Present

Claire

Staring right ahead with my chin up high and shoulders back with a smile over my lips I got out of the Mercedes as a guard helped me out. The annual Charity event for the fight against cancer was in full swing.

When Daniel had decided to ditch me for a woman whom I had no desire to like I had thought of coming with someone who he really disliked but then decided otherwise not to.

No, I wasn't short of hot guys whom he didn't like. I decided not to bring a date altogether. Why use one man when I could use many. I decided to go solo this time while I dressed so all the men had their eyes only on me.

Having a few photographs clicked which was necessarily being the member of the executive board, I went inside to choose all my prey for tonight only so I could make Daniel feel things that I did. Payback can be a bitch and that is what I have learned.

My bet was on the fact that he was just playing. With me and her. I knew why with me because it gave him to kick out of my emotions. With her? I had no idea I was placing my bet over the fact that it was a business-only transaction. I only hoped I was correct.

As I made my entrance to the grand hall of the one of prestigious Berkley's hotels and resorts. I looked over everyone with a dazzling smile over my face. People loved smiles. They loved happiness more than the sad stories in this world I lived in. They loved money and the faces that owned it. They were hungry for power and greedy. Loved the status we carried around us with.

I had come across it all and that made me well known all thanks to Mr. Kraven. If he hadn't stopped the car that day I wouldn't have been here. He was a man who I had approached for all the wrong reasons but he had turned my world all around as he took me with him. What I have today is the courtesy of two very important men in my life. They were the only people whom I called family even if we were not related by blood or a name.

The sight of dirty blonde hair near the bar had me moving towards him.

The man wasn't just a good friend of Daniel out of many but also his enemy when it comes to his line of work. More than that we had hung around together for so long that I knew this man practically from the back of my hand. However, the only thing they had clashed had been about once was about me. He wanted in my pants, scratch the itch that he felt when we hung out. All he wanted was to enjoy something that he had witnessed, to see, and feel what lied under the sheets beside me.

"George," his name on my lips had him stop talking to some of his associates. That man knew business to the top-notch and didn't mind staring anywhere unless you gave him drugs and a woman to entertain.

"I will talk to you guys later," dismissing the few people around him he turned towards me.

"Am I seeing things?" The cocky smirk over his face made me turn slightly to give him a perfect show of my figure and a sneak of the naked thigh. Ever since I had seen the lust in his eyes for me I didn't mind teasing him only because he enjoyed and we talked about our life as if we were good friends.

"No, you aren't?" I walked with a sway to my hips for him as I got beside him ordering a glass of Champagne for myself. Only alcohol was going to keep me sane today. He whistled as I laughed at him.

"How did he even let you out wearing that?" giving me a once over glance from head to toe.

"Don't I look good?" I teased as I moved my hand up to his arm.

"That you do, baby but where is your brooding overprotective ass of a man?" He looked behind me and then at me when he didn't find him anywhere. His eyes went to my neck and that was when he realized what I was missing. I was out in the open feeling almost naked without it. The revealing clothes didn't matter the missing piece around my neck did.

"Okay, what is going on?" he held my hand abruptly that was over his arm. I drowned my glass of champagne before giving him any answer.

"Daniel is pissing me off." I sighed pulling my hand out from his.

"Must have been something wonderful that got you this pissed." He ordered himself a scotch and another glass of champagne for me. "But you know how it works a pissing off wouldn't have made you took it off." My eyes were unable to look in his as they looked down feeling ashamed and embarrassed at the same time.

"Until he did it himself or allowed you too." He completed his sentence and the reality set in.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked me. I shook my head in denial.

"Why isn't he here with you today, Claire?" The answer to that question just aggravated me. Here I was looking all the way beautiful and sexy trying to lure my man but he wasn't having it because he was taking her to date.

"He ditched me for another date for the first time in the last four years." Looking around that both men and women stared at us or me. I could see the turning glances at me from women and men. I bet women were staring out of envy and some even with hatred maybe. Men were either admiring, lusting, or imagining. It was public knowledge that I belonged to Daniel and me being alone like this with him brining a date is going to raise a hell of questions. More than that it would put me out as someone who would be looking for someone else which I had no desire for.

It felt as if he was dumping me publicly by coming with her to this event beside her rather than me.

Did it make me angry?

Oh, it made me want to wrap my hands around his neck and give him a taste of his own medicine.

But the truth was that Daniel was whom I belonged to and he was mine.

"What is your plan then?" George winked at me moving his hand behind my back. "Do you need a really hot company to make him mad because I know the right threads to pull." Pulling me close he lowered his lips to my ear. "I would get a damn good pleasure out of this by goading him." He whispered.

"Then we shall enjoy, my love but you got to wait until he arrives." I winked at him as I downed my champagne. I looked around the hall to see if my lover had arrived. No sign of him yet.

"Tell me something good about tonight." We moved together around the hall leaving our spot at the bar. It was already getting crowded there.

"That you are outshining every other woman here tonight by looking so sexy that every man has eyes desiring you on one level or another. In addition to that, they would envy me for being beside you." I smiled at his reply. He could charm his way down every other woman's panties.

"And there arrives the devil of tonight's show," his words made me look towards the entrance. "And with his date." George looked at the woman than at me. I gave him a raised eyebrow.

"You've gotta be shitting me," he wanted to say more I could tell as he pressed his lips in a thin line.

"He is coming here with that plain vanilla princess." He wasn't amused at his choice of date but disappointed that showed up here.

"Is there a business deal going on?" his eyes were glued to Daniel rather than his date as he asked me.

"My lips are sealed over this." Even though we were friends and all businesses were business. I knew it evidently that George would figure it out but my lips wouldn't betray Mr. Kraver. I winked at him as he gave me a long stare before seeing the two of them descending down the stairs.

"What game is he playing at?" His question was one that I myself had been wanting an answer to too. We both looked at them descending down the stairs. The black fitting pants showcased those thighs that were strong and muscular. The suit fitting him perfectly putting his physique on perfect display for every woman to imagine how would that body feel above them. However, none knew of the way his hands felt over their body, pulling you, touching you, punishing you, and loving you.

No one could have him as I have had for these last years. Even their fantasies couldn't do justice to the real thing.

"Whatever game it is I just want to see him lose," George's words made me feel satisfied and empowered. He winked at me as his hand wrapped around my waist gently pulling me to his side.

"Keep on looking at him." He ordered as his hand rested on my back. Just near the tailbone where the deep neck ended. Daniel's eyes caught mine as he walked down with his arm around his date.

I gave him a raised brow as those greys of his blatantly stared at me telling me something I already knew. He was pissed at me but so was I. Those kissable lips of his set in a straight line as he traveled down to my dress and to my partner. I could feel his anger from right where I was standing as his hand went up in those dark locks of his. His face set in a hard expression. Did it scare me? Not even for a second. He deserved for whatever this was worth.

"I can't tell you how glad I'm that your gown has this deep neck," George whispered in my ear and that was when I felt the touch of his fingertips as he moved them along my spine to my neck. The shiver that traveled through my body made my senses open knowing the sensual pleasure.

"Don't close your eyes and keep looking at him." Another order as his fingers caressed my back from up to the down where the tailbone ended. I complied with the authority in his voice. His touch told that his rumors for being a generous and sensual lover were true. My eyes stared at Daniel and the fury that was inside of him as he read my face expression. It was George who was touching me but it was him whose eyes I couldn't get off. The sensual feelings that George aroused me with in front of him were good but I had better. Yet I could feel my spine arching to have to beg for more.

The hard lines of his face made the pleasure more Satisfying. Only he and George could know what was happening.

"He is going to come here as soon as his date takes her sweet time descending down the stairs.," another whisper to my ears. From other's point of view, it would have looked as if it was two lovers enjoying an evening of intimacy but not from Daniel's. My eyes set straight on his as I stood there with my chin high waiting to acknowledge that he made a mistake. His game was going to be the biggest mistake.

"Let's look at the devil." Smiling as me he gave me a peck on the cheek.

The jealousy that burned in his eyes as someone else touched what was his made wetness pool inside my core. My body turned on to all his stares, all his touch, and on his command. I was a slave of his love but I was his biggest addiction. George looked around at others rather than him. If he did, he could see that rage and madness in those eyes. The stoic face of his didn't have any emotion but I knew that man from under his skin to his heart.

And he wasn't happy not at all.