7. Tristan
7
TRISTAN
M y smirk fell away the minute she turned her back. Fucking Aria Harper. I stared after her as she stalked away, the clipping of her heels amplified by the stone walls.
“Don’t fucking betray me like that again, or you’ll regret it,” I threatened my cock, which was far too interested in the high, round curve of her ass in that tight dress. It was easy enough to push aside the inconvenient effect she had on me when I was so irritated with the way things had gone down tonight.
I shouldn’t have touched her. Shouldn’t even have suggested going down to the lower levels. It had been a moment of temporary insanity. I couldn’t forget the feeling of her throat working as she swallowed beneath my grip and the way she’d deliberately pressed against me, taunting with everything I’d never have and everything I couldn’t want to have.
Scrubbing my hand across my face, I shook my head. Forget her. It was time to salvage the rest of the night. I shut everything off, closing and locking the door behind me. I reminded myself I’d more than likely be back down here later tonight with a more-than-willing partner who wouldn’t give me shit or fight back or be so fucking disdainful of me that it bordered on outright disrespect. Yeah. Who the fuck got hard from someone who did that? It was seriously messed up. My dick had a mind of its own, that was for sure.
Back upstairs, I headed straight for the sofas. Knox and Elena had disappeared, but Roman and Quinn were still there, along with Lincoln, Josh, and Sajid from the lacrosse team and several girls. I smiled. This was more like it. Taking the joint Lincoln passed to me as I reached the sofas, I inhaled deeply before moving to the other side to grab a beer from the mini fridge. Uncapping the bottle, I ditched the joint in the coffee table ashtray and took a swig. Roman caught my eye, his brows rising in an unspoken question, and I circled my index finger in the air, indicating I was going to make a circuit of the crypts. He nodded, and I took off, letting my bottle dangle loosely from my fingers as I sauntered through the crowd. I didn’t need to worry about pushing my way through—people moved for me. That was the way it was and the way it always had been. My family’s legacy here was stellar. The Smith-Chamberlains were the lynchpins of Hatherley Hall.
Except…one thing was going to change.
My parents were going to give me shit when they found out I’d resigned as head boy, but I was sure I could spin a convincing enough story if it came to it. The truth was, the position had lost all its shine recently, and I couldn’t help but feel partly responsible for everything that had gone down with Roman and Quinn. Roman was my best friend—one of only two people I trusted with my life, the other being Knox—and the fact that things were happening beneath my nose that I wasn’t even aware of didn’t sit well with me.
I detoured to the left when I caught sight of Will and Katy against the wall. Will’s arm was loosely wrapped around Katy’s waist, the two prefects looking at ease in their surroundings despite the fact they’d never attended these parties before they’d befriended Elena. Will was a good, decent person. The type I pretended to be on the outside, but unlike me, he was good inside, too. He’d make a much better head boy than I ever would. And if not, we only had a few months left at Hatherley Hall before we all went our separate ways.
Digging into my pocket as I reached them, I wrapped my fingers around the enamel pin badge, warm from my body heat. It glinted in the sweeping lights as I held it out to Will.
“William Fitzgerald-Jones. I’d like to offer you the position of head boy.” I shrugged, my lips curving upwards. “Not like it’s mine to give, but our esteemed headmaster will be formally offering it to you tomorrow.” Turning to his girlfriend, I added, “I hear they think the two of you make a good team, so try and act surprised when they offer you the head girl position, okay?”
With that, I pressed the badge into Will’s hand and left them both staring after me, open-mouthed.
What to do next? Or who…?
I scanned the room once, then twice, groaning when I realised I was unconsciously looking for Aria. She hadn’t left already, had she? She wasn’t the type to run away. If anything?—
An image appeared in my mind of her walking away from me. At the time, I’d been too caught up in cock-related issues, but now I thought about it…she’d seemed purposeful. Determined.
My radar was pinging, and I listened to my instincts for once. My dick could wait—finding out what Aria was up to couldn’t.
With that in mind, I headed up the stairs into Hatherley Hall’s cellars, debating where to start my hunt. Aria’s dorm…the Epicurus house common room…the bell tower?
The bell tower. It had to be.
After a quick detour to my room, where I switched out my jeans for grey cashmere sweatpants and my loafers for trainers, I grabbed a hoodie, pocketed my phone, and made my way to the off-limits part of the school.
When I entered the hidden stairwell that led up to the tower, I paused, cocking my head and listening. Faint metallic clanging sounds came from overhead, followed by a muttered curse and a long scrape that sounded like something heavy being dragged along the floor. What the fuck was happening?
Silently, I ascended the winding stairs, hugging the wall so I wouldn’t be seen until I wanted to.
When I reached the top of the stairs, I found Aria in the ruined tower room, crouching down with her back to me. An open box was placed in front of her, the metal dull and rusted. A small crowbar lay on the floor to her left, and next to it was what looked like a broken padlock. As I stepped forwards to get a better look at the contents of the box, I noticed a section of the floorboards had been prised up, revealing a dark space beneath.
She was completely intent on whatever she was doing, and so I held back, watching. Whatever it was, it was so far from what I’d expected.
Shifting across the dusty floorboards, she reached for the blanket she kept up here, arranging it next to the box, and then took a seat on top of it, cross-legged. Reaching inside the box, she carefully lifted out a…fuck, I couldn’t see what it was. I needed to get a closer look.
I stepped inside the room.
A floorboard creaked beneath my foot, and her head flew around, a shocked gasp tearing from her throat.
Whatever she was holding fell back into the box, and she slammed the lid shut.
“What the fuck do you want?” she hissed. It showed how shaken she was because she didn’t even try to give me any shit like she normally would, and now, my radar was pinging hard .
I thought for a second. If I asked her what she was doing outright, she wasn’t going to give me the truth. And I really wanted to know what she was up to. I just had to make sure she didn’t realise how much.
Folding my arms across my chest, I leaned against the door frame, smirking down at her.
“Did you have fun tonight, little scorpion? Letting Ty get his hands all over you while you watched Harriet with that longing expression on your face, wishing you were in her place?”
Rising to her feet, hiding the box behind her legs—which, by the way, didn’t fucking work—she shot me a savage glare. I smiled. There was the little scorpion I knew and loved to antagonise.
“You wish that was what I was thinking. Your average dick probably only got hard because I was there.”
“For someone who claims I have an average dick, you seem to talk about it a lot. Anything you want to confess?”
We’d somehow moved closer to each other, and now she was almost against my chest, still glaring up at me with all the ire she could muster up.
“That’s you projecting, head boy. Keep your fantasies in your head, where they belong.”
My smile widened into a grin. It was so much fun, fucking with her like this. “Do you want to know how many of my fantasies you star in?”
“Only if you want to pay for my therapy bill from the trauma it’ll cause me. I don’t want to know anything about the scenarios your sick mind comes up with.”
I reached out, gripping her shoulders and spinning her around before she had a chance to react, pressing her up against my back.
“Sick mind? Hmm…I think I want to know more about the kind of things you think go through my head. Come on, Aria, share with the class.”
As I lowered my head, I glanced down at the box. I still had no idea what it was, but I needed to know. Technically, I could abuse my position of authority while I was still officially head boy, even if unofficially, I’d resigned. Aria didn’t know either way. But if I did that, she’d?—
Every thought left my mind when Aria pressed back against me, her body right up against my hardening dick. When and how the fuck had my dick decided that now was a good time to join the party?
“You are sick. I can feel how much it’s turning you on.”
What were we even talking about? Fucking hell, I couldn’t even remember. “Maybe it’s just you,” I said, then immediately snapped my mouth shut. But the damage was already done.
She froze against me for a second, and then she slowly and deliberately tilted her head back against my chest. “I can’t help the effect I have on you.”
“Just like I can’t help the effect I have on you.” My jaw clenched, thinking about how she’d been in this position earlier with my teammate. He’d fucking touched her tits, put his hand up her dress?—
“You’re so delusional, Tristan.” Her voice was so fucking breathy, and it did things to my dick that I really was not happy about. What I should do was to let her go and move far, far away.
Did I do that? Fuck, no. I banded my arm around her waist, holding her in place as I skimmed my lips over her ear. “You can’t stay away from me. What is it about me? You want to join the hordes who worship at my feet?”
“Wow. You really do think you’re a god. But do you know what? Out there in the real world, you’re just another face in the crowd. Forgettable.”
I laughed, pulling her more tightly against me, and she let me. Both of us were breathing way too hard. “Baby, we both know there’s nothing forgettable about me. I’ll never be another face in the crowd.”
“If it wasn’t for your family name, you would be,” she countered, and there was a note of real resentment in her voice. It wasn’t like I could help the family I was born into. Of course I was going to use the connections I’d been given to get ahead in life. Anyone would.
“That’s unfair, Aria, and you know it.” I splayed my hand out over her stomach, my thumb tracing lazy circles over the fabric of her dress.
“Whatever,” she muttered, and the fact she didn’t have a comeback made me smile. I buried it in her hair as I let my hand slide higher, my thumb almost brushing the underside of her breast. How long had we been here, with me holding her and her making no attempt to get away?
She felt way too fucking good against me, and I didn’t like it.
It’s okay , I reminded myself. Even if she felt good, it was safe to be like this. We strongly disliked each other, and even if by some miracle in some alternative universe we didn’t, my family would have something to say about anything happening between us. Not that they’d find out.
A gust of wind blew through the ruined tower, and she shivered against me. Goosebumps appeared on her arms, and I detoured from my goal of getting my hands on her tits to run my hands down her arms. Fuck, she really was cold. Why hadn’t she done what I did and change before coming here? All she’d bothered to do was switch out those ridiculously high heels for her Converse.
“Why the fuck would you come up here without a hoodie?” I released her, shrugging out of my hoodie before draping it over her shoulders.
“What are you doing?” She twisted around, her gaze flying to mine and then down to my hoodie, which swamped her petite frame.
I shrugged. “What do you think?”
“Whatever you’re trying to do, it won’t work,” she bit out, pulling my hoodie off her shoulders and shoving it into my chest. “I don’t want your clothes. I don’t want you here. Get out. Go and find someone else to entertain you. Someone who actually wants you around.”
Grasping my hoodie, I shook my head. “Sorry. Can’t do that.”
“Get out.” She pushed at my chest. “Now.”
I raised a brow. “Are you gonna make me?”
We both knew that she couldn’t physically make me leave, but we also both knew just how fucking stubborn she was. As if she could read my mind, she folded her arms across her chest, shooting daggers from her eyes, attempting to eviscerate me with her gaze. Nice try. Shame looks can’t actually kill .
Her gaze flicked down to the bulge in my sweatpants, her tongue unconsciously darting out to lick her lips, and it took everything I had to not react. I remained still, keeping my eyes fixed on her, not even looking at the box.
The tower fell silent other the low whistle of wind through the gaps in the stones. Aria’s glare melted away, and her body relaxed. Her lips curved into a semblance of a smile, which immediately made alarm bells ring. “I guess if you’re going to stay, you might as well entertain me.”
What?
Sliding her hands down her body, she stared at me from beneath her lashes, all heavy-lidded and so fucking sultry that my cock stood no chance of resisting. “This was what you wanted, wasn’t it? That was why you followed me up here, after all, instead of dicking down one of your many admirers?”
She stepped closer, placing her hand on my chest, then slowly dragged her nails down my torso, over the ridges of my abs, stopping at the waistband of my sweatpants.
What the fuck was actually happening?
Her hand pushed lightly, and I took a step back.
“Take what you want,” she murmured, moving closer, pushing gently again. I took another step back. She slipped her hand under my T-shirt, and then she was touching my bare skin for the first time ever.
I sucked in a breath, noting her shaky exhale. Fuck, yeah, I knew she wanted me. Her fingers traced over my abs, pushing again, and I stepped back over the threshold.
That was when everything changed.
She ripped her hand out from under my T-shirt, gave me another push, and when I staggered backwards, she slammed the heavy wooden door in my face.