Chapter 19
Tyler
Tonight’s society function was much like the last one, and the one before that, and the one before that.
Stella had warned me they all followed the same basic sequence of events—dinner, dancing, donations—but I hadn’t anticipated how quickly they’d start to blur together.
Fancy clothes, glittering décor, mind-numbingly boring conversation.
When it wasn’t infuriating. During cocktail hour, I’d overheard two men discussing their doomsday plans in hushed voices.
One said he’d bought shock collars to control his guards.
The other planned to abscond to his private bunker, ringed in land mines to keep interlopers away.
It solidified my belief that billionaires were food, not friends.
At least Richard wasn’t at this party.
I saw a lot of other semi-familiar faces, though.
“Don’t people get sick of seeing the same assholes over and over?” I whispered to Stella during dinner.
“No. They’re too busy trying to one-up each other.”
I lifted my gaze to the room around us, still coming to terms with the fact that this was a house and not a museum. Specifically, AJ’s family home, where he’d grown up. His parents were the ones hosting tonight’s event, though I’d only glimpsed them briefly through the crowd.
I refocused on my plate. Part of me had hoped this ultra-exclusive world would act as inspiration for my own parties, but everyone was too stuck in the past to inspire anything other than a yawn.
I could have thrown this event in my sleep.
Sterling silverware, white bone china, floral centerpieces.
Sure, it was done to an impeccable degree, but at the end of the day it was all so .
. . blah. No wonder Stella had sought a way to dissociate.
That thought brought me up short. Was I actually empathizing with her?
No. Absolutely not.
Beside me, she picked up the second half of her sandwich and took a tentative bite. It wasn’t just bananas and peanut butter tonight. She had a side of unsweetened applesauce to go with it. A veritable buffet.
I opened my mouth to ask if that meant she was feeling better, but didn’t want to seem like I actually cared. Because I didn’t.
Instead, I tucked back into my own delicious food.
That was one thing I had to give the rich.
Their chefs were better than mine. Hmm. Maybe I could find a Michelin-starred restaurateur with a shady past and rope them into working my upcoming party.
There was still time. The tunnels had needed more work than I first thought, and it set my target date back by several days.
Not that I was strict about when I hosted my events.
Sometimes, it was every four weeks, sometimes much longer; it all depended on the location.
The unpredictability of it was part of what made people so desperate to attend.
After dinner, we remained in the glittering ballroom, trapped by a ninety-minute-long auction.
Up for grabs were a stunning array of luxury items and vacations, the odd old-world painting thrown in for good measure.
I raised my hand a few times, winning a five-thousand-dollar pair of diamond cufflinks, losing on the rest. It was all for show, to prove that I had money to toss around.
The hosts thanked the crowd at the end, and the stage was cleared to make way for a twelve-piece band. Two tables over from us, AJ sat in my line of sight, even more handsome than I remembered. He caught my eye and subtly tipped his head toward a side door.
I nodded and leaned toward Stella. “We’re being summoned away.”
“Good. I’m so bored I could fall asleep.”
I dropped a kiss on her bare shoulder. To annoy her.
She jerked, clipping me on the mouth.
I licked her.
“Ew!”
Every head at the table swiveled our way.
“Sorry, thought I saw a bug,” she said.
I straightened, lips twitching. Her expression promised retribution.
Around us, the younger attendees in the crowd started filtering out of side doors one by one, so as not to draw attention to their departure. Stella and I remained where we were, waiting for our chance.
Phil was seated on my other side, and he turned toward me during a lull in the conversation. “Are you two planning to get the dancing started again?”
“Not unless we’re forced at gunpoint,” Stella answered.
Phil patted his coat pockets. “I know I have that Ruger here somewhere.”
Georgie, on his other side, put a restraining hand on his arm. “Darling, let them go smoke their marijuana with their friends in peace,” she said, but with her accent, she pronounced it mary-jo-ahna.
I snuck a glance at Stella, whose expression was carefully blank. “I haven’t smoked pot since I was in high school.”
Her father nodded sagely. “The kids these days eat it instead.”
Georgie rolled her eyes. “Like we weren’t the ones who invented baking it into brownies?”
“They hit gummies,” Phil told her, looking to Stella for confirmation.
“Yes, we hit them,” she said, and though there was almost no inflection in her tone, I could tell she was fighting back a laugh because of the way her eyes shone.
A few minutes later, our time had come to follow the others, and we rose from our seats.
“If you’ll excuse us,” Stella said. “I think we’ll go see if AJ has any pot for us to hit.”
Georgie smirked, recognizing the troll for what it was. As I passed her chair, she snagged my arm. “You’ll be careful?” Her eyes slid to Stella’s retreating form. “Precious cargo and all that.”
“No pot hits for me,” I told her.
She pinched my arm good-naturedly and let me go, and I grinned as I walked away. Inside, I felt nothing. This rare display of maternal warmth wasn’t enough to change my mind about her.
■ ■ ■
By the early hours of the morning, the party was starting to wind down, both upstairs and here in the basement pool area.
I swept my gaze over the room. It looked like something out of ancient Rome.
Rough-cut stone pillars, Venetian plastered ceiling, soft lighting made to mimic candles and torches.
Sitting in the center of the cavernous space was the pool itself, with a small swim-up bar.
A lazy river wound around it, filled with people floating on tubes—most of them naked because no one had brought a suit.
The water was aquamarine, reflecting the tiles, and I had to admit, I was a little tempted. To throw Stella in.
I glanced right, where she and AJ sat on a stone-cut alcove bench.
He was sunk low, looking indolent, his full lips quirked up in amusement at whatever Stella was saying.
They’d been there for half an hour, and I was about ready to go break up their little reunion.
Especially since Stella looked so unbothered by the fact that there was a half-naked woman currently hanging off my arm.
“Excuse me,” I said, extracting myself from the woman’s grip.
She made a low, petulant sound and tried to reach for me again.
I sidestepped her. “Don’t be desperate.”
Someone nearby gasped. Another snickered.
The woman, one of the countless bottle-blond heiresses in the room, threw me a dark look and stalked away. Good riddance.
I beelined toward Stella, who glanced up in question, like she’d missed that whole exchange. Like she’d forgotten about me entirely.
A small flare of antagonism shot through me. Because, hell no.
I took her untouched drink from her hand and set it on the nearby table before scooping her up. She squawked in surprise, but before she could wriggle free, I plopped down where she’d been sitting, settling her on my lap in a way that forced her to wrap her arms around my neck for balance.
There, much better.
AJ arched a brow, looking amused. “Planning to use her as a human shield?”
Oh, so he’d seen what happened. “Yes. Did everyone drop ecstasy before we got down here? I’ve been propositioned by, like, six different people so far.”
AJ and Stella exchanged a glance, and he laughed. “No.”
I sent him a blank look.
“You’re fresh meat. And you’re hot. They don’t need to be high to want to fuck you.”
“Oh, god, don’t,” Stella said. “His ego doesn’t need any more inflating.”
“Be nice,” I said, punctuating the words with a slap to her ass. “He might start thinking you don’t like me.”
“Ha!” AJ said, throwing his head back. “No threat of that. Pretending to ignore you? Only looking your way when you’re distracted and won’t notice? The woman is obsessed.”
Stella went so stiff that she almost fell off my lap. “I am not.”
I would never let her live this down.
“Aw, come on, Sunshine,” I said, tipping back enough to peer at her. “It’s okay to admit your feelings in front of an old friend. Go on. Tell him how much you love me.”
“Sunshine,” AJ said, laughing even harder.
Stella’s arms tightened around my neck, and then her lips were at my ear. “I am going to put glass in your food.”
I pulled back, smirking. “Confirmed. She loves me.”
She started to respond, and from the look on her face, I knew it wouldn’t be anything nice, so I yanked her into her a kiss—quick, hard, over before the shock could even register on her face.
AJ’s eyes fell to my mouth as I pulled back. “Here,” he said, shifting forward. His hand rose to cup my chin, his thumb pressing into my lower lip and dragging it sideways. “Her lipstick smeared.” He stroked it the other way, his green eyes molten in the flickering light.
Stella held herself perfectly still in my arms. I didn’t even think she was breathing.
“Is it always just the two of you?” AJ asked, his focus shifting from me to Stella.
“Why?” I said, a rough edge to my voice. “Are you offering to join in?”
Slowly, his eyes rose back to mine. “What if I am?”