Chapter 2 THE CHALLENGE

"What did you just do?" Betse couldn't believe what just happened.

She was dumbfounded and at the same time bitter. Her concern was more for the dress. She was already freaking out. It cost her a fortune to rent that dress, what would it cost her to buy it off?

Gasps rippled through the crowd as the icy liquid trickled down Betse's dress, casting the stain wider. Betse's eyes welled up with tears, but she held her head high, refusing to let Joice's cruelty break her spirit.

Just as Joice was reveling in her malicious victory, Kini approached the scene. His piercing eyes scanned the situation, and his gaze settled on Betse, who stood there, drenched and embarrassed.

"What's going on here?" he demanded, his voice stern but concerned.

Joice, realizing she was in trouble, quickly pointed an accusing finger at Betse. "She's an imposter! She doesn't belong here, she doesn't belong with us. I mean, does anyone here even know her? I don't. Makes me wonder how she got her invitation. Gosh! And ruined my evening."

Kini studied Betse for a moment, then turned back to Joice, his expression softening. "I don't believe that for a second. Joice is one of our esteemed guests. I personally sent her an invitation."

Joice's face was covered with embarrassment as she realized her plan had backfired. The crowd murmured, their sympathies shifting to Betse.

He whispered to Joice, "Grow up love! Things don't always have to go your way."

Then he turned to face Betse, his eyes filled with kindness, and placed a gentle hand on Betse's shoulder. "I'm terribly sorry for this unfortunate incident, Miss Walters. Please allow me to make it up to you. Let me escort you to the VIP area, where you can freshen up and enjoy the rest of the evening without any further disturbances."

Betse, touched by Kini's compassion, nodded gratefully. She wondered if the universe was finally playing by her rules.

As they walked away, Kini cast a reproachful glance at Joice, silently reprimanding her for her jealousy-driven actions.

Meanwhile, Joice was left standing there, her heart heavy with pain. She hated it so much that Kini favored and walked away with Betse right in front of her.

Within seconds, the crowd moved on and it was like nothing ever happened that night.

****

Kini had taken Betse upstairs and given her a shirt to change into which she did in the convenience and now it was just the two of them in an empty exquisite room.

"Is this the VIP room?" Betse broke the silence and slithered into the king-size bed.

"It sure is." Kini answered with more than a cupful of pride. "Why? Doesn't it look like much?"

"Oh it most certainly does. Perhaps too much in my opinion." She spoke with a playful voice that echoed the voice of the seducer. But she regretted her answer almost immediately, as she thought it made her look beneath him.

"Then why do you ask?" Kini asked, leaning on one of the posters.

"It seems more like a personal room, like a master's bedroom." She answered, taking note of the slightly opened walk-in closet with shirts and suits and shoes in it. Not to mention the cosmetics and shaving clipper she saw in the convenience when she went to freshen up.

"Quite the perceptive one, aren't you?"

"Well, I am what I am."

"God complex. I like it."

"I am nothing, if not likeable." A naughty chuckle followed those words with a subtle lower lip bite. She figured if she was swimming with the sharks, why not a submarine.

"You think too much of yourself, don't you think?" He questioned softly as he slipped onto the bed like a child on an oiled slide, laying beside her.

Their eyes met with such immediacy that one would suspect they developed invisible hands and grabbed each other. The friction that laid between their barely inches apart faces was so intense it held every molecule between them in place.

Kini gulped in a large lump of saliva and said "I'm rather shocked you didn't give me a reply."

"I don't think." She suddenly blurted out.

"What?" Kini was confused.

"You said I think too much of myself. I don't think, I know." She said with a cute smile that didn't make anything she said seem too egotistic, it was just the right amount.

"Oh my God!" Kini laughed and got off the bed, "I'll definitely be needing some alcohol to dampen your corrosive cockiness."

Betse sat up while he walked to his desk by the window and pulled out a bottle of scotch with one glass and walked back to the bed where he kept them and took off his suit.

"Just one glass?" Betse asked him.

"It's the only one." He answered and sat on the bed.

"There's a plethora of glasses downstairs."

"Well, I don't want to leave this room, this moment, this magical science we both feel. If I leave, I might ruin it, we might lose it and we might not get it back."

Betse was lost in the sight of heavenly being sitting in front of her, "I like the way words roll off your tongue. And we can share the glass."

Kini poured a little scotch into the glass and Betse poured the entire cup down her throat, she needed that golden liquid courage to carry on this charade of hers.

"Whoa, wow! Okay, I've got a competitor." Kini expressed shock.

"You wish."

"Oh, okay. Let's make this interesting." He said and pulled out his phone. "Fastest to finish their glass by the time this bottle finishes, wins. If you win, I'll give you whatever victory trophy you want. And if I win, you'll tell me how you got into my party."

This was suddenly not going Betse's way, she did not expect to be gambling with a billionaire who was suddenly determined to find out what she was hiding. His smile was no longer so sweet to her any longer as she was feeling pressured. She couldn't decline but she also couldn't tell him the truth, so the only solution was to win this challenge.

"Fine. Challenge accepted."

Kini grinned and opened the timer on his phone before they began their game. And naturally, by the time the bottle was emptied, the one with something to lose and something to hide, Betse, won.

They were both now drunk, Betse moreso. And she began talking in gibberish.

"Okay, your clearly wasted. Let's get you some shut-eye." He said and tried pulling her further into the bed but the he tripped halfway and almost fell on her, using his elbow to balance himself on the mattress. With his elbows on both sides, Kini's lips were just an inch away from Betse's.

Her eyes were open enough to see his face above hers and his lips almost touching hers. His heart was racing and just then, he realized the shirt had slipped off her right shoulder, exposing her neck and shoulder and her beautiful skin.

"You're beautiful." He whispered to her in the most ravishing voice possible.

"Thank you." She blushed.

His head slowly shifted to the right and with his lips pouted, he gently lowered them to her neck, reaching to plant a sensual kiss on her pulsating neck.