Healing the Cold CEO

Chapter One

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The club was alive. Literally. Music boomed from the speakers as the crowd went wild at all the bangers that were being played. The DJ was outdoing himself and the dance floor seemed to agree as men and women left behind their inhibitions and danced the night away whilst screaming the lyrics of the songs at the top of their voices.

The fog machine was working overtime, bringing a more intense atmosphere as the party goers reveled in the darkness and smoke. The Euphoria was real, so real in fact that you could almost catch it with your two hands.

I watched, wide-eyed, as I experienced one of the best rave nights of my life in a club that was so exclusive, even celebrities had to BEG to be let in.

Those were certainly the perks of having Damien Aleksandros on your side. The guy was literally the King of Greece and knew everyone....Well, rather, everyone knew him and wanted to be on his good side.

We had not only been invited to the club but had also taken up the reserved VIP area that was kept aside just for us.

The power that Damien has is certainly...exhilarating and a tad bit scary...

I glanced over to my girl, Gianna, grinning at the sight of her soft smile as she watched her husband tell a clearly interesting tale. She was madly in love with him, that's for sure, and the sight filled me with warmth.

Their relationship may have started off a bit unorthodox with theirs being one of those archaic arranged business marriages, but you would have to be BLIND not to see the way those two looked at each other. Their love story started pretty early with Gianna's massive crush on Damien.

Although once Damien finally accepted that he was obsessed and madly in love with her, he fell hard, and he's never looked back. The two of them have that fairy tale love going on, and it was certainly goals for the rest of us.

Watching their love gave us hope-well, at least Ayana and I. There is no helping Aimi on that one...

I chuckled at the sight of Aimi Hattori, one of my other close best friends who seemed hell-bent on beating an exasperated Luka Zakarian in a game of pool. The two of them have been going at it hard, with their competitiveness pretty impressive bar their psychotic tendencies and PG-rated banter.

Ayana Carrington, the soft-hearted one in our sisterhood seemed to be mediating between them with Ha Joon Hattori, Aimi's brother, backing her up. In short, our friend group was wholesome. Beautiful. Close.

"Well, hello there gorgeous. Have you been waiting for me? Because I know I've been waiting for you all my life."

His deep voice was familiar, words whispered right in my ear as his 6"4 form crowded me, his bulky frame restricting any sort of movement I could have.

Not that you really WANT to move, either way....

I shut down the traitorous thought as fast as it came, focusing instead on keeping my calm and his cheesy lines.

"Oh, that was so bad...it is genuinely appalling that you have any sort of playboy persona. My girls out there really need to look beyond a pretty face."

I murmured, rolling my eyes at his chuckle as he leaned even closer to me, pushing me to lean onto the railing to try and get away from him- and I was failing spectacularly at that too.

"'Pretty' face? Sweetheart, I am anything but pretty. Hot? Sexy? Yeah, I can live with that, but definitely not pretty."

I shook my head at that, focusing on the crowd down below who cheered and raised their glasses as the DJ cut the beat to a particularly famous club banger.

"You really wanna go down there, huh?"

He murmured reflectively, placing his hands against the railing to cage me in. I released a small sigh, both unnerved and awed at the fact that he could read me so well and equally giving up any hope of having him pull away from me.

Not that you can ask any of your girls for help...you signed yourself to this fate when you told them you were dating...like some dumbass...

"And you really won't stop crowding me, huh?"

His laugh was truly a beautiful sound, resonating throughout my body as I reveled in how fantastic it sounded.

Would you get a damn grip, Elena?!

"Well, isn't this what boyfriends are supposed to do?"

His response was a classic from the last couple of days, and who could blame him? I had dug a hole for myself the minute I accepted his stupid dare.

And yet I complained about Aimi's competitiveness... I am such a sellout... And I really need to stop drinking...

Making heated decisions in a moment of drunken stupor wasn't me... Well, until Axle Gray came into my life. But I'd say the nail was driven into my coffin the moment I didn't block my stupid ex-boyfriend like I always did with the others.

I really should have learnt from Gianna's stalker case...men are crazy...and crazier, yet when they can't take no for an answer...

Rio Lombardi was hot. Carefree. Funny. Smart. He was perfect. A little too perfect if you ask me. And...then he wasn't. The spark between us was gone, like it literally flew far, far away-leaving us in the awkwardness that came soon after.

I thought we would be civil with our breakup, heck maybe even stay as acquaintances who never talked and simply settled for stalking each other occasionally on social media. But then the psychopath decided to show his true colors. He decided that he wants to actually be a clingy-borderline psycho ex boyfriend.

He decided to be the 'If I can't have you, no one can' guy. And I decided to show him that my girlfriend side was wildly different from my ex-girlfriend side.

Which one is the real me, I wonder?...

Beating his ass was iconic. But what was especially satisfying was watching Maverick Casey, my family's head of security, beat his ass when he thought it was a smart idea to try and ambush me at the Art Institute.

He really has the worst luck....coming at me on the same day Maverick was visiting the Institute.

I thought he was sufficiently scared off by all of that, but I guess I'm too much of an optimist. The calls were non-stop, the texts coming in one after the other. He was pleading...begging to get back together. I mean, the self-respect had been thrown right out the window at this point, but he seemed hell-bent on getting back with me in some way.

That should have been my cue to cut him off completely. I was going to, but then I was having too much fun on this trip and I got too drunk to keep my mouth shut. And so I spilled the beans to the one person in my entire friend group that I shouldn't have. Axle ate the story up, laughing the whole way as I explained, in great detail, how I had kicked Rio's ass.

Seems my brain has selective amnesia when it comes to forgetting the stupid s**t I do when I'm drunk, because why do I remember that vividly but barely remember getting into this damn game with him???

I mean, the man provoked me. He couldn't believe that I was struggling to deal with an ex-boyfriend. I couldn't believe I was sharing my life story with my 'worst enemy'. So I was going to walk away...until he dared me to use him to get rid of the guy. And not for any other reason other than the fact that he was bored, and it sounded 'fun'.

Now, it sounded enticing at the moment. I mean, I was drunk, but I understood the image that he had. Axle was a force to be reckoned with in upper society circles. His name was synonymous with awe for those in the business who had watched him rise to the top and fear to those who had crossed him and paid the price.

Behind his easy-going smiles and flirtatious but horrible pick-up lines, the guy was the perfect repellant for Rio's crazy ass. Nobody wanted to mess with Gray Security and with good reason. Now, I didn't know his whole story, but I knew enough to be enticed by the prospect of using him.

It was dealing with the aftermath that would be exhausting...

I could admit to myself that Axle was hot. And because of that, many women wanted him. And he had indulged many women indeed. To be classed as one of the women he had bedded would be a disgrace to not only my image but my mental health. I would not forgive myself for being another basic b***h on his roster, even if nothing happened between us.

It's the principal of it all...

I made sure to make that clear, to which I received a laugh and a declaration that I was more of a coward than he thought I was. That he gave me too much credit. And see, that made me mad. It brought out the competitive streak in me. It made my blood boil and even though, in the back of my mind, I knew he was egging me on, I fell for it. And I took up his dare like a dummy.

I declared that I would use him and discard of him just as quickly. That I would show him just how crazy I really was. And I decided to seal the deal between us with a stupid kiss the moment I spotted the paparazzi waiting for celebrities outside the high-end club we were in.

Now, whether I've gone back to that kiss time and time again was irrelevant. What was, however, relevant was the fact that I had chosen to lie to my best friends because I was too embarrassed to tell them about my stupid mistake.

Why he is still going along with it is beyond me...

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