Lana's POV
I stared at the mirror for long straight minutes.
Looking at the girl before me.
Criticizing and applauding myself.
Trying to take in deep breaths and calm this racing heart of mine.
I washed my fingers, retouched my lip gloss, and straightened my shoulder ready to go back out there and face the silent scanning eyes that didn't seem like they saw but were definitely fixed on me.
But it seems what you fear most comes looking for you.
That particular figure, the one that had stirred emotions, was standing there.
Talking with him, Adrian.
Although he was slightly taller than Adrian, it was obvious who controlled the room.
Adrian stood with his hands in his pockets, the suit accentuating the curves of his shoulders.
Big and broad.
The air in the restroom had been cool, but out here, it felt like every tiny bit of it had been sucked out of the room.
I stood there at the side of the lounge feeling paralyzed.
I couldn't feel any single bone in me again.
Even the breath I worked so hard in the bathroom to steady got caught in my throat.
Nothing felt normal again.
They still stood there talking, yet it was as if their lips weren't moving.
Adrian was the steady, crushing weight of the deep sea—composed, broad, and terrifyingly in control.
Even from this distance, the way the lines of his suit hugged those shoulders made my pulse throb in places I didn't want to admit.
But the man that was facing him… I'd call him the monster in the sea.
Michael.
He looked older than when we were still together.
His jawline had become sharper, and even his stance seemed more arrogant.
Yes! I could feel it was him.
You can't forget a person who had known every inch of you before he disappeared.
I felt so sick in my stomach as I stood at a distance watching them.
They didn't look like they were just "discussing" money.
No!
I could sense something toxic from them.
Like they were in some silent battle only they knew about.
Michael was taller, leaner, but he leaned into Adrian's space with a defiance that felt personal.
It wasn't the way a business rival spoke to a mogul.
It seemed more personal.
So I forced my feet to move, my heels clicking like a timer on a bomb.
As I got closer, I began hearing some fragments of their conversation as it drifted over the music.
"I didn't think you had the heart for a party like this, 'Father,'" Michael spat, with pure sarcasm dripping from every word he said that it made my skin crawl.
But Adrian's face didn't twitch. He just pulled a hand from his pocket and checked his watch, a pure display of bored power.
"I didn't think you had the invitation to one, Michael. But I suppose you've always been good at sneaking into places you don't belong."
My heart stopped.
Father?
The world tilted around me.
The man I had loved, the man who had broken me, was the son of the man I had signed a contract to marry.
Can life laugh harder in my face?
Just then, Adrian's eyes drifted past Michael and landed on me.
His gaze darkened, shifting from ice to something possessive and predatory.
He stretched his arm to me, silently demanding I come to his side.
"There you are," Adrian said, his voice dropping to that deep, territorial tone.
I couldn't miss the way Michael stiffened.
Then he turned around slowly, a smug smirk already forming on his lips—until he saw me.
The smirk didn't just fade; it vanished and I enjoyed seeing the look of horror that replaced it.
He looked like he'd been slapped real bad.
"Lana?" Michael whispered, his voice cracking the mask of the arrogant son.
Adrian's grip on my waist tightened, pulling me flush to him.
He looked from Michael's shocked face to my pale one, yet I couldn't read anything in them.
It was damn obvious.
Who the fuck! Wouldn't notice our looks.
And I mean…. For a man like Adrian who is always quick to know.
"I guess you two already know each other?"
We didn't reply to him.
What could I have said?
I asked a question," Adrian murmured, his voice now very low, vibrating and rumbling against my side.
"You two know each other right?"
Michael opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
I couldn't even blink.
What was going on?
Did I fall into a trap?
My heart beat increased slamming against my ribs like it wanted to break through.
Then, Adrian moved.
It wasn't gentle at all.
Like he used everything in him.
His free hand came up, as he used his fingers to slide firmly against my jaw, forcing my head back so I had no choice but to look at him.
His thumb grazed my lower lip, and the lip gloss I had just retouched… was smoothed on the side of my cheeks, and for a split second, I saw it in his eyes.
He knew.
He didn't just suspect;
He knew Michael was the one who had tried to ruin me.
And this wasn't a rescue. It was a reclamation.
"Actually," Adrian said, his gaze shifting to Michael for a few seconds.
"It doesn't matter."
And before I could breathe, he leaned down and crashed his mouth into mine.
Sucking and licking every inch of my mouth.
He even used his tongue, urging me to open up more.
It was beyond any kiss I had gotten before.
He wanted to send a message to Michael and me, who were in charge.
Heavy. Hot. Possessive. I could feel my lungs begin to burn because I had no more air in them.
He tasted the expensive whiskey he had in his hands.
My eyes flew wide, as I stared at the blurred edge of his dark lashes, while my hands hovered uselessly in the air between us.
And then suddenly white lights exploded around us.
Flash. Flash. Flash.
It was the paparazzi's, he had warned me to stay away from, that he had told me to be invisible for, they were now swarming.
Sounding their shutters like tiny gunfires.
I could see Michael standing there, frozen, and forced to watch the man he feared and hated most devour the woman he had discarded.
Adrian didn't pull away.
If anything, he deepened the kiss, his hand sliding into my hair to hold me steady, making sure every lens in the room captured the image of us.
My head was spinning.
He was breaking every rule he'd set for me, and bringing me out, in front of the one people he wanted me to hide from.
When he finally pulled back, only inches, he rested his forehead against mine still breathing steadily as if nothing had happened, while I still gasped for breath with my lips bruised and tingling.
He didn't look at the cameras.
He looked straight at Michael, with a ghost of a predatory smile on his face.
"Smile, Lana," he whispered, low enough for only the three of us to hear.