Page 11 of Addiction

Her anger flared. What an asshole. One of the girls picked up the glass and lifted it to her mouth. Without another thought, Navya crossed the short distance separating them and held the girl’s arm.

“Don’t drink this, please,” she begged. She pointed to the Middle Eastern man standing next to the girl, watching them. “He has spiked your drink. I saw it.”

The girl looked at her in confusion before she stared at her drink and then at the man beside her.

The man gave Navya a menacing look. “I did no such thing.”

“Liar. You tried to spike my drink earlier, but you failed. I didn’t understand what was happening then. But now, I saw you drop a pill in her drink.”

The girl placed her drink back on the bar top and began to back away from the man. The man gave Navya a hard look, promising retribution.

“Lady, you’re making a mistake,” he spat out.

Navya glared at him. Fucking loser.

“Navya, we need to go,” Reina whispered from her side, tipping her head to the bartender, who was communicating with someone on a walkie-talkie. “You’re drawing attention.”

Navya blinked. Fuck. What was she doing? What was wrong with her? From the side, she saw Vasily approaching them. Getting out of here ought to have been her first priority. But she couldn’t have stood by and watched a woman get hurt. Thatwasn’t in her DNA. God only knew what that horrible man had intended for that girl. Thankfully, the bartender had witnessed the situation. Hopefully, the security here would sort everything, and no one else would get hurt. Right now, however, she had to leave.

She followed Reina as the two of them rushed to the exit. Someone caught her arm and spun her around. It was the same man from the bar. That scumbag was gripping her arm.

“Remove your hand from me,” she ordered.

“Or what?” the man threatened.

“Or I’ll make you,” she thundered.

The man laughed, his hand tightening painfully around her instead. Navya swung her fist out and punched him in the nose. His hold on her immediately fell away, and he clutched his nose in pain. Blood began to drip down his jaw.

Reina stared at her in shock. Ignoring her, she marched forward, knowing her sister would follow. Several minutes later, a hand clutched her shoulder. Raw anger fizzed under her skin. She was so going to get into trouble, but this man was annoying her now. How dare he put his hand on her again?

She swung her fist out and swirled. One second, her fist was flying in the air; the next, it was caught in a firm albeit painless grip.

She blinked. Through the rage blinding her, she looked up and further up until finally, a face came into focus. Her breath hitched. No. It couldn’t be. But it was the face from her dreams.

It was the face of Armaan Oshnov.

His dark eyes met hers, and the world around her froze… came to a standstill as they stared at one another. She’d dreamt of him, and thought of him often enough in the four years that had passed. But now, seeing him in reality, she had to admit that her mind didn’t do him justice. In reality, he looked even better, as if God had taken time to carve his face into perfectproportions. Dark tousled hair fell over a broad forehead, with perfectly arched brows and deep brown eyes that sparkled with mischief. His sharp angular cheekbones and wide lips were right now slightly curved in amusement. Added to his facial beauty was his flawless body—broad shoulders and a muscular chest that tapered into flat abs and long, long legs. She’d witnessed his perfection all those years ago in the ring when he’d been fighting her brother. Tonight, dressed in all formal black from head to toe—black suit, black shirt, and black overcoat, he looked… he looked… Fuck, he was gorgeous.

He gently squeezed her closed fist, reminding her that he still held her hand in his. She felt it then, the same electric current that ran over her skin when he touched her. Only whenhetouched her. It had happened that night, too, four years ago, when he’d stopped her from escaping his yacht. She hated him, she reminded herself, but what she hated even more was her own impossible-to-control reaction to him.

She tried to shrug away, but his grip remained firm. His lips tipped up in that arrogant smirk as if he knew he affected her, and then slowly, one by one, he released his fingers from around her hand.

She’d barely drawn a breath when he tilted his head to the side, letting his dark eyes roam over her. Slowly. Leisurely. Like he had all the time in the world. Her body heated up. Butterflies began tap-dancing in her belly. Shit. This was exactly why she never ought to have met him again. He was the only one who managed to draw out these random reactions from her body.

His eyes stopped on hers. “Looks like where you go, trouble follows, isn’t it,moya tigritsa?”

“You...”

“Yes. Have you missed me?”

She snapped out of her daze. She looked behind him to where Reina was coming toward her and subtly shook her head. Reinahalted, her worried gaze swinging between Navya and Armaan. Navya ignored her. Where one Oshnov went, the other two followed. She was not letting her innocent sister fall into their crosshairs, ever.

Armaan splayed a hand to the house behind him. The ring on his pinkie finger glittered. “Shall we take this somewhere private?”

How arrogant was he to assume she’d simply go with him.

“I’m not going anywhere alone with you.”

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