6. Aria
6
ARIA
T he music echoed around me as I descended the stairs, bouncing off the thick stone walls of the ancient crypts that lay beneath Hatherley Hall’s cellars. Another night, another “exclusive” party for the elite and their hangers-on. Quinn had guilt-tripped me into coming, but I wasn’t planning to stay for long.
My mind was on the tower. Tonight, I’d go back and discover what was inside that locked box.
“Aww, little scorpion. Couldn’t stay away from me, could you?”
I sighed, spinning around to face my godbrother. Raising a brow, I tapped my fingernail on his chest. “You can’t stay away from me, you mean. You’re the one who came to me. I get it, I’m irresistible, but I’m sure there are plenty of willing girls with low standards for you to try it on with instead.”
“Sounds a lot like jealousy,” he mused, dipping his head to my ear. His breath was warm against my skin. “Just say the word, Aria, and I’ll blow your mind.”
I splayed my fingers across his chest, feeling his slightly elevated heartbeat beneath my palm. “Oh, Tristan. I’m sure you could—in your little fantasies when you’re wanking your average cock and wishing you were lucky enough to fuck me. Sadly for you, that’s all it’ll ever be. A fantasy. Bye, now.”
Stepping back from him, I blew him a kiss with my middle finger. But before I could leave, he struck, lightning fast, yanking me into him, his mouth going straight back to my ear.
“By the way, sweetheart. My dick is way, way above average, and I know exactly what I’m doing with it. Too bad you’ll never get to experience it for yourself.”
Then he released me, blowing me a kiss, followed by an obscene gesture with his tongue in his cheek. I pulled a face, and he laughed.
I fucking hated him.
Stalking away in my spiked heels, which unfortunately weren’t even high enough to allow me to look Tristan dead in the eye without lifting my chin, I grabbed the first guy I reached, wrapping my fingers around his and tugging him over to the makeshift dance floor area. When I glanced back at Tristan, I saw him staring at me with an unreadable expression, his humour gone and his jaw set.
“We’re dancing,” I told Tyrell, who was one of the lacrosse defensemen. Okay, maybe I’d purposely made a beeline for one of Tristan’s teammates, just because I knew it would piss him off even more. If you looked up manwhore in a dictionary, you’d find a picture of Tristan, so he was in no position to judge. Yet he judged. Frequently.
“Feisty,” Tyrell murmured, shooting me a grin.
“I can’t be bothered to play games. Cut to the chase, then we can get to the good part sooner,” I told him, winding my arms around his shoulders. His hands slid onto my hips, a willing participant as we began to dance.
“The good part. Mmm, maybe I should see if Tristan’s feeling generous and will let us go to the lower levels.”
The lower levels of the crypts? No, thanks. Never, ever. “Ugh, no. I’m staying well away from the gods’ fuck dungeon. I don’t know what I might catch.”
He doubled over laughing, even though I was being completely serious. When he’d recovered, he stared down at me, a smile still tugging at his lips.
“Sexy and a good sense of humour. I like it.”
“You’ll like it even more when you’re making me see stars.”
“The only stars you’ll be seeing are the ones in the night sky,” a new voice growled from behind me. “Ty, she’s vicious. Believe me, it’s not worth your time.”
Tyrell glanced over my shoulder at Tristan. “So you say. I think I’d like to decide for myself.”
I felt Tristan’s body press against mine for the briefest second, his mouth going to my ear yet again. “Think of me when he tries and fails to satisfy you.” Raising his voice, he said, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, man. See ya later.”
When he’d disappeared into the crowds, Tyrell pulled me closer again. “What do you say we get out of here?”
No, because that would defeat the purpose of this exercise, which was to piss Tristan off. Okay, that wasn’t strictly true. The main idea was for us both to have a good time, but irritating the man I couldn’t stand was the icing on the cake.
“How about we find a nice dark corner around here instead,” I purred, running my hand down his arm.
“I like your thinking.”
We made a circuit of the crypts. I’d calculated that Tristan was either on the sofas with the other gods and girls draped all over him as he smoked or on the hunt for whoever he planned to dick down tonight. It was too early for him to be already doing the deed, so he had to be here somewhere.
There.
The sofas came into view, and it was as I expected. He was sprawled across one, with Knox, Roman, and their girlfriends on the other. His legs were splayed wide, a joint dangled from his fingertips, and his latest victim, aka Harriet, was perched on one of his thighs. I noticed Freya next to them with a couple of guys from the rugby team, taking turns to inhale from a suspiciously phallic-looking bong.
When my gaze slid back to Tristan, I found him looking in my direction with his brows pulled together. I wiggled my fingers in an approximation of a wave, and he scowled at me. Harriet followed suit—for a couple of seconds until she realised that I was no competition.
Nor did I want to be.Everyone knew that Tristan and I tolerated each other at best, and that was in short stretches.
Wait. It wasn’t me she was frowning at. It was Tyrell, standing with his arm wrapped around my waist. Hmm. Now I thought about it, it hadn’t been that long since the two of them had split up.
I watched as Tristan took a long drag of the joint before grasping Harriet’s chin and turning her head to him so they could shotgun. Unwillingly, my mind flashed back to the tower, when he’d sealed his lips over mine…
Asshole.
Rubbing at my mouth as if it would take the remembered taste of him away, I turned to my partner in crime for the night. Rising up onto my toes, I placed my mouth to his ear. “How do you feel about sexual acts with an audience? A particular audience?”
He chuckled. “I don’t know why you wanna make Tristan jealous, but I’m in. I think we have the same goal, don’t we?” Sidling around my body, he pressed up against my back, and I could feel the bulge of his hardening dick. I guess the thought of a bit of exhibitionism turned him on, too.
“I don’t want to make anyone jealous. I just want to have a bit of fun.”
“Yeah, okay.” He laughed. “Whatever you say. Either way, it’s mutually beneficial. Come on, back this way. If I know my ex, not even one of the gods has the power to keep her away. Every time I show interest in another girl, she’s all over me.”
That sounded messy. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have let myself get in the middle of it, but he was right. We did have the same goal. Sort of. So I let him back us into a dark corner, where we had a partial view of Tristan and Harriet, but we weren’t too exposed.
“Watch,” Tyrell murmured, shifting down against the wall so he could grind his erection into my ass as he trailed his nose down the side of my throat. His hand slid down my side, stopping when he reached my hip. “How do you wanna play this? I’ll go as far as you want.”
“Fingers.” I was already wet, and it wasn’t because of the guy behind me. “I’ll repay the favour afterwards.”
“Deal.” He grasped my hips, manoeuvring me so one thick thigh was pressed between my legs. Now I could lean back on him, and he could easily reach between my legs and— “I knew it. Here they come.”
My gaze snapped up to see Tristan and Harriet heading straight for us. Tristan’s expression was impossible to read, but Harriet’s was cycling through lust, jealousy, and curiosity. Much like mine probably was, minus the jealousy, because as we’d already established, I didn’t want Tristan. Harriet, though…if I wasn’t straight, I so would. She was fucking stunning. No wonder Tristan was interested in her.
Shaking off that thought, I let my eyes fall closed, my head falling back onto Tyrell’s shoulder as he teased at the hem of my short black dress, his fingertips dancing across my thigh. One finger slid beneath the hem?—
“Seems like we both have the same idea.”
My eyes flew open to see Tristan staring at Tyrell, his jaw set and his gaze hard.
“Yeah. I’d say so,” Tyrell replied, humour in his voice, and I bit back a smile.
Tristan gave a pointed glance around us. “It’s a shame my girl’s not into exhibitionism with such a big audience.”
“Too bad,” I said.
“ Your girl?” Tyrell bit out at the same time.
Harriet leaned back against Tristan, raising a brow at her ex. She seemed completely comfortable with the situation, and I couldn’t help wondering if it was Tristan who had the problem, not her. I did see him all over girls at parties, but most of what I’d heard about him had been rumours—most of them substantiated—about the things he got up to in the lower levels of the crypts with one or more girls at a time, sometimes with his best friends in attendance. Before they’d become coupled up, that was.
“Let’s take the party downstairs.” Tristan’s gaze slid to mine, and his lip curled. “Unless you’re too scared, Aria.”
“Fuck you. Let’s go.” I hated the way he could goad me into things so easily, but it was inevitable.
“Don’t touch anything in the fuck dungeon,” I whispered to Tyrell as we descended the stone stairs to the part of the crypts that only Tristan, Knox, Roman, and their select guests were allowed to see. “You don’t know what you might catch.”
Tyrell laughed, the sound amplified as it echoed off the stone walls, and both Tristan and Harriet stopped in their tracks, their shoulders tensing in unison.
“Get a move on,” I hissed, and with a roll of his eyes, Tristan turned away from me, stalking down the long stone passageway to the doors at the end. Using an iron key he fished from his pocket, he opened one of the doors.
The room we entered was dark and oppressive, lit by a few sconces set into the walls. A huge iron bed dominated the space, with a heavy iron pendulum hanging above it, providing the bed with a muted glow. In front of the bed was a cracked leather sofa, and unbidden, my mind jumped to the rumours. Whispers of things that had happened on that sofa. On that bed.
I shivered, and not only from the sudden chill.
Tristan released Harriet and made his way over to a box on the wall. A few seconds later, the music from the party filtered through from hidden speakers, and from somewhere above us, a red glow dimly illuminated the walls.
“I can’t believe we’re really doing this,” Harriet muttered as Tristan returned to slide his arm around her waist. I wasn’t surprised she was getting cold feet. Upstairs, it had been one thing, but down here, with just the four of us, it felt… premeditated, almost. Expectant. Not as much fun as it had seemed when the spur-of-the-moment idea had first come to me.
Tristan glanced at me and then turned to Harriet, dipping his head to her ear. Bathed in the glow of the lights, his blond hair and tanned skin turned red, giving him an almost demonic look. It was fitting. When Harriet smiled and he spun her to face him in one smooth movement, my jaw clenched, and Tyrell growled from behind me.
“Fuck him,” I hissed, angling my head so I could see Tyrell’s profile. “Don’t you want her to be reminded of what she’s missing?”
He tore his gaze away from the couple in front of us, who were now kissing, Tristan’s hands palming Harriet’s ass as she arched into him. Raising a brow, he eyed me doubtfully. “You sure you’re okay with this?”
“Yes. Now, get your fucking hands on my tits, and let’s give them a show.”
Approval flashed in his gaze as the corners of his lips kicked up. “You’re something else.”
“I know.” Taking his hands, I placed them on my breasts. “Go for it.”
His chuckle was buried in my hair. “This wasn’t what I expected when you asked me to dance.”
“It wasn’t what I expected, either, but hey, plans change. Just go with it.”
I moaned, low and breathy, and he huffed in my ear. “Stop making me laugh. It’s killing my boner.”
“Watching your ex and imagining that’s you with your hands all over her ass should help with that,” I murmured before moaning again, a little louder this time. If someone had asked me to explain why I was doing what I was doing, I wouldn’t be able to. This hadn’t been my original plan. All I knew was fucking with Tristan was a high like no other, and yes, that in itself was fucked up, but I didn’t really care.
“Mmm, yeah. You’re fucking hot, my girl—my ex, I mean, is fucking hot…but, yeah. I’m into this,” he said after a moment. “Let the show begin.”
He began to lightly knead my breasts through the fabric of my dress, taking the same position he had upstairs with his thigh between mine. As I watched, Tristan’s mouth went to Harriet’s neck, and his eyes opened, meeting mine.
They were so dark, flashing with electric fire. I suppressed a shiver, moaning for real as Tyrell copied what Tristan was doing, kissing down the side of my throat. Why was it so hot having Tristan’s eyes on me instead of focused on the girl he was currently kissing?
I smirked at him, and his eyes narrowed. He spun Harriet around, his hands going to her breasts, and he raised a challenging brow.
“This is so fucked up,” I muttered, closing my right hand over Tyrell’s and dragging it down the side of my body to where the hem of my dress had ridden up almost to the top of my thigh.
“Yeah, but it’s working. Look.”
I tore my gaze away from Tristan to see Harriet staring at Tyrell’s hand with undisguised jealousy. It was blatantly clear that they weren’t over each other, and I was betting that one of them was going to break before long.
I was wrong.
“Stop.”
Everyone froze at the low command, three sets of eyes whipping to Tristan. His face had become expressionless again, his jaw set, and he stared at Tyrell with hard eyes.
“I don’t fuck with my teammates’ girls.”
There was a harsh intake of breath from both Tyrell and Harriet, and they exchanged shocked glances.
“Out,” he commanded, stepping away from Harriet and jabbing his finger towards the door.
Tyrell released me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him nod to Tristan before he held out a hand to Harriet. She glanced at Tristan, who jerked his head towards the door, and then she moved towards Ty, taking his hand. They left the room silently, and I turned on my heel to follow. There was no way I wanted to be stuck in the fuck dungeon with an angry god.
Stop calling him a god, for fuck’s sake .
It had to be Elena and Quinn’s fault. I never once thought of him as a god until my friends had become tangled up with the elite.
I reached the doorway when a hand clamped around my throat from behind, yanking me back into a firm body.
“Not so fast, little scorpion.”
“Get your fucking hands off me unless you want to lose your balls,” I hissed.
Tristan laughed humourlessly. “I’d like to see you try. You cost me a good fuck tonight.”
“How exactly is that my fault? Just face it, she liked him better than you. You can’t always get your way.”
“Stop talking,” he ground out, his grip on my throat tightening, and there it was. That darker side of him that he only seemed to unleash around me. The golden boy had everyone fooled, but I knew exactly how to get beneath his skin.
I inhaled through my nose as I debated my options. Which path to choose? Violence was always fun. I could grab him by the balls—literally—or stamp my spiked heel on his overpriced Gucci loafers, or…no.
Reaching up and behind me, I curved my fingers around his nape, smiling as he stiffened in surprise. Then I rolled my hips back, my body pressing up against his dick, which, sadly, was not average, despite what I’d said to him earlier. Unfortunately, I had a weird compulsion to piss him off by hate flirting with him, which he returned with enthusiasm, secure in the knowledge that neither of us would ever follow through. That meant I’d been up close and personal with his clothed erection on a number of occasions, thankfully only for brief periods of time.
“Aria.”
I ignored the explicit warning in his tone, scraping my nails across his nape. His breath skated across my ear as he dipped his head, his free arm sliding around my waist.
“You’re playing with fire, baby. What are people gonna say when you show up with the imprint of my hand around your neck?” The pads of his fingers dug into my skin. I hated how much I liked it, coming from him . “You like to think you’re better than everyone else, don’t you? But I know you’re just as wet for me as all the other girls.”
My thin thread of control snapped, and I yanked his hand away from my throat, pulling out of his grip and spinning to face him. “Fuck you,” I spat.
“In your dreams.” He made a blatant show of adjusting his erection, an arrogant smirk on his lips, and I had to get out of there. He’d won this round, and I couldn’t stay down here for another second.
The tower was calling my name.