24. Tristan
24
TRISTAN
L eaning against the wall, I keep my eyes on the door across the crowded room and wait for my prey to arrive. I know she will. She always does.
Ever since I fucked her in that spare room, she has been following me around. It’s almost cute how she thinks that she’s being so sneaky. How she thinks that I can’t see her watching me. That I don’t recognize her car. That I can’t tell that she’s keeping tabs on me.
My personal favorite is when she is lurking in the bushes across the street from my house, watching me through the window as I study. Sometimes, I position myself right in front of that window when I take my shirt off just because I know that it makes her flustered. She actually lost her balance and fell into the bush the first time I did it.
A smirk blows across my lips at the memory.
Elle Summers is excellent at a lot of things. But spying is not one of them.
I understand why she does it, though. She’s worried about what I’m going to do next. She probably thinks that if she can keep tabs on me, she can figure out what my next move is. What my next plan to get her expelled is. And then she can stop it before I can do it.
Well, unfortunately for her, my preparations for that have happened inside our house. And at night while she’s asleep. Since Bracken has called me downtown to beat people up several times in the past two weeks, I’ve also used those trips into the city in the middle of the night to get some supplies.
Elle thinks that she’s staying ahead of me by spying on me? Oh, she has no idea what kind of wicked and depraved thing I’m about to hit her with.
But first, I need her to actually show up to this party. Otherwise, I’ll have to go with a contingency plan.
Something pale blue appears in the corner of my eye.
Still leaning against the wall with my arms crossed, I glance towards that splash of color.
Elle starts in surprise and blinks as I meet her gaze, because she was obviously staring straight at me. Then she clears her throat and tries to act normal while she continues into the room. I suppress a smile. Such an amateur.
While remaining where I am, I study Elle. I’m not working tonight, and neither are the rest of my housemates, but I still need to act like it so that Elle won’t get suspicious. So I stand there, pretending to study the crowd of drunk and dancing people. But what I really do is to watch her .
She’s wearing a pale blue dress that ends just above the knee and a pair of white flats. Her hair flows down her back like a soft waterfall, and she’s wearing makeup that accentuates her already beautiful face. All of it together makes her look sweet and polite and kind. And not at all like the fucking rat that she really is.
Irritation courses through me, and I flex my hands to dispel it.
I want to set my plan in motion right now. But I have to wait. At least half an hour or so. Otherwise, it will be too suspicious.
The building we’re in is where the drama students sometimes rehearse their scenes when their main one is already occupied. There are some smaller rooms at the back, but they are off-limits during this party. For obvious reasons. So the party is happening in the massive main room. Cream-colored wallpaper gives the room a neutral but clean look, and all the props and scene decorations have been moved to the locked rooms for the night. Again for obvious reasons. So the only furniture in the room are some tables along the walls. Plastic cups full of alcohol wait there in surprisingly neat rows, though about half of them have already been claimed.
Across the room, Elle moves through the crowd. She tries to speak to several groups of people, but gets the cold shoulder from practically everyone. A cruel smile curls my lips at the sight.
However, she manages to keep a pleasant and neutral expression on her face the whole time. Which I have to admit is kind of impressive. If people had treated me like that, I wouldn’t have had nearly as much restraint.
While making her way around the room, she casts discreet glances at me. Or they would’ve been discreet if I hadn’t caught them every single time. And every time our eyes meet, she starts in surprise and then snaps her gaze back to the rest of the room.
I huff out a silent laugh.
Eventually, she spots Brandi and the rest of the girls from her former sorority standing together and talking a short distance from where I am. This time, she doesn’t steal a glance in my direction. Instead, she straightens her spine and walks right up to them.
Music echoes against the pale walls, but because Brandi and the rest of her friends are standing so close, I can still hear their voices faintly when Elle walks up to them and simply says, “Hi.”
A short girl with dark hair and eyes, whose name I think might be Mei, gives Elle a bright smile and opens her mouth to respond. But before she can get a word out, Brandi speaks up.
“If I remember correctly, I told you not to approach us in public,” Brandi says.
There is a flash of pain in Elle’s brown eyes, but it’s gone so quickly that I’m not sure if any of them noticed. She seems to realize that I can see her face, though, because she shoots a sharp look at me and then suddenly shifts so that she is standing on the other side of the group instead, with her back to me.
I shake my head at her foolishness. As if turning her back on me would help. Apparently, she hasn’t realized that I can actually hear them.
“Yes, I know,” she says to Brandi. “But I just thought that maybe we could talk.”
“About what?” Brandi replies. She sounds, and looks, impatient and irritated.
“I know that you were worried about the reputation of your sorority, and I understand why you had to cut ties with me, but all of that has been solved now. As you know, nothing has happened these past two weeks. So you really don’t need to worry about Tristan anymore.”
My eyes widen.
Oh really? They don’t need to worry about me, huh ?
A disbelieving chuckle escapes my chest.
“Yes, I am aware that you have not been the center of any scandals lately,” Brandi replies. “But that still doesn’t…”
She trails off as I straighten from the wall and start towards them. Since Elle has her back to me, she can’t see me coming.
“That still doesn’t what?” she asks Brandi. “I promise you that it?—”
“There you are, sweetheart,” I say, and drape an arm over her shoulders.
It startles her enough that she flinches. Whipping her head towards me, she stares up at me with stunned eyes. I grin down at her.
Brandi clears her throat dismissively. “Come on, girls. Let’s go dance instead.”
That dark-haired girl, Mei or whatever her name is, casts an apologetic look at Elle. But she and the rest of her friends still follow Brandi out onto the dance floor.
“No, wait,” Elle begins, reaching a hand towards them.
But they’re swallowed by the crowd within seconds.
The moment they’re gone, she whirls around, ducks out from underneath my arm, and shoves me in the chest. Hard.
“What are you doing?” she snaps at me.
As always, the moment her hands appear on my body, fire pulses underneath my skin. God fucking damn it. She really needs to stop touching me.
I advance on her, using my size to force her to back up even though her hands are still on my chest.
“What does it look like?” I demand as I continue backing her towards the wall and away from the crowd. “I was looking for you, sweetheart.”
“No, you—” she cuts herself off as her back suddenly connects with the wall.
She glances over her shoulder as if surprised. Then she returns her attention to me, and pulls a very impressive scowl down over her features.
“No, you weren’t,” she says, finishing her sentence. Her eyes sharpen as she glares up at me. “And don’t call me sweetheart .”
Cocking my head, I let a sly smile spread across my lips as I stare her down. “I’ve licked your cunt, but I can’t call you sweetheart ?”
Her cheeks flush a deep shade of red. Snapping her gaze from side to side, she frantically checks if someone overheard us. But the groups closest to us aren’t paying us any mind. They laugh and talk and drink amongst themselves. The music drowns out the people farther away, which should mean that it’s doing the same for us.
And even if someone had overheard, I wouldn’t have cared. But apparently, Elle does.
“Don’t…” she begins, looking adorably flustered. “You can’t… Don’t say things like that.”
“Why not?” I smirk down at her. “It’s the truth.”
“It’s not… That wasn’t…”
“In fact, we’re in a pretty similar position right now, aren’t we? You up against a wall and your hands on my body.”
Her gaze darts down to where she still has her palms pressed against my chest. That touch has been practically burning through my clothes for the past minute, but I haven’t been able to remove her hands without making it obvious that it’s affecting me.
Now, however, Elle is aware that she is touching me. And she abruptly yanks her hands down from my chest to instead rest by her sides .
I suppress the urge to heave a sigh of relief. It’s so much easier to think when she isn’t touching me.
Raising my own hands, I brace them on the wall on either side of her head, trapping her there against the wall. Then I drag a highly deliberate glance up and down her body. Even though I’m not even touching her, her breath hitches from that long look alone.
“See?” I taunt. “You love this.”
“I don’t?—”
“Just like you loved it back then.”
Lightning flashes in her eyes as she stares up at me, but her breathing is still uneven. “No, I didn’t.”
I take one hand off the wall and brush a lock of her hair away from her face. A shudder rolls through her as I hook it behind her ear. I lean closer. So close that I can feel her unsteady breath against my mouth.
“You can lie to yourself all you want, sweetheart. But I could tell how much you liked it when I licked your cunt.” Another sly smile curves my lips. “And how much you liked it when I fucked you hard against that wall.”
Heat sears her cheeks again, turning them flaming red, and her chest rises and falls with sharp breaths.
“Is that why you came here tonight?” I bait, shifting my head so that my lips almost brush against hers. “Because you were hoping that I was going to fuck you again?”
“Your arrogance truly knows no bounds,” she retorts, but her voice is hoarse.
“And you still haven’t answered the question.”
“Not every woman wants to fuck you, you know.”
“I’m not asking about every woman. I’m asking about you .”
Her retort is cut off by a small gasp as I draw my hand down her throat and then slide my fingers over her bare collarbones before I start tracing them down the center of her chest. Another shudder ripples through her, and she sucks in an unsteady breath.
I slip my hand down to her hip. Then I brush my lips over her jaw and down her throat. A tiny whimper escapes her.
Wicked satisfaction pulses through me at the sound of it.
So desperate.
So fucking desperate for me.
Time to decimate her.
“I’m still waiting for an answer, sweetheart,” I murmur against the side of her neck while I brush my thumb over her hip. “Do you want me to fuck you again?”
Her chest heaves.
I kiss that sensitive spot between her neck and shoulder.
Something between a moan and a whimper slips past her lips.
“Yes,” she breathes at last.
“Hmm,” I hum against her skin.
Then I straighten again and once more lock eyes with her. Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are slightly unfocused. A vicious smile tugs at my lips.
Taking my hand from her hip, I brush it over her cheek. “I see. Well, you know how it works with drug dealers. The first taste is free.” I place two fingers under her chin, tilting her head farther back as I flash her a mocking smile. “But if you want more, you’re going to have to beg me for it.”
That sobers her up immediately.
She jerks back as if I had slapped her.
Then fury pulses across her face and she yanks up her hands and shoves me hard.
“Asshole,” she snaps at me as she slips out from between my body and the wall .
But her face is red with embarrassment. It’s so intense that I can practically feel it in the air around her as she adjusts her dress and hair with jerky movements.
“Fucking asshole,” she snarls again and shoots me a contemptuous look.
Then she spins on her heel and stalks away. But that searing embarrassment still clings to her entire body language.
I let out a dark laugh.
So humiliated. So perfectly fucking humiliated.
With that vicious smile still on my lips, I keep my eyes on her as she stalks across the room. She won’t leave, I know that. Because she still wants to keep track of me. But now she’s feeling embarrassed, which means that she will most likely resort to alcohol to numb it. Which is exactly what I want.
The fact that my own body also feels like it’s full of liquid fire is of course entirely irrelevant. As long as Elle doesn’t realize that my cock fucking ached with need for her when I kissed her neck like that, it doesn’t matter that this brief confrontation affected me too.
While trying to force my heart to stop beating so damn hard in my chest, I slip through the drunk crowd until I find Paul. He’s dancing with a couple of girls, but when he sees me, he immediately stops and approaches me instead.
“It’s time?” he asks.
I nod. “Yeah. Do it.”
He nods back and then disappears into the crowd.
Dark anticipation courses through me as I turn to watch him go.
It’s time to start playing dirty.