Chapter 24
TWENTY FOUR
RUELLA
Did I manage to get any sleep after getting back to my room last night. No.
Should I have due to the fact I have a fundraiser in an hour. Yes.
I guzzle down the redbull I picked up from the dining hall while I add the tequila to the huge jug on my side table. Then as I rim my glass with lime, I grimace at the dress hanging from my cupboard door.
The delivery Corden kept reminding me about was a garment bag. And in it was a deep red, figure hugging evening dress with cut outs so bloody large, I am surprised they can call it an actual dress.
It came with black stilettos that I don’t hate and a black clutch so small it will only fit my phone, room card and maybe a lipstick.
I wrap my wet hair up in a towel and pour some of my margarita batch into my glass. I lift it to my lips to take a sip but the knocking at my door has me placing it back down onto the table.
I pull my silk dressing gown tighter and knot it before pulling open the door.
“Please tell me your hair isn’t still wet under that towel,” Corden snaps.
I roll my eyes as I let him in, Deena following silently behind him with a smile.
“I still have an hour to get ready, chill,” I shrug as I pour them a drink. “Hey Deena, I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages,” I pass her the glass as I take a sip of my own.
“I know, I have had so much to do with assignments and then the home. I can’t wait till the Christmas holidays,” She sits down on my bed, her midnight blue dress shimmering in the low light.
“I thought you were going to be getting ready with me, you already have your makeup and hair done,”
She sighs. “I know, but my meeting with Mr. Chapman got changed, so I did my makeup first in case it ran over. Now I have nothing to do, I can dry your hair while you do your makeup?” She smiles.
“Yes, please. I think Corden will have a heart attack if we are late,” I grin.
“Hey, I want to have enough time to get sufficiently shit faced, dance until my feet hurt and then find someone to spend the night with now all my assignments have been handed in,”
“Even if you had an unfinished assignment to hand in at 7am tomorrow morning, the plans for tonight would be the same,” I chuckle.
“True,” he says before taking a sip of his drink. He grimaces. “Is there even any tequila in this?”
I ignore him and go to ask Deena how the meeting went, when another knock interrupts us, this one is soft and timid. Almost hoping I don’t hear it and answer.
“Who’s that?” Corden asks.
“I invited someone else to join us,” I grin as I open the door.
Piper stands there, arms wrapped around her stomach protectively and a lopsided smile on her face.
She wears a baby pink gown that reaches the floor and her honey-streaked brown hair pinned half up and styled in elegant waves.
She oozes sophistication and money, something that should be on the front of magazines and on the arm of royalty.
Yet, her body language gives off something different.
“Hey,” she says softly.
“Hey Piper,” I move to the side. “Come in, come in,”
She enters my room and stands awkwardly, scanning every corner for what looks like the bogeyman.
I have the door nearly shut when a leather shoe blocks the way.
My brows furrow as I investigate the hallway. My gaze awkwardly locking with the man before me.
“Can I help you?”
“You can let me in,” Jacob snaps.
I snort. “I think not cubby,”
“Don’t call me that,”
“Okay. But you aren’t coming in,”
“Wherever Piper is, I am,”
“That may be so, but I am half naked and you are eating into what little time I have to get ready,” He crosses his arms over his chest, puffing out in annoyance.
“So, if you don’t mind removing your foot from my doorway, that would be fantastic,” I grin showing teeth.
As huge as this man is, and as scary as his scowl can be, I don’t feel threatened.
I guess that’s due to the softness I see when he regards Piper.
The softness he uses right now to look into the room at her after rolling his eyes at me.
“I will be right outside of this door,” He tilts his head to the hallway.
Piper nods. “Okay,”
He stands, swiping his palms down his black suit before nodding and moving out of the doorway.
“Wow, that was intense,” Corden chuckles. “I’m Corden,” He holds his hand out for Piper to shake. She examines it for a few seconds before taking it.
“Piper,” she replies softly.
“Yeah, I know who you are,” Corden’s smiles as his eyes meet mine from behind her, a questioning look. He knows her name was in that drawer just as much as I do.
I shake my head at him before heading to pour Piper a drink.
“Hey, I’m Deena,” Deena stands from the bed, a sad smile lifting her mouth.
“Nice to meet you.,” Piper takes the drink I hold out to her. “And thank you for letting me tag along with you all,”
“No need to thank us, the more the merrier,” Corden lifts he glass in the centre of our loose circle we have managed to place ourselves in. “To new friends and condoms,”
We all giggle and cheers before taking a drink.
“Now go get bloody ready Ruella,” Corden snaps as I head into the bathroom.
“So, what’s the deal with the grumpy bodyguard outside,” Corden questions Piper. “You bumped uglies yet?”
“Corden!” I hear Deena chastise.
“What?” He protests. “We were all thinking it,”
I chuckle to myself as I take the towel from my hair.
God I am going to miss these guys when I eventually leave.
But I am not going to think about that tonight. No. I am going to have a night off, to let loose and have fun before everything inevitably goes to shit like everything does in my life.
I look at myself in the mirror while I lift the Margarita to my reflection. “To us,”
Then I knock the drink back and I embrace the burn of the tequila down my oesophagus.
***
This place stinks of opulence and sin.
A ballroom fitting for a Bram Stoker novel, with its rich gothic details, marble floor shining under the low candlelight and the large arched windows draped in velvet, pooling like spilled wine.
Everyone is dressed in the most beautiful dresses; in every colour you could think of.
Creating an undulating sea of technicolour.
“Holy crap,” Corden murmurs from beside me as we walk into the ballroom. “This place is insane. I always wondered what was behind those doors,”
I nod, taking in the scene. With my lectures mainly being on the opposite side of the academy, I haven’t really ventured this way before. I would never have guessed a ball room of this grandeur was locked away, it’s almost untouched by time. I can feel the history here, smell it, taste it.
“Yeah, they only ever let us in here for special occasions,” Piper chirps in from the other side of me.
Her arm linked in mine as we head down the small number of stairs into the body of space.
As I thought, Piper has fit into the group without any friction.
Her personality slipping out more and more as the time goes on.
I think she feels comfortable, and that’s all I care about right now.
Not that it matters, because Jacob is following close by, attached to her every move like a shadow, a huge handsome one.
A server passes by and offers us all glass of champagne, I take one but tell myself to slow down. We all had three margaritas back in my room, the last one being made by Corden and by its fiery burn, I assume it was more tequila than anything else.
“Oh, there’s Asher. I’m going to go and say hi,” Piper says as she drops my arm. “I’ll be back in five,” She grins and makes her way over to the other side of the room. Jacob following, placing his hand lightly on the base of her back like it belongs there.
I take a deep breath before I follow their line of travel, and I instantly regret it.
There he is in all of his glory. Black fitted suit that more than likely cost more than my father’s house, black shirt with the buttons at his collar opened, hair perfectly messed up and a smile on his face that lights a fire in my belly.
The bit that ruins it; the evil sucubitch gripping his arm in a vice, like he might dissolve into the ground if she doesn’t keep in contact with him.
She chats away with the older woman on the other side of Asher, like she belongs there. And I guess she does.
Piper interrupts and Asher’s attention immediately shifts to her, scanning her from top to toe like he is searching for an injury.
His mouth moves but I am too far away to hear anything.
I know I should look away, but I am glued to him, even my eye site gravitates towards him like he is a magnet.
Corden and Deena chat to another couple of girls and I nod my head enough to seem like I am included in the conversation.
Piper points over to us and before I can quickly glance away, our focus locks in on each other and my surroundings disappear.
Even the oxygen in my lungs freeze.
My body comes alive in a way that doesn’t make sense. How can he have an effect on me that no one else seems to have.
His gaze sweeps appreciatively down my form, from my face to my cleavage, scanning over the cut-outs that show my sides all the way to my hips and then down the train of deep red material until it pools on the marble floor.
When his eyes meet mine again, they have darkened. No, his pupils have widened. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, and a devilish smirk lifts his left cheek.
“I’m hard from just the sexual tension between you too right now,” Corden interrupts finally pulling my attention away from the inevitable train wreck that is awaiting us. “It’s disgustingly delicious,”
I clear my throat and laugh. “I have no idea what you mean,”
“Yes, you do,” He links my arm with his and pulls me closer. “Darcy might be on his arm right now, but his attention is solely on you,” He grins. “I knew that dress would make him drool,”
I raise my brows. “You got me this dress to attract Asher’s attention?”
“Erm, duh,”