Chapter 19 Kat
KAT
PLAYLIST: MISBEHAVE – FRANCES LION
“You will be on your best behaviour,” Lilian hisses at me while we drive from the airport to her mother’s house in Beverly Hills. “There will be no foolish handholding, no kisses and affections on display. My mother will not shut up for months if she sees so much of a look, do you understand?”
I have to suck in my lips to keep myself from sniggering. We both know that I will not follow any of her rules, at least not these particular ones.
“This was a mistake,” she mutters, cursing to herself and rolling her eyes.
“I can make your parents like me,” I say. “Don’t fret about it.”
“Which might make things worse,” she says. “My mother, she’s—“
“Don’t worry,” I say and put my hand on hers. She tries to remove it, but I grab it and stop her from doing so. “I won’t order you to kneel for me in front of everyone. I’ll keep that for later.”
Her eyes flash a murderous look at me, and Doug in the front swallows down a laugh himself. Oh, what joy it brings me to ruffle her feathers a bit more every day.
We arrive at her mother's mansion. It is exactly what I expected.
Extravagant and yet the ‘Beverly Hills Mother Style’.
From sports cars to Rolls-Royce, everything is lined up in the driveway.
When we enter the house, Doug makes himself scarce in the background, and we are welcomed by a smiling waitress.
I grasp Lilian’s arm because the waitress stares at her way too long. Lilian is mine. She shoots a look at me for touching her and opens her mouth, but I won’t let her.
“Shut up and walk,” I tell her. “Everything else would be strangely suspicious and raise questions. Also, that waiter looked at you like she desired you.”
“Don’t you dare touch her,” Lilian threatens me.
“I won’t,” I say. “If she keeps her eyes and hands to herself.”
Lilian rolls her eyes again.
Oh, how I’d like to flap her over my lap and spank her for that. Especially in that hot dress of hers. But I can’t, because she’s still hurt.
Lilian wears a dress that is extraordinary in its simplicity. Ice-blue like a frozen sea made from a tight, thin fabric that looks like a second skin, as if she were wearing nothing.
I have chosen an elegant white jumpsuit with a tight waistband and a thin brown leather belt. I would never have picked anything white for me, but the invitation stated a no-black rule, which I personally voted to ignore, but Lilian vetoed. Little Miss Perfect.
Now, I feel exposed. White is way too bright for my taste, and it took me an hour to channel a different personality to be able to put on that crappy color.
I like black. Darkness. Everything underworld.
But here I am—at a high-society birthday get-together, doing what I do best, pretending to be someone I am not.
“Mother,” says Lilian, and lets go of my arm. There is hugging and kisses left and right. Lilian plays her role, but I can see how much she hates it; she also seems to be in more pain than she lets on.
“This is Katerina,” she finally says. “My…um—”
“People close call me Kat,” I say, laughing. “I’m the secret girlfriend in the flesh and blood,” I add, walk up to her mother, and hug her. I do it because I can see from the mother’s body language that she loves hugs and longs for affection.
“You look lovely, Mrs Knightley. That costume is to die for,” I say when we loosen the hug.
A broad smile appears on Mrs Knightley’s face.
“See, Lilian, that is how you welcome a mother. At least your girlfriend has manners.”
I get another murderous look—I am a collector of them now.
The mother pats me twice on my shoulder, “Keep going, she can be stubborn this one,” she says. “Just like her father. Don’t let him get to you.”
“I have been warned,” I say with a chuckle. “I have endurance, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
The mother leaves when she sees a friend she must welcome.
“Well, that went well,” I say. Lilian doesn’t respond. She’s biting her jaw; I can see her jawline flexing.
“Breathe, Princess,” I say, and she closes her eyes. She is close to murdering me, which makes it so delightful for me to tease her more and more.
“Oh, there he is coming,” Lilian groans as her father walks up to us, a girl by his side who looks like she’s not even eighteen. I have prepared for the event by getting a list of everyone invited and learn their names and faces, but the girl was not on it.
“Lil,” he says, distantly, and gives her a formal cheek-to-cheek kiss without touching. “A shame with your company.”
“I’m already on the next project,” she says. “May I introduce you? This is Katerina.”
I hate when people use my full birth name, so I clear my throat, and Lilian adds, “Everyone calls her Kat.”
I wait for his initiation, and I know the very moment he disapproves. Not necessarily of me, but more of the fact that Lilian brought a woman.
Nonetheless, he stretches out a hand, and I take it. Firmly to show presence. I despise men like him, a mutual feeling.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr Knightley,” I say, and look around him to the girl shadowing him. “And that is—?” I want to find out how old she is.
“Aline,” he says, leans in to me and says, “Between us, she gives extraordinary blow jobs, but otherwise not the brightest.”
“Father,” Lilian hisses, but he meant to say it to test me; I can see it in his eyes. A male who needs to pee all over the place.
I say, “Well, you seem to be easily satisfied. I personally like to have someone use their intelligence to make my time worthwhile.”
I smirk. Lilian bites her lip to not do the same until her father chuckles deeply.
“Touché, Kat,” he says. “Let’s have a drink later. And Lil, the Tennis teacher, he is here, too. We should be around when he meets his predecessors.”
“Can’t wait,” she says.
The party goes exactly as expected.
“I don’t know how you do it,” I say to Lilian at some point, because all the superficial talking drains me, even as a role I play.
“Here,” she says and hands me a glass of champagne. “You drink. That’s how you survive.”
“Thanks,” I say. I never drink. I need my head clear. So I fake taking a sip and empty the glass into a plant in a moment of distraction.
Evening falls over the Hills, and I glance at L.A.
illuminated by lights and a sky dipped in all shades of colors, reaching from blue to violet to orange to yellow.
I have seen many things in life, and I still think billionaires shouldn’t exist, but this here, right now, watching the sky, the landscape, it’s… nice.
Lilian walks up to me and grasps my arm.
“You’re drunk,” I say in amusement as I glance at her. Her eyes are slightly watery, and she is way too affectionate.
She giggles. “I might,” she says, and hiccups slightly. “I also want to kiss you.”
“I thought no affections,” I say.
“Fuck that,” she says, and pulls me into a kiss, and who am I to turn down the woman of all my desires and dreams if she, for once, allows me some sort of closeness? Closeness I never knew I wanted.
Her hands wander around me, and I cup her face as her lips demand mine. I can’t tell the time passing, because the world around us disappears.
Her hands want more.
And as much as I want her, too, I am the responsible voice for her right now.
“Lil,” I say and grasp her hands. “Slow down,”
She freezes immediately.
“Let’s find a room somewhere in this house. There must be like what—? Sixteen bedrooms in it, I am sure one of them can suit our needs.”
It’s only then that she realizes she has broken her own rules, in horror.
“Come,” I say and pull her with me, as carefully as possible. Even if she doesn’t feel much right now, I know she’s in pain still, and I intend to be very, very careful with her.
We get inside without distraction, and I figure the private rooms are on the upper level, so we take the stairs, not the elevator.
I don’t know what she has with them, and maybe, one day, she’ll entrust me with the knowledge.
Until then, we’re taking the stairs. Well, I do, and Lilian stumbles up.
I can’t look at it and lift her into my arms.
“L-Let me down,” she slurs at me.
“Nope,” I say, “Won’t let you fall down that staircase. Also, everyone else is drunk like you; no one will even notice.”
She groans and gives in.
“That’s my good girl,” I say.
I choose the first bedroom I find, open the door with my elbow, and place her on the bed.
Afterwards, I go lock the door.
Lilian just lies on the bed as I have put her down, and I laugh to myself.
Who would’ve guessed that perfect, arrogant, bossy Lilian is such a sweet girl when drunk?
I lie down next to her on the bed on my side, supporting my head with my hand, caressing her body. The dress is so thin I can feel every bone through it.
My lips search for hers as I lean over her so she doesn’t have to move.
I can pull off the princess treatment if I want.
It’s not that I don’t like this, but I’d rather pin her against the wall, fuck her into oblivion with a strap-on, and take care of her after she shakes and sinks to the ground from coming too many times.
And I will. Not just right now.
I push my tongue in her mouth and demand her. Just thinking about all the things I want to do with her makes me demanding; lust and desire growling in me.
My hand wanders over her body, down her thighs. I trail with my fingers over the inside of her right thigh and push up the dress a bit so I can grasp underneath it.
“You have no idea of all the things I wanna do with you,” I whisper against her lips before I kiss down her chin, to her throat and chest.
“Tell-ll-l me,” she says with a gasp. I grin against her skin.
“You’re naked, as you stand in front of me,” I whisper, “My hands wander around your wrists as I tie you up.”
I follow my words with my hands, but I don’t have a rope in reality, so I just continue with my imagination.