Corrupted Chaos: An Enemies to Lovers Forced Proximity Romance (Tarnished Empire)

I texted Lucas as soon as I got to the club, then I disappeared into the crowd. It was dim enough for people to lose their identities under their masks, but I still found my friend at the bar in all white with a feathered white mask around his eyes.

He handed me the black one and said, “White and black swans. Somehow, I think it’s poetic.”

I chuckled as I slid mine on. “Probably not.”

“Let’s get Izzy Bizzy a drink,” he murmured. “I want that look on your face gone.”

“I should probably just let you have fun and take one for the team. I’m not in the mood.”

“This is what I mean.” His shoulder bumped mine as we took a seat at the bar. “Something’s up with you. I should have brought the damn candy canes so we could talk it out.”

I pulled my hair from the tight ponytail I normally wore to work and shook it loose around my mask. Then I leaned over and unbuttoned his white suit. “We’re not at the office. Candy canes don’t work now.”

His lips pinched at the corners as they thinned, while his blue eyes bored into me. “They work about as good as we’re going to get, considering we don’t have the real thing.”

I studied him. “Are you good?”

He sighed and wiped a hand over his face. “You know you don’t always have to be my sponsor, right? And I’d tell you if I was at my breaking point.”

I picked at a nail. “I’m not saying that you wouldn’t. I’m just—”

“You’re not sure you’d tell anyone if you were about to go off the deep end? So you’re projecting your own hypothetical actions onto me?”

Scratching my forehead, I looked around the bar. A blonde bartender with a peacock mask carried over a mojito for me and stared at Lucas with lust in her big green eyes. Poor girl had no idea that Lucas would never sleep with her, but I had to admit, Lucas in a white suit was a sight to see. Even so, he liked brunettes with beards, and she didn’t have either of those attributes. “You want a drink now? On the house?”

He chuckled and pulled my stool close like he wanted her to believe we were together. I knew the drill. I laid my head on his shoulder and saw her face fall almost immediately. “I’ll have an old-fashioned.”

“Great.” She hurried away to make his drink.

I gazed up at him lovingly. “Would you like me to act like your girlfriend all night or just for the next minute?”

He pinched my side, and I yelped. He laughed as he said, “If I did like women, you’d be the perfect one.”

“Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m a mess according to . . .” I almost said Cade but then cleared my throat. “Gerald.”

“You finally get hit by the sad bus and are depressed you lost your shit boyfriend now?” He pushed his lip out, and I flicked it. “Fuck, Izzy. That hurt. I’m only teasing you because you’re not sad about that and you know it.”

“Well, technically I am sad,” I admitted but waited for the bartender to drop off his drink before I continued. “Am I sad about Gerald?” I hummed for a second like I was thinking about it. “Probably not. He’s finally stopped texting.”

“No shit. Do you know why he stopped now?”

“Not really.” I glanced away.

“What aren’t you telling me? You came back from that trip like you had a broken heart, but . . .” The freaking lightbulb in his head must have gone off. “Do you have a broken heart, Izzy?”

I took a swig of my mojito, staring into my drink. He paused so long that I glanced up.

The thing about Lucas was he knew my quirks, my tells, my everything. That’s what you got when you worked so closely with someone. It was funny, my twin sister may not have been able to pick up on them, but someone I worked with forty hours a week and then hung out with on the side certainly knew me best. Perceptive colleagues who spent the majority of their time with one another could easily learn more than was intended for them.

“You’re fucking Cade? Is he the one who broke your heart?” my friend bellowed.

“Jesus! Be quiet.” I smacked his arm. “I’m not fucking him. Not anymore. And it was mostly hate fucking. Honestly, most of the time, I really despised him . . . except when I didn’t.”

“That doesn’t even make sense, Izzy Bizzy.” His tone sounded soothing and concerned.

“No. Don’t do that.” I hated being coddled. “Don’t get all big brother on me. I already have four of them.”

“Each and every one of them are hot too. Please tell me that one day, one of them will swing my way.”

“Not as of yet, but I can’t have you as another overprotective brother-in-law. So you’re going to have to steer your spear not so near.”

He choked on his drink as he laughed. “The fuck are you talking about? I’m not trying to marry anyone.”

“Right. I know. But my sister wasn’t trying to get married either, yet here I am with a brother-in-law.”

“True. True. I think we need shots.” He rubbed his jaw. “And another drink. Damn, Izzy. I was not expecting you to tell me you fucked our boss.”

I groaned. If I was laying it all on the table, I should confess to the rest that was bothering me. “And quite frankly, I can handle that. But I . . .” I took a breath and said what I needed to. “I can’t handle losing someone else because I lost someone when I was really young.”

Lucas sat up straight, in disbelief, like he was a dog who’d heard a suspicious sound. His ears were perked, ready to attack or protect his best friend. Me.

That’s why I decided to tell him. Why I knew he’d be the one to understand.

So as people danced around in masks and had the time of their lives, I told my best friend everything. And he listened. His jaw may have dropped when I told him about the cabin retreat and about my first love, but he didn’t judge me. He didn’t even wrinkle his nose at me.

And at the end of my story, he leaned in. “Was he at least good?” Lucas whispered close to my ear, and I threw up my hands before dropping my head on the bar.

“You’re a terrible friend, you know that?” I asked without picking up my head.

“I’m your best friend,” he growled before pulling my hair so I would sit up. I glanced at him. “And I ask the questions that matter. Because you know what will happen if he’s good?”

I rested my elbow on the bar and set my chin in my hand to give him the full attention he wanted as he dragged out his point. “What will happen, dear Lucas?”

“You won’t get over him. You’ll find your way back again and again.”

“I told you it was mostly hate fucking.”

“Hate fucking is the best fucking, and we all know it.” He held up a shot of rum and ticked his head at mine. “Cheers to you and the dumpster fire that your life is about to be.”

“I’m not cheers-ing to that.” I had lifted my shot glass but pulled it back.

“Fine. Cheers to me pulling you from the dumpster fire that you’re inevitably about to fall into.”

I rolled my eyes but clinked my glass against his before I downed it. “I hate that you’re probably right.” I took a deep breath. “I already told him we’re going our separate ways.”

“Ri-i-ight.” He dragged out the word. “Cade Armanelli doesn’t let go of something he wants.”

“We don’t know that he wants anything more from me,” I said quietly.

“He does. And I’ve read that the man could have single-handedly managed the hacking of this election, Izzy. He’s a freaking god amongst us, even if we want to pretend he’s not. He won’t let you go.”

I rubbed my eyes and then swore because of the makeup I’d put on. “Get more shots, Lucas. We’re going to need them.”

Our night should have progressed into a blurry fun mess, but instead, Lucas told me he was going to the bathroom and that I should stay put.

Instead, I decided to wander around and see if I knew anyone. Most of our team hadn’t mentioned coming out to the Halloween party, but I knew people had to let off a little steam.

It was only minutes later that I saw that mask.

It was in the corner of the club, hidden so well that most people just passed by him. But I felt his eyes. His dark stare. My whole stomach clenched in fear, anticipation, and hunger.

Cade Armanelli had shown up in that same Scream mask from our last pre-Halloween event at Stonewood Enterprises.

Not even a second later, the lights cut out in the whole club.

Screams rang out, and I gasped when, a second later, someone grabbed me. I jerked away, ready to fight until I heard the gravel in his voice close to my ear. “Fight me, dollface. We’ll both enjoy this more if you do.”

“Are you kidding me right now, Cade?”

He shoved me up against the club wall as people milled around, trying to get their bearings in the dark. “Why would I kid about fucking that pussy? The lights are out for a reason.”

“Jesus, that was you?” I glared at him and then hit his dark shoulder.

His head lowered in the mask, and I shivered as adrenaline coursed through my veins. He leaned in and whispered against my ear. “You like the mask, baby doll? Want to fuck a stranger instead of the guy you’re trying your best not to love?”

Love.

I knew I loved him. It was the reason my soul felt alive right then, why my skin felt the shock of his touch. His hand was at my thigh, and I whimpered. “People are going to notice, Cade. There’s no music or anything. We can’t do this.”

It only took a moment of him sliding his phone out and pressing a few buttons for the music to blast on with a few of the strobe lights. People screamed in celebration, and then his hand dropped his phone back into his pocket, only to pull out that switchblade he always carried with him. “Now, I’m pretty sure I can do what I want to the woman in black.”

“I thought we weren’t playing my silly game?” I lifted a brow.

“Aren’t we? You’re at the club, showing off half a dress, talking to any guy who holds you hostage, in a mask.”

“Hardly showing it off when the lights are out.”

He chuckled. “Exactly.”

The fucker had done it for that very reason, I bet.

“I’m done.” I tried to push past him, tried to play it off as him being ridiculous. It was my best excuse to avoid my heart beating so fast that it might jump out of my chest and into his hand where he’d have control of it, where I’d never get it back.

Yet, Cade wasn’t done with me. And Caden Armanelli had come to play. He grabbed my hair and shoved me against the wall, then put his knife at my neck. “Did I say you could be done? Do you think you get to walk around swaying that nice ass for someone other than me?”

My nipples pricked and my breathing hitched as I felt my heart jump into his hands and saw how he held my life in them too.

“Look at how hot you look when someone threatens your life. How wet are you, dollface?”

I chewed my cheek, not wanting to answer but knowing it may be the wettest I’d ever been.

He pushed the knife farther into my neck. How people just walked by with no concern for a woman up against the wall was beyond me. “Answer me. Or say stop, Izzy. Tell me now if you’re ready to play.”

I lifted my chin. “Not wet enough,” I answered and smirked at how the grip in my hair tightened.

“You’ll pay for that,” he growled. “Unzip me, baby. And work my cock into you. I want to feel your pussy milking me, strangling me, squeezing me.”

Social etiquette was gone. The fact that we were in public meant nothing. All I saw was him. This man knew how I wanted it, how I would beg for him to take me in the most fucked-up ways, and how it would turn me on. He accepted the twisted part of me and knew when to grab hold of it and not let it go.

I unbuckled his pants and drew him close. He took one step toward me like he was shielding us from the world. With his big hoodie on and his back to everyone, he practically was.

I pushed my panties to the side and guided that thick length to me. I rimmed my folds with his pre-cum, and he let out a low hum while I whimpered. Then I whispered, “I missed you, Cade.”

And he dug that knife just a bit deeper. I felt the pinch and the skin break. A beautiful dark crimson ribbon of blood dripped down, down, down into my cleavage and he took that moment to lift his mask. Cade watched the red, his eyes full of possession and darkness before he dipped his head low to lick it from my chest. My whole body quaked at the feeling, completely hypnotized by the way he expertly lapped it away. Then, he pulled the mask back in place and I couldn’t refuse myself anymore. Giving in to what I wanted, I wrapped one leg around him and mounted his cock.

He thrust in immediately too, fucking me with that mask in my face—haunting me, consuming me, owning me with a goddamn knife to my throat. I was lost to him, and I wanted to be. It was wrong and I didn’t want to be right.

We both moaned and reached our orgasms fast, him coming inside me like it was the only place to be and me clenching around him like I needed his fucking dick to survive.

After a moment, he stepped back, and I gasped at him taking away his cock and the knife. It was a monumental loss.

I stared as he readjusted the bottom half of my dress and then zipped up. “You’re mine, Izzy Hardy. Even if I have to mask up to have you.” He left me then.

I didn’t know what to do other than stare after him.

It took me a good five minutes to make myself move. When I found Lucas, he’d been drinking without me, and I was about ready to catch up.