by Thorne, Leia
His mouth comes down on mine once more, this kiss turning more tender, softer. And I swear, his kiss is addictive. I don’t know when to stop, or if I can ever stop thinking about kissing Gage Astor from now on.
By the time we leave the locker room, my lips are bruised, my body is flush. I’m a languid pile of bones and useless muscles. I climaxed…I should feel satisfied…but he didn’t enter me, and that leaves an achy, needy feel for the rest of the day, my body strung tight with need to be completely filled.
At lunch, we decide to eat in the courtyard just outside of the cafeteria. It’s a warm day, and the sun feels good on my legs as I stretch out on the grass. I somehow don’t blush, or draw attention to the fact that I feel like everyone around me knows what happened in the locker room. I have a secret. More than that, I have a secret life—one that is entirely too seductive and deserves its own society, apparently.
Next to me, Sawyer looks up from her phone. “Treetop today?” she asks Gage.
He’s seated on one of the stone benches and stares at her through his wire-rimmed glasses. “This weekend.” He picks up his tray from the bench and stands. He sends me a wink before he heads into the lunchroom.
I duck my head, thankful for the sun that conceals the flush of my skin. “What’s the treetop?” I ask Sawyer.
She wraps an arm around my shoulders. “You know that invitation you got today?” she asks, her voice lowered. I nod guardedly in response. “The treetop is where you’ll go through the initiation process. Officially.”
At the confused draw of my eyebrows, she smiles. “Don’t worry,” Sawyer says. “You have a week before you have to decide. Just…think about it.”
“All right…” I trail off, hesitant. This is suddenly feeling very clandestine, like a college fraternity. “Am I going to be hazed?”
Sawyer laughs, but doesn’t say anything, making me wonder if that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Shit. Just how humiliating is this initiation going to be?
Palmer plunks down on the other side of us. “Remi’s been invited?” she asks Sawyer.
“She has,” Sawyer confirms. “But, according to Gage, it won’t be official until this weekend.”
It’s odd hearing Sawyer be so…submissive toward Gage. I suppose every group has a leader; I just never thought of her as a follower. There are dynamics at play here that I don’t quite understand, and wonder if—honestly—I ever will.
The filthy rich live on their own plane of existence.
“Do you want to be one of us?” Palmer asks me.
“Of course, I do,” I say, giving her a sincere smile.
Sawyer turns my way, a matching smile on her face, but there’s a faint sadness behind it. “Then I suggest using this week to think about—”
“Saw, come here.”
It’s Gage that interrupts as he stands at the doors, and Sawyer sighs heavily. “To be continued.” She picks up her lunch and joins him near the stain-glass windows.
I finish my lunch, listening to Rush and Emry discuss a hot new video game, and Palmer taps me on the arms. “Who gave you the invite?” she asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. It was just in my locker.”
She considers this with a curious expression, then says, “I bet it was Sawyer. She was the one to invite me. It makes sense she’d be the one pushing for another girl member.”
“That does makes sense,” I echo her, but secretly hope it was Gage.
She pushes my hair off my shoulder. “I hope you pass. I can’t wait for you to join us.”
I turn toward her. “Pass? Pass what?”
“Oh.” She looks toward Gage and Sawyer, then says in a hushed tone, “Don’t tell them I said this, but… Just think about something intimate you want to share with us. A secret. It’s part of the pledge.” She kisses my cheek. “We have to go.” She heads off with Emry and Rush, leaving me sitting here, baffled.
And a little on edge.
I only have one secret…and the thought of sharing that with every one of them…
I suddenly feel ill.
I wonder if this is a test. I feel like I did my first week here, where I wasn’t sure if I was being pranked. I force the thought away. I can’t freak myself out like this.
As I’m bussing my tray inside, Gage sidles up beside me. He leans in close to my ear. “I want you to think about me tonight,” he says. “Push your fingers inside that sweet pussy and get off to the thought of us.”
Heat flushes my cheeks, and as he stalks off, I glance around the lunchroom. Sawyer is watching me. I try not to meet her eyes as she walks toward me and locks her arm through mine. “What was that about?” she asks.
Shit. I have a dilemma. Their whole society is supposedly built on trust, and yet it’s all about secrets. A very conflicting impasse.
Maybe I’m being tested on whether or not I can keep a secret. But Sawyer has been so open with me…can I really lie to her?
“I think your plan worked,” I say, keeping it vague without altering the truth. “I think Gage is suffering.”
“Good,” she says.
But there’s something in her tone; a dark note. I can feel this current of unease flowing between us now. Of course, it’s probably my own anxiety, my fear of what they will expect of me come this weekend.
According to Palmer, what they want is simple: only my deepest, darkest secret.
And even though I swore to myself I would leave it in the past, I spend the entire week thinking about the one thing I’ve tried so hard to forget.
Chapter 14
Gage
A cool breeze caries the scent of a late September summer over the lake, creating a ripple effect on the glassy lake top. I sit on the hood of my Audi, watching the birds flock in single file formation as they take turns diving for their prey.
The cormorant isn’t a rare or even remotely interesting bird. All black with a double white crest, it’s common for this area. Yet, I like to watch it hunt. It’s pretty stealthy as the bird flies low over the water, searching for fish that swim too close to the top. Then it gains altitude and swoops down, diving right through the surface to snag its prey.
We’re not unlike the cormorant and fish. Sawyer and I, that is. She might try to deny her nature, but she walks the halls of Brighton like the bird stealthily soars along the lake top. She marks her prey over time, singling out the strays swimming alone, then swoops in to ensnare them when they least expect it.
A car pulls up. The door slams. And I hear her agile steps coming toward me.
“You beckoned, your royal douche,” Sawyer says, her lilting voice full of snark.
I pat the hood next to me. “We need to discuss our next move.”
She walks in front of me, blocking my view of the lake. Her hair is swept up into a high ponytail, and she’s still wearing her uniform. “I think it’s pretty simple, don’t you? Either Remi passes, or she doesn’t. We move on.”
I lean back, placing my hands behind me, as I study her. She’s jealous. Maybe she doesn’t realize it, or refuses to admit it to herself—but I’ve noticed her attitude today, her coldness toward me and her distance from Remi.
“What’s wrong, Sawyer. Can’t take the competition?”
She scoffs. “You cheated, Gage. The bet is defunct.”
I push off the hood and storm toward her. Grasping the back of her neck, I bring her face close to mine. “You’re not getting out of it that easily.”
She doesn’t try to escape. She holds my gaze, unrelenting. “I saw you take her to the locker room.”
I loosen my grip, run my thumb along her neck. “That’s not cheating,” I say. “There are no rules, lover. You can’t cheat when there are no rules to break.”
She pulls away from me. “I’m not your lover.”
“That’s why you’re still an underling,” I spit. “You want to be on equal footing? You want to make some rules? Then accept your place with me.”
Her gaze slits as she crosses
her arms. “So all that talk about our empire and our society… It’s all just the same old Astor bullshit.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “What are you talking about?”
“What happens when our parents go forward with the merger, Gage?”
I push my glasses up the bridge of my nose, stalling. “You will head up one division, and I the other. But”—I move forward and trace my fingers up her arm—“wouldn’t it make more sense to run it as a whole together?”
She steps back, away from my touch, and I drop my hand. Curl it into a tight fist at my side.
She turns her back to me, looking out over the lake. “You said it was us,” she says. “But just like you seduced Remi to win a stupid bet, you will always do what’s best for you, to get ahead.”
I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her slender shoulders. “Remi is just a game,” I say, “that’s all. You’re reading too much into it. She’s not important.”
“Nothing is ever inconsequential with you, Gage. Everything you do has a purpose.”
This is true. She probably knows me better than I know my damn self. But what can I confide in her? Until she submits completely, and there is no question of trust and loyalty between us, she can’t be trusted with the full truth.
It’s too dangerous for her.
Otherwise, when that day comes and there can only be one head of our company… That cannot by Sawyer. I’m a legacy; it’s simply not in her cards. She’s supposed to be at my side. That’s her place. The sooner she accepts this, the better for us all.
“I’ll call off the bet,” I say, holding her tight. “You don’t owe me anything that you don’t want to give willingly.”
“No. Go forward with it.” She steps out of my embrace and turns to face me. “Tonight, in fact. I want it over with.”
I shake my head. “It’s too soon.”
She cranes an eyebrow. “Not secure enough in your skills to swoon our little pet?”
I cock my head. “Your hot-and-cold is giving me whiplash.”
She shrugs. “I hate to lose, Gage. Especially to you. But I’m not a quitter. Besides,” she says, stepping closer. “I like Remi. I didn’t think I would at first, but she’s special.”
She is that. If Sawyer only knew how special…
“I believe she’ll pass with flying colors,” Sawyer continues. “Don’t you have faith in your protégé? Or was your claim about Remi taking over the society next year bullshit, too?”
I inhale a deep breath, rolling my shoulders back. “Bring her to the treetop tonight,” I say. “No initiation. Not yet. But we can toss her into the deep end. See if she sinks or swims.”
Sawyer sniffs hard, looking back toward the lake. “One day you’ll own all of this, the whole damn town, and then we’ll all be treading water to survive you.”
“Hey.” I bring her around toward me, placing my hands on her face so I can look into her sea-green eyes. “I would never hurt you,” I promise her.
She stares back at me—right through me—and I read the doubt in her eyes, the question of what will happen to us when we’re pitted against each other.
“I have to go.” Sawyer places her hand over mine briefly before she steps out of my hold, leaving me to ponder our future.
I watch her drive off in her Lexus, the only person in this world that could truly hurt me. What would she do with that truth if she knew it for certain?
I was wrong about Sawyer. Comparing her to the boring little lake birds. They’re too obvious in their attack. She’s more like the snake that slithers along the ground, waiting for the bird to let down its guard, before she coils around it and fills it full of venom.
I meant what I told her. I would never willingly hurt her. But for her sake, by that admission, I hope she doesn’t mistake me for some weak prey.
Chapter 15
Sawyer
“Wow, this is insane.” Remi stares up at the gleaming gothic building of stone and glass that is Leighton Tower. “And how do you guys get away with this again?”
I laugh as I pull into Dylan’s Jukebox and park. “Promise not to tell anyone?”
She crosses her heart. “Of course not. Who am I going to tell?”
That’s true, but not the point. Making Remi a part of our secrets will help her feel more connected, and also more responsible for her part, her role.
“Last year, there was an accident,” I say, and swallow hard. “Someone close to us, close to me—” I revise “—committed suicide. Her mother owns the penthouse.”
Remi looks away. “I’m sorry,” she says.
“Don’t be. It happened a while ago.”
“I mean, I’m sorry that I knew about it and never said anything. I read something online about what happened. The article said it she was sick…” She turns in the passenger seat to look at me.
“It’s okay, Remi,” I assure her. “Gossip is gossip here, no matter the medium. Everyone is full of shit. We don’t like to talk about it. In fact, we never talk about it.” I stress the point.
She nods in understanding.
Interesting. I knew Gage had put Lesley in her path, but I wasn’t sure why. To toy with her? Make her feel like she belongs? He claims that he selected Remi because she’s fresh blood, and she’ll fill the void Lesley’s death left behind. But as I told Gage earlier, he always has a purpose for everything he does.
Remi’s similarity to Lesley may just have piqued his twisted interest; that I can believe. He might use it to play games with his new pet, or to even torture Mrs. de Pont. With Gage’s devious nature, the possibilities are endless.
I sigh out a lengthy breath, deliberately clearing my head.
I’m weary of trying to guess Gage’s next move. Playing defense isn’t an option any longer.
Time to position the queen for checkmate on the board.
I pocket my keys and open the car door, waiting for Remi to join me as I walk inside the building garage. “So, as this is your first peek into the inner circle, a word of advice.”
We enter the elevator together and I face her, pushing my shades on top of my head so she can see my eyes, to understand just how serious I am. “You can leave at any time,” I tell her. At her alarmed expression, I add: “Don’t worry. No one will judge you. You’re free to make any choice you want.”
The doors open and, as we enter the dimly lit penthouse, for some reason, I feel as if I might be more nervous than Remi.
There’s a lot weighing on tonight. Remi will form a deeper connection, a bond, with one of us. And honestly, at first, I didn’t care. I didn’t take Gage and his wager all that seriously. I honestly didn’t believe Remi would even make it this far.
We’re very selective with who we choose, and the number is limited for a reason.
Incentives.
Secrecy.
Control.
You can’t commit twenty or more people to a clandestine sex society and trust it will remain a secret. Each member is special. Chosen based on certain criteria that meets our needs, but also, because that criteria ensures they will be loyal.
For the most part, Remi is still a mystery. Which means she’s a risk. She was supposed to be this fun little venture to steal away the boredom of senior year…but Gage has turned this into a dire game of tug-of-war.
The stakes are higher now. If Remi chooses Gage for the initiation, then he will demand his trophy in the form of a kiss. Gage winning the bet will set the tone for our future business and personal relationship.
I cannot reward Gage like that—with the one thing I’ve kept solely for myself. If I kiss him…he will lord that power over me.
I know this, because I’ve watched my mother give away her power and fuck up every single one of her relationships. Friends, lovers, husbands. And I refuse to repeat her history.
I need to put Gage in his place, and I need to do it soon.
I enter the living room and set my Prada purse on the island. Palmer and Emry are laying on the
floor, clicking through songs on the penthouse playlist. Rush and Gage are on the balcony. I wonder if Gage is discussing his—our—concerns about his drug use.
Palmer jumps up. “Remi’s here. Now it’s a party.”
Remi smiles as she settles down on the loveseat, but I can see the anxiety in her stiff movements.
“I’ll be right back,” I say, and head to the balcony.
I open the slider and step out, making sure to shut it behind me. “Do you still have the molly?” I ask Rush.
Gage sends me an annoyed look. “This will be better if she’s sober, don’t you think?”
“She will be sober,” I say, fisting my hands on my hips. “Just a little taste to take the edge off. She’s nervous.”
Rush drives a hand through his tousled hair. “I have a few pills inside. Should be enough to share.”
I nod. “Good. Thanks.”
Rush glances between me and Gage, concern etched on his handsome features. “You two have really been at each other lately,” he says. “What’s up?”
I look at Gage and incline my head, a challenge in my eyes. “Yeah, Gage. What’s the deal?”
His lips curl into a twisted grin. “Nothing, darling. Do you have an issue?”
“Of course not, lover,” I spit his word back at him.
Rush groans. “You two are so fucked in the head,” he says, as he stalks back inside.
“At least someone tells the truth.” I follow Rush into the penthouse, Gage right behind me. Rush retrieves the molly from his box and tosses me the baggie.
I hold it up between my fingers. “Who wants to play?”
Palmer squeals, always up for anything.
I walk to one of the back bedrooms and retrieve a white down blanket from the closet. As I reenter the hallway, I glance at the adjacent door. A hollow pang hits my chest. When we took over the lease for the penthouse, I called in maintenance to install a deadbolt on her door. I carry the key with me at all times—but have never entered her room. Not since that night.