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Hours later, I was still caught up in mindless conversations, fake smiles and fake people. Designer clothes and diamond jewellery dropped like teardrops from necks and ears, the cost must have been into the thousands of dollars. Not one original person in this room. A hamster wheel of cloned humans.
My breathing became laboured. I feel trapped. Within a room full of people, I felt so alone. How did no one else sense the oppression and entitlement swirling within the atmosphere and not be weighed down by the expectations it presented alongside it?
Excusing myself politely, I made my way around the tables and people, aiming for outside. I needed air desperately. The pressure of being here felt like another shackle to my chain, latching me back in and securing me.
I pushed the glass door outwards, and ended up at the side of the property, holding my dress up with one of my hands to move easier as champagne dangled in the other. I wandered towards the back line of the property.
I unbuckled the strap on my heels with one hand, kicking them off with a moan of relief. As I wiggled my pink painted toes, I was mesmerised by the feeling of the grains of sand shifting softly around them.
I took a gulp of champagne before closing my eyes briefly, angling my head upwards to the expanse of the sky.Deep breath in, deep breath out.The gentle breeze caressed my body, feeding new air into my lungs.
Opening my eyes, I looked upon the bright blue ocean in front of me. The wet compacted sand caught my attention where it was crushed beneath the unforgiving sea, bringing a small smile of contentment to my face.
An awareness trickled down my spine, alerting me. I sensed someone observing me, but refused to turn and investigate. This was a small pocket of time where I wanted to bathe in peace and whoever was nearby had completely stomped over that.
I recognised the movement of somebody walking through the sand. My body became rigid as they stood next to me—close but not too close. I waited a few moments before peeking out the corner of my eye, noticing Hollis’ gaze towards the ocean as he ignored my now probing glare, continuing the silence. He was dressed in a dark navy suit and white shirt with black loafers, which seemed to be sculpted in perfection to the lines of his bulky frame, making him seem older than his twenty-one years.
He reminded me of a modern-day crime lord. No softness—Hollis was all hardness, from the planes of his body to the sharp features of his face and when those ice-blue eyes looked at you, it sent a chill of apprehension running through your flesh. The light-fawn curls of his hair did nothing to soften him, it almost gave him an edge of normality which didn’t sit right with his otherwise stern features.
“You need to keep away from me, from my brothers.” His words cut through the peacefulness.
I huffed irritably. “You spend a lot of time telling me this and that, ordering me around or to keep my distance,” I pivoted my body to face him and cocking my hip with my hand placed on it. “Yet here you are, stalking me and projecting yourself into my lifewillingly.”
He moved so quickly I didn’t even have a chance to blink as he towered over me, using his height as intimidation over my small frame. I wasn’t scared of him, but I was cautious and intrigued by the emotionally closed off man within my reach.
One of his hands encompassed and restrained both of mine securely. My glass dropped as Hollis manipulated my body and pulled my back into his front, grabbing my waist to keep me in place. I was unable to move as he rested his chin gently on top of my head.
To anyone watching on, it would seem like a lover’s sweet embrace, yet the stillness of his body had frozen the words on my tongue. Lulling me into a false sense of security, he didn’t realise I was equipped at recognising body cues. My muscles tensed and I gritted my teeth at the condescending laugh that crawled out from him so naturally.
“If I wanted you, I could have you,” he stated cockily. “Case in point, in the classroom they touched you, but I didn’t. We’re all alone on this segment of the beach. I could bend you to my wish, right here and now sliding straight into your needy cunt.” I involuntarily clenched my thighs together. “But I’m betting that cunt could bewitch and trap a sane man. And he’d drink the poison you pour so willingly, only to cut him down with your toxic heart and venomous teeth, leaving him bloodied at your feet.”
I ground my ass back into him to make a point and nullify his words, feeling his cock harden more than it already was through his pants. His body and mind obviously were not in sync.
I loved listening to his lies when his body revealed its truth. We were both affected by the other, no matter how much we didn’t want to be or how fatal the idea was. There was so much you could learn by phasing out words and reading body language. Hollis pushed my body away from his. I spun round, facing him.
“You should taste your words before you spit them out,” I countered, annoyed that his words had scored a fissure of hurt under my flesh. “And you call me a liar.” I laughed, but it was a hollow and bitter sound.
It was funny that the people who let you down were the same ones playing a different version of the story and playing themselves as the victims. When they knewnothing.
“I’ve asked you nicely.” He lied outright, holding a straight face. “Go back to wherever you ran off to.” He checked his watch, done with the conversation and not so subtly dismissing me.
“Hell was full, so they sent me back here.” I sneered, observing him for a moment as he met my glare with one of his own.
The guarded boy was now a calculated man, and I was hit with the realisation I never really knew him, and I never would. A dull ache tightened in my chest, and I rubbed it mindlessly as all the rage seeped out, making me just want to crawl beneath my skin to claw out the unnecessary hurt.
For the second time that week, I whirled around, fleeing out of his space. I grabbed my shoes from the sand, leaving him there to contemplate our interaction, ignoring the heated glare on my back. I ambled back up to the side entrance, leaning one hand on the building as a balance, dusting off the sand clinging to my feet and putting my heels back on. I buckled them up and re-entered the party with a forced smile on my face burying that conversation deep, deep down where I refused to let it linger and hurt.
* * *
I stilled when I spotted the toddler, dressed up in a ridiculous miniature suit. He padded across the ballroom, his guardians chasing after him, seeming so out of place in the evil surrounding us here. A wistful smile crossed my face, I turned and clockedhim.Pack those feelings that were leaking out away.
He had this look on his face, so much hostility. Instinctively, I flinched the smallest amount, before locking it down, but not before he noticed. His lips turned up with a smirk, his eyes flared in triumph.
Cursing myself internally for giving away anything else to hold over me, I tightened my hold on my champagne glass and diverted my eyes from his. I let them flit over the room, looking for anyone I could have a half decent conversation with—not just the men old enough to be my dad who leered at me with a sick hunger in their eyes and vapid socialites who only cared enough for this week’s gossip. I met the gaze of the porter who’d driven me back and forth between my dorm building and the main university campus.
My brows furrowed in confusion at seeing him here at all as he stared at me, not in interest, just viewing. As I let confusion slide off my face, I raised an eyebrow in silent question to him, which he ignored.
He studied me as if he was trying to figure me out, weeding through scenarios in his mind. I felt more exposed in that moment than I had with my interaction with Hollis earlier. It freaked me the fuck out. What had he seen? Did he notice my reaction tohim?Dammit.I could only hope he hadn’t, as I had a feeling that the porter, whose name I still didn’t know, had more to him than a surface level glance.
