Chapter 17
“Why did you marry Gabriella if you didn’t love her?” I shot back at him, rendering him speechless.
He didn’t answer me. Instead he downed three other shots in a row. For a moment there, I thought he wouldn’t stop. But it was understandable that he wanted to be intoxicated as much as possible. Because getting drunk is the only way for someone to spill their deepest and darkest secrets to someone, a stranger at that.
“When you grow up and see more of the world, you’ll realize why your parents married. It wasn’t because of true love, sorry to break your daydream sweetheart.” He maliciously said, his sweet, gentlemanly act that he’d been playing this past evening over in the span of a second.
“My mother’s dead.” I blatantly told him, downing 5 shots in a row to the amazement of both Dennis and the bartender who eyed me like I’d grown an extra head.
“I…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean……” He stuttered, guilt writ on his face.
“Save it.” I snapped at him, downing my last shot before jumping off the seat and walking away. My head sort of felt like it was buzzing and everything was getting slower around me. The music, the people, the lights…….all of them blending into one.
But I wasn’t totally drunk. I knew how much booze I could handle. And also that consuming too much alcohol wouldn’t be a very smart decision, given the circumstances. Walking over to one of the sofa-like seats, located in front of the dance floor, I quickly collapsed into the comfy chair, my head starting to hurt a little. f**k! I drank just a little too much.
I chugged down a whole jug of water in only about a couple gulps. Closing my eyes, I felt myself coming down from the little buzz those margaritas had created in my body. It was like a superpower, drinking a ton of water could sober me up in no time.
Azriel’s POV
“Aww, come on. Don’t you wanna see what’s underneath this tight dress?” The sulky blackhead whispered into my hair, blocking my way on the stairs just as I was making my way down to the bar.
“Go find another man to f**k your needy p***y,” I gruffly replied, peeling her hands off me and was on my way without even glancing at her once. The girl was hot but I had other things to take car of and the only girl I wanted to f**k tonight was Claire. But that would have to wait for now.
I grit my teeth when I spotted Claire and Dennis at the bar, her smiling down at him like he was a f*****g comedian. He wasn’t that funny. He sudddely tucks her hair behind her ear and she f*****g smiles again…….”That f*****g bastard…..” I mutter under my breath, making my way on the dance floor, shoving my way past the innumerable number of sweaty bodies grinding against each other.
I was gonna break his jaw…….that would teach him to touch some other man’s girl. She wasn’t exactly my girl but….he didn’t know that. My teeth set in my tightened jaw as I kept my eyes on them through the sea of the dancing people. He kept looking at her so damn lustfully, like he would take her then and now. That motherfucker!
“Azriel.” Gabriella suddenly materialized in front of me, obviously drunk as she stuttered, trying to form more than one-worded sentences. Stumbling, she leaned against me, putting her whole body weight on me. f**k! I did not need this right now.
“Gabriella, you need to sober up,” I sternly told her but my firm authority was lost on this dumb, drunk woman. Holding up an intoxicated woman in a sea of drunk and dancing people was an irritating job.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
“Why are you being like this Azriel? I know you don’t love that ‘girl’. We are meant to be together. Tell me, can she give you what I gave you?,” She hushedly said, burying her head in my neck as she sniffled quietly. I knew exactly what she meant. She wanted to know if Claire let me exercise my dominance on her, a very different kind of dominance.
That really stung!
“I gave you everything I had, why would you give me up for some dumb little girl?” She pleaded with me, rubbing herself up against me as I held her up with my hands on her shoulders. I tried to distance her from me as much as I could but that was hard to do when she was drunk out of her mind and not able to stand on her own.
“Gab…..” I started but she cut me off, much to my surprise. I’d always taken her to be a submissive woman. What else was I supposed to think when she obeyed my every command in bed?
“We were so good together, weren’t we?” She said in a small voice, latching herself onto me as she tried to suddenly k**s me. Again….another surprise. She was always comfortable being the shy one, not one to initiate anything.
“Look, I need to find Claire and you need to find your husband before he flies away on another ‘business trip’ with some random chick he picks up at this club. Understand?,” I tirelessly again told her, trying to make her see sense. My patience was running out on this woman.
“I don’t care who Dennis f***s. All I care about is you, Azriel!” Gabriella cried out, trying to make a scene which angered me even more.
“Shut the f**k up!” I glared down at her, she shuddered at the tone I used. She was very familiar with my dark, dominant voice. I did not want to do this here. But I had no other option left.
“Stand with your back to me.” I ordered her, she immediately stood up and turned around at my cold, authoritative tone, her body trembling in excitement. She seemed to have sobered up enough to comprehend my orders so she must be able to answer some of my questions too.
“If there is anything you know that I should too, you should tell me now, slave.” I breathed on her neck, holding her in place by her waist with her back to me. If there was one thing I knew about Gabriella was that she would only dare to come beg for me to sleep with her if she had some information to offer that she thought I would need. She was dumb but she had a lot of connections due to sleeping around a lot of course!
“Um…I….” She stuttered, her body quivering in confusion and indecisiveness.
“Are you denying your master, Gabriella?” I whispered in her ear, making a shudder run down her spine as I gripped her waistline, making her breath accelerate. This wasn’t right but it was the only way to make her spill out what she knew.
“No, master.” She nervously mumbled, her boldness gone in the flash of a second, making me smile an evil grin. I slowly turn her around to face me.
I tipped her chin up so she was looking directly up at me.
” Tell me.” Those two words would be enough to make her divulge what she knew.
“It’s about um, Mr. Tancredi,” She mumbled, trying to avoid eye contact with me. At the mention of Tancredi, all my feral instincts came into full force. Gabriella gasped out when I suddenly grabbed her shoulders.
“What about Tancredi?”, I crudely questioned her but she still didn’t answer me.The information she had must be useful if she was so afraid of sharing it with me. “Gabriella, I need to know.” She still gave me no response.
I roughly lead her off the dance floor and push her up against one of the beam walls.
“Tell me right f*****g now,” I dominantly say, her head immediately drops down as she involuntarily assumes the position of a slave, pushing herself into the wall, trying to make herself appear as small as possible.
“Tancredi…..” She starts, trying to breathe. I nod at her to continue. “He’s planning something, something big,” She vaguely states.
“Planning what?’ I exasperatedly ask.
“He’s planning to take you down,” She blows out a whoosh of air, relieved that she got it out of her system. She’d just affirmed what I’d expected all along. He really was planning to take me off the grid. Out of this world. Bury me to the depths of the ocean. Dig me deep into the ground, whatever metaphorical way you put it.
It was like a chess game after all. My father had been a useful piece on the board and so he reached a sought after status and a vast amount of wealth but once he became a liability, he was taken off the board. Just like him, I’d become a liability to Tancredi too because I was the only one who could give him a run for his money. So he deemed it necessary to eliminate me.
“Is there anything else you know?”, I asked Gabriella.
“No,” She dolefully replied.
“If I find out that you knew something more and didn’t tell me, you know what I will do.” She quickly nodded at my dark threat, straightening her dress.
“So you wanna go dance or we could get a room here…..,” She trailed off, hoping I’d take the sign.
“How in the hell do you not get that I don’t want you anymore?” I indifferently asked her, finding it hard to believe that she couldn’t see what was right in front of her.
“W….what?”, she stuttered, shock writ over her face. Huh! So she was oblivious after all.
“I already said it once before in the restaurant and I’ll say it now. Don’t try to find me or reach me. Because I want nothing to do with you. Do you get it?”, I told her, trying to keep my temper in check. The last thing I needed was to blow up on her.
“B…but, I thought….,” she mumbles, close to tears.
“Don’t go out of here alone,” I told her before walking away from her to head over to the bar area.
“You know she won’t stay, Azriel. She is naive now but she’ll soon know that you’re not her Prince Charming but the dark knight who is meant to ruin her. By the looks of it, I don’t think she’ll be dumb enough to stay with you once she sees the real you. You are a monster who’ll be stuck alone HERE FOREVER!” She spit out, making me stop in my tracks. But then I was again on my way.
The things she said were true but I refused to accept them. Denial was my only escape to prevent myself from facing the real me.
Claire’s POV
Clubbing was not that fun if you didn’t take the drinking till the end of the world and dancing your arse off into account.
I soon found myself self-loathing and bored out of my mind. Dennis had now become an undesirable company because I wasn’t curious about him anymore. It was like a tic I had or some kind of psychotic instinct but I only deemed it worthy of me to first study a person and observe then manipulate them into telling me their deepest secrets, their weaknesses or simply something that set them off. After that, I lost all interest in talking with that person ever again.
I really was a selfish and narcissistic person….I evilly thought, making my way out of the loud club. I really needed some air.
Walking upstairs, I found a huge terrace with irregularly placed sofa-chairs where many couples were making out like there was no tomorrow! Ugh! Young love.
I found myself a quiet corner and stood by the glass railing. Once the cool air of Paris hit me, all my fatigue vapourised into air like magic. I stretched out a bit, cracking my strained muscles. I was now completely and utterly sober.
And those were definitely the best margaritas I’ve ever had, not that I’d ever had any. And stale beer couldn’t really count as good alcohol, now could it?
“Madame, would you like a glass of white wine?”, I heard a voice behind me, making me turn around to put a face to the voice.