by Stella Rhys
“Mm-hm.” She didn’t bother to lower her voice. “And I may or may not have heard about the way you like it, but that works perfect for me. You weren’t the one who did my interview but I did tell them that one of my greatest strengths was taking orders.” She winked. “So keep me posted on tonight.”
Her long, blonde hair was in a high ponytail and suddenly I could imagine it wound around my hand as I told her how to suck me off. “I’ll be sure to do that.” I kept my eyes on her as she walked away.
“No fucking the waitresses. I thought that was a rule.”
I turned to Oz. “That was a rule for you.” I’d had too many good servers go batshit after sleeping with him and being shocked that he didn’t remember their special night a week later. Unlike me, Oz made women feel as if he were in love with them, even when he didn’t know their name. It rarely ended well for him but he was too jovial to give a shit.
“You’re right. Fair enough. But I still don’t think you should take her home.”
“Why.”
“I think you’ve got other business to take care of tonight.”
“Alright, what are you talking about?”
Oz heaved a sigh and tossed his phone on the table with a clatter. “Logan’s been texting me with some concerns.”
“Logan? What concerns?” Oz and Logan were my two closest friends but they existed in two separate worlds for me. Logan was the friend from my childhood, who went to Yale like a good Upper East Side boy and then graduated to work at the same hedge fund as the likes of Theo Spencer. He followed the rules and were it not for me, he’d never spend time with a lunatic like Oz, who had whisky and cereal for breakfast and wore women on his arms like they lived in his wardrobe. They only had drinks together when I was there as a buffer so I couldn’t imagine that Logan was texting Oz for any reason that wouldn’t eventually mean trouble for me.
“He was asking if I thought he should tell you.”
“About what, Oz?”
“That girl of yours. River?”
“Lake.”
“That one. She’s at a party right now for a…” he checked his phone and muttered with a laugh. “Theo Spencer. Fucking posh name that is. Apparently ‘his friends are trying to get her shitfaced before he even gets here.’” My blood boiled in a second flat. Oz made a face like I’d performed a magic trick. “Holy shit. Look at you giving a fuck about another human being for once.”
“What else does it say?”
“I’ll tell you after you tell me who the girl is.”
I took a drink, pacing myself to finish it within the next ten seconds. “I’d rather not.” Oz was a part of my world after her. He knew nothing about her and I liked it like that.
“But you don’t even know where she is and you aren’t going to get the information from Logan because he’s just decided not to tell you about any of it.” Oz tossed an arm over the back of the couch and leaned back with a satisfied grin. “Now go ahead and give me the best summary you got. And then we’ll save the lass together.”
My fingers gripped my glass tight enough to crack it. I needed to go now but there was no getting past Oz so I told him what he wanted to know. “She lived with me growing up. We were close.” I left it at that.
“That’s a good story, that explains it.” Oz chucked a chewed up olive pit at me, which thankfully missed. “Fuck, man, I mean were you together a long time? High school sweethearts?”
“We never dated. She was just a spoiled little thing my mom took into our home and she had everyone wrapped around her pinky.”
“Ah. She’s beautiful then.”
“Perfect. And manipulative.”
“She must’ve been the one who turned you into a fuckin’ animal,” Oz laughed. I wasn’t sure if he was referring to my sexual appetite or pitiless business tactics, but either way, he was right. “Give me your best story and we’ll go.”
I tried to think of a way out of it but couldn’t. “Fine.” I didn’t have a best story but I gave Oz the one he’d already reminded me of because it had jumpstarted my business inclination to use whatever I had to get exactly what I wanted. Moral or not.
The incident was from senior year, on a particularly shitty Monday. The entire week had been rough and it was topped off by the fact that I’d gotten not a blink of a sleep, having spent all night and morning listening to my mother cry into her pillow. She muffled it well but I knew to look for the sound at night. It was like clockwork and she refused to ever talk to me about it so I always laid in bed half pissed off, half miserable with her. On top of that, Lake was being a nightmare herself. I didn’t know if it was my mother or Theo or whatever issues she was having on her own but she, like my mother, refused to talk and it felt like I was drowning in fucking mood swings and estrogen.
So I smoked a joint in Mercer’s second floor bathroom that morning to take off the edge. I was two hits in when one of the ruddy English teachers barreled in, sniffing hard, nostrils flaring. I’d never had him before but I knew from my friends that he was a hard-ass who lived to write us kids up. And that was exactly what was coming to me when he laid eyes on the joint still dangling out of my mouth. I didn’t immediately cower in fear so the threats started pouring in fast.
“I’ll have you suspended, Callum. I hope you know that.”
“Sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“That’s it?” He waited for me to grovel or burst into tears or something. Whatever he wanted, I didn’t give it, so he sneered. “You’re not nearly as scared as you should be right now, Callum Pike. I know you got into Hodgson on a wrestling scholarship. I know the Junior Olympics are coming in August. I’m fairly certain you could lose all of that when they find out about this.”
“Can you let it go with just a warning then?”
He laughed in my face. I suppressed my urge to do the same. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s not exactly how I conduct business around here, Mr. Pike. When you break the rules, I make it known.”
“But you didn’t tell anyone when Lake flashed you her tits.”
His face was priceless. I must’ve looked like the smuggest bastard alive. And I should’ve left it there. I knew I should have but I couldn’t help egging him on. It was just so satisfying to see him huff and puff and turn beet red while trying but failing to think of any sort of defense.
“I’m pretty sure that falls under inappropriate conduct. Unwanted sexual advances, probably.” I grinned. “Unless you wanted it. I wouldn’t blame you. She’s got nice ones.”
Lake shrieked when I told her the story. “You did not say that last part.”
“That you have nice ones? You do and I did.”
“Holy shit, Callum, you are so bad.”
“You’re the one who flashed your teacher.”
“Because you told me to!”
“You said you wanted to.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to. I said dare. There’s a difference,” she smirked. She was sitting on my lap at this point, casually rubbing my hands all over her chest. We did that often without thinking about it. If we weren’t fighting, we were talking or hanging out and every once in awhile, when we did that, I mindlessly stroked my favorite parts of her body. She did the same to me, taking my hand and running my fingers over her lips, her neck, whatever parts she wanted felt. The benefits of living together. We were teenagers with sexual cravings. Random needs to rub, squeeze and be touched. Lucky for us, they could be fulfilled at any time. Like raiding the fridge when we were hungry or getting water when we were thirsty, it was just a regular part of the day.
I laughed. “Don’t try that with me. You don’t ever have to do it if you don’t want to. You know that.”
“Of course I know that. I mean,” she tightened her hands over mine, “that I wouldn’t just volunteer to flash Mr. Price on my own. I like doing it if it’s a dare because then it’s really for you. And it keeps our streak alive.”
“Yeah.” I was squeezing her tits at this point, my thumb
s drawing circles over her tight nipples in the same casual way someone might tap their feet. She was grinning because she felt my dick swelling under her. “It’s a good streak.”
“And it all works out because now you’re not going to lose your scholarship.” She laughed. “And in a couple years you’ll get Olympic gold for being the best at stuffing your face in dude crotch.” That had always been her choice interpretation of wrestling.
“Christ. Shut up.”
“Make me.”
“I really would if it was my turn.”
“Would you?” She lifted her eyebrows and gazed down at my hard-on. I grinned. I wasn’t sure who started it but we were both thinking the same dirty thought and it was pumping the blood in my head straight down to my cock. She was on one of her million breaks with Theo at this point and I prayed to God that she’d tell me to do something downright filthy to her. They’d broken up because he wouldn’t stop pressuring her for sex. While she wasn’t ready for that, I knew she was curious about everything else. Just too scared to explore it with him because he had no control, wouldn’t know when to stop. I knew the ways Lake wanted me to touch her. But while she teased me all the time and put my hands on her body, she never outright dared me to pleasure her. I never did either. It felt like cheating. I always figured I’d eventually have her, in every way I ever dreamed of, but outside of our little game. It would happen because we both wanted it to. Because I loved her. Not because it was a dare. I had a hunch she felt the same.
But that day, I was painfully hard and wishing that she’d be the first to break that unwritten rule.
“What do you want me to dare you right now?” she read my mind and tried to make me the one to say it. “I dare you to tell me.”
“First rule.” That one was written. No daring out truths. It was a slippery slope and it would ruin the game. Lake pushed my hands off her breasts and down her stomach, stopping them at the top of her shorts. I waited for her to dare me to take them off and taste how sweet I knew she was. But she didn’t.
“I’m gonna save my turn,” she said suddenly. Then she got up off of me and went into her room. I didn’t need to see to know that we both spent the next few minutes masturbating behind closed doors.
That last part of the story I left out. Obviously. Oz was already wearing that dirty grin of his anyway, just from the bit I told about Lake flashing Mr. Price. “Alright. I’m very ready to meet this girl.”
“If you try anything on her, I’ll bury you.”
“Still love her?”
I gave him a tired look.
“Ahh, you still love her.” He laughed and jumped to his feet with a thunderous clap. “Alright then. Let’s get her.”
Chapter Five
Lake
It was past midnight and neither of them had come yet. The birthday boy’s flight in had been delayed several hours, which gave me hope that I might not actually have to see him and that Callum might whisk me away before I even had to decide if I ever wanted to forgive Theo Spencer. But three hours in, there was no sign of Callum and I was starting to realize that there might not be for the rest of the night. Maybe not ever again.
My shoulders slumped and I went from sixty straight to zero. My hope didn’t even have the decency to fade slowly. It disappeared all in one shot and made the full bottle of Grey Goose on the table look suddenly like a single serving. I wanted to pour it down my throat but I stopped myself. If I was going to drown my sorrows, I’d wait to do it in the safety of Isabel’s apartment, where I’d been staying. Theo was going to show up any second and I needed all the balance in my heeled feet to run if he decided to get handsy. He had little control to begin with but after a few drinks, it was gone. The behavior I had let him get away with when I was a teenager still made my stomach turn.
“Sometimes I wonder how the brain in my head right now is the same one I had when I was sixteen,” I said to Isabel. Nick had been harassing me to do a third round of shots when she came over, brought me wordlessly to her table and then hooked an arm into mine as if locking me down. From that point on, we sat there nursing club sodas, our heels off and heads resting on each other.
“I feel you, girl. I used to wear nude leggings.”
“I kept dating a total asshole because I didn’t want to lose my friends.”
“Call it even.”
I bumped her fist. “Sure.”
“I’m sorry I went and married into your asshole’s family,” Isabel gave me a little cringe. “My Spencer boy’s a doll though. I swear Alec took all the good and left none for Nick and Theo.”
“That has to be it.” Alec was the first-born Spencer and had long graduated by the time I was in high school with his brothers. I knew he had a good heart if Isabel chose him for a husband, and I could see it in the fact that he was the only brother who agreed to look after their father when Mrs. Spencer unexpectedly passed. Mr. Spencer’s memory had deteriorated since then and sadly, the fact that he didn’t recognize me was the only reason I could stay at Isabel’s. He didn’t like me at all back in the day. The parents never had. The entire Spencer family eventually had some sort of problem with me, save for Alec, who was never around. Unfortunately, he still never was, apparently away on business all the time. Having him at the party tonight would’ve been a nice form of security since Isabel claimed that he had the most luck keeping his asshole brothers in line. “Well. Props on scoring the good apple, Iz.”
“Thanks. Speaking of the bad ones though.” Isabel held my hand tight when we both spotted Nick coming toward us holding as many shots in each hand as he could fit. The shiny pink tie that had been so perfectly knotted an hour ago was already undone and his swagger had quickly become more of a stumble. I could tell he was on his way to being wasted.
“No thank you, Nick,” I said before he could even offer.
His face fell. “Seriously, Lake? I let you say no to the last round. You can’t say no to this one.”
I couldn’t tell if he was faking his anger or not so I tried to joke lightly. “I don’t think that’s how drinking works.”
“No, that’s exactly how it works, sweetheart. I dropped ten grand on reserving this table and bringing in the catering, which I did see you shoving into that mouth of yours before – ”
Isabel rose in shock from her seat. “Nick!”
“– but you can’t take the stick out of your ass and have a few fucking shots before my brother gets here? On his birthday?”
I pulled Isabel back. “First of all, Nick, calm down – ”
“You don’t tell me to calm down,” he laughed bitterly. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m a grown woman who makes her own decisions, including when and where I want to drink, so I do get to tell you to stop harassing me to get plastered because you think it’ll get me loose enough to give your brother some ‘birthday action,’” I snapped, losing my temper.
Isabel’s jaw dropped. I hadn’t told her that detail in hopes of keeping the drama at bay but here we were, in the thick of it because Logan had stopped me on my way out of the bathroom and revealed what he’d overheard Nick telling his friends – that Theo would owe him big if he could pull out this surprise party and “get Lake drunk enough to finally give up some pussy.” I was ready to leave that second, especially since Nick started thrusting more booze in my face, but then Isabel came to get me. She was ready to go but was obligated to stay and say surprise to Theo, since Alec couldn’t. I figured I’d do the same. I would say ‘hello,’ do my part in giving second chances and then go the hell home with Isabel. But now, I was positive I couldn’t hold out any longer.
“Oh, fucking sue me, Lake,” Nick snapped. “It’s not like Theo’s a stranger – you used to date him. And to be honest, he was a saint for putting all that time and money into you when you weren’t giving him the only fucking thing he wanted you for.”
“Nick!” Isabel swiped at him. “Are you kidding me? You’re such an asshole!”
“God – w
hat are you going to cry to Alec now and make this another family drama?” Turning his dark eyes back at me, Nick sneered. “Honestly, you should be fucking honored that any of us even give a shit about you.”
“Oh, really?” I laughed bitterly, knowing exactly where Nick was going with that one. I got up and grabbed my purse. I knew he was baiting me, trying to get me to get sensitive and demand what the hell he meant by that but I wasn’t going to give him the pleasure. “I’m going home. Goodnight.” I slid out of the booth and waited for Isabel to put on her shoes but she was fuming as hard as I was and her fingers were stumbling over the straps. Nick used the time to grab my wrist and yank me away. “Nick!” I cried out as he nodded for his friend to contain Isabel. “Let go of me!”
“Quiet,” he growled, pulling me into a corner and muttering an inch from his face the way his brother used to. “Why don’t we get something straight here, Lake? When I invite you to a nice party and you come and you eat my food and drink my liquor, you should probably have the fucking decency to give something back. You do realize that you’re nobody right? You may be friends with some of us but you’re not one of us, so if you’re here with us, you need to earn your keep.”
“Oh my God – ” I walked away with a true laugh. He caught my wrist and jerked me back.
“Listen to me. I told my brother I had a very big surprise for him and I didn’t mean this party, so don’t fuck it up for me.”
“I’m not some stripper you hired to jump out of a birthday cake,” I hissed, wrestling out of his grip.
“You might as well be – you’ve always been a fucking tease.”
“I was a teenage girl who wasn’t ready to have sex yet, Nick. Grow up.” I tried to push past him but he shoved me into the wall.
“I grew up. We all did. We’re all successful but look at you.” I knew from the way he laughed that he was going to say it. “Lake DePalma. Still trash.”
There it was. Trash. The word rang in my ear and as hard as I tried to keep it from happening, it sunk me back into the dark place I was in every day at Sunstone with that miserable woman and her miserable family. Trash. You’re trash! I squeezed my eyes shut and fought the urge to believe it, to succumb to what so many people had told me. But closing my eyes made me see her. It flashed memories before my eyes – of the day I walked in on her, strung out and naked in bed. I heard the crackle of her smoke-singed voice.