Prologue
“I love you,” Aria confessed to the aloof owner of the villa, Elias Thorne.
He was completely emotionless as he stared back at her. But she could clearly read the lack of interest in his eyes. He simply didn’t care about her.
He wasn’t interested in her.
He didn’t like her.
And above all, he didn’t love her.
That much was clear from the way he treated her—cold, devoid of any warmth.
But she had told herself she was ready to do whatever it took to win the man who made her heart race. She was prepared to seduce him, make him fall in love, and drive him so crazy for her that his whole world would revolve around her alone.
They were inside Elias’s office, located in one of the rooms of his mansion. The hallway outside was dead silent. There was no one else around. He lived alone, without helpers. The only people at the villa were the heavy security detail outside and the maintenance workers keeping up the grounds. But the interior of the mansion was so hollow that even the slightest sound echoed down the quiet corridors.
Even though her neck was already straining from looking up at him, she refused to lower her gaze. She wanted him to see in her eyes just how serious she was and how true the words she was speaking right now were.
She loved him.
She loved Elias Thorne.
One corner of Elias’s red lips lifted. A glint of disgust flashed in his eyes. “What do you know about love? You are just a kid. Eighteen? Tsk.” He clicked his tongue. “What do you even know about life?”
“A lot!” she insisted fiercely.
The look he threw at her grew even colder, and as much as she wanted to stay strong, the pain still pierced through her chest. It still stung her throat. A heavy weight still pressed down on her heart.
“Have you even seen the ugly face of life yet? The cruelty? The danger? The blood and the killing? Have you seen it?” His eyes glittered dangerously.
She was taken aback, witnessing the sudden flare of dark emotion on his face. He was always without emotion, but right now, she was seeing the side of him that spelled danger—a side of him where cruelty flowed in his veins instead of blood.
She was right; he was dangerous. She knew he was dangerous. At that moment, she felt as if a piece of the mask he wore had been torn away, allowing her a glimpse of a man capable of doing things an ordinary person could never do.
She should have been terrified by now, yet a part of her heart told her that he could never completely hurt her. Perhaps her love could melt the cruelty encasing his heart.
She would try. She wouldn’t just give up easily. This was the first time she had ever fallen in love with a man, and she wanted to give everything she possibly could. Besides, she couldn’t just let go of her feelings for him.
She stiffened her neck and stared directly into Elias’s eyes. “I don’t care about the cruelty, the danger, or whatever else there is! You are the only one who matters to me, Elias!” She stood on her tiptoes and looped her arms around his neck. She deliberately pressed her body against his. She wanted him to feel that she was no longer a child and that she could face him even if he were the most dangerous man in the world.
She wanted to entice him with her soft, fragrant body—the body of a grown woman.
I am no longer a child, she repeated to herself. And she accepted him, regardless of his true nature. She was ready to embrace it all, as long as he loved her back. That was all she wanted: for Elias to just love her.
Her body moved on its own, and she found herself pressing her chest against him, their eyes locked together. She saw his jaw clench, and before she could even guess his next move, he grabbed her and hoisted her onto his wide desk.
It was nearing dusk, and the orange rays of the setting sun pierced through the large window, cascading into the office and warming her skin. The pale light embraced the contours of Elias’s face as he stared at her intently, his gaze sharp and piercing.
“You think you know so much just because you’re eighteen? Let’s find out.”
She gasped when one of his hands wrapped around her throat. Just as she could barely breathe, his face suddenly descended, and he claimed her in a punishing kiss. His lips moved forcefully as he thrust his tongue into her mouth.
His hot tongue explored every corner of her mouth, reaching all the way to the back of her throat. A soft moan escaped her lips when he sucked on her tongue. He wasn’t gentle, and he wasn’t being careful, but he tasted so delicious. She was growing dizzy from the intoxicating sensations he was awakening within her body.
She tried a few times to keep up with his pace and match his kisses, but her teeth only ended up clashing clumsily against his.
She felt him smirk against her mouth. “You don’t even know how to kiss properly,” he mocked. She could feel the scorching heat of his breath brushing against her lips.
He was about to pull away, but her hands quickly chased after him, her fingers clinging desperately to the collar of his shirt. “Teach me. If I don’t know how to kiss properly, then teach me. Teach me everything you want me to do as a woman.”
Elias’s expression darkened even more. A sharp gasp escaped her throat when he forcefully spread her legs apart. “Teach you? You want me to teach a kid like you how to become my whore? You want me to turn you into a whore?”
“I—it's not that—” Her voice hitched when Elias suddenly slipped his hand under her skirt, heading straight for the center of her womanhood.
She felt his fingers move along the slit of her pussy through the thin fabric of her underwear. She arched her back when his finger brushed against her sensitive clitoris.
He groaned like a wild animal in heat. “You are fucking wet.” Not yet satisfied, he slipped his hand directly inside her underwear. She bit her lower lip hard as she felt the searing heat of his finger graze the entrance of her passage.
His other hand grabbed the back of her head, pulling her hair back to expose her neck completely. Then, he fiercely attacked the curve of her neck with rough, punishing kisses.
His kisses were... painful. They were rough. They were meant to hurt her. He was purposely hurting her.
But instead of feeling afraid, her desire for him only burned brighter. Perhaps, just like him, there was something entirely wrong with her head, too.
Elias was bruising her skin with his wild kisses. And just when she thought nothing else could be more painful than that, he shoved his finger deep inside her tight pussy.
Her mouth fell open at the sensation of her narrow passage being breached. His finger was forcefully stretching the walls of her vagina. She hadn’t even reached the depths that Elias’s finger was touching at that moment.
She let out a sharp whimper.
“It’s painful, isn’t it?” he whispered against her ear.
All of this was entirely new to her, so it was only natural for her to feel nervous. “W-wait a minute,” she pleaded when the movement of his finger became faster and even more violent.
Elias suddenly pulled away from her, staring down into her wide, rounded eyes.
She looked at his face in absolute bewilderment. The dark emotions she had previously glimpsed in his eyes had vanished completely. They were blank again. He pulled a black handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his fingers with it. Then, he folded it neatly and returned it to his pocket. His movements were calculated and mechanical.
“Elias...”
“Someone as young and naïve as you can never handle a man my age. You are practically like a niece to me. So stop trying to seduce me. And stop acting brave, because you don’t know me. You have no idea what I am capable of doing to you.”
“I—I can handle it—”
“Who are you trying to convince? Me or you? You know I don’t want you, so stop forcing yourself on me. You’ll only end up getting hurt.”
The corners of her eyes burned, and her throat stung. “Don’t reject me, please.”
A cruel smile broke across his sinfully handsome face. “But that’s one of the things I’m really good at—rejecting women who flock around me.”
