Seductive Wicked Royal (Blood and Diamonds Book 3)

by L. A. Sable

  “Well, isn’t this a cozy scene?”

  We break apart, although I leave my hands where they are, high enough on Kai’s legs that in another inch I’d be touching his crotch. I refuse to be ashamed anymore for taking what I want. When I turn my head, I see Grace Khan standing over us with her skinny arms crossed over her practically flat chest, looking remarkably like a prepubescent gymnast. My first thought is the girl hasn’t had a good meal in years.

  “You’re sort of interrupting a moment here” I say, voice mild despite our compromising position. If I’ve learned anything at Black Lake, it’s that the best way to respond to being caught doing something is to act like you don’t have anything to be embarrassed about in the first place. “What do you want?”

  She raises an eyebrow and glances from me to Kai and back again. I don’t have to look at Kai’s face to know that he’s uncomfortable, but will follow my lead. The muscles of his legs have gone even tenser under my hands, like all he wants to do is stand up.

  “I was just stopping in to return a book.” She holds up a leather-bound volume and shakes it at us. “But imagine my surprise to find the two of you here. Nothing interesting ever happens in the library.”

  And knowing Grace, rumors that Kai and I are dating will hit the Inner Circle app in under five minutes. I lean back and tap the textbook that’s still open on the table. “We’re just getting some work done.”

  Grace’s smile widens but the expression borders on malicious. “Oh, I can see that.”

  Kai clears his throat and shifts in the seat. “Did you want something, Grace? Because I don’t remember selling tickets to the show.”

  “Oh, don’t sound so aggrieved. I’m sure I’ve seen you doing worse.” Her tone makes it clear that no matter what she says, this is news. “That yacht party over the summer definitely comes to mind. Although it does seem like you haven’t been as interested in slutting around this year. Has someone finally managed to put Kai Greenfield-Walton on a leash?”

  Kai leans back in his chair, but I recognize that he isn’t pulling away from me so much as he is unwilling to give Grace more fodder for gossip. “Where’s the rest of your little posse? Here I was thinking you guys were attached at the hip.”

  “Nice attempt at changing the subject.” Her gaze swings back to me. “We have to get together and coordinate our outfits for tonight.”

  The confusion on my face is real. “Tonight?”

  She raises her eyebrows. “You didn’t see the message on Inner Circle. The alumni mixer is tonight. We all have to be there.”

  I’ve been making a point of checking the app as little as possible unless it’s a notification from our blackmailer. None of the high school drama seems worth my time at this point. And I couldn’t care less about maintaining a social standing that seems to only bring me more trouble.

  I don’t bother to ask what it means that we have to be there, because I doubt that even she knows. Some mysterious consequence that we’re all supposed to be so worried about bringing on ourselves that we never bother to ask what the hell it is. “And we need what, like matching outfits for it?”

  “It’s not like we’ll be wearing the same thing.” Grace’s tone carries enough disgust to make it clear what she thinks about that particular idea. “But we have to coordinate colors and everything. We’re going to be standing in the same room for hours and we can’t clash.”

  Perish the though. “Yeah, I get it. You can come by my room later today so we can coordinate.”

  Grace raised an eyebrow, expression sardonic. “I’ll be sure to let Maisie and Ocean know.”

  “You talked to Chloe lately?” Kai asks suddenly, surprising me.

  She laughs, the sound derisive. “I’m sorry, who is that again?”

  I still see Chloe around school, but she seems to be making a point of avoiding me. From what I hear, she’s found a group from her drama class to hang out with, but nothing with the social cache of being with the Diamonds. She’s taken to wearing mostly black and very little makeup, which makes her look like a ghost of herself. Without being able to call herself a Diamond, it’s like she doesn’t quite know who she is. And from the sound of it, she didn’t just lose her position in the social hierarchy but her friends too.

  I’d feel bad for her if she hadn’t spent so much time torturing me.

  “Anyway, I should be going.” Grace flips her long hair over her shoulder and turns on her heel. “And keep it appropriate, you two. Never know who might be watching.”

  Kai watches her go with a frown. “Be careful with them, we don’t have any idea who set us up. Any of them could have something to do with it, or all three.”

  “Noted.” My voice is dry. I’ve officially hit the limit of the shit I’m willing to shovel. “Although let’s be honest, Grace couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it. She loves to gossip.”

  “I have to get to class,” Kai says as he stands. For a moment, he stares down at me with an expression that practically smolders. “We’ll finish the conversation that we started later, believe me.”

  Conversation isn’t the part I’m most interested in, but I think he knows that. I watch him go, paying particular attention to how his slacks hug the tight curves of his ass.

  “Can’t wait.”

  Chapter 6

  That night finds me in a too tight dress that costs more than some people’s cars and a pair of uncomfortable shoes that make me about four inches taller. Grace and Maisie had way too much fun rifling through my clothes while Ocean sat at my vanity table and did her makeup. Somehow they’d decided that it made sense for all of us to get ready in my room. And it’s hard to get them to take no for an answer when they didn’t bother to ask for permission in the first place.

  Watching them tear through the shimmery fabrics, holding one piece up to themselves and discarding another, all without seeming to care that the collection represents thousands of dollars. I’d enjoyed shopping for my designer wardrobe at the time because it was a key component of coming back to Black Lake as someone to be respected and feared, but now the thought of all that money just hanging there makes me a little sick. We wear uniforms during most of the school week, so a significant percentage of my clothes still have the tags on them, likely never to be worn.

  Selling those clothes on Poshmark would net an amount of money about equivalent to the GDP of a small third-world country.

  But the girls don’t seem to care about the cost as they make themselves comfortable among my belongings. It must be nice to be born into wealth and never have to think twice about what a parasite that sort of lifestyle makes you. Ignorance must be bliss.

  “Can I borrow this?” Maisie holds up a black silk Givenchy gown that’s full length and embroidered with gold sequins.

  I don’t even remember buying that one so it must be something that Trish picked out for me. She’s been using retail spending as a form of therapy almost since the day she married Carter Bellamy. “Sure, I guess.”

  “You’re a doll,” Maisie gushes, although the smile on her face doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She doesn’t seem like the type to actually get excited about anything. “You have to wear this Oscar de la Renta tonight. I can’t believe how much evening wear you brought to school with you. It’s like being a boutique.”

  It’s only in hindsight that I realize how ridiculous Trish and I must have looked in those designer stores, like little girls playing dress up in their mother’s closet. We had no idea what was appropriate for what occasion and the sales girls with chilly smiles and dollar signs in their eyes had taken full advantage. I’d spent thousands of dollars on clothes that I’d probably never have an occasion to actually wear.

  “Feel free to borrow whatever you like,” I say, my own smile tight. “I’m sure we want to make as good an impression as possible tonight.”

  The night hasn’t even started and I already want it to end.

  “Oh, we will.” Grace’s voice is practically a purr.
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  “Don’t forget this.” Ocean momentarily stops her obsessive study of her own face to hold something out to me. “We’re all going to match.”

  I look down at the scrap of black fabric and wire in my hand, knowing I seem confused. It’s a black mask studded with Swarovski crystals that’s just wide enough to cover my eyes with a cutout for my nose. “What is this for?”

  “No one told you?” The lilt in Grace’s voice is all that makes it more of a question than a statement. “Everyone wears masks to the mixer.”

  I turn the thing over in my hands, feeling the first stirrings of foreboding. “Seriously?”

  “We all know who everyone is, obviously. This is just supposed to be for fun.” Maisie’s throaty voice floats over me like being under a scratchy blanket. “This just adds an air of mystery to the whole thing.”

  Except the last thing I need in my life is another mystery.

  The first time I enter the Lounge since the night that will live in infamy is like being inside a memory, one that seems so distant that you can’t remember if it’s good or bad. A visceral reaction hits me the moment that I step across the threshold, tightening my muscles and curling deep in my belly. For a flashing moment I’m back in that hot tub surrounding by skin and hands, too out of my mind for rational decisions.

  Kai and Lucas are waiting at the top of the stairs when the girls and I arrive. With their matching black tuxedos and domino masks, it’s actually fairly difficult for me to tell them apart, which usually isn’t a problem. I look back and forth beneath them, squinting into their eyes, as I try to remember the details that usually make them seem so different. Ultimately, I just have to go with my gut as they watch my confused assessment with wide smiles on their identical faces.

  “Kai,” I say, pointing to the twin on the right and then turn to the other. “Lukas. Such gentlemen, thanks for waiting.”

  Kai makes a grumbling sound in his throat. “How did you know she’d figure it out?”

  “Odds are at least 50/50 if she just guessed,” Lukas replies with a careless shrug and holds out his palm. “Pay up.”

  With a sigh, Kai reaches for his wallet and takes out a single bill. I can’t tell in the dim light if it’s a twenty or a hundred. He tosses it in his brother’s direction before turning back to me and holding out his arm. “You’re killing me, Smalls. Shall we?”

  I let him escort me down the nearly black stairs and to the door of the Lounge, watching him open it as my heart starts to race out of control. I can’t help but wonder what any students who saw us trekking out here in our evening finery think we’re doing. Breaking and entering is one thing, but it’s a little inexplicable to do it in a tuxedo.

  But who am I kidding? Everyone around here seems to get the memo from the day they arrive to stay out of Diamond business. I’m the one who dove headfirst into this world with no idea of what I was getting myself into.

  I inhale his cologne as I huddle close to Lukas’s side, trying to remember it because I know at some point tonight they’ll switch places and try to trick me again about who is who. I doubt that they thought ahead enough to use the same aftershave. And even if they did, everybody reacts a little differently to even the same scent. Smell is as good a way as any to try to keep track of their identities while they’re wearing the masks. Lukas’s cologne smells expensive, obviously, but light like a breeze moving through forest trees after it rains: cypress and sage.

  “I hate this damn door,” Lukas mutters to himself as he hunches over the lock. The sound of the others clattering down the hallway gets louder behind us. “My key always sticks.”

  “Do you want mine?” I ask. It’s only after I say it that I realize that I don’t have my key to the Lounge on me. I remember stashing it in a drawer in my room, but I can’t remember the last time I laid eyes on the thing. Luckily, almost as soon as the words are out of my mouth, there’s an audible click as the lock disengages and then the door swings open. “Nevermind, looks like you got it.”

  He waggles his eyebrows, face barely visible in the darkness. “You can always count on my persistence.”

  My breath catches as I survey the transformed Lounge. Someone, likely one of the faceless staff who do all the dirty work at this school, has decorated the large room to make it look like a dreamland made of gold and darkness. Shimmery fabric hangs from the walls and the lights have been turned down so low that I can only make out the shape of a person until I’m right up in their face. Classical piano music plays but I can’t find a source, likely the same audiovisual system that was hijacked to make the video of us.

  “Whoa,” Lukas says as he comes to a stop, forcing a bottleneck as his brother and other girls gather behind him. “This is something.”

  “Doesn’t this happen every year?” I ask, pitching my voice low so we won’t be overheard by anyone scattered around the room.

  “Not like this.”

  Grace appears at my elbow and urges us forward. “We look like idiots standing by the door. Get in there or get out of the way.”

  With that encouragement, I force myself to ease into the crowd of people. Some of them lounge on the couches or lean against the bar with drinks in their hand. I can tell by the scent in the air that alcohol is being served. Being Diamond clearly means that you’re above anything as silly as underage drinking laws. I know most of the Diamonds in other years by sight, but not enough to feel comfortable engaging in conversation.

  A smiling man with a shock of silver hair hands me a drink and I take it with a murmur of thanks, scurrying away before he can engage me in conversation. Lukas stays at my side, his hand resting lightly on my back. He leans over to whisper in my ear that the man with the lascivious smile who shoved a drink in my mind is the current governor of Massachusetts.

  I take a sip and the alcohol hits me like a punch to the gut, no froufrou drinks for this crowd. Guess I’ll be nursing this for the rest of the night.

  The guys have already warned me we can’t cluster together, because it will look strange. We’re supposed to be here to meet the alumni who will help launch us into the world of the privileged after graduation. This is a moment when our bright futures are supposed to be sealed with a devil’s handshake, but this isn’t what I’ve ever envisioned for myself so it’s hard not to let the discomfort show.

  Kai disappears quickly, pulled away by Grace to hobnob with someone whose name I’m clearly supposed to recognize from the Forbes list. Asher and Jayden are already here, but it’s difficult to tell where they are with the darkness and the masks that everyone wears.

  Ocean appears at my shoulder, her blonde hair done up in curls is too distinctive to mistake. “Someone is asking for you.”

  I shoot a worried look to Lukas who just shrugs helplessly as Ocean pulls me toward the far side of the room and the grotto with its sunken pool. A shiver tries to work its way up my spine and I force myself to look away from the hot tub before the memory of the last time I saw it overwhelms me.

  “Hello, Lily.”

  The tall man is facing away from us and must have heard our approach. But when he turns, I’m looking into eyes that are nearly identical to Carter’s, except he’s away on a business trip overseas because it was the only thing Trish wanted to talk about when I called her this morning. “You must be Frank Bellamy.”

  A brief smile touches his lips, but his eyes are like a mirror and all I can see in them is my own face. “I am. And you’re even more lovely than how your mother described.”

  I’ll never understand why older men think that telling a much younger woman that she’s pretty works as an icebreaker. Best-case scenario, we’ll smile politely while rolling our eyes. And worse case, you get labelled a pervert. I’m also not a fan of the fact that he feels the need to remind me he’s spoken to my mother, because I’m nearly convinced that he was only using her to try to get back into Carter’s good graces.

  But I don’t have the luxury of raising the alarm in an environment like this.


  “Thank you. I have to admit that I’m surprised meet you here.”

  He shrugs, as if this meeting is somehow inevitable. “I am an alumnus.”

  “Does Asher know you’re here?”

  Something cold slides behind those disturbingly familiar eyes, but is gone so quickly that I wonder if I’m seeing things. “I haven’t had the opportunity yet, but I’m sure we’ll chat before the night is over.”

  My tone makes it a question. “But you wanted to meet me?”

  “I was eager to meet the girl that I’ve heard so much about, yes.” He shifts closer, although not enough to make it inappropriate. “I’d like to know what you think of Black Lake. It’s not often that someone rises through the ranks as quickly as you have.”

  “Well, it’s not every day that your mom marries a billionaire so I guess I’m entitled to a little suspension of disbelief.” I watch as the corners of his eyes tighten behind the mask at the reminder that it’s Carter’s money paying for all this. Aside from rumors and what I read in the society pages, I don’t really know what happened between Frank and his father but I don’t exactly trust the man. All the cruelty and cockiness that Asher showed me in the beginning didn’t just materialize out of nowhere. I have a feeling that the apple didn’t fall far from the rotten tree. “It was very nice to meet you, but I should be getting back.”

  A cold hand grips my wrist before I can turn away and Frank stares me down with a gaze that doesn’t have a trace of civility in it. Although there are dozens of people here, fear spikes through me before I tell myself that I shouldn’t think anything crazy. Creepiness is just a facet of the upper crust, they’re too rich to learn how to behave around the rest of us.