Chapter One: Sour Goodbye.

Chapter One: Sour Goodbye.

“ Sssshhh” Ruben sucked in cold air in an attempt to ease the splitting headache threatening to tear his head apart.

“Mr Ruben, you have come a long way from being Mr Janssen’s lackey. This is wonderful. I heard your app hit five million downloads within a few hours of its launch.” A crooked politician approached Ruben.

“Mmh, thanks. Excuse me.” Ruben took the quickest route to the elevator.

“That rude bastard, being the biggest entrepreneur in the Netherlands, must have gotten to his head.” The politician spat on the floor and walked along.

The elevator stopped at the highest floor of the world-class hotel. With unstable hands, Ruben searched his pockets hurriedly for his room key card, urging himself to be quick to avoid the nosy reporters capturing him in his current state.

Someone had drugged him.

Ruben De Vries gritted his teeth at the thought of whoever dared to drug him, the tyrant of the tech industry. They must have lived a thousand lives to gather the guts to openly challenge him.

Although drugged, his thoughts were logical, and his mind was calm except for his body, which burned like a furnace. In fact, he already knew from the moment he took that drink and it mutated with his blood, fire burned from within him but he had to put up with it and greeted everyone calmly with a stern but professional face.

“Of all days, it had to be when Thomas went on a business trip. Fuck” He cursed his luck under his breath, scanned the card quickly and pushed the door open, closing it behind him hastily as he got in.

He took off his jacket, turned up the air conditioner of the stuffy room, and loosened his tie, ripping his shirt off, the buttons scattering in different directions. But this wasn’t enough to quench the fire burning inside him. He downed a jug of water. Clear liquid dripped out of both sides of his luscious lips and his foxy blue eyes burned with lust.

“What a pretty sight.” The sweet voice of a woman came from a corner of the room. She swirled a key in her right index finger, and a playful but mocking smile danced on the corner of her lips.

Ruben froze for a few seconds. He hadn’t noticed anyone when he walked. “Why are you here?”

He tried to remain calm and logical.

He pumped his hands into a fist, his fingers burrowed deep into his flesh, blood dripping endlessly from the wound, but he didn’t seem to feel anything.

He would never show his weakness to this woman, not now when he feels like pouncing on her and savoring her nectar like a wild butterfly.

Her usually ear grating voice sounded comforting like the sound of soft rain at night, her usually sickening scent invaded his nostrils, wrapped around his head, and took over his thoughts, and instead of the thoughts of barfing, he wanted to wrap his arms around her slender waist, burrow his heads in the valley between her neck and shoulder and inhale more of the fresh scent of flowers she exudes.

The sexual intensity in the room heightened and his body burnt even more. Cold sweat laced his toned muscular body in the cold room, highlighting the contours of his body.

“You wouldn’t even spare me a glance? Eyy, am I that ugly? We didn’t have our moments on our first night after marriage and never since then, but you still managed to look at me until now. What now? You are sick of playing couples?” Tess laughed, but her voice held a tinge of sorrow as she stared at the back of the man she loves wholeheartedly.

Her heart ached at the sight of him trying so hard to resist the effect of the drugs due to her presence, so hard he hurt himself.

“Tess Janssen, I asked you a question. How did you get into my room?!”

“Let me answer your question with a question. How do you feel?” Tess smirked.

“Leave now.”

“No.”

“What do you want?”

“Make love to me.” The room assumed silence immediately as her voice dropped.

“Leave right now,” Ruben roared.

“If it was that person you wouldn’t hesitate to make love to her, right?” Tess’s heart burned with anger at the thought. Without giving him room to reply, she pounced on him, throwing his gigantic frame twice her size on the wide bed.

“Get off me, Tess,” Ruben warned. His husky voice sounded deeper than usual and a sweet, warm breath escaped his lips.

He was unwilling, but his body was already reacting to her touch. He had enough strength to push her away, but he wasn’t willing to. Truth be told, he looked forward to her unexpected dominating outburst.

“Hey there Mr Ruben, scared you cannot control yourself? Then again, all it took was a pinch of ´that´ to render all of your muscles useless.” Tess laughed mockingly, admitting to drug his drink without a tinge of shame.

Ruben’s eyes darkened, gun pointed to his head and he could have never thought she was the one that drugged his drink. A light flashed past his eyes as the small woman on top of him started moving, stimulating him erotically. Her cold lips burned against his skin, producing lewd noises as she groped his torso.

He took in a deep breath. Thick layers of lust clouded his foxy eyes as he scanned her fully clothed body. Grabbing her thin waist, he switched their position, his heavy weight pressed down against her body.

Her face was slightly red, seemingly influenced by the lusty aura emanating from his body. Her liquid misty eyes gazed at him with slight shock, tenderness, and expectations.

He lingered on her face for a few seconds before going on a rampage. He tore all of her clothes off, investigating every inch of her pale milky, and succulent skin, leaving his mark everywhere his lips touched.

Tess squirmed and moaned in pleasure, enjoying every bit of the first and last intimacy with her first love.

They made love until they were both physically drained of all strength and seeped out of consciousness into each other’s arms.

Tess woke up a few hours later. She winced in pain after a failed attempt to stretch, a sign that they went hard and intense last night.

Taking a few cold breaths to ease the pain, she managed to get out of bed and into the bathroom to wash her sticky body.

After a long refreshing bath, Tess got dressed with a spare cloth she brought along. She smiled as her previous wild imagination of Ruben in bed had been turned to a once in a lifetime experience.

She walked up to the bed. Ruben was still fast asleep from the effect of the drugs. He looked less scary and domineering while sleeping, like a tame tiger. More like a domestic cat.

Tess´’s eyes lingered over the numerous red and purple love bites and nail marks she left on his body from their steamy session. Her eyes held a tinge of longing, love, and…sadness.

She wished they turned out differently, wished she didn’t have to use underhanded methods to make love to her husband, and above all, she wished she was the one in his heart, but that is impossible. Using a thick duvet to cover his body from the cold, Tess left her gift to him by the side of the bed, a wrapped envelope.

Taking a last glance at him, she relived the memory of them together. In a split second, her eyes turned cold in contrast to the burning affection from earlier. In the end, he was one of those people that used her.

She exited the room quietly.

…

Ruben woke up with a splitting headache. Throwing the sheets off him, he walked into the bathroom to wash his face.

After the cold water hit his face, memories of the previous night came down to him like showers of rainfall. He gripped the sides of the water basin until his knuckles turned white, his eyes brimming with bottomless rage and hatred.

“How dare that wild and defiled woman touch me?” He thought.

He returned to the room to call Thomas when the sharp corner of his eyes sighted a wrapped item. He tore the package open impatiently. Two bold words written at the top of the paper caused his vision to go blurry. They read ´DIVORCE PAPERS´.

“Tess Janssen seems to have gotten a little braver than usual. Can I catch a fucking break? Did the death of her father shock her wide awake? Before now, she wouldn’t dare to look me in the eyes, but now what? Drugs my drink, forces herself into my bed, and divorce papers! That woman is asking for it.”

Ruben was beyond surprised. He finally got what he wanted, a divorce, but a part of his heart burned furiously from being taken advantage of and dumped in such an embarrassing way. He still yearned to conquer her.

This sudden strange feeling could only be interpreted as rage and desire for revenge by the emotionally unavailable Ruben.

Tearing the divorce papers into shreds, he called Thomas. “Find Tess’s location and send it to me. You have five minutes.” Authoritative rage was evident in his voice.

Without waiting for a response, he hung up, and within five minutes he got a text. “She is out of the country.”

Ruben’s grip on the phone tightened. “Tess Janssen.”

He placed another call immediately. “Find her even if she’s in the pits of hell, process a fake divorce, and spread the news of my marriage to Brittany to her acquaintances.”

On the other end of the phone, Thomas said a silent prayer for Tess. Once the young master has bitten a prey, he never lets go.

Ruben’s phone chimed and what seemed like a scheduled message from Tess popped on his message notification. It read; “Young master, did you like my gift?” with a smiley emoji.

Ruben’s fury heightened from the provocative tone. He swore to find Tess even if it meant his demise.

He could picture a wild smirk on her usually meek and innocent face. Darkness shrouded his heart, and he burned with what seemed like hatred.

No one has ever dared to humiliate him in his 27 years alive, no one except Tess.

Dark blood flowed endlessly as his wound from the previous night opened from his nails burrowing into his palm, but he seemed to be oblivious to this pain, instead his heart seemed to ache out of what felt like hatred and a flurry of conflicting feelings.

Short Poem based on this chapter:

Title: Tess’s unsaid words to Ruben; Words untold.

“I loved hard,

I spent a questionable period of my life fantasizing about our future together, even though it was blurry.

I wish things turned out differently,

Now I can only carry on with life remembering the taste of your lips mixed with a tinge of liquor.

I can’t help but be intoxicated by the overwhelming love I feel within.

But I can’t bring myself to wish you a good life on your journey without me.

I hope your heart is heavy with thoughts of me and I left a deep scar in your heart.”