I sipped champagne, savoring the bubbles as they slid down my throat. The music in the room turned to something smooth and sultry. Whiskey and janky bars are more my ally. But looking at me now, you would never know that. My hair had been perfectly curled, and my body was silky smooth. My silk dress clung to my figure in a way that was admittedly sexy as hell. Based on how I had every man’s attention in this room, I had to believe I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
The booze helped break up the monotony of the party though, so I took another drink, marveling at how the deep blood-red color of my lipstick hadn’t transferred to the glass at all. Rich bitch makeup was some amazing shit. I was marveling at a lot of things tonight, though no one would be able to tell. Because I was a shark here, not the new girl. I refused to be the one girl at the party everyone was not so secretly laughing at. The crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, casting a warm glow over the party, and everyone here was dressed so elegantly that I wasn’t even sure they were human anymore. Or at least not humans that had any fun. The food made me more than aware of that fact the second I tried to eat it. It was all overly rich with the smallest portions they could manage. It all had fancy French names that had no bearing in my mind. Not fun, not at all. But truly something to marvel at.
I would kill for a taco right now. A taco and a whiskey, and a song that didn’t make me want to shoot up and die. But alas, I was here, all because I made some pretty good financial moves and now everyone who’s anyone wanted to talk to me. I had talked to at least fifty people here tonight who knew the contents of my bank and had memorized the moves I had made to get it there but still didn’t know my name. That was the way of the rich I realized. They just wanted to get a little richer and were intimidated by anyone capable of making more, especially when that someone, outmaneuvered them. Especially some twenty-two-year-old girl who didn’t even attend college.
“Can I get you a drink?” a woman asked as she sauntered over to the table I was leaning against. How does anyone get anything done in four-inch heels?
I showed her my glass, and tipped it to my lips, taking a long drink before handing the empty flute back to her. “Yes actually, I just finished mine,” I said in a sweet as-pie voice.
She gave me a throaty pompous chuckle before handing the glass to a waiter and grabbing two more off the tray he was carrying. She handed me one and took a sip of her own. “You know, I don’t think it counts as you getting me a drink if the waiters are already handing them out.”
She looked at me like I had just sprouted horns and I snorted. “Well, how are you enjoying your evening?” She asked, moving passed my comment without reacting.
I could tell by the look on her face that she was more than a little interested in my answer, and I geared myself up for whatever this was. “I’m enjoying myself just fine,” I said simply, shifting my weight to the opposite leg so that the slit in my dress opened over my thigh.
She eyed my leg for a moment with a disapproving glance “You know, a lady hides her body, protects it, and uses it only when necessary.”
“Awe but you see, I am not a lady, I am a goddess. And I wear what suits me. Do you not think I look like exactly what I am?” I asked, smirking at her with a confident-as-shit smile on my face.
The look of disdain only grew on her face. “I suppose. You will never catch a man that way though I tell you. Rich men like proper women. Women who will carry their wealth with poise and elegance.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “In that scenario, I am the rich man, and whoever I choose to catch, I want them laughing, and dirty, and giving me exactly who they are. So, I am not all that worried about it.”
She rolled her eyes at me in the most covert kind of way I wasn’t even sure I saw it. “Yes well, good luck to you,” she said overly sweetly with just a hint of judgment lacing her words.
“I don’t need luck,” I said as I pushed my big curls over my shoulder and stood a little taller. “I got myself here, and wherever I go from here, will be on my own two feet. But it was very enlightening to speak with you” I said dismissively.
Okay, so I wasn’t making friends today. Who needed them anyway? I had plenty of friends. Or one friend anyway. The ride or die, take the world on with you when you needed them, saw you at your lowest and your highest kind of friend. My twin sister Willow. She was all I needed anyway. We had gotten through some of the darkest days I will probably ever face in the last year. And had always been thick as thieves. I would be just fine without the judgmental persnickety kind.
She turned her nose up at me, clearly annoyed by my attitude, and tutted as she turned her back on me and floated into the thronging crowd of chatting socialites and money-hungry men.
“That was something” a deep gravelly voice came from behind me.
I turned slowly to face whoever had been speaking to me and had to fight a gasp as I recognized him. “Caleb?” I asked, remembering the guy from the coffee shop who told me to look into some rather lucrative deals that had started this whole ascension.
He had been there, wearing a black tee-shirt and jeans like any other guy and that’s what I assumed he was. Just an ordinary guy, getting a coffee and working. All be it, an insanely attractive guy – immediately wanted him in me for the next few days attractive. But still. We talked for a long time and laughed even, which for me, was a shock. I am more like the bitchy friend that throws hands when the occasion calls for it and gets everyone to do crazy things. Not the laugh and flirt on a random date. But there I was, with the hottest guy I may have ever seen in my entire existence, and we laughed. It was a weird moment for me. Plus, he put me on a path of some extreme financial success… so there’s that.
Today though, he was wearing cream-colored smart pants and a black button-up that covered most of his tattoos but stretched along his muscles like they were trying to get out. His black hair was perfectly styled, and just as before his features seemed to be cut from glass. He was my exact brand of kryptonite.
“In the flesh,” he said, his brooding nature on full display.
“What are you doing here?” I balked.
“I think I could ask you the same thing.”
“Well, I am here because I plan to rule the world,” I said, recounting my words from the coffee shop that day.
He gave me a half smile that seemed to be dripping in sin. “It seems you are well on your way.”
“So, it seems,” I said slowly, as I picked up my drink to take another sip.
Caleb took another step towards me, placing his arm on the table and leaning into me. The heat of him sinking into my skin. The smell of him washing over me, the forest, and something masculine. “My friends and I are having a little get-together upstairs. Why don’t you come with me?” The devilish grin that spread across his face made my heart leap.
I smirked at him. “Well, if you insist,” I said seductively. Kind of wondering if his friends were even up there at all, or if was all a ruse to get me in his bed. Which I would also not exactly be complaining about.
He grabbed my hand, the size of his swamping mine as he towed me along behind him. Where did this man even come from? He had to be like six foot six at least, and all those huge muscles? I was a tall girl, five foot ten inches to be exact. I always towered over most women, and men were usually only an inch or two taller than me if they were taller at all. But Caleb made me feel rather small.
He led me to a door at the back of the room in the opposite direction of the one we had entered. This was some fancy-ass Hotel in the heart of the city, so I knew that rooms were on this side of the building, but it still made my heart beat a little faster. What was I even doing? But, this had to be better than that party and I was pretty desperate to shake it up. So a bad choice here and a bad choice there, who was paying attention to that anyway?
We turned through different hallways and corridors, until finally coming to an elevator that I quickly realized was private. “Fancy,” I said nonchalantly.
“Something like that,” he said with a smirk.
I followed him and watched as he hit the button for the penthouse. My eyes widened for a moment, though I quickly schooled my features. He noticed anyway.
“It’s just a room, Sage.”
“I know” I shrugged at him, my confidence never waning. “I just wasn’t expecting that,”
He chuckled. “It beats hanging out with the stiffs.”
I choked back a laugh at his comment: “I would hope so” I said through my laugh.
“Let me enlighten you, Sage darling.” He said in a gravelly voice that had my body heating up.
I leaned against the handrail, as the elevator began to move, and took a deep breath. I didn’t like elevators. They scared the shit out of me. I mean, who really likes to be put in a box that could break at any moment and plummet god knows how far down into the ground? Or worse, get stuck with no way out because you’re trapped in that box that is inside a wall. Yeah, not my cup of tea. Caleb pressed himself in next to me, his arm brushing against mine and sending fire through my entire body at his touch.
“What is it with elevators?” He questioned, but it seemed more like a comment, not a place for me to air out my rather big feeling about this torcher. “They always make everything so much hotter” He finished.
I chuckled a little laugh. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
He gave me a look that said his mind was in a very different place than mine was now and I took another breath as the ding announced that we had made our way to the top. I moved quickly to the door and stepped out, not wanting to spend another moment in that place than I had to. It didn’t take long to realize that this elevator went directly to his suit. There were six or seven pairs of eyes on me immediately and the room fell silent outside of the faint base of whatever song was playing.
Caleb stepped up beside me and spoke before I had a chance to. “Hey everyone, this is Sage, I found her having a shit time down at the party.” He said easily.
I looked around at all the faces in this luxurious and amazing space. The white, grey, and black decor makes it feel expensive and illusive. I cracked a little smile. He went on, naming each of them in turn as they raised a hand and gave me a little wave. He was casual, with a hand in his pocket, and his voice came out almost lazily.
One of the girls he had called Lilith held up a dab rig and a puck of wax in offering. Caleb looked at me with a cocked eyebrow, but I didn’t even pay him any mind as I crossed the room, letting my hips sway from side to side enticingly, and loving the way that every eye was on me as I did so. I sat down next to Lilith and crossed my legs, so the soft fabric fell around me to my hips. Her long brown dreads brushed against my arm as I took my seat and took the rig from her.
There was a torch on the table, and I readied it, while the entire room just sat in silence, watching me. Testing me. I took the hit, letting the smoke settle into my lungs for a moment, and blew it out without even so much as a cough and passed the rig onto someone else. One of the boys, whom I had already forgotten the name of threw his hands in the air with a “Hell yeah” breaking the tension, and I chuckled lightly.
He had piercing green eyes and long brunette and blond hair that he had pulled into a top knot, with tattoos covering most of his skin. He was even bigger than Caleb, his muscles seeming to have muscles. With his exclamation the rest of the room went back to their party, leaving me no longer as part of the center of attention.
I leaned back on the couch, making myself a little more comfortable and finding that I was very much a fan of the fact that I no longer had to stand on those damn heels, though I wished I had been able to change my clothing. I would just be happy for the small victories today. Or the rather large ones. I was no longer sitting in a stuffy party I didn’t want to be at, and I was thoroughly cross-faded, with a group of people who seemed way more laid back.
Caleb crossed the room and sat down on the arm of the couch next to me. He took his own turn with the weed as the room descended into conversations and laughs. “Wanna go swimming?” He asked. “You bet your ass I do,” I said easily.