Privileged

by Carrie Aarons

  “Can someone confirm that Privé is open tonight? If not, I’m not sure why we’re even going to Paris …” Eloise rolls her eyes and settles into her seat, sipping the flute of champagne someone brought over.

  “It is, my connection texted me.” Katherine waved her phone in the air. “Hope you brats brought your A game.”

  Ed clapped his hands surreptitiously, and I continued to stare out the window. I was the least excitable out of my group of friends, but even I had to admit that there was something uniquely special about a night out at Privé. The ultra-exclusive club, literally meaning private in French, was so hard to find, you needed a special map and key to get in. We’d been a couple of times before, so I knew from firsthand knowledge that the entrance was inside a department store in the main district of Paris, with a key code combination. From the outside, the door looked like an employee stock room entrance, but once you were in …

  “Hope we’re not too late to the party!” Drake walks through the cabin, and I can’t make out the person behind him.

  “It’s just like you, mate, to bring an unauthorized date—”

  I start to talk, but am cutoff mid-sentence when I see Nora walking up the aisle. Her scarlet hair is windblown, the white dress floating around her body sets off the peachy tones of her skin. She looks like some kind of country princess, and I have to chuckle to myself because she pretty much is exactly that.

  “I hope y’all don’t mind, I brought a friend. She’s never been to Paris before, so we have to show her a good time.”

  Everyone is silent, assessing the newcomer like she might bite. Nora chews on her bottom lip, and I find my cock lengthening with the need to bite it myself. It must be the hatred toward her fueling my arousal. Typically, I regard females like playthings, discarding them after one or two uses. I’ve never thought seriously about a woman in my life, and I wasn’t about to start now.

  “Have a glass of champagne, new girl.” Speri holds out a flute and the tension seems to be broken. For now.

  Nora sits down by the girls and begins to chat, about what I can’t hear. I’m too far away and trying to keep my distance. Like I said, she has to come to me. The plane takes off, the ascent seamless as the sun descends over London. I could shut my eyes and nap a spot, knowing we’ll be up until four in the morning at the club, but I’m too energized by our late arrival’s presence.

  “I brought along the one you fancy, just for you.” Drake sits across the aisle, his button down rolled up at the sleeves as he leans over with a wolfish smile.

  I don’t tear my eyes from the window. “What would make you think I have any remote interest in her?”

  “Because you ignored her when she walked on to this plane. You always ignore the ones you want. You may not think I know much about you, Asher Frederick, but I see all.”

  Annoyance tics in my jaw, knowing that he recognizes a tell of mine. So I play it off in my favor. “I just see those virgin lips and go crazy, you know she’s untouched.”

  With a satisfied smile, Drake swills the dark liquor in his glass. “Amen to that, mate.”

  The rest of the flight goes without complications, but whenever I look to where Nora sits farther up the cabin, her eyes dart away. Almost like she was watching to see if I’d look. Almost as if she wanted me to.

  Oh, how fun this trip was going to be.

  Chapter Eight

  Nora

  I’d gotten in over my head.

  Who the hell did I think I was? Who was that girl at school earlier this week who’d had all the confidence of a seven-foot NBA player?

  Because she certainly wasn’t here now.

  First of all, this was only my fourth time on an airplane in my life, and I’d forgotten how deathly scared I was of the takeoff and landing. Good thing most of the popular crowd was drunkenly napping when we landed, or they would have been able to see the white flesh of my knuckles digging into the plush leather.

  I’d purposely gotten myself into this situation, thinking that a trip to Paris with new faces would bring me closer to some destiny that I’d always secretly dreamed of. What bullshit.

  Instead, I’d forgotten that Asher was one of Drake’s best friends, that he was going to be here on the plane and invading every second of my trip. I’d forgotten that I wasn’t one of these spoiled rich kids, that I wasn’t accustomed to private planes or thousand-dollar champagne or secret night clubs. I was going in blind, and I was the type of girl who always needed to see, and see clearly.

  Speri pulled a magenta dress from her Louis Vuitton trunk. “Maybe I’ll do this one tonight, although I feel like it screams Vegas.”

  Katherine admired the slinky number her friend held up to her body. “No, the one time you could get away with that is in Paris. I say bring it on.”

  I sat on the bed, outfitted in silk and velvet bedding, watching them discard priceless gowns on the floor as they decided against them. The room was two times bigger than our whole house back in Pennsylvania, and the apartment was one of the flashiest places I’d ever been in. I’m sorry, flat. Two people had already corrected me in the hour we’d been here.

  “Fancy any of these, Nora?” Eloise pointed to the material all over the floor, as if I might need help picking something out.

  She’d been the nicest of all of them so far, trying to sparingly include me in conversations. Maybe it was because she hadn’t always been one of them either. Her father had recently come into fame on the small screen, being cast late in life as one of the main characters on Britain’s favorite Thursday night TV show. Her family had moved from working class Liverpool to the first zone of London, and her life had changed just as rapidly as mine was now. Not that she would talk about it or show that vulnerability, but I’d researched each of them a bit after that night in the library.

  “Actually, the staff at the palace helped me a little … since my sense of fashion is absolute crap.” I went to my own suitcase and unzipped it, rifling through the clothes.

  “Bitch,” Katherine laughed, and my head shot up. “Oh, darling I mean that in the best possible way. I have personal shoppers and stylists, but what it must be like to have the palace staff on retainer. Even I can admit jealousy.”

  “But watch out before she plunges a stiletto into your back.” Speri winks at me, although I kind of think she’s half-joking.

  I smile unsurely, but pull out an emerald green halter dress that when put on, hits me just above the knee. “I was thinking this …”

  The material is as silky as melted butter, and the hue goes well with my red hair. It leaves my freckled shoulders bare, and the majority of my back is visible. But the front is buttoned up, hiding the mediocre chest I do have. The stylist I’d worked with had told me it was “just enough hint of sex” for Paris. Thank God my mother hadn’t heard that.

  The three girls turn to me as I hold it up, scrutinizing it.

  “That will look bomb on you, bitch.” Katherine rolls her eyes and goes back to putting her makeup on in the big bright Hollywood mirror at the vanity in the corner.

  “I think we need to start drinking.” Speri goes to the glass and gold bar sitting along one wall and pours herself a glass of clear liquid.

  Before I came to London, I’d never had a sip of alcohol in my life. While most of my classmates had been going to keg parties in the farm fields on the outskirts of town, I’d been at home reading or watching movies with my mom. It had never interested me, and neither had they. But now, with the crew I’d be with tonight, I finally felt that peer pressure I’d always been warned about in high school health class. The champagne on the plane hadn’t been bad, although the fizziness in my nose had almost made me sneeze.

  “Here, drink up. We have a couple of hours before we go out anyway.” Eloise handed me a glass of the same thing she’d prepared herself, and I looked at the clock.

  “It’s already nine o’clock.” When the heck were we actually going to leave?

  Katherine chuckled as she sme
ared smoky black eyeshadow across her lid. “You’re like an alien, I love it. You typically can’t go out until eleven, but it’s bloody lame to show up when everyone shows up, so we usually wait until twelve.”

  The rest of the girls brush this off like it’s completely normal that we aren’t going to this ultra-exclusive nightclub, as teenagers no less, until literally the start of tomorrow. I keep my mouth shut and sit on the bed, watching them flit around with hair tools and palettes of expensive looking makeup.

  “Maybe I’ll see Jon George there again.” Speri curls a lock around the wand she’s using in her hair.

  Katherine and Eloise start to laugh, and I smile in unison, wanting to act like I’m part of the conversation. At least this girl time is taking the edge off my nerves about Asher. I sip the cranberry and something concoction that Eloise made me and feel the alcohol invade my bloodstream.

  “Wasn’t his dick small though?” Katherine doesn’t even bat a mascara-covered eyelash when she says this.

  I however, almost joke on my drink.

  “It was okay, bigger than some but smaller than others. But he had a great house in Santorini.” Speri shrugs.

  Katherine turns to me. “Last time we went to Privé, Speri hooked up with this French millionaire who owns a bloody brilliant house in Greece. She spent like two weeks lounging in his pool and eating his caviar. Are you going to like … put anything on?”

  She points around her own face, indicating the flawlessly crafted look she’d painted on.

  “I’m not very good with makeup to be honest …” And I didn’t own anything past the Maybelline mascara and Clinique lipstick I’d swiped on.

  “We can teach you! I’ve got all of the newest MAC stuff, and Katherine’s dad practically owns stock in Estée Lauder and Stella.” Eloise claps her hands.

  I didn’t know what those were either … but I nodded. “I think I’m good for tonight, the dress and heels are enough for me. I’ll probably just hang back.”

  “Oh, hell no, we are getting you pissed and snogged!” Speri jumped onto the bed in front of me.

  I didn’t like the sound of either, and I was starting to feel uncomfortable with the conversation. “I’m just gonna go grab a water.”

  Escaping the room before any of them could protest, I slipped into the hallway. Apparently, the flat was in Asher’s family, and the way it was decorated, I swear it had cost a fortune and a half. Sleek and modern in a way that screamed sensuality but also exuded that upper crust sensibility that everything the Frederick’s did screamed.

  Walking into the black and white kitchen, faint red accents dotting every surface from the blender to the microwave, I head for the fridge. I need to flood my body with water if I’m going to try and drink with these professional partiers tonight. As it is, the drink Eloise made me is already buzzing under my skin and making my head float.

  “Oh my God!” Just as I close the fridge, a figure is waiting on the other side of the door, making me jump.

  “You’re in another person’s flat, don’t be so surprised when they’re around.” Asher smirks at me, knowing full well that he meant to scare me.

  “Don’t do some creepy scary movie crap to an unsuspecting victim and maybe I’ll remember that.” I give him a stink eye and curse myself, because it isn’t my smoothest comeback but he makes me nervous. Not that I’d ever admit that to him.

  “Oh, I am aware that you’re an unsuspecting victim, and believe me, that’s what I like about you, Nora.”

  I’m not sure what it is, but it always feels as if the heat has been turned up a hundred degrees whenever Asher and I occupy the same space. If I touched him, would sparks erupt? It feels like it, the way my belly clenches and beads of sweat collect at the back of my neck. The way his jaw ticks with mischief, the way his emerald eyes burn with sarcasm, the way his tall, lean body ripples with dominance … I should be running the other way. But instead I stay, waiting to see what barb he’ll hit me with next.

  I’ve never been this intrigued and weary of a person at the same time.

  The alcohol in my system is also giving me false bravado, and I feel that girl in the classroom with Drake coming back. “Stop being the big bad wolf, Asher. It doesn’t look very dignified.”

  I’m not sure how fast or how smoothly he does it, but when I look up again, his chest is nearly touching my own. “Dignified men have been known to do some very undignified things.”

  He says it as if his tongue is licking up my body, the sex coming off of those words is lethal. He makes the word dignified sound downright dirty. And that’s where he gets me, the one chink in my armor.

  “I’m going to get ready, try to stay away from me tonight.” His teasing knocks me back a step, I’m not used to this overt sexual energy he radiates.

  “Make sure you save me a dance, princess.”

  The endearment sounds more like an insult, a jab at how much I am not the title I am about to gain.

  But when he says the dance in conjunction to both of us, my blood heats to the point of overflowing.

  Chapter Nine

  Asher

  Music pulses from every surface, bouncing the entire club as I lean against a wall in the VIP area.

  The ice cubes in my gin and tonic jump with the rhythm, sloshing as I tip it to my mouth and empty the entire thing.

  Privé is on another level tonight, and I think the entire club feels it. I know I feel it, with my fourth drink swimming happily in my veins. I lost Drake somewhere in the fray, after we’d all gotten in. Typically, we’d sail past the door, even at our young age … bouncers everywhere knew who we were. But Nora had cocked it up, making us vouch for her in a very lame fashion. Yet another strike against her.

  Ed was in sight, all over a blonde on the dance floor as his beer narrowly missed landing all over her skirt. Katherine and Eloise sat farther back, in the lounge area done in deep purples and aqua lighting. From the drowsy, amused looks on their faces I could tell they were rolling on ecstasy, a sleazier looking bloke who had to be the dealer sitting next to them. Speri had already gone home with her latest conquest, finding him only an hour into our night. Who knew if we’d see her again in the next week.

  The exclusive club was one big rectangle, but it was cordoned off. In the center was a giant dance floor, with aqua and blue lights swimming overhead, giving it an underwater illusion. On the far wall was a gigantic metal bar stocked with all of the top shelf liquor on the market, and other bottles that only people in our stratosphere had ever heard of or drank. The lounge area where the girls sat was next to the bar; low velvet couches and sunken armchairs created a sexy, relaxed vibe. And then all over the club were hidden corners and drapes that fell from the ceiling, creating hideaways where one could get into trouble.

  “Hi, handsome.” A tall, thin brunette assesses me, toying with the straw in her drink between her lips. She’s gorgeous, of course, but far too obvious for my tastes.

  What most people don’t know about me, because I never talk about women, is that I want the chase. I crave it. Girls who throw themselves at me, because that’s basically what this type A model is doing, don’t get my rocks off.

  No, I want the girl who will give me the cold shoulder nine times out of ten. And then the tenth time get on her knees and peek those pretty eyes up at me as I use her mouth in whichever ways I please. That’s what gets me hard as a steel pipe.

  “Having a good night?” I nod at her, my expression as unchanging as my position is. I may not be interested, but I can see a certain figure from the corner of my eye watching our interaction.

  Plus, I’ve had four drinks and am more pliable to situations than I normally am.

  “It would be better if you would dance with me.” She bats those long, and probably fake, eyelashes at me.

  Yeah, not going to happen. The other thing I don’t do is dance, regardless of what I told Nora before.

  “Sorry, love, not tonight. I’m keeping it low key.” I give the slightest no
d of my head, indicating sympathy when in reality I have none.

  “Oh, come on, you know you want to.” The brunette twists her body, giving me more of a view.

  And here is where the asshole comes out. “I tried to be nice, but I’m not interested, at all. You look just like every other wannabe model in this place, and I know that when it comes to fucking you, you’re a dime a dozen.”

  Her jaw drops, and she backs away. “Prick!”

  She spits the word before she turns on a heel and marches away. I lean back, the wall acting as my camouflage once again. If I have another drink I’ll be stumbling home, but if I don’t, the buzz will wear off far too quickly before the night ends.

  Casting a glance farther down the wall, I watch Nora sway ever so slightly to the hypnotic techno beat. She’s off by herself, almost in the very most corner of the room, away from the crowd and observing each interaction in front of her. From the way she moves, from the half empty drink in her hand, I can tell she’s drunk.

  As the lights illuminate her body, searching like beams in the night sky, I can’t help but fully turn my head. That dress, the deepest color green, has me greedy. It molds to her form as if it’s a second skin, showing me all of the petite curves that my hands itch to touch. Just knowing I can’t unwrap that package has me hardening in my trousers.

  Her hair tumbles around her shoulders like fiery lava; I may get burned if I wrap my fist in it, but bugger do I want to try. And she’s done something different to her eyes and cheeks tonight. The natural look she usually sports does a lot to my growing cock, but tonight Nora is different. She’s amplified, more sexed up with the dark eyelashes and sparkling skin.

  Before I devise my next move, my feet are already walking over to where she holds up the wall.

  Nora sees me coming, her eyes tracking me with hesitation. But I see the desire behind that stare, the interest and intrigue. When I make it to her, I lean my back on the wall and keep my eyes straight. Will she speak first?