Ruin Me, Gently

Ruin Me, Gently

Symplyayisha

5.0
Comment(s)
295
View
30
Chapters

Isabelle couldn't stop drinking as the music pounded through the club. She was trying to drown out the image of her best friend, Aurora, who was pregnant with her fiancé's child, on what should have been Isabelle's engagement night. But fate had other plans. When an employee calls in sick, Isabelle volunteers to fill in, unaware she is about to walk straight into the arms of Don Miller-the club's most powerful and dangerous client. He was ruthless, commanding, and known for treating women as playthings. Don doesn't believe in love... until Isabelle. One glance, one reckless touch, and something shifts. She stirs a hunger in him he thought he'd buried forever. And when he learns what broke her, Don makes Isabelle an indecent offer: He promises to mend her shattered heart and destroy everyone who betrayed her-if she surrenders to him completely. Two broken souls. One dark deal. Isabelle is about to learn that submission might just be the sweetest form of revenge. What begins as a dangerous bargain soon spirals into something deeper, darker, and far more intoxicating than either expected. Maybe love isn't always gentle. Sometimes it's an obsession. Sometimes it's surrender. And sometimes... it's the most exquisite kind of ruin.

Chapter 1 one

ISABELLE.

I held up my hand, letting the gorgeous little rock that sat in between my fingers do the talking.

"Oh my God." Aurora, my best friend, held my hand so she could take a closer look at the diamond ring.

"T......this looks divine." Aurora praised.

"I know." I couldn't stop grinning.

"I can't believe Dave finally popped the question," Aurora mumbled, not tearing her eyes away from the ring. I could see a bit of tears in her eyes, and that made me smile even more. Yeah, the ring was precious. But above all, she of all people knew how much this meant to me.

I chuckled, trying to push back happy tears, too. "I didn't see it coming. At least not tonight. But I'm glad it happened."

Aurora finally stared back into my eyes. "You are really going to be Mrs Andrew? Oh, come here." She pulled me into a deep hug. I sniffled, then chuckled. "Yes, I am."

"I'm so happy for you, babe. This is the best news I've heard all month." She said,

I shut my eyes for a second, soaking myself in all the love I was getting from my very good friend. "Thank you, sweetheart."

We pulled away from the hug.

"You are going to make a beautiful bride, mi amore."

I smiled harder, wondering why my cheeks weren't hurting since that was all I had been doing all evening.

"Thanks. The kind words mean so much to me. I really hope I will be able to close my eyes tonight. I don't even know how to explain how I feel."

Aurora scoffed, rolling her eyes at the same time. "You are such a lover girl, Bee. But it looks like you are going to be in your man's arms throughout the night so I wouldn't worry if I were you."

I couldn't help with the blush that crept to my cheek.

"Thank you for the kind words. By the way, what are you doing here? I rushed to the restroom to give you and Mom the news on the phone, but I was shocked to meet you in the hallway."

"Uhh....I...I..." Aurora stammered, suddenly looking nervous, but a small smile crept to my lips as the realization hit me.

"Dave invited you to come witness the surprise?"

A nervous laugh escaped Aurora. "Not really. I came here with my colleagues to discuss work. I had no idea I was going to bump into you."

"By the way, I have to go; I don't want to keep them waiting. I will give you a call when I'm about to leave, and congratulations once again." Aurora blew me a kiss, then rushed out of the ladies' room.

....................

"Hi, Sorry to interrupt, but did my fiancé leave a message for me?" I was back at the table, but Dave was nowhere to be found, so I decided to ask the waitress that served us earlier.

"I saw him towards the games room."

I frowned. "Games room?"

"Yes, ma'am. We've got a space for that. Some guests want a serene place to dine, wine, and play pool. The room is just down the hallway, to your left."

I forced a smile, "Thank you." Holding my clutch tighter, I made my way towards the game room. I could see a few people throw polite smiles my way, which I returned. I remember them cheering me up when Dave was on his knee.

'What if there's another surprise?' My subconscious said, causing my smile to grow bigger.

I finally located the room and was about to push the door open.

"You fucking avoid me for days, and here you are with a damn proposal?" The familiar voice caused me to standstill. Apparently, the door wasn't properly shut as I thought.

I frowned. "Aurora?"

"I'm not in the mood for your tantrums. Just take your leave. Tonight's a special night. Don't ruin it, please." That was Dave's voice.

I was lost. This duo had hardly ever made conversation in my presence. Why would Aurora want to ruin my special night?

"I'm pregnant, and it's yours!"

My breath caught in my throat. I couldn't breathe; I couldn't move.

Aurora's voice kept replaying in my head. Literally the same person who said she was happy for me just some minutes ago.

I shook my head, ignoring the silence from the room. I definitely misheard. There's no way something like this would occur under my nose.

Dave's furious voice came through before I could move an inch from where I stood.

"What the heck? Didn't you promise me that you were on the pill?"

My clutch fell off my hand, causing a loud thud on the tiled floor.

The door opened from the inside, and the culprits appeared in front of me. I instantly felt sick in the pit of my stomach seeing the duo together.

Both were shocked to see me standing out there. Aurora, my 'supposed' best friend, was looking everywhere else except into my eyes.

"Baby?" A nervous smile crept to Dave's lips. "What are you doing here?" He was about to come close to me, but I raised a hand, stopping him, as I continued to glare at him through my teary eyes.

"You both played me?!" I whispered in a dead tone. I had no idea when tears rolled down my cheeks. It was as though my chest was repeatedly being stabbed with a knife.

"Please let me explain."

Nothing prepared me for the way those words crushed me. Maybe because a part of me was expecting all of this to be a dream.

"You fucked my best friend till she got pregnant, then you got the guts to propose to me?"

I scoffed. "You both literally act as though you hate yourselves when we are all together, but I know you all must have made a fool of me in your secret romantic times."

"How long has this been going on?" I cried.

"It was just a misunderstanding. A drunken mistake. It never should have happened."

"So you proposed to me out of guilt?"

"I was going to tell you."

"When? On our wedding night?"

"I was waiting for the right time. I didn't want to lose you. Aurora means nothing to me. You are the one my heart belongs to."

With tears still rolling down my cheeks, I ignored Dave and turned my attention to Aurora. "Chief bride's maid, huh?"

Unlike Dave, whose face was filled with guilt, I couldn't say the same for my so-called ex-best friend.

"You had the guts to look me in the eyes almost every day when you continued to bang the man I loved. How do you even sleep at night?"

"Look, I'm sorry you had to find out like this, but maybe Dave isn't meant to be your man." Her voice didn't hold any ounce of regret.

I scoffed, wondering how I had been so blind all this while.

"Aurora?!!!" Dave glared at her.

"There's no fucking way I'm going to let you go after her while I carry your child. Yes, it might have started as a mistake, but didn't you tell me I'm the best person you've ever had in bed?"

"Stop being petty. We all say stupid things in the midst of pleasure."

"You both really deserve each other." I began to take off the ring from my finger.

"Babe, please don't." Dave pleaded.

I smashed the jewelry against his chest, then picked up my clutch from the floor with my shaky hands

"Babe, please."

"Don't leave me, honey. It's not what you think."

"Let me explain. Please."

...............

Hours Later.

"Don is losing it. The ladies with him aren't up to the task. He said he's going to leave if we don't get him a replacement as soon as possible." A staff member said to one of the bar attendants.

The bar attendant who goes by the name Harry slammed a hand towel against the counter. "What do you mean by that? Where the hell are Nancy and Dorcas?" He said at the top of his voice through the loud music playing in the background.

"They are not here yet. They aren't answering their phones either."

"Men!!!"I scoffed as I picked up my shot glass from the counter. "A gender filled with assholes," I mumbled as I gulped down the contents of the tiny glass.

"He's our biggest client. He mustn't leave. Do all you can to keep him there. I will try to get through to Nancy." The staff left while Harry reached for the phone in his pocket. He dialed a number, cursed when there was no answer, and then he began to type furiously on the phone.

"Need help?" I said loud enough to grab Harry's attention. I had no idea why I said that, but nothing prepared me for the looks he sent my way.

Red puffy eyes; makeup smeared, thanks to the tears that couldn't stop rolling down my cheeks for hours.

"You do, but proud as fuck!" I would usually not interfere in what has nothing to do with me. Thanks to the shots that I've had.

"You want me to make a fool of myself before our biggest client by presenting you to him?" He took a step closer towards the counter. Fortunately, there was another bartender on the other side, attending to the few customers. "Girl, give me a break! You just got dumped."

Continue Reading

Other books by Symplyayisha

More

You'll also like

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

Clara Bennett
5.0

I had just survived a private jet crash, my body a map of violet bruises and my lungs still burning from the smoke. I woke up in a sterile hospital room, gasping for my husband's name, only to realize I was completely alone. While I was bleeding in a ditch, my husband, Adam, was on the news smiling at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. When I tracked him down at the hospital's VIP wing, I didn't find a grieving husband. I found him tenderly cradling his ex-girlfriend, Casie, in his arms, his face lit with a protective warmth he had never shown me as he carried her into the maternity ward. The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. Adam admitted the affair started on our third anniversary-the night he claimed he was stuck in London for a merger. Back at the manor, his mother had already filled our planned nursery with pink boutique bags for Casie's "little princess." When I demanded a divorce, Adam didn't flinch. He sneered that I was "gutter trash" from a foster home and that I'd be begging on the streets within a week. To trap me, he froze my bank accounts, cancelled my flight, and even called the police to report me for "theft" of company property. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a charity case he had plucked from obscurity to manage his life. To the Hortons, I was just a servant who happened to sleep in the master bedroom, a "resilient" woman meant to endure his abuse in silence while the whole world laughed at the joke that was my marriage. Adam thought stripping me of his money would make me crawl back to him. He was wrong. I walked into his executive suite during his biggest deal of the year and poured a mug of sludge over his original ten-million-dollar contracts. Then, right in front of his board and his mistress, I stripped off every designer thread he had ever paid for until I was standing in nothing but my own silk camisole. "You can keep the clothes, Adam. They're as hollow as you are." I grabbed my passport, turned my back on his billions, and walked out of that glass tower barefoot, bleeding, and finally free.

The $300 Husband Is A Zillionaire

The $300 Husband Is A Zillionaire

Nap Regazzini
4.6

I woke up in a blindingly white hotel penthouse with a throbbing headache and the taste of betrayal in my mouth. The last thing I remembered was my stepsister, Cathie, handing me a flute of champagne at the charity gala with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. Now, a tall, dangerously handsome man walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his hips. On the nightstand sat a stack of hundred-dollar bills. My stepmother had finally done it—she drugged me and staged a scandal with a hired escort to destroy my reputation and my future. "Aisha! Is it true you spent the night with a gigolo?" The shouts of a dozen reporters echoed through the heavy oak door as camera flashes exploded through the peephole. My phone lit up with messages showing my bank accounts were already frozen. My father was invoking the 'morality clause' in my mother’s trust fund, and my fiancé had already released a statement dumping me to marry my stepsister instead. I was trapped, penniless, and being hunted by the press for a scandal I hadn't even participated in. My own family had sold me out for a payday, and the man standing in front of me was the only witness who could prove I was innocent—or finish me off for good. I didn't have time to cry. According to the fine print of the trust, I had thirty days to prove my "rehabilitation" through a legal marriage or I would lose everything. I tracked the man down to a coffee shop the next morning, watching him take a thick envelope of cash from a wealthy older woman. I sat across from him and slid a napkin with a $50,000 figure written on it. "I need a husband. Legal, paper-signed, and convincing." He looked at the number, then at me, a slow, crooked smile spreading across his face. I thought I was hiring a desperate gigolo to save my inheritance. I had no idea I was actually proposing to Dominic Fields, the reclusive billionaire shark who was currently planning a hostile takeover of my father’s entire empire.

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Madel Cerda
4.5

I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector. That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world. The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor. The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist. Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch—a titan of industry and my best friend’s father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared. "Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb. Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen. "Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back." I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book