If only Dhara had any clue what she just walked into.
After Poppy briefed her regarding the dire situation, Dhara knew her sister f****d up.
Never in the worst of her nightmares did she imagine her sister to be so foolishly naïve.
What the hell was she thinking? She muttered to herself. How could she leave with someone she just met? How could she ever trust a stranger?
Honestly, this was the reason Dhara always worried like a sick dog. Nina might have turned eighteen and always acted like she understood everything, but Dhara knew the ground reality. She knew how heartless people could be, how greedy. Sure, Dhara herself might not have been the best judge of people sometimes, but at least she never lost her head in the clouds. That had to count for something, right?
After hailing another cab to the nearest five-star hotel, Dhara and Poppy hopped out and went straight for the reception. The way she was dressed—not much, just shorts and a cheap T-shirt with rainbows and skies—of course, the receptionist refused to take her seriously.
“Apologies for the inconvenience, ma’am, but we cannot reveal the client’s information. It’s against the hotel’s policy,” the woman behind the reception desk turned them down in a charming tone.
Dhara shook her head and leaned over the desk. She knew exactly what to say to get the receptionist’s attention. “I don’t believe you’re getting the gravity of the situation here…” She flicked her gaze to the nameplate pinned on the receptionist’s blue blazer. “…Macy,” eyes back on Macy’s face. “My sister is only seventeen,” Dhara made sure that the age of her sister was loud enough for the rest of the customers lingering about to hear.
As she expected, Macy’s face grew a little pale.
“If you refused to help me out here. I’ll have no choice but to report it to the police. And that would be disastrous for the lovely reputation of this hotel and your livelihood. You’re getting what I’m saying, right?” she eyed the girl as if to say ’you know there’s no other way around it.’
Macy’s face fell the second they brought the police into the conversation. She pressed her lips and stared at the screen of her laptop, pondering.
But Dhara’s patience had snapped a long time ago.
“Look, I don’t have the time—”
“OK,” the receptionist cut her off, appearing somewhat nervous. She called for one of the other staff to take her spot for a few minutes before she left the desk and gestured for Dhara to follow her.
Once reaching the elevator, Macy turned on her heels, fixing the two girls with a firm gaze. “Only one of you can go up and deal with…whatever is going on up there,” she made a face as if saying “whatever” almost impaired her senses. “The people you described are on the seventh floor and because they checked into only one room an hour ago, I believe that’s the room where your sister might be. But just to be sure,” she inhaled a deep breath, pressing the button for the elevator to come down. “Don’t make me regret this,” that’s all the woman said before the elevator dinged open and, with a long, deep breath, Dhara stepped in.
But after that, the situation only went south.
————
“Let me go, you perv!” Dhara snapped at the man.
The same man who answered the door.
The man at the sight of whom a tight shiver curled down her spine.
If only Dhara wasn’t blinded by so much rage, she would have noticed the only man standing in the room had the looks of a sexy sinner. His beautiful pair of hazel eyes brimmed with part boredom and part amusement.
If the annoyance hadn’t obfuscated her brain, she would have realized how her heart couldn’t stop pounding against her chest when he pinched those thick eyebrows and tipped a corner of his lips up.
God, that was so hot.
Even her subconscious couldn’t help but drool.
But that was all happening somewhere in the back of her mind, where her present reality seemed to suppress it all the way. Weird emotions churned in the pit of her stomach were being drowned by the nausea she felt while fretting about her sister.
With her wrist in his skin-tight grip, he sneered. “I’ve been nothing but a gentleman since you walked in.” The man bared his teeth, appearing even more precarious than the monsters underneath the beds.
The thick fog of anger dissolved a little when his lips hovered close to her own. There was no contact by any means. He still felt a mile away. Yet, something seemed to uncoil inside her. As if begging to be unleashed. Set free and take a flight. To make a wish and dive. To float and thrive.
Just when she thought she had everything under control and turned her head away, escaping his bewitching hazel eyes, she felt his hot breath battering against the crook of her neck.
This was the exact moment something unexplainable happened.
For a few pounding seconds, her heart slowed down, and her eyes widened out of pure fear. She had no clue what to expect, but something inside her bled nervousness for an unfamiliar reason. However, that seemed to be the least of her concerns when the anticipation turned to frustration. It tore her skin with sharp goosebumps.
A deep, guttural sound vibrated from the back of his throat—an approval of sorts—and surprisingly, it eased the tight, unyielding knot in the pit of her stomach.
Hot lava-like ferocity was summoned out of nowhere and, before she knew it, her brain thawed all the restraints. Earlier, a war of confused emotions was wreaking havoc inside her. But the second that dark and possessive sound dug through her chest and brushed her heart, a new desire awakened and had her soaked in places she desperately felt the need to be touched.
The man let out a deep growl when Dhara’s fingers tiptoed up his bare chest and sank into his large shoulder.
“f**k,” he cursed into her neck, releasing her wrist and skating his enormous arms around her small waist.