The next thing I knew, we were kissing. Hands were everywhere as we stumbled into an executive suite at a five-star hotel down the street from Leigh's bar.
He was hot. Literally—his skin was burning up.
He was turned on, and fast. Shit. My innocent view of the world had vanished long ago thanks to these nightly pranks, and I'd seen plenty of men in various states of undress. But let me set the record straight: I wasn't ogling them. I was only here to play games and pull fast ones on men driven entirely by their lust. Still, I wasn't a prude. I could appreciate a fine physique, and his was top-tier—broad, tapered, and built. A total catch.
I managed to peel off his shirt and unbutton his trousers, leaving him in just his boxers. I held off on removing the rest. Aside from waiting for the sedative to kick in, his hands were tracing my curves, making it ridiculously hard to concentrate.
Why is this medicine taking so long to knock him out?
Before I could dodge another approach, he pulled me by the nape of my neck and dragged me into a deep, agonizingly slow kiss that pulled a moan from both of us. He muttered a curse against my lips, his hand sliding down to cup my hip. Damn it! The heat was getting to me. I couldn't afford to get carried away.
Fortunately, the sharp ring of my phone broke the spell, snapping me back to reality. I pushed against his chest to catch my breath, but he seemed to have no intention of letting go. A few agonizing seconds passed before his grip finally slackened, and he collapsed heavily onto the mattress.
Finally!
"Welcome to my game," I whispered triumphantly, looking down at his unconscious form.
I reached for his waist to finish the job, but my phone rang again. I straightened up and pulled out the screen, frowning when I saw the caller ID: Herrerias Residence.
I swiped to answer. "Mina? What is it? I'm in the middle of something, so this better be quick."
"M-Miss Raciella!" Mina's voice trembled through the speaker.
Her panic started to grate on my nerves. "What do you need? Do you want a beating for disturbing me?"
"N-No, Miss! But you have to come home right now!"
I rolled my eyes, glancing back at the man sound asleep on the bed. "Why? Are you itching for a slap? You'll have to wait. I'm busy."
"Miss, Madame Raniella is here!"
The name didn't register right away. But as I took a step toward the nightstand, the reality hit me. My stomach dropped. "Wh-What do you mean she's there? Where are you?"
"In the Herrerias mansion, Miss!"
"How the hell...?" Panic surged through me, and I frantically began gathering my dress and purse. "I thought she was in Madrid!"
Where are my stilettos?!
If the witch was back, I was dead.
I jammed my feet into my heels, shooting a quick look at the sleeping guy. Oh, geez. I hadn't even checked his wallet to get his name yet! I took a step toward his discarded trousers, but a voice from my phone froze me in my tracks.
"Get your ass home in ten minutes, Raciella, or you'll be sleeping on the streets forever."
That stern, glacial tone sent a wave of terror straight down my spine. I didn't say another word. I grabbed my bag, sprinted out of the hotel room, and left the mystery man behind. Getting his name wasn't worth risking the ten-minute countdown. I knew that woman too well—she never made empty threats. And as much as I longed to break free from her, I still needed my father's inheritance before I made my exit.
When I burst through the front doors of the mansion, I was practically running, but I skidded to a sudden halt at the entrance of the living room.
"Where have you been?"
I bit my lip, squeezing my eyes shut for a brief moment at the sound of her calm, controlled voice. Taking a quiet breath, I forced myself to look at her. She wasn't looking back; her focus was pinned on a thick stack of glossy photo prints in her hands.
"I asked you a question." She finally looked up, her cold, emotionless eyes locking onto mine.
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat and regain my composure. One wrong word and I was done for. "Leigh's bar."
"That isn't what my timeline shows. You left the bar thirty minutes before Mina called you."
I cleared my throat nervously. "W-Well, traffic... I was on my way..."
"Stop giving me bullshit, Raciella!" she warned, her voice laced with a quiet hostility that gave me goosebumps. "It took you thirty minutes to get onto the road, and another ten after I called?"
My face drained of color. I clamped my mouth shut. If I tried to make up another lie, she would only tear it to shreds. I could play men at the bar all night long, but my mother was an entirely different beast. I was fearless with everyone else, but in front of her, I had no shield. She was terrifying.
"You went out tonight with a different man from last night, the night before, and every night last week!"
I winced as she threw the stack of photos across the glass coffee table. They scattered over the rug, landing right at my feet.
I glanced down, and my heart dropped. It was picture after picture of me at High Craze, caught on camera with every single target I'd picked over the past month.
I looked up at her in utter disbelief. "You had me followed?"
She let out a dry, humorless laugh. "I wish I had been the one to hire a private investigator. No, Raciella. These were delivered anonymously—not just to my personal desk, but to every board member and major shareholder in the group. Do you have any idea what this means?"
I shook my head, my mind spinning. I had never cared about the family enterprise. My older brother, Trance, was abroad completing his executive training to take over the empire. He was the golden child; I never intended to touch the business.
"It means your father's hungry relatives are using our family's dirty laundry to tear us down from the inside," she said, her icy voice cutting through the room. "And you handed them the weapons on a silver platter because you couldn't keep your pathetic games to yourself!"
I flinched. She didn't raise her voice, but the sheer coldness in her tone echoed the shift that had occurred the day my father died.
My father hadn't known he had a daughter from a previous relationship until she surfaced years later, threatening his public standing. The scandal broke his health, leading to a fatal collapse after an argument with his opportunistic relatives. My mother had mourned him, but when she emerged from that grief, she was entirely stripped of humanity.
Raniella Herrerias became the undisputed, ruthless Empress of the corporate world. She had crushed everyone involved in my father's downfall. But her ruthlessness didn't stop at the office door—she treated me with the same cold, manipulative control. The only time I ever truly breathed was when she was out of the country.
I had been so sure she would stay in Europe for another month.
"I told you not to do anything stupid," she continued, standing up. "And if you must indulge yourself, do it quietly and clean up after yourself. Now, your standing in the company is completely compromised. You've failed project after project. If Trance hadn't stepped in to clean up your mess, we would have lost half our client portfolio."
"Because I'm not cut out for corporate work!" I blurted out, unable to hold it back any longer. "I've told you that a thousand times! It's not my fault I failed to meet expectations I never promised to fulfill!"
Her eyes narrowed into sharp slits. "You didn't fail because you lacked talent, Raciella. You failed because you didn't even try. You begged for a hiatus, and I gave it to you. Only to find out you've spent the last month doing this? Sneaking into hotel rooms with a new man every night?"
She walked toward the hallway, pausing beside me.
"Your hiatus is over. You will report to the executive office at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."
My eyes widened in horror. "Tomorrow?! Mom, no! You said I didn't have to go back until Trance returned from abroad! He isn't back until the summer!"
"I don't care," she said, her voice absolute. "You will be in that office tomorrow morning, or I will freeze every single one of your accounts by noon. Fix your life, Raciella."
She took two steps past me, then paused, casting a lethal glance over her shoulder.
"And if I catch you pulling another one of your midnight stunts, I won't just freeze your cards—I'll make sure you're sleeping on the street for good."