“We need to discuss our future,” Zara persisted, pressing herself closer towards me. Her perfume reached my senses and I somehow felt like I was being transported back in time to when I was madly and hopelessly in love with this woman.

I would’ve moved Heaven and earth to make her happy. Zara had been my life. Everything I did then was for our future. I was a roughened teenager, but the moment I met her, I was willing to make changes. The moment I knew I was in love with her, I didn’t even hesitate to commit myself fully to her. However, somehow all through that love and affection—not to mention utmost dedication—Zara easily walked away from it all. From me. Here she was now, demanding we “discuss” our future. What was she on?

“If you haven’t noticed, I’ve moved on from you.” I sought her eyes, putting all my energy in holding her gaze. “You’ve been replaced. There’s no future with me. Best you get that truth into your head.”

“You don’t love her,” Zara immediately retorted back.

My nose flared at her audacity. “How dare you. You don’t know anything!”

“You know how I know? Because you didn’t even glance at her, not once, the second you saw me. She excused herself to use the restroom and yet it seemed you didn’t even hear her.” She pressed her heaving breasts against my chest. Her lips and hot breath tickled my ear. “You only have eyes for me. No one will come close, Callum. It’s the same for me. I want you.” She pressed harder, making me silently curse. “I haven’t had a man for a year and I’m anticipating for you to relinquish this need in between my thighs. It has only craved you, no one else.”

This was bad. Sex with Zara had always been dynamite. Her talking about not having any other man after me made my throat dry. She was temptation to the fullest. She knew my body, knew what turned me on… and her dirty talk confirmed just how much she wanted to be back in my life.

“Charles filed divorce yesterday. He brought me out here to reconcile with you.” She kissed my lobe. “You can have me tonight… or whenever you want.”

A voice informing the guests that the ballroom was now available made me pull back away from her influence. Zara still held power over me. I was discomfited. Horrified. Yet, somehow, aroused. It was troubling and I hated it—her—for torturing me some more.

Besides, there was Stella.

God, Stella! I had seriously forgotten about her. My eyes scanned the area, looking for her.

“She probably left already,” Zara quipped into my ear.

If Stella had, I couldn’t blame her. She’d probably witnessed how Zara was full on seducing me or how I had let her do it, not even stopping her attempt. As I stated before, I didn’t deserve Stella, and yet, I couldn’t let her go. I was a horrible man. Selfish. Needy.

In need for her as well as the sense of comfort and security she brought.

“I have to go.” I unclasped Zara’s hold from me as I scanned the throbbing sea of people. Where did she go? Did she leave?

Frustrated, I went towards the entrance and asked the hotel staff in charge if they had seen Stella leave. I knew they would know who I was talking about because I had seen how they blatantly gawked at her behind as she sauntered towards me.

An exasperated grunt showed how desperate I was to find her. It was rude of me to actually have forgotten about her when Zara appeared. It was a shock to see her again, with my father in tow… but still… Stella didn’t need to witness how affected I was when it came to the woman who had brought me to my knees once. I tried to picture what it would’ve been for her to see me with Zara and, whatever came in to mind, I didn’t like much.

In all honesty, I didn’t know what I wanted. When it came to Zara and Stella, I was confused. I knew that now, after what happened with Zara earlier, but for some reason, Stella brought out other things in me.

I might have appeared calm to some as I drifted off from one place to the other, eyes flittering about for one particular person. What greeted my eyes just ignited a great example.

The bar was the last place I decided to check because I hadn’t imagined Stella would seek out a drink, but my, my, was I wrong.

Stella, the minx, was seated in a rounded-cushioned, red leather barstool, legs crossed, with a man’s hand resting on her exposed thigh, thumb caressing the line that met her pressed thighs, intimately. She was sipping her strawberry champagne, oblivious to the fact that I was only a few feet away, as she listened to the man whispering into her ear. His left hand was on her hip as a gesture for everyone to know that he was hers to claim.

In a heartbeat, I joined their cozy, little, intimate circle. Clearing my throat, I made sure my voice delivered the words succinctly. “Excuse me, but I think you’re pissing on my woman.”

“Callum. Oh, um, this is Derek.” Stella giggled, blushing. “An ex of mine.”

She seriously giggled. Was she already drunk or was she enjoying this tête-à-tête they were having? This literally played havoc with my raging temper, teetering on the edge.

“Derek. Good to meet you.” The besotted chap played the gentleman, but I was far from being playful.

If it were my way, I’d love to fight him off—man to man—and see if he could beat me. He could at least try, I mused. With all this frustration gathered in my body, I could do some light workout with Derek as my target.

Instead of acting like a true animal, I penetrated his eyes. The man didn’t cower, though. “Right. The infamous wanker who left Stella because he felt unmanned by not being able to exude his potency and vigor.” That certainly got to him. Good. “I assure you, I didn’t have the same problem as you did.”

Stella made a loud gasp, but I ignored it.

Instead, I took hold of her waist and got her to her feet, almost dragging her out of the bar. Once we reached a quiet, secluded corner, I hoisted her there, caging her in between my hands. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you had sex with the man! But you were a virgin when I had you, so I must be seeing things.” I shot the words like bullets, not masking the kind of fury of hell I was in.

What came out of her lips next put me in a tricky position.

“I did have sex with him.” She simply said it like it was of no consequence. “You had my virginity. He took the other,” Stella finished.

Everything around me evaporated.

The loud buzz of people in the hotel completely disappeared. The erratic thrum of my pulse rung in my ears as I studied the beguiling nymph with acute concentration. My sole focus was Stella and what she had just bombarded my thoughts with.

“You’ve had anal before?” When she responded with a careless nod, I became livid.

What the bloody fuck! I wasn’t sure if I was furious because she let another man touch her there or because he got there before me. Either way, I didn’t like anyone touching her anywhere intimately. I liked knowing that I was her first… but this Derek guy was her other first, too. So it was more like a pissing contest, but I didn’t care. Seeing her with her ex, cozy and intimate, made me rabid with jealousy. Top that with the blasted news she had just gifted me, I was an animal ready to let loose.

“What does he want with you?” I demanded, inching closer to madness. Stella shrugged, looking away. I gritted my teeth. Impatient. Frustrated. Not to mention, troubled by Zara and now facing this catastrophic imbalance I had with Stella. “Answer me.”

Stella made me want to keep her, for reasons that were selfish and wrong, and yet, it somehow made sense to me.

“He wants me back,” she responded, eyes cast down, staring at my chest.

I wanted to growl, go ballistic, go the fuck however I wanted, but a delicate quiver of her bottom lip unhinged something greater than the possessive side of me.

Goodness, she looked so fragile, beautiful and yet a sexy siren all wrapped into one delectable package. “Are you going to?” I carefully asked, trying not to lose my temper.

“No.” She was still adamant not to meet my gaze.

Breathing her in, I took a moment to rationalize my thoughts, then deemed it impossible. “Will you go to him after we’re through?” It was an invalid question, but for some reason, I wanted to know.

“Maybe. We’ll see. I want to date around; see how it is out there.”

See how it is out there. Right, bloody right. I nodded, as if understanding it all. Saw it all. “You mean you want to see how it is to have sex with different men? Try out all the shapes and sizes, you mean?” I was becoming unreasonable, but I couldn’t hold it in. Jealousy was a new emotion I could do without, but it had reared its ugly head when it came to Stella. Not even with Zara was I this territorial. Thinking of Stella in such a precarious situation, I became incensed with fury at the thought of her giving herself to different men.

I was so taken with images of her that when she finally lifted those crystal gray eyes to me, it seized me whole. I completely felt perplexed.

“Is that what you want, Cal?” she whispered; voice little, fragile even.

Her wispy voice nailed a thorn inside me. In this instant, all the rationale, uncertainties, the good and bad intentions, beliefs, weaknesses and happiness dulled away and I entirely became… unguarded.

My forehead rested against hers as I listened to our hearts thud with wild eagerness. The tip of my nose connected with hers. Our lips brushed, motionless. “Stella.” The tip of my wet tongue darted out, wetting my bottom lip, but as it did so, it also tasted her champagne coated one.

Like a truly addicted drunkard—intoxicated, bewildered and simply couldn’t resist temptation—my tongue sat on her bottom lip. From the inside, it traced the outline of her lips. From the bottom to the top, rounding it in a full circle, tasting her luscious lips with newfound hunger. “Stella,” I whispered her name again. Drunk. Hypnotized.

She trembled against me. Lifting my hand, I let my fingers caress her cheek. Each stroke on her soft, silken skin charged towards the powerful magnetic pull I had been avoiding.

It compelled me closer; bringing me to a close as my bottom lip softly kissed hers, ever so slowly. The feeling was exhilarating, even more so when I first took her in bed, consummating our marriage.

My lips softly pried hers open, seeking more. More of her taste. Just more of her.

We kissed. It was soft, gentle and unrushed, as though we had all the time in the world to kiss and get drunk off each other. In this heated moment, all I knew was one thing; from the root of her head to the tips of her dainty toes, Stella was mine.

All.

Fucking.

Mine.