CHAPTER 1

Sasuke could've done it all for her.

Break away from his old money family, leave everything behind, and start over on his own, a small startup over his family's conglomerate so they could be together. But no. Sakura didn't want that.

Three years after university, Sasuke is sipping vodka alone in the bar counter while a jazz band played the sprightly rhythm of Sing, Sing, Sing luring most invited couples to the dance floor on a $300 million megayacht cruising the Atlantic headed to the Bahamas.

It was a lavish party of about 35 guests--celebrities, tycoons, heirs--and a service crew of 70. These multi-millionaires didn't need a reason to party and would celebrate any occasion, but this cruise was especially put together by Naruto for Sakura's 25th birthday.

A 35-carat engagement ring gleamed on her finger as Naruto twirled her about, feet adorned with Jimmy Choos, looking brighter and more vibrant than ever.

Sasuke's eyes stayed sharp, all too wise not to let his heart skip a beat at the way her emerald eyes reflected illumination accompanied by a signature smile that directs and demands attention like a dagger, her head held high, shoulders non-brittle as they pressed their way into the lounge bar.

She slumped against the counter, panting.

"Ah, I'm toast!"

She combed her fingers through her damp hair, flipping it over to one side so her neck is exposed to him, reddish and brownish spots matted with crabbed cursives of pink hair strands.

"You were wonderful." Naruto propped up on her left shoulder giving it a kiss. "As always."

When she reached for Sasuke's unfinished drink, one swift maneuver and Sasuke had downed it all. She smiled and looked at him seeming entertained, chin rested on her hand, teeth on her lip.

"Stingy. Glutton," she called him playfully.

He deadpanned.

She turned around and kissed Naruto on the lips. "Please order me a cocktail while I freshen up."

Naruto wrapped his arms around her, pressing their foreheads. "Freshen up? Why? I can't take it being away from you, not even for a minute."

"I'm hot. And sweaty." She kissed him again.

"I like you hot and sweaty." He kissed her a little deeper.

She pushed back lightly, forefinger against his lip, a gesture that struck Sasuke as if it were a beam that suspended a string from which Naruto hung by the neck.

"No, not here. Not now," she teased. "Wait like the good boy you are. And keep Sasuke company for me, will you, Boo? He looks like he needs it."

Sasuke pressed his temples while huddled over his empty glass.

Naruto's hypnotized gaze never left her until she was completely out of the salon.

"So… What's your problem?" There was hardly any genuine concern in Naruto's tone when he asked, sporting a lopsided grin as he took the seat next to Sasuke.

"You." Sasuke didn't bother hiding his irritation.

"Me? Anything here that isn't up to your standards, your majesty?" Naruto quipped. "What? Tell me. We're here to have fun, not that grumpy face. Speaking of which, your wife. Didn't you come in here together? Where is she?" He looked around.

Sasuke pointed behind him, in an isolated corner table where a fringed, dark-haired young woman can be seen absorbed in her phone, wearing a headset that dwarfed her face, making her features almost impossible to see where the two men sat.

"You aren't going to ask her to dance?"

"Her? Dance?" Sasuke snorted. "She's not capable of a wide range of activities. If this vessel were to sink right now, she'd stay right there on her phone and sink with it like a log."

"Oh, come on, don't curse Dad's ship like that. I was informed by the cockpit there'll be a storm meeting us tonight," complained Naruto. "You know what? I got just the right thing to energize overworked salary men like you, pull you out of that neurotic state of mind..."

"At least... Unlike you, I'm not depending on a monthly allowance to get people to stay with me and call me all sorts of names."

Naruto snickered and ran his hand on his mouth, rubbing off the intemperate smile bashfully. "There's more where that came from. It's cute. The things she does to me."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes in contempt. Not for any longer, he thought. Not once she shows her wretched true form beneath that beautiful skin.

"Besides, what's so wrong with a monthly allowance?" continued Naruto, "I'm kinda like Dad's portfolio manager who parties on the side… Joe?" Naruto gestured to the bartender. "That baby I bought from Vietnam last week?"

A few minutes later the bartender brought in a flask-shaped bottle with a whole cobra preserved inside.

"It's medicinal, it's aphrodisiac…" Naruto poured the wine into two new glasses, the gems on his rings playing with the light.

Sasuke flinched slightly at the possibility of the snake coming alive right out of the bottle's mouth at lightning speed to exact revenge on them.

"Here." Naruto slid a glass in front of him.

"Are you insinuating something by giving me this?" Sasuke cocked his brow.

Naruto's face scrunched. "What? Like bedtime troubles? Do you?"

"No," Sasuke answered irately.

He sniffed the liquor suspiciously and drooped the corners of his mouth. It smelled like chicken. He expected it to be sharper, even stinging to his eyes as strong alcohols tend to do. Instead, it smelled like raw chicken fat. A predator tasting like prey.

"I'm just beginning to get tired of it," said Sasuke, his nose showing a slight scrunch.

"Of what?" Naruto asked unsuspectingly.

Sasuke moved his glass around, studying the liquid and its minutest components. "Had father refrained from implicating my position in the company in my ability to give them grandchildren, I wouldn't think twice about living in a penthouse all by myself. She's yet to show me any merit in keeping a wife and staying married."

"Hmmm…" Naruto considered a tactful response. "Well, you don't have to think so much about it." He shrugged breezily.

"Hn. Easy for you to say."

"Who knows, you might end up liking her for real. I'm sure you'll find something."

"I don't want to hear that from you."

"What?" Naruto feigned taking offense. "I have good tastes!"

Sasuke stayed silent, wiping moisture from his fingers with a paper napkin.

Naruto looked over his shoulder. "She's pale and plain, but she's a beauty. And she looks like she would be nice."

"Not at all. Empty, more like."

Naruto continued his evaluation, rubbing his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"She might not be a social butterfly like Sakura..."

A vein popped in Sasuke's neck.

"—but she seems like the type that would cook you delicious meals."

As Naruto's back was turned away, he failed to see Sasuke's hardening glare boring holes into the back of his head.

"Stop looking at other people's wives, especially mine," said Sasuke. "You can't be too greedy. Leave some for the rest of us, will you?"

"Oh." Naruto laughed, turning around. "Getting a little jealous are we?"

"Am I now?" Sasuke scoffed into his glass as he took another sip. "At the end of the day, it's all business."