by L. A. Sable
I lift a glass and sniff the contents, a fruity scent wafting into my nostrils. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure, it’s good though.”
I look around the quiet room as I take a small sip from the glass. “Are the other girls coming?”
“I assume so,” Lukas responds with a shrug.
I drum my fingers on the table, painfully aware of how tired I feel. “How long are we supposed to just wait here?”
“The mentors have to be planning something for us,” Kai reasons. “It would look really bad if we leave, just be patient.”
Asher suddenly gets up and pulls off his shirt. He picks up his drink and strides past the couch. “I’m getting in the hot tub. Anyone care to join?”
Jayden jumps up, reaching for his own shirt. “Why the hell not?”
I force myself to look away from the male flesh suddenly on display, feeling heat rise in my skin. “I don’t have a bathing suit.”
“Just swim in your underwear,” Asher replies with a scoff. “It’s basically the same thing.”
Draining my drink and pouring another, I watch as the guys all head for the hot tub. I have to admit that it looks inviting, sunk into the floor and surrounded by formations of rock like something out of a high-end spa.
I spend the next few minutes by myself on the couch and nursing my third round of whatever delicious cocktail had been left out for us. I’m not a heavy drinker at the best of times, but I need something to steady my nerves. My gaze keeps straying to the door as I anxiously wait for it to open and either the other girls or our mysterious mentors to appear.
“The water feels amazing,” Jayden calls from across the room. “You’re really missing out.”
I set my glass down, only realizing in that moment that it’s empty. “You don’t have to pretend that you aren’t enjoying yourself with just the guys.”
“I knew I was feeling something weird under the water,” Kai says with a laugh.
“Whatever, lover boy.” Jayden leans back and stretches his arms out to rest on the rock wall behind him. “You know you love it.”
But they continue to wheedle me, describing how amazing the water feels, that I finally just want to shut them up. And somehow, despite the voice of reason in my head urging me not to, I end up joining them, thankful that I wore a black bra with matching panties. If no one is looking too closely, it almost seems like I’m wearing an actual bathing suit.
“Bring the bottle,” Asher says, gesturing to the now less than half-full decanter still sitting on the table.
Fog fills one entire side of the room as steam rises off the bubbling surface of the pool. I sense their gazes on me as I slip into the water but I make a point of not looking up so I don’t lose my nerve.
The world around me seems off-kilter as if everything has been turned slightly to the side. I struggle to keep myself oriented. Even with the fog, my vision is more blurry than it should be. I close my eyes for a moment, but when I open them the details are still fuzzy and my head feels lighter than it should.
“I think I’ve had too much to drink,” I murmur, sinking far enough down into the water that it stops just below my chin.
“Is that an actual thing?” Asher drawls the question.
I giggle. For some reason, his response seems hilarious which lets me know I’m definitely on the wrong side of tipsy. “Maybe not for you, but some of us still have functioning livers.”
Instead of an angry retort, he just laughs which surprises me. Apparently, the drinks are affecting all of us a little more than we expected.
Whoever set this up had better show up soon or I’m going to be asleep on the couch when they do.
I pour myself another drink even though I know it’s not the best idea. The heat rising from the water drifts into my nostrils, making me feel lightheaded. Everyone has stopped talking and the only sound I hear is the rushing of the water. The fog has become so heavy that I can’t see much of the room outside of what’s in reach of the hot tub, the world around us narrowed to a fine point.
Sensation tingles along my skin as I become hyperaware of my own body, running my fingers along my legs and arms in a way that feels amazing and compulsive. I’ve never quite felt this way before, as if every nerve-ending in my body has been awakened. All I want to do is touch and be touched.
This is more than just being tipsy, it’s nothing like what I’ve ever experienced and it feels amazing.
And I’m not the only one who has fallen under this strange spell. Kai still sits by my side but he has moved closer until the overwhelming heat of the water makes his skin seem almost a cool relief against mine.
“There’s something that I have to do,” he whispers in my ear and then shifts his face so close to mine that it completely fills my vision.
The next thing I know, he’s kissing me. Instead of shoving him away like I would at any other time, my reactions are slowed and sluggish. But I don’t want him to stop as his lips whisper along mine and I find myself kissing him back. All the intrusive thoughts that normally accompany any interaction with them have been shoved to the side and buried until they don’t even seem to belong to me anymore. The only thing I want to think about is how glorious his skin feels against mine and how I never want the amazing sensation to end.
Kai breaks the kiss when I’m on the verge of passing out from lack of oxygen. His head falls back to rest against the side of the hot tub, eyes closed as if he’s fallen asleep. Only the hands still stroking my arms under the water are evidence that he is still conscious.
When another mouth gently brushes my cheek, it only makes sense that my head turns to capture the other set of lips that are nearly identical to the ones I had just kissed. But where Kai’s kiss had been leisurely and assured, Lukas is more hesitant. It’s as if he worries that he’ll be shoved away at any moment which only makes my heart ache for him.
I deepen the kiss, parting my lips so that his tongue skips gently along mine as my arms raise to wrap around his neck.
Distantly, I realize that I’m making out in a hot tub with four guys, which isn’t something that has ever been in character. But in that moment, any concerns seem distant and unimportant. All I want to do is enjoy what’s being offered without having to feel guilty about wanting it.
I pull away to stare into his eyes as we float in the water, and I can so clearly see the hurt and yearning that are usually hidden away. When I smile at him, he smiles back which feels almost as good as his hands on my skin.
A touch at my waist pulls me backward and deeper into the water. Jayden rests on the seat with his chest pressed against my back as he leans over me. His mouth glides along my neck and sends a frisson of pleasure shooting through me. Every part of my body has become an erogenous zone from the top of my head to my toes that curl in reaction as he places tiny kisses down the bend of my shoulder.
His hands move to my waist and shift my body further up and onto his lap. My hips move of their own accord, shifting against him in an ancient rhythm that doesn’t require any conscious effort. Water laps along my skin in tiny waves that match my movements.
My mind has separated from my body, like I’m floating above us and watching a scene that’s happening to someone else.
Asher watches us from the far side of the hot tub, gaze heavy-lidded but somehow alert. Even with my vision fogged and my mind addled, I can sense the tension running through him. His arms are draped on the side of the tub, but his hands clench as if he has to anchor himself to something solid. Even his jaw tightens like he’s gritting his teeth.
Despite the heavy fog and darkness, his eyes glow bright and hard like gemstones. I turn away from him and Jayden’s mouth is there to distract me as his fingers trace random patterns on the skin of thighs.
A feathery light touch glides along the wet skin of my chest, just above the bridge of my bra. The offending garment falls away, but I don’t have a chance to think about that what that means. My body is turned in the water and I
open my eyes to see Asher staring down at me, face so close that barely a breath separates us. Our gazes lock and he doesn’t look away as his hand glides lower, skirting over my rib cage and playing along the sensitive skin of my belly.
Asher kisses me just as his hand slips under the band of my underwear. The taste of alcohol and sugar bursts in my mouth as his tongue plunges inside with not even an ounce of hesitation. A searching finger parts my folds to find the tiny bead of flesh at my center, slipping over it easily like an olive in oil.
Confusing pleasure spirals over me as I close eyes that won’t open again before I lose consciousness. Awareness slips away as reality becomes little more than multiple sets of insistent hands and mouths on my skin that I can’t tell apart. Wet heat spikes through me and leaves me gasping as every part of my body is brought to pulsing life by their touch.
My eyelids are too heavy to lift, but I sense my body being shifted and repositioned in the pool. It takes longer than it should for me to realize that my underwear have disappeared and there is no longer a barrier between me and them.
Something thick and hard enters me slowly, so slowly that it’s agonizing. I hear myself pleading, saying things that I never would especially when I don’t even know who I’m asking. All that matters is the glorious sensations, the pleasure that builds so high I wonder if I can survive it.
I don’t even realize that one of them is inside me until I’m teetering on the sharp edge of orgasm. Someone’s cock pumps in and out of me with sure strokes as pleasure builds like pressure in my chest. I’m simultaneously convinced that whatever this is will kill me even as I never want it to end.
And just as I fall over the edge, oblivion takes me completely and I’m lost.
Chapter 17
I wake up in my own bed with the sound of moaning in my ear. When I painfully open eyes that feel like they’ve been caked closed, there’s a tablet propped up on the pillow next to me and directly in my line of sight.
The video is playing with sound which accounts for the strange noises that woke me from the deepest sleep that I’ve ever had. It takes longer than it should for me to figure out exactly what I’m looking at. When I do, the realization is like being hit with a ton of bricks.
Despite the grainy quality of the video and night vision effect that casts a green tinge over everything, I recognize myself in the Lounge’s hot tub with all the male Diamonds.
Having sex with them.
My reaction is so visceral that I have a physical reaction, shoving the tablet away so that it flies off the bed and hits the floor. My own moans fill the room, enhanced by the acoustics of the high ceilings, making it sound like I’m in here watching a porno.
Which is closer to the truth than I want to admit.
I stumble out of bed and pick up the tablet, desperate to shut off the video or at least mute it. Several agonizing moments go by before I’m able to silence it, though it won’t shut off no matter how many times I press the power button. Blissful silence follows until I heave it at the nearest wall, hard enough to shatter the screen and send the tablet clattering to the floor.
I barely remember what happened last night, not even how I got out of the Lounge and back to my room. The memory is fuzzy enough that I could almost convince myself I’d dreamed it, if not for the evidence staring me in the face.
A wave of nausea washes over me, so powerful that I stumble back toward the bed to keep myself falling to the floor. Disgust and shame rise in me like bile to burn the back of my throat. A recollection flashes through my mind, sitting on Kai’s lap with my arms wrapped around his neck while his brother presses into me from behind, and a whole body shudder runs over me.
It couldn’t have been me, a voice inside me screams. I would never do something like this. But all the assurances in the world that I can’t be that person won’t change anything, especially with video proof.
Someone had filmed us.
The realization settles over me like I’m being suffocated. Questions spin out like bits of thread whipped from a spinning wheel at a rapid clip but none of them have any answers. Someone summoned us to the Lounge under the guise of official business, plied us with alcohol and planted cameras to capture the inevitable fallout.
Except I’ve never been so drunk that I lost control of myself like that. Blood pounds in my head, painful enough that a fistful of pain relievers wouldn’t put a dent in it. I’ve had too much to drink before but I’ve never been hungover like this, where my body feels like it’s been wrung out and left to bake in the sun for a week.
Then I remember the drinks that had been left out for us, the ones that had tasted like spun sugar but kicked like a horse. What if there had been something more in them than just alcohol?
I have never felt this stupid in my entire life.
And then I can’t help but wonder why someone would do this. There’s at least one person at this school who’d love to see me burned alive. My fingers are already fumbling for my phone before I’ve finished connecting the dots in my head. But the Inner Circle app is quiet and there’s no evidence of anything having been posted in the last few hours. The video isn’t there. Not yet, anyway.
Banging on the door startles me enough that I swallow a gasp. Part of me doesn’t want to answer it, thinking maybe I could crawl under the bed and pretend I’m not here. The last thing I want to do right now is face anyone. I sit there as the banging continues, frozen in indecision and questioning every decision that I’ve ever made.
The banging abruptly stops and I hear multiple voice arguing on the other side. Finally, a familiar voice calls out. “For chrissakes, Lily. Open up.”
My eyes close as the piercing pain behind my eyes deepens even further. With a heavy sigh, I cross the room and pull open the door.
Asher stands outside with a sour look on his face. Kai, Lukas and Jayden are standing behind him. They all look like they spent the night in a tree.
“Before you ask, we got it too.” Asher holds up his phone so I can see that a still image of us in the hot tub is on the screen.
I shove it away. “I don’t want to see that.”
He pushes past me without waiting for an invitation, the others following behind him. I keep my gaze averted as they file into the room, not yet at a point where I can face any of them head-on. It’s hard to imagine a more embarrassing situation than this one and all I want to do is crawl into a hole and die there.
Kai starts to speak. “Look, Lily—”
I cut him off with a sharp movement of my hand because the last thing I want to do is hear whatever he’s about to say. “Who did this?”
“We don’t have any way of knowing,” Lukas replies with a grimace. “Somebody with access to the Lounge.”
“Somebody with access to my room.” My voice is high and strident, practically a shriek. I have to force myself to calm down. Crossing the room, I retrieve the tablet and hold it up for them to see. Despite the cracked screen, the video is still playing with the sound muted. “This was here when I woke up this morning.”
“Well, shit.” Jayden reaches for the tablet and examines it with a low whistle. “It looks like you put the thing through a meat grinder.”
“I threw it across the room,” I admit to the air just above his head. “Since I don’t have a person to take my frustrations out on yet.”
“You will soon.” Kai’s voice is the grimmest that I’ve ever heard it, expression murderous. “Whoever did this will pay for it.”
Except we don’t have any idea who did this and little recourse with this video hanging over our heads. I force myself to ask the question. “Could it have been Chloe?”
“This is a lot, even for her,” Lukas says with a sigh. “Maybe I’m looking at it with rose-colored glasses because of our history but this isn’t her style.”
“Chloe is a bitch and a half, but this is too sophisticated for her to pull off.” Jayden figures out how to power off the tablet and tosses it on the bed with a distasteful sou
nd. “She’d have to put cameras in the lounge, spike our drinks, send an anonymous message to get us there and also access your room. I just don’t think it’s possible. Though I bet she’ll be cackling like a hyena if she ever gets her hands on this video.”
“That’s the part we should focus on,” Asher snaps, glaring around the room. “We have to contain this before it ruins us. Do you have any idea what my grandfather will do if this gets out?”
It’s nice to know that Asher remains concerned almost exclusively with himself, but I clamp my mouth shut before I point that out. Picking a fight is the last thing that will help right now.
Before they can say anything else, all of our phones ping at the same time.
Heart pounding, I unlock to screen to see a new notification from the Inner Circle. I launch the app and a message pops up on the screen.
You don’t know us, but we’ve seen you. The video is collateral for your cooperation.
If you do what is asked, without question or failure, it will not be released. Further instructions will follow.
Now, we own you.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that all of us got the same thing.
“It’s blackmail,” Jayden spits out with a curse. “Fucking savages.”
I want to throw my phone across the room. “But what do they want?”
Lukas just shakes his head, lips twisting in a grimace. “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Fuck that.” Kai punches the door, hard enough that the sound reverberates through the room.
Jayden crosses his arms over his chest with a nod. “Agreed. I’m not rolling over for anybody.”
“From this point forward, whatever happens stays between us.” I infuse my voice with as much sincerity as I can muster. There’s no point to rehashing the past, we have to figure out how they hell we move forward with this. “We work together to figure this out. No matter what happens, that video can’t end up out in the world.”
“Then everything has to be out in the open,” Kai says, expression determined. “There can’t be any secrets between us or it will all fall apart. And this is too big for any of us to handle alone.”