I Slept With a Stranger to Forget Him

Chapter 4 Found My New Lover

"Take it off. Let me see whether his touch did anything to you."

As he spread her thighs to examine her, Vivian gasped. The moment she understood what he meant, her face flushed with mortified anger.

"Why didn't you check earlier?"

After he had touched her for that long, of course her body would have reacted.

Lucien said nothing. He simply pinned her down and slid his hand between her legs.

Vivian tensed, bracing herself for him to push further, but after only a brief examination, he withdrew.

"Mr. Graves... why did you stop?" Her voice came out soft and sweet, almost kittenish, and it nearly snapped the last thread of his restraint.

Lucien forced himself upright with visible effort. He lit a cigarette, clamped it between his lips, and ground his teeth as his expression darkened.

"Damn it."

Vivian tilted her head, looking up at him in confusion.

His heart softened at once. For the first time in his life, Lucien found himself explaining himself to a woman. "It's the holidays, and things are hectic. I dropped two operations to come save you, and now I have to clean up the mess. I'll be back tomorrow morning at the latest."

He brushed her cheek lightly. "Stay here. No one will bother you."

Vivian nodded obediently. "Then I'll go to sleep first."

Lucien let out a low laugh. "You heartless little thing."

Elsewhere, Adrian soaked in an ice-cold bathtub, his face shifting between pale and flushed as he clenched his fists beneath the water.

"Lucien," he rasped.

On Christmas Eve, the glare of the lights had kept him from seeing the man clearly. He had only thought the stranger looked vaguely familiar. Never had he expected it to be the madman who had stormed into Ashcroft.

The more Adrian thought about Lucien's ruthless methods, the more unsettled he became. At last, he rubbed his brow in irritation, picked up his phone, and made a call.

Vivian slept until late the next afternoon. When she finally woke, the room was empty, exactly as Lucien had left it. He had never returned.

She reached for her phone to call him, but before she could dial, a text message flashed across the screen.

A: Looking for Lucien? Come to Frosthaven Club, Room 9.

Her heart dropped. She called him immediately, then again, and again after that, but every attempt went unanswered, and with each failed call, the dread in her chest only deepened.

******

Frosthaven Club was the city's most infamous playground for the rich and depraved, and Vivian rarely set foot there. She stood outside Room Nine, still gathering the courage to knock, when the door suddenly swung open.

"M-Mr. Graves?"

Lucien frowned at first, but the moment he saw her, his rugged face curved into an unreadable smile. "What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to wait at the hotel?"

Vivian's fingers tightened instinctively at her sides as her gaze dropped to the woman in his arms. She had a breathtaking figure and wore an off-the-shoulder dress that bared one luminous shoulder and the elegant line of her collarbone. Then Vivian noticed the thick scatter of kiss marks across her neck, and her eyes reddened at once.

"I... I think I must have the wrong room."

Lucien tugged at his collar in irritation. "That's a terrible excuse. Vivian, go back to the hotel and wait for me."

"...Okay."

She answered softly and turned away numbly, but before she could take more than a step, an arm slid around her shoulders. She looked back in surprise to find the darkness gone from Lucien's face, replaced by blatant amusement.

"Forget it. Since you're here..." He grinned lazily. "Why not join us?"

Vivian froze. Before she could even process what he meant, he dragged her into the dimly lit room. The suite was lavishly decorated, and Lucien swept his gaze over it with casual approval before beginning to unbutton his shirt. Only when his sharply defined abs came into view did Vivian finally snap out of her shock.

"Lucien!"