by Rina Kent
“Don’t you clean up nice?” Marcus says.
From the corner of my eye, I spot Indi grab her necklace in a fist. It makes the bracelet I borrowed for her gleam in the hall’s subtle downlights, but Marcus seems less interested in that trinket than the stone around her neck.
I’m not surprised. That sapphire must have set her back half a bar. Or her parents, at least — there’s no way she bought something like for herself. A family heirloom, then? Something that wasn’t lost in the fire?
Or was that all a fucking lie?
I take a step back, raking my gaze over Indi.
She’s dressed to the fucking nines, when just today she told me she didn’t even have a dress. It can’t be Addy’s — Indi would be swimming in even the shortest, tightest thing Addy owns.
Suddenly, I’d rather stick my cock in a fucking vacuum cleaner than put it anywhere near Indigo Virgo.
I push past Marcus, dimly aware that Indi’s trying to talk to me, but the super-heated blood rushing through my ears drowns it out.
Fuck her.
Fuck this.
Fuck everything.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Indi
It’s as if Briar was some kind of shield. The moment he turns the corner, I’m no longer protected by his presence. Cue Marcus — who’s so fucked, I can’t imagine how many drugs he’s on. I push against him, my mind still whirling with how close Briar was to fucking me.
Marcus’s jaw works feverishly as he steps closer. I keep backing up, but I’m only too aware that I’m running out of hallway with every step.
“I need the bathroom,” I say.
“We all need shit, princess.” Marcus grabs my necklace, and I freeze. I want to move away, but I’m too scared he’ll yank and the chain will break. I can’t risk losing the only thing I have left of my mother.
Then why the fuck did you wear it tonight, you egotistical moron?
Marcus’s eyes dart up to mine. He smooths a curl away from my forehead, shaking his head. But his eyes aren’t on me, not really. They’re unfocused, his mouth moving as if he’s talking to himself.
And when I catch him saying, “…she looked so peaceful…” I can’t bear him being close to me anymore.
So I knee him in the groin.
At least, I attempt to knee him in the groin. But just like self-defense courses have become pretty much compulsory for women these days, it seems every dick head in Lavish knows how to sidestep feisty chicks trying to knee them in the cherry popper.
But it doesn’t matter that I don’t hit my target, because I’m free anyway. That’s the thing with men — you drop a bomb next to them and the first thing they do is cup their ball sacks.
I race away from Marcus before I remember that I’m still wearing Addy’s suicidal heels.
Which means I start running away, trip, fall, skin my knees, and almost twist my motherfucking ankle.
I spin around, plop down on my ass, and start crawling away, already feeling Marcus’s hands on my ankles, my legs, my thighs.
But he’s just standing there, watching me.
I stop and slowly slide off my shoes while my heart thump-thump-thumps so fucking hard, I swear he can hear it.
When my shoes are off, I stand.
Marcus’s eyes track me, but that’s it. His shoulders have sagged, and there’s no expression on his face.
It’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.
I back away, swallowing hard and wishing more than anything that I had enough guts to turn and run.
But I just keep backing away until I have to turn the corner to go down the stairs, and that’s when I start running.
Addy meets me halfway down the stairs. She’s so out of it, I’m almost past her before she recognizes me.
“There you are.”
I cringe, hearing Marcus’s exact words played through Addy’s mouth. She tries to grab me, but I sidestep her easily. “Not now. I have to find Briar. I…I fucked up.”
She starts smiling, but then schools her face with obvious effort. “Is it over already?” One side of her mouth twists up. “Fuck, I didn’t think he was a quick draw.”
I shake my head, waving at her. “It’s not—just—” I break off with a frustrated growl and rush down the rest of the stairs.
I did fuck up, because I was scared.
I got sentimental about my fucking hymen.
Fuck knows why. Girl my age? Should have lost my v-card like three, four years ago.
But it’s never seemed right.
Briar feels right. But that hallway didn’t.
Because Addy wasn’t there with her cellphone camera, duh.
I shake away the thought.
That’s not it. I don’t want my first time — consenting or otherwise — to be up against a hall in someone’s house.
Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting roses and fucking champagne, but…
Fuck that — I wasn’t expecting any of this. Not Briar’s passion. Not his animalistic urgency. Not the stutter of fear in my chest.
I know it will hurt. That’s not it.
The fact that Briar will break me…that’s it.
I don’t know if I want someone like him to be my first. Yes, he ticks all my boxes. Yes, he’s gorgeous as fuck and knows my own body almost — but not quite — as well as I do…
Am I a stupid romantic for thinking there’d be more? That there’d be love and devotion and some kind of commitment; the most kids our age can ever promise each other?
My hand folds around mom’s necklace.
You are an idiot, Indi. You’re weak, and sentimental, and you don’t deserve to lose your v-card on a rose petal scattered bed at some hotel. You had what you wanted. The perfect camera angle, a brightly lit space. Addy was moments away—
No. Marcus was moments away.
I stagger to a halt, and lean against the closest wall. I’m in the kitchen, and a few people are lingering here already. Some look up at my arrival, most don’t. That’s because they’re making out, zoning out, or purging, but I can’t hold any of those things against them.
After all, we’re just kids. This is the kind of shit we get up to when our parents are away. In this case, it’s the kind of shit Dylan lets other kids get up to in his house when his parents are away.
And then I see Briar.
He’s staring at me, smoking a cigarette like his life depends on it.
I’ve barely had more than two seconds to process anything since I’ve stepped past that red rope at the front door. And now, caught in this moment, I take my time to drink him in.
Screw that — he looks good enough to eat in his slim-fit tuxedo, biceps bulging against his shirt, bow tie at a roguish angle. I think his hair was meant to be slicked back tonight, but he’s obviously been pawing at it like he does, because it’s all over the fucking place.
Without realizing it, I move closer to him. At first, it’s as if I’m trying to find a quiet space in the busy kitchen. Circulating around the other kids like a leaf on the surface of a rippling river.
Briar was in the small lounge area a few steps down from the kitchen. But the closer I move to him, the closer he moves to me.
We meet on the steps, and in a second I’m against the wall again.
But this time, he doesn’t lift me up. His head is down, his mouth by my ear, and his hands are on my hips, holding me in place.
“I will be your first,” he says to me.
A shudder races through me. He touches my chin, levers my head up. “And if that’s not tonight, then I’ll wait.”
My stomach bottoms out. How the fuck could I ever have thought he was capable of anything Addy said he was? He might be rough around the edges, but Prince Briar’s only ever been—
Rough?
Cruel?
Brutal?
More importantly, how on earth am I supposed to entrap him into committing a crime when he’s just told me he’ll wait until I’m ready? I can’t do this. Any of th
is. My mind is in tatters.
I squeeze closed my eyes and turn my head away. “I have to go,” I murmur.
He wraps his hands over my shoulders, but I shove them off.
“Wait,” he says.
The command goes straight to my legs without involving my brain.
“I need you, Indi.”
I hear his words, but they’re gibberish. He needs me? For what? So he can get off?
I shake my head, but he catches hold of my chin and stops me. “If I can’t have you tonight, then at least let me taste you.”
Kissing? I glance away for a moment to consider.
This, apparently, counts as consent in Briar’s world. I barely have time for a yell before he’s pulling me after him.
For a frantic, panicked moment I think he’s dragging me back upstairs, and I almost dig in my heels.
But then he detours down a side hallway, opens a door, pulls me inside, and slams it shut behind me.
A bathroom.
Pristine, sparkling and shit…but it’s still a fucking bathroom.
“Briar, I’m not—”
He shoves a finger against my mouth. And then his hand is up the skirt of my dress, grabbing my pussy.
Fingers raking over my skin, he gathers my dress and hikes it up to my waist.
Shit. None of this is going to plan anymore. Addy doesn’t know where I am, I don’t know where she is—
Briar yanks down my underwear so hard, the fabric leaves burning tracks down my thighs. He holds up the sliver of blue lace and takes a moment to consider it before turning his icy eyes onto me.
“Is this supposed to be a joke?” he says, dangling the underwear he’d shoved into my locker the other day from his finger.
“Ha ha?” I say weakly.
He shakes his head, tosses the pretty panties to the far corner of the bathroom, and sinks down onto his knees in front of me.
A second later, my ass slams into the marble basin behind me.
“Up.”
He hoists me as much as I clamber up, my limbs moving like I’m stuck in a wet dream I have no intention of waking from.
Briar spreads my legs.
My cheeks burn as he studies my pussy with his head cocked to one side, like it’s a piece of abstract art.
A second later, his lips are on the inside of my thigh and trailing closer to my pussy. I grab his hair — more in self-defense than anything else — but he hardly seems to notice.
Shit.
Shit!
His breath stirs against my slit, and I cringe away from him, both deeply embarrassed and impossibly turned on.
Fingertips dimpling my thighs, he grabs my legs and shoves them even further apart.
Briar closes his mouth over my pussy, moaning against my lips as if he’s biting into the sweetest, juiciest fruit he’s ever had the privilege of defiling with his mouth.
I let out a low groan and arch against that heat, his wetness, those strong lips. My feet lift and settle beside me on the countertop, spreading me impossibly open for his ravenous mouth.
If this is nirvana, then I’d better start behaving myself so I can die happy.
“Fuck!” I growl out, grabbing a fistful of Briar’s hair. I force him harder against my clit. His tongue swirls against my clit before diving deep inside me.
Then he slides a pair of his fingers inside my cunt.
I jerk, moaning breathlessly before I start bucking against his knuckles.
Holy fucking hell, I can’t even. Moments ago, I was ready for him to fuck me. But if this is what it’s like when he goes down on me? The hallway wall isn’t going to cut it. I demand rose petals and champagne. Maybe even a satin blindfold.
Oh God, even the thought of him blindfolding me sends a shudder through me.
What am I doing?
Fuck it, I don’t care. The plan’s already ruined. I’ll try and pick up the pieces later, after…goddamnit I’m melting.
Briar’s tongue is a live wire, sending wave after wave of electric pleasure through me. I fuck his mouth without a second thought, urging his tongue deeper and deeper inside me.
His hands bruise my thighs as he grips me, pulling me into him as he licks me from ass to clit with the hunger of a starving man.
“Briar!” I yell, and it’s barely a second before I come. I buck against his mouth, a rush of heat and pleasure capsizing me.
I hear a murmured, “fuck” from below, but I’m too busy having my mind blown to pay attention.
I force his mouth as hard against my pussy as I can, groaning as I ride out my climax. His tongue sweeps over my folds and flicks against my clit, and I shudder as a last tentacle of pleasure releases me.
My shoulders brush the mirror behind me. It’s too cold, too hard, but there’s nothing left for me to fight with.
Briar grabs hold of the edge of the basin and hauls himself to his feet. If he took out his dick now, I wouldn’t have been able to stop him from fucking me.
Not because he’s just given me the most spectacular orgasm I’ve ever had…but because I wouldn’t have dared.
There’s something primal in his eyes. Something dangerous, toxic even.
He drags the back of his hand over his mouth, drops his eyes to my spread-open pussy, and slaps me almost absently. I yelp, my legs trying to close but blocked by the slab of his body.
“Go home, little virgin,” he says, his voice thick and rugged. “Go home before I change my fucking mind.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Briar
Indi slips past me, heading for the corner of the bathroom where I tossed her underwear. “Leave it,” I snap. She flinches, turning wide eyes to me, and then comes past on her way to the door. I grab a handful of her hair and haul her back. She protests when I kiss her, but I couldn’t give a fuck if she’s ever tasted herself or not.
I did.
I almost came undone how sweet she was. How wet. How her body shuddered when she came in my mouth.
My dick’s already painfully hard — kissing her like this is only making matters worse. I catch a glimpse of tears caught in her lashes before I shove her out the door and slam it behind her. Then I lock it, just in case.
Jesus Christ, what the fuck just happened? One minute I’m furious enough to break everything in this house. The next I’m eating Indi out in a goddamn bathroom. There’s a tentative knock on the bathroom door, but I ignore it.
I will my cock to soften, but it refuses. It doesn’t help that I keep hearing Indi saying my name, hoarse and desperate, echoing in my mind.
Slamming my hand into the mirror, I yank out my cock and stroke it hard enough to make myself grimace in pain.
Punishment for losing control again.
But like so many things in life, that pain only makes the pleasure that much sweeter. That much more taboo.
“Fuck.” I stroke my cock again, then again. Harder, until my face twists in pain.
But when I close my eyes, all I can see is Indi’s rapturous face. Light gleaming from her lush mouth as it forms a perfect ‘o’.
She’s mine. I will be her first.
I speed up, grunting in the urgency to relieve myself of this deviant train of thought.
But I lied when I said I’d wait.
If life’s taught me anything, it’s that nothing is forever. People come and go like dandelion seeds. Drifting aimlessly for the longest time until a wind sweeps them away forever. I replay every second of what just happened, from Indi’s glare when I yanked off her panties, to the way she fisted her hand in my hair. How she rode my face, and how deep my tongue sank inside her.
As she comes, so do I.
Marcus is waiting for me in the foyer, Dylan and Zak nearby like sharks who’ve smelled blood in the water. The party’s still in full force, but the number of kids passed out on couches - or the floor — has increased since I last noticed.
“Where is she?” I ask, scanning the crowd in case she’s still nearby.
“Left with A
ddison,” Dylan says. “Dude, what happened?”
“She was crying,” Zak adds, giving me a frowning once over from beside Dylan.
They were at the party that night with Jess, but both of them were trashed out of their minds. I doubt they remember much more than I do. But now? There’s uncertainty in their eyes, faint disgust touching their mouths as they look first at each other and then at me.
“Nothing,” I snap. “Did they leave in the same car?”
Everyone but Marcus shrugs at me. When I glare at him, he nods. “Addy drove.”
“Fuck.” She was way too trashed to be driving, even if it was just the mile back to her house. “I have to make sure they’re okay.”
I head for the door, but Dylan puts out his hand to stop me. “I think you’ve done enough.”
Letting out a disbelieving, “What did you just say?” I step back and scan him with utter contempt.
“Just…go home, Briar.” Dylan drops his gaze, but he doesn’t step aside. His shoulders don’t sag.
“I didn’t do anything!” I yell, shoving him aside so hard he stumbles.
“But you wanted to, didn’t you?” Zak says as he steadies Dylan.
“What are you saying?” I storm forward, and suddenly both of them are upright, standing shoulder to shoulder, eyes narrowed and hands fisted. If the two of them decided to gang up on me then yeah, I don’t think I could take them both.
“Cool it, guys,” Marcus says. “We’re leaving, okay?” He steps in front of me, for all the world like he’s gonna protect me.
I glare at Dylan and Zak over his shoulder. “Chicken shit pussies,” I hiss.
“Come on, man, let’s get out of here.” Marcus turns, scanning me as if he’s checking for some last vestige of calm in my face.
I doubt he’ll find it. I’m about ready to rip through skin and claw apart flesh.
How fucking dare they—?
—think I was gonna rape her?
I sneer at them, take a slow step back, and then another. That’s when I notice everyone in the immediate vicinity is watching, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.