Chapter 5 Chapter 5

~Owens~

I noticed her step into the room. For a moment I didn't look at her, a smirk playing on my lips. And when she demanded to see my face, I finally turned to give her what she asked for.

My gaze met hers, I wasn't surprised that Elowen didn't tremble at the sight of me. The face she knew about his arranged husband was not the one she was seeing right now. I had removed the fake skin that had believable human skin and scars on it as if it were my own flesh.

I looked down at her feet where her shoes were already tossed aside and held her eyes for a while drinking in her features. She was sweetly beautiful in a way that felt effortless. Her brown-golden hair caught the light, soft and radiant, framing a face kissed by gentleness.

Even as she was struggling to appear strong, her rosy lips and soft brown eyes didn't hide the deep calmness, making her gaze both comforting and quietly captivating.

She wore a pretty little dress that suited her perfectly. It clung just enough to hint at her shape while remaining modest, the kind of dress that made her look lovely, as if it had been chosen to match the sweetness she carried within.

"It's time to get this done with." She said coolly and I barely held back a smirk at the way her confidence pulled me in.

I walked up to her, playing with her hair for a while before asking her a question to make sure she knew what she was about to do. However, her answer amazed me.

"Do what I paid you for and not ask a stupid question. I'm not a kid to know what I want, so go ahead and do your job well." She replied, smacking my hand off.

Impressive. I almost chuckled. Indeed she had quite an impressive commanding aura.

However, what will become of her when she finds out that the person she was about to end up in a scandal with, will be none other than me, Owen Vitmoz? The man behind her nightmare– The scarred husband she was running away from?

~Elowen POV~

I can see the smug that never left his face. He watched me. I feared he would see how my chest rose and fell in an attempt to catch a good breath.

I could sense the curiosity in him or skepticism...something I could barely decipher until I felt the tip of his fingers on my jaw. Brushing the corners of my lips with his thumb, he pulled me against his body, making a gasp escape my lips.

What was he doing?

"Very well then. I'll do what you asked of me." He said, raised a brow, and lifted his head.

Slowly, he moved away from me, giving me the privilege to entice my sight while he removed every piece of clothing shielding his fair skin, and only stopped when it was that one piece that barely hid his predator now popping out between his legs.

For a split second, a hot lump went down my throat burning so hot I could barely carry my own feet.

I wasn't expecting the shivers running down my spine.

How could a one-night stand be so breathtaking? Come on, what's wrong with me? I needed to get my act together.

Perhaps, if I had been given a chance to see who my arranged husband was, maybe I would have given a second thought to what I was about to do, something that would ruin the career I had worked so hard to build for years.

But no. Not for once have I gotten a chance to.

All I knew was the stories told about him, stories that never ceased to bring fear to me since the day my father told me I would be getting married to Owen Vitmoz.

There is no way I would be a toy to pay my father's debt by accepting a marriage with such a man.

I'd rather end my career than spend the rest of my life with him.

I'd rather sleep with this handsome stranger, lose my dreamed first night, and end myself in a scandal than marry that man.

"Aren't you going to..." The man before me spoke and paused, making his remaining words known by tilting his head to one side in question.

I gulped hard suddenly realizing how I had strayed just staring at his sexiness I never knew would tingle my body.

I don't know why. Was it because I had never let any man have me that made my body tingle this much, that made me shiver just staring at him?

I remember, sometimes, Emily would be shocked at how I made it through four boyfriends without doing it.

My first boyfriend had begun in the innocence of high school but ended too soon when he left the country with his family, disappearing from my life before we could even begin. Up till now, we lost contact and never spoke to each other again.

The second even before we could do anything, shattered my confidence in my college days. He walked away with cruel words, calling me 'too much' and 'not enough' all at once, only to spiral into his own downfall. Sonofabitch got arrested after being caught with hard drugs. A bitter irony I never quite forgot because he almost got me involved.

The third...love in its purest– would have worked until the night which would have fulfilled the first night I had always dreamed of. The moment I'd finally waited for was shattered the same night because his parents had found us together.

Davis had loved me enough to sacrifice everything, even his own family just to be with me. However, how could I have let him do that when another woman was already heavy with his eight-month-old child? A truth forced into existence by betrayal.

His parents, long before I knew, had already promised him to another woman and despised us enough to drug him, orchestrating a pregnancy to force him into marriage.

I tried again, falling into the arms of my fourth. He loved me, he said, but not enough to be faithful—to dedicate himself only to me. Fame had made him selfish; he refused to give up the endless attention of other women. So, I walked away.

That was even, because I knew that a part of my heart still belonged to Davis while I dated him.

Even after two months of knowing him, I couldn't bring myself to give him that first night. Sometimes… I wondered if I'd been too selfish. But I couldn't deny that up till today my feeling for Davis never died. Sometimes I regret letting him go.

Ever since my fourth, I had given up on relationships and focused on building my career till I find a man who will understand my self-worth, if there ever will be.

Focus, Elowen. You need to get this done with. I chided myself and then remembered there was something I was missing. The camera.