The Devil's Favourite Obsession

The remaining three men stayed behind in the stifling lounge.

As the others moved towards the dance floor, Cixi discreetly let her gaze travel across the club once more, searching for Cassian, even though she had already told herself she should not expect anything from him. Hope had never been kind to her, yet it refused to die completely.

The dance floor was already crowded, with heavy House music vibrating through the floorboards.

Couples ground flush against one another, abandoning all caution. Hands roamed freely over hips and thighs, filled with fervour and not a hint of hesitation. Their eyes were glazed with insatiable lust.

Lily, Marion, and Cixi exchanged a look before stepping forward, each of them drawing a breath that seemed to lodge somewhere between chest and throat.

Unease settled in Cixi’s stomach at once.

Offering to dance had seemed harmless from a distance. Now it felt like stepping into something she had gravely underestimated.

’Lord, what have I done?’ Cixi thought frantically.

”Let’s go,” Binge said casually, already stepping onto the dance floor and plunging directly into the suffocating crowd.

The three women glanced at one another again, and without a single word being spoken, they reached the same conclusion—to remain close.

On the dance floor, Marion moved hesitantly, her stilettos feeling as though they had been cast from solid lead, yet she forced a polite, agreeable smile onto her face whenever Binge met her eyes.

”Are you married?”

Marion nodded, showing her ring finger.

”Have you ever slept with another man after marriage?” Binge’s next question nearly made her steps falter.

She recovered quickly.

”I love my husband far too much to allow my thoughts to wander elsewhere,” Marion replied with conviction.

”And what about your husband?” Binge asked, watching her carefully. ”Does he feel the exact same way about the marriage?”

Marion shot him a vicious glare. ”I am certain he does. He would never cheat on me.”

She defended Martin in his absence without hesitation.

Binge studied her expression for a moment, then nodded slowly, his heavy brow furrowing as though he were chewing on something bitter.

”I trusted my beautiful young wife too. And look exactly where that blind trust got me.”

For a brief second, something resembling genuine disappointment crossed his face before he masked it again.

Marion found herself unexpectedly disarmed by that glimpse of vulnerability, yet she did not retreat from her thoughts.

”Perhaps you should ask yourself whether you treated her well,” she said carefully. ”Or whether she was forced into something she never wanted.”

Binge’s expression darkened immediately. ”She proposed to me,” he said, pride returning to his tone. ”On her knees.”

”Then you were an absolute fool to fall for her tricks,” Marion replied bluntly.

”I don’t think you care very much about keeping your life,” Binge warned, his voice dropping into that familiar tone of a mafia leader.

Marion mentally rolled her eyes.

The typical underworld threat.

”I am not insulting you,” she clarified, raising her hands in a cautious gesture of peace. ”I am simply trying to help you see the reality of your situation.”

Binge merely clenched his jaw, said absolutely nothing, and pointedly turned his gaze away into the strobing lights.

A few feet away, Lily was aggressively avoiding eye contact with the man dancing heavily in front of her. The man with the swollen eyes had not taken his gaze off her even once. She was cursing him in her mind.

”Are you too terrified to look at the damage you caused?” the man shouted over the pounding House beat.

Lily’s gaze snapped to him at once. ”It was a reflex,” she yelled back, wholly unapologetic. ”Self-defence. Should I have waited politely while you or your boss hurt my friends or me?”

She felt no remorse. Given the same circumstances, she would have done the same thing again.

”So you don’t feel sorry at all?” he asked, leaning slightly closer.

”Would you feel sorry if you were only defending yourself?” She shot back fiercely.

A faint smile touched the corner of his lips. ”My name is Zoyar,” he said. ”What is yours?”

”Why do you need my name?” Lily asked, visibly exasperated. ”We are not going to stay in touch.”

”I should at least know the name of the woman I am dancing with,” he replied, and this time he sounded almost sincere.

”Lily,” she answered at last, her voice almost swallowed by the music, before looking away again.

With the crowd thickening around them, Cixi maintained a polite distance from the man she was dancing with, offering only the occasional courteous smile. She was determined to keep her end of the agreement and nothing more.

The man was tall, in his early twenties, with dark hair combed neatly back. His tanned skin and light brown eyes gave him a confident air. Yet his gaze had not left her once since they had first sat together in the lounge. He watched her not with desire, but with quiet analysis.

”Are you really his fiancée?” he asked at last. His tone carried a mischievous lilt, as though he harboured a secret he fully intended to reveal.

”Yes,” she answered quickly, perhaps too quickly. ”Did you not hear our conversation?”

A sharp coil of panic twisted deep in her stomach beneath her confident façade.

’Was my performance not convincing enough? Did Cassian see straight through my lie? Is that why he refused to come along and protect me?’

Before she could think any further, a drunken man stumbled nearby and collided with her. She lost her balance completely and pitched forward, crashing straight into her dance partner’s strong, waiting arms. Cixi instinctively slammed both her hands flat against his solid chest in reflex.

He pushed the drunk man aside with force, giving him a warning look.

When Cixi tried to step back from him, his arm remained around her waist, keeping her close.

”I did hear,” he continued calmly, ”which is why I find it difficult to understand.”

”Because I am not his type?” Her irritation finally bubbled to the surface. She was tired of hearing that same sentence, which seemed to have attached to her existence, making her feel like an error linked to his name.

She tried once more to step away from him, while he feigned ignorance of her intent, keeping her close.