriel smiled. He didn't know the woman, but he was sure that the long-haired woman sitting next to him was a little drunk. "What man doesn't like sex, miss?"
"Then let's make love."
The blue-eyed man widened his eyes, quite surprised by the sudden offer. "Are you offering your body? How much are you asking for?"
The woman shook her head while wiggling her index finger right in front of Gabriel's face, proving that she did not agree with the man's offer. "No need. In fact, I will pay you. I just want to feel what union and release feel like."
Gabriel's brow furrowed again, his nerves widening, slightly shocked by what he heard. This was the first time he had met a woman so naïve and innocent. The woman who wanted to pay him? Doesn't that sound ridiculous? What was wrong with the petite woman who was showing her stupid grin?
"You don't need to pay me. I don't need money. I just need unification." Gabriel clearly refused, as money was not something he needed right now. Just a good, passionate release, that's all.
The woman waved her hands in the air. "Don't be like that, sir. I need a man, so I'm the one who should pay you. You just need to satisfy me." Her voice was typical of a drunk.
Gabriel grinned. The woman beside him was unique. Was she in a lot of trouble? However, he will not ignore this opportunity. Isn't this a very rare opportunity? Usually, he would set the bait for the fish to come to him, but this time, the fish voluntarily entered his trap net.
...
Bella hurriedly entered her flat. She didn't care how her clothes and face looked. Bella woke up naked in a hotel room with a man. She tried to dig up memories of last night, and when some of them came back, she quickly got out of bed and picked up her clothes that were lying on the floor. She ignored the pain in her crotch. All she could think about was how to get out of the room as quickly as possible.
She discarded her sling bag and sat down on the tiny cream-colored sofa she had bought a month ago. The clicking of her tongue sounded frustrated. Then she ruffled her hair and acted like someone who had lost control.
"What did I do last night? I got drunk and asked that guy to sleep with me. I'm not a virgin anymore." She growled in a hysterical voice. She had lost her chastity, lost her most prized possession, and lost her sanity.
"Bella! You're not a virgin anymore?" The scream came from the mouth of Christy, Bella's flatmate. "Where were you last night? Why can't I call your cell phone?" She approached Bella with a look of confusion mixed with curiosity.
The hazel-eyed woman looked down and sighed for the umpteenth time. "I volunteered to make love to someone else, Chris."
"Are you crazy? Didn't you promise yourself to keep your virginity until you got married?"
"Jack cheated on me. He's playing with other women." She snorted again. "I got my revenge this way."
Christy opened her mouth in disbelief, her pupils dilated, and was speechless. Her best friend had lost her mind. How could that woman take revenge by doing something she had never imagined? Virginity is not something to be joked about. Well, now she was sure that Bella's madness was already in the untreatable phase.
"Do you know that guy?"
Bella shook her head slowly. "No."
"Oh shit! You're really...." The woman hangs up her sentence, searching for the right word to describe Bella's attitude, "stupid." She rolled the eyeball. "How could you give your virginity to a strange man? What if you get pregnant? Did he use protection?"
"I've lost my sanity. I don't know if he used protection or not."
"Yes, without you saying it, everything is clear. You've lost your mind. No, you haven't. You've lost your brain." She scolded once again.
Bella leaned her back against the back of the sofa, then looked up at the ceiling of her flat. "You want to know what I regret?" Her gaze shifted to the curly-haired woman. "I forgot the taste." She roared, acting like she was crying. "Was I too drunk to remember the sensation when my hymen broke? I don't even remember how big it was."
Christy widened her eyes, unable to believe what her best friend was saying. "Does this make sense? You're hysterical because you can't remember the size or the taste? Oh, Bella. You're driving me crazy."
Frustrated, Bella goes to the bathroom immediately, washing her face that looks messy. The smudged makeup, the lipstick that had crossed the lip line, and let's not forget her eye circles that the eyeliner that had fallen apart had blackened. Her face resembled an Annabelle doll lying in a ditch.
She tried to remember what he looked like, but the more she tried, the dizzier her head became. How could he do such a ridiculous thing while drunk? How frustrated was she to give up her virginity to a stranger? Although there was a sense of regret, it was no longer useful. After all, everything had already happened. Her hymen had ruptured and the crown she had guarded for twenty-seven years has damaged beyond repair.
How would she explain this to her parents in the future? About herself being tainted, about herself breaking the rules of her extended family. Wait! There was no way her parents would check that. Yes, she could just lie and pretend nothing had happened. She rarely came home, so her mom and dad couldn't possibly ask her about her virginity.
She was already twenty-seven years old, an adult. There was no way her parents would ask her that. Bella's parents already believed that their daughter could take care of herself, but foolishly, Bella gave away the very crown she was guarding to a man she didn't know for free.
"Even a prostitute is worth more than me," she moaned in frustration.
"Yes, they get paid, but you don't, Ella. You're a free woman."
"Stop, Christy." She raised her hand right in front of her best friend's face. "Don't go on anymore. I know that I'm being silly, but let's forget that." She raised an eyebrow and nodded quickly, hoping for Christy's approval.
Christy just shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I can't promise to forget what happened to you." The woman laughed. "It was unique."
...
Gabriel struggled to open his eyelids as sunlight came in through the windows. Hastily, he grabbed the cell phone he kept on the bedside table, looked at the screen, and confirmed that it was already noon. Then he turned around. There was no one there. There was a feeling of disappointment when he couldn't find the woman beside him.
He smiled as his memory went back to last night. He never imagined that he would play with a woman who had no experience at all. Gabriel was like a father teaching his daughter to do something for the first time. Like a professional guiding a novice. However, he was quite amazed that she was a fast learner.
Gabriel sits on the edge of the bed, gathering himself before he left the hotel room. However, his gaze turned to two bills with Benjamin Franklin's picture on them with a note on them.
'I apologize for having to leave you. I hope this money is enough for last night's service. Thank you.'
"Oh shit. I'm such a hired gun." He complained with a lopsided smile. For the first time, he felt like a lowly man. No woman had ever treated him like this before. Did he look like he was lacking equipment, so she was keeping the money as payment?
Gabriel smiled wryly, his pride completely tarnished. He promised to find the woman, no matter where she was. Even though he didn't know the name and residence of the strange woman. Once again, he could do anything, because he had a lot of money.
Kaelith Elodie Tharion, the female emperor, wanted four concubines to be her consorts. Betrayed by her lover, she plans to take revenge by establishing her own harem. Will the presence of these handsome men be able to heal Elodie's broken heart?
Kaelyn devoted three years tending to her husband after a terrible accident. But once he was fully recovered, he cast her aside and brought his first love back from abroad. Devastated, Kaelyn decided on a divorce as people mocked her for being discarded. She went on to reinvent herself, becoming a highly sought-after doctor, a champion racer, and an internationally renowned architectural designer. Even then, the traitors sneered in disdain, believing Kaelyn would never find someone. But then the ex-husband’s uncle, a powerful warlord, returned with his army to ask for Kaelyn’s hand in marriage.
Blurb "Part your legs for me, princess" Alpha Damian humored huskily like he was intoxicated, I whimpered as he voice sents a jolts of emotions round my body. An emotion that I wasn't supposed to feel. Selene was 18 years old when she found out that Alpha Jasper of the Silver Crescent pack was her mate at her Awakening ceremony. Being a reject with no parents she lived with him for over one year as a slave and he never acknowledged her as his mate because he couldn't accept a reject as his mate. On her 20th birthday, her mate not only rejected her and chose her best friend; Imogen, as his new mate, but he also sold Selene to the most feared Alpha; Alpha Damian of the Crimson Moon pack whom everyone referred to as a beast. Not knowing why Alpha Damian chose to buy her, she can only resign herself to fate. What has the moon goddess installed for me again? Is this the freedom she solely crave for? Will she be tied down with the shackles of the unknown?
After hiding her true identity throughout her three-year marriage to Colton, Allison had committed wholeheartedly, only to find herself neglected and pushed toward divorce. Disheartened, she set out to rediscover her true self-a talented perfumer, the mastermind of a famous intelligence agency, and the heir to a secret hacker network. Realizing his mistakes, Colton expressed his regret. "I know I messed up. Please, give me another chance." Yet, Kellan, a once-disabled tycoon, stood up from his wheelchair, took Allison's hand, and scoffed dismissively, "You think she'll take you back? Dream on."
Janet was adopted when she was a kid -- a dream come true for orphans. However, her life was anything but happy. Her adoptive mother taunted and bullied her all her life. Janet got the love and affection of a parent from the old maid who raised her. Unfortunately, the old woman fell ill, and Janet had to marry a worthless man in place of her parents' biological daughter to meet the maid's medical expenses. Could this be a Cinderella's tale? But the man was far from a prince, except for his handsome appearance. Ethan was the illegitimate son of a wealthy family who lived a reckless life and barely made ends meet. He got married to fulfill his mother's last wish. However, on his wedding night, he had an inkling that his wife was different from what he had heard about her. Fate had united the two people with deep secrets. Was Ethan truly the man we thought he was? Surprisingly, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the impenetrable wealthiest man in the city. Would he find out that Janet married him in place of her sister? Would their marriage be a romantic tale or an utter disaster? Read on to unravel Janet and Ethan's journey.
Life was a bed of roses for Debra, the daughter of Alpha. That was until she had a one-night stand with Caleb. She was sure he was her mate as determined by Moon Goddess. But this hateful man refused to accept her. Weeks passed before Debra discovered that she was pregnant. Her pregnancy brought shame to her and everyone she loved. Not only was she driven out, but her father was also hunted down by usurpers. Fortunately, she survived with the help of the mysterious Thorn Edge Pack. Five years passed and Debra didn't hear anything from Caleb. One day, their paths crossed again. They were both on the same mission—carrying out secret investigations in the dangerous Roz Town for the safety and posterity of their respective packs. Caleb was still cold toward her. But as time went on, he fell head over heels in love with her. He tried to make up for abandoning her, but Debra wasn't having any of it. She was hell-bent on hiding her daughter from him and also making a clean break. What did the future hold for the two as they journeyed in Roz Town? What kind of secrets would they find? Would Caleb win Debra's heart and get to know his lovely daughter? Find out!
The whispers said that out of bitter jealousy, Hadley shoved Eric's beloved down the stairs, robbing the unborn child of life. To avenge, Eric forced Hadley abroad and completely cut her off. Years later, she reemerged, and they felt like strangers. When they met again, she was the nightclub's star, with men ready to pay fortunes just to glimpse her elusive performance. Unable to contain himself, Eric blocked her path, asking, "Is this truly how you earn a living now? Why not come back to me?" Hadley's lips curved faintly. "If you’re eager to see me, you’d better join the queue, darling."