Chapter 6 Party like Gatsby
Party like Gatsby
TERRANCE
Allan Caspian’s mansion and the surrounding park took up ten acres in Ardaine’s priciest neighborhood. When we arrived, the property was already crawling with security. We made it through the strict search on entry, and I left my gun in a safety box by the guarded reception area.
“This is exactly the type of event where you’d be perfectly fine going by yourself if you wanted.”
Smoothing a hand through his hair, Lothair gave me a sideways glance. “I couldn’t have known that, could I?”
“I thought you were a regular guest at Caspian’s parties.”
Did he want me here?
“Since it seems to be so safe, how about you take a night off?” he said. “Have a drink and enjoy yourself.”
I glanced around the gaudy atrium, furnished with golden-painted armchairs and red carpets.
The outrageously overdressed guests made their way up the stairs in careful formations, depending on how much assistance their outfits required.
One omega wore a fifteen-foot-long train over his gown, and two people had to follow him, carrying the heavy fabric.
Ironically, the neckline of his gown plunged down to his stomach, exposing his pierced nipples.
Another omega balanced on chopstick-like heels, flanked by two alphas who all but carried him.
Stunned, I recognized an award-winning pop singer dressed in nothing but strategically placed jewelry.
“This isn’t my preferred way of enjoying free time,” I told Lothair.
Lothair rubbed his chin and grinned. “Let’s make it a team-building activity.”
I suppressed an eye roll. I had a suspicion of what Lothair’s idea of team building might be.
He wore nothing under his tailored jacket. No tie, no shirt, no undershirt. When he unbuttoned the jacket, something flashed above the waistband of his pants. Golden underwear? Gold seemed to be the theme of the evening.
I adjusted my bow tie as we walked up the grand staircase to the second floor of the mansion.
“Don’t fidget, Terrance. You’ll fit right in.”
On the contrary. In my classic black tuxedo, I must have stuck out like a sore thumb among the colorful crowd.
Our host was notorious for his grand parties, but in my career, I’d never worked for anyone who would attend them.
Caspian only invited the crème de la crème—no wannabes and definitely no journalists ever made it inside his circle.
Hence, these events were shrouded in mystery, while the most insane rumors circulated about them.
If I were to believe the gossip, what we’d find upstairs would be a pile of copulating bodies, doused in caviar and cocaine, with some satanist symbols hanging on the walls.
“How long have you known Caspian?” I asked when we were nearing the top of the stairs.
Lothair shrugged, gazing ahead. “Since the beginning. I’m far from being his biggest star, but he seems to like me.”
We entered a large ballroom, and my eyes watered.
Everything was over the top.
The lights shimmered, glitter rained from the ceiling, and the music throbbed through the floors. I inhaled and coughed.
The room smelled of heat.
Omega slick and sweat. Cologne. Roses. Wine. Heat.
My cock tingled.
They must have used some artificial perfume to emulate the scent of omegas in heat. How else would they achieve it?
Lothair took a deep breath, groaned happily, and slapped my shoulder. “That’s the good stuff. Come, we’ll have a drink.”
“Team building means I’m working.”
He only laughed. “Sure you are. They took your gun at the door, remember?”
I followed him to one of the bars, trying not to stare at the crowd, but fuck… I’d never seen anything like it.
The outfits were doing my head in. The alphas wore suits but often in wild colors, like red or shimmering silver.
Some had foregone jackets and only wore pants, their bare chests toned and oiled.
A few had masks on their faces. The omegas looked like a flock of peacocks and parrots.
There were feather boas, red leather pants, sheer tops, nipple tassels, outrageous wigs, and fake pink fur. And gold. So much gold.
I knew a few of the faces from movies and media, but not all of them.
One omega sported a golden thong and a collar and nothing else.
An alpha in a white tuxedo and big black shades held the golden chain attached to the collar.
The omega knelt at his feet, hugging his leg, while people chatted to the alpha casually.
As I passed the couple, the boy looked at me and licked his lips.
The alpha fisted his hair and tugged, and the omega’s eyes closed, lips parted…
“Manhattan. Twice.”
I glanced up. We were at the bar, and Lothair leaned against the counter, smirking at me.
The bartender was a gorgeous omega in his twenties who smiled at me sweetly.
“Coming right up, gentlemen.”
He turned around to take a bottle of vermouth from a shelf behind him, and I swallowed a gasp. His simple black pants had a huge, round hole in the back, revealing his naked ass and a delicate chain disappearing between his ass cheeks.
I angled my body to face the bar so I could hide my erection.
Lothair observed me, his lips quirking. “Don’t worry, Terrance. Most people in this room will be sporting boners for half of the evening. It’s part of the fun.”
He wasn’t trying to hide. He stood with his legs parted, one elbow on the bar, his other hand on his hip. His pants were tented.
Predictably, Lothair was well endowed.
“Relax,” he said, and I snapped my head up.
Did I just check out a client’s hard-on?
He thrust my drink at me and took a gulp from his.
“Thanks, sweetheart.” He blew a kiss at the bartender and gestured for me to follow him.
I sniffed the Manhattan. “This is strong.”
“I know, right? Pity we can’t get smashed. Let’s go look at the exhibit.”
Was there an exhibit? Something told me it wouldn’t be modern furniture or recent scientific breakthroughs.
We rounded a pillar, and the view of the ballroom below opened. Pole dancers on elevated platforms twirled in every corner. Their golden body paint and flowing movements made them look like burning torches.
Lothair descended three steps into the pit of the ballroom, and the crowd seemed to part for him. He headed to the center, where a throng of people surrounded a stage.
A round platform, maybe seven feet above the ground, dominated the place. A glass barrier shielded it from all sides, making it impossible to scale or jump over—for a human, at least.
On top of the stage stood a circular bed.
I squinted through the shimmering air, disbelieving.
The scent of heat was real.
A couple sat on the bed; the alpha was massive and muscular, his dark skin painted with a golden sheen. In his lap writhed a slender, pale omega boy, golden handprints all over his smooth body. He threw his head back and cried out, the noise drowned out by the music and chatter.
They were fucking. And the omega was in heat.
I stared, transfixed.
The size difference, the different shades of their skin, their beauty, the scents…
A moving bulge distorted the omega’s stomach.
With my eyesight, I could discern the drops of pearly heat cum bubbling up from his slit and dribbling down his sweet little cock.
He was young. Twenty-two or twenty-five?
His face the picture of ecstasy, he reached back to clutch at the alpha’s neck and arm. His climax went on and on…
Caspian had an omega in heat as a decoration at his party.
It seemed the wild rumors hadn’t been so far from reality.
The alpha flipped the boy, throwing him onto all fours, and he pumped his hips hard. He pulled the tiny omega onto his huge cock, and the boy shrieked, his cum spraying the bed. The giant knotted the boy for all to see.
They rolled again. Full and sated, the omega curled up in the alpha’s embrace. With how they sat with their legs spread, the omega’s stretched rim peeked out above the alpha’s big balls. The alpha’s cum was leaking out. They rocked together lazily, and the alpha kissed the boy’s head.
I gulped my drink, my hand shaking. My dick throbbed, but I felt less awkward about it when I saw all the horny people around me, palming their groins and groping each other.
“Gorgeous,” Lothair said next to me as if we were admiring a sculpture.
Suddenly, three men approached us from the side.
“Lothair! Fashionably late as always.”
“Caspian, Robert, nice to see you.” He raised his eyebrows at the third man, a small, scantily clad omega wedged between the two alphas.
“Oh, this is Julio. Our muse.” Caspian kissed the omega’s temple, and Robert patted his butt.
They didn’t even look at me; only the omega, Julio, eyed me curiously, his gaze lingering on the obvious bulge in my pants. I moved to stand partially behind Lothair.
“So, what do you think?” Caspian gestured around.
“Grand, as always,” Lothair said. “You’ve outdone yourself with the exhibit too.”
Caspian grinned wolfishly. “That’s nothing yet. It’s the boy’s second heat, fifth day. They’ll be at it for the entire night. But I have a midnight surprise for everyone.”
“Oh?”
“A game. You’ll see.”
“I can’t wait.”
The throuple moved to greet other guests, and Lothair beckoned for me to come with him.
A man in nothing but a vest and a jockstrap passed us with two trays of food. Lothair snatched a couple of small plates of something colorful and elaborate. The man smiled at him and gave me a nod before continuing his tour through the crowd.
We found a lounge group, a little to the side but with an overview of most of the room. A golden-painted dancer hung upside down just a few feet to the left. Lothair settled comfortably against the sofa’s backrest, handed me one plate, and adjusted his groin.
I wasn’t hungry—we’d eaten dinner on the way here—but the strange red cubes made me curious.
They turned out to be aged cheddar cheese in some jam.
Not bad. The vol-au-vents were filled with chicken and shrimp in a creamy sauce.
I polished off the plate in a minute and put it on a shelf behind the sofa. Then I nursed my drink.
“First impressions?” Lothair asked, his eyes on the dancing omega to our left.
“Fancy.”
He chuckled. “Terrance, man, that won’t do. I need your honest opinion. Team building, remember?”
The alcohol warmed my chest, the drink appearing weaker the more I drank. As a shifter, I wouldn’t be affected by it. The scents, noises, and shimmering glitter would mess with my brain much more than any drug could. Sometimes, heightened senses were a nuisance.
“It’s outrageous, over the top, and spitting in the face of world hunger.”
Lothair laughed merrily. “The food’s nice, though?”
“It would be a waste to throw it out since you took it for us.”
“Thank you for your honesty. I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment.”
“Why did you accept the invitation, then?”
“Caspian is one of the five people in this town who decide on who is in and who is out. As long as he thinks I’m in, I have a steady stream of jobs lined up and an endless pool of pretty people who want me to fuck them.”
“Everything a growing boy needs.”
He ignored my jab. “Look. What about him?”
“Are you seriously asking me to approve of your conquest for the night?”
He waggled his eyebrows, his violet eyes flashing. “I’d even let you ID him.”
“I gather that Caspian has already vetted everyone in here.”
“True. What do you think?”
I scanned the man Lothair pointed out. He was tall for an omega and lean, with a thin waist, narrow shoulders, and slender limbs.
He wore a sheer tunic over a bikini bottom and nude high-heeled sandals.
His hair was dyed almost white, with subtle blueish streaks.
One earring dangled along his graceful neck.
He looked around coldly with his piercing blue eyes, and his plush lips curved into a spectacularly bitchy sneer.
“Superior.”
Lothair hummed thoughtfully. “I could put him in his place.”
“Would it be worth the effort?”
“Maybe not. Him, then.” He gestured with his glass toward another man, a curvy, dark-haired omega in a tight, embroidered corset.
His ample chest spilled over, big nipples sticking out.
An image flashed through my mind of Lothair sucking one of them while his fingers dug into those generous thighs. I swallowed the last of my cocktail.
“Should we rate all the omegas in the room on a scale from one to ten?” I said, keeping my tone carefully neutral.
“Was that sarcasm, Terrance? Tsk.” Lothair took my empty glass. “I’m going to mingle. I’m giving you forty-five minutes to have any kind of fun, then I expect a report. Be here at half past eleven.”
With that, he walked away.