"Wake up. I don't want a corpse with the scent of synthetic fabric in my bed."
That cold voice struck Arunika's eardrums like a splash of ice water in the Arctic. Nika jolted awake, her eyelids snapping open. The first thing she saw was the silhouette of a giant of a man standing with his back to a massive window. The morning sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, framing his body in a glow that made him look like a god... a god who had just stepped out of hell to torment her.
"M... Mr... Bara?"
Nika immediately yanked the silk duvet up to her chin, her eyes widening like saucers. The memories of last night replayed in her mind like an R-rated horror movie on an automatic loop.
The wrong room. Lunging at Bara Vane. And a one-night claim that... ugh, Nika desperately wanted to bury herself under a mountain of dirty laundry right now.
Bara turned around. He stood there shirtless, wearing only black trousers that hugged his powerful waist. His broad chest... where Nika had rested her head last night... was now on full display. Nika swallowed hard, her throat suddenly bone-dry.
In Bara's hand hung a limp piece of red fabric. It was Nika's dress. The very dress she had considered her deadliest weapon of war just last night.
"Is this a dress or a plastic bag?" Bara lifted Nika's red dress with the tips of two fingers, his expression as if he were holding a dead rat. "Is this made of plastic? After just a few hours of contact, I feel like my skin is developing an allergy to this cheap material."
BOOM!
The remaining crumbs of Nika's self-esteem felt like they had just been trampled by limited-edition sneakers. Nika felt her blood boil. She might be poor, but her pride was as high as the Burj Khalifa!
Nika sat bolt upright, ignoring the fact that her hair likely looked like a bird's nest hit by a tornado.
"That is not plastic, Sir! That is premium satin from a year-end sale!" Nika shot back, her voice raspy (an effect of too much screaming last night). "And even if you think it's cheap, that dress was bought with my pride! I saved up for three months, skipped my boba treats, just to buy that so I could look decent enough to seduce that bastard Dimas's uncle!"
Bara stepped forward. Each stride created an air pressure that made Nika feel as if oxygen in the room had suddenly become a rare commodity. He stopped right at the edge of the bed, leaning down until his face was only inches away from Nika's panicked one.
"Pride?" Bara let out a low chuckle, a sound that felt like a broken violin scraping against Nika's ears. He tossed the dress right into her face. "Your pride is apparently very cheap, Arunika. Just as cheap as this fabric that feels coarse against my skin. Do you know? The shirt of mine you ripped last night costs enough to buy ten of your father's pathetic little galleries."
Nika caught her dress, clutching it tightly as if it were her last heirloom. She felt incredibly small. In front of a shirtless Bara, radiating an overwhelming aura of power, Nika felt like a speck of dust on the room's velvet carpet.
"Perhaps to you, everything can be measured by the quality of silk threads and the numbers in a bank account," Nika hissed, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, but she refused to let them fall. "But to me, this 'plastic' dress was the only bullet I had to take revenge on Dimas's family for stealing my father's happiness!"
Bara fell silent for a moment. A strange flicker appeared in his eyes as he saw the spark of defiance in hers. Yet, deep down, Bara was struggling with all his might to remain composed.
Truthfully, the scent of vanilla and strawberries from Nika's body still lingering on his pillow was wreaking havoc on his focus. His heart was pounding harder than it did during billion-dollar stock negotiations. He was nervous seeing Nika so disheveled yet beautiful in such a wild way, but his sky-high ego refused to admit that he was... captivated.
"Get out of my bed, now," Bara commanded suddenly, his voice returning to ice.
Nika frowned in confusion. "Huh?"
"Your scent... the smell of your cheap dress is contaminating my bed. I can't sleep in a place tainted by this dizzying aroma of synthetic materials," Bara said, looking away as he feigned checking his phone.
Nika's jaw dropped. "You're kicking me to the sofa?! After what we did last night, you're treating me like I'm some kind of air pollution that needs to be cleared out?!"
"To the sofa, Arunika. Now. Or I'll call security to drag you out in the condition you're in... which is, well, without a single stitch of clothing, just like when you 'attacked' me in the dark last night," Bara threatened without looking back.
Nika let out a low growl. Damn him! This wealthy bastard truly had no soul! With a sense of humiliation that reached the seventh heaven, Nika grabbed a spare blanket, wrapped herself tightly, and trudged toward the long sofa in the corner of the room.
The sofa was made of velvet, but for some reason, it felt incredibly hard to Nika, who had just experienced the plushness of a million-dollar bed. She curled up there, her back turned to Bara.
"The honorable Mr. Bara Vane," Nika muttered loud enough for him to hear. "I swear, one day, I will make you beg this 'plastic dress girl' just for a smile!"
Bara, who had already laid back down in his vast bed, squeezed his eyes shut. He heard the vow. Instead of getting angry, the corner of his lips lifted ever so slightly... almost imperceptibly.
"We'll see about that, Miss Wrong Room," Bara whispered softly, barely audible.
On the hard sofa, Nika tried to close her eyes, even though her heart was still thumping wildly. Awkwardness, shame, anger, and... a lingering heat from Bara's touch last night, all swirled together. It was a truly chaotic morning. A morning that marked the moment Arunika's life would never be normal again.