Broken Trust: A Dark High School Romance(43)
Beck turned his steely gaze back to me and held eye contact with me … not blinking at all. Damn him.
Dylan chuckled, patting me on the knee. “Good try, Riles. Come on, we don’t have time to stop at the deli, so let’s order some room service before the wardrobe chicks arrive.” He clicked his door open, and I peered out to see we’d arrived at some fancy hotel. A valet opened Jasper’s door and took his keys, so I followed after Dylan and waited for my bag to be unloaded from the back.
“Come on, Spare,” Evan said, slinging his arm over my shoulders and directing me to the main doors of the hotel. “Hotel staff bring bags, babe. Appearances, remember?”
“Appears like we’re lazy as fuck,” I muttered, but let him guide me through the opulent foyer and over to the elevators. We took them straight to the penthouse—of course—which required a thumb print access pad before the elevator would even move. I was coming to appreciate all the security, though.
“We own the whole penthouse,” Jasper informed me, like I hadn’t already guessed that. “We had it renovated a couple of years back so there were rooms for all of us, but uh…” He avoided looking at me and shifted awkwardly.
“But … I would need to sleep in Oscar’s room?” I guessed what he was trying to say. “That’s okay. I mean, it’s a little weird, I guess? But I never met him, and it’s probably a whole lot safer staying on the same floor as you all.” I shrugged.
Beck made a small, rumbling noise of disagreement as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open on the top floor. “You’re not sleeping in Oscar’s room,” he said in that quiet, don’t-fucking-mess-with-me voice of his.
“Ooookay.” I rolled my eyes, but who was I to argue. Oscar was my brother, but he was Beck’s friend. Who was I to piss all over those memories? “I’ll sleep on the couch. No big deal.”
“No.” Beck snatched my hand in his, tugging me along behind him as he strode through the insane penthouse suite. “You’re staying with me.”
I struggled in his grip—not super hard, but enough to say I put up a fight—before snapping at him. “Beck, just chill. We can argue about sleeping arrangements tonight, right now I want to hear more about this room service.”
Beck reluctantly released my wrist—probably because I had a pretty good point about it not being remotely near sleep time—and took a seat on one of the soft leather couches. I barely got to glance around before he snaked an arm around my waist and dragged me into his lap.
Possessive bastard.
“Hey.” I laid a hand on his chest and spoke as firmly as I could. “We talked, we’re not okay. Quit acting like we are.”
He stared up at me for a long moment, his eyes a puddle of angst and emotion, but nodded just the slightest bit and loosened his grip enough that I could stand up and move to another seat.
Jasper handed me a hotel menu. “Pick what you want. I suspect wardrobe will be bringing hair and makeup for you, so you’ll need to eat quick. This is going to be an … interesting night.”
My brow wrinkled, but I opened the menu anyway. I was sick of constantly asking questions, so for once I’d just roll with it and take the night as it came.
17
Cool air blew across my exposed back as I slipped out of my long coat and handed it over to coat check. A shiver ran through me, and I resisted the urge to hug my arms around myself. Appearances were going to be the death of me.
All my bruises were covered with movie quality concealer—the stuff they used to cover tattoos—but I could still feel the damn things.
“Have I mentioned how fucking sexy you look tonight?” Jasper grinned, falling into step beside me as we ascended the huge internal staircase, heading in the direction of music and chatter.
I grinned back. “Only seven or eight times. But keep going, my ego could do with the boost, right now. I feel like I’m playing dress up or something.” Trying to cover my nerves with laughter, I smoothed my sweaty hands down the front of the scarlet silk evening gown. At least my makeup was so heavy I could almost pretend it was a mask. I sure as shit didn’t look like me with the heavy dark lashes and blood red lipstick highlighting the paleness of my skin. I was like an anime version of myself.
“Back off,” Beck snarled from behind Jasper. The blond playboy just gave me a cheeky wink and ducked out of the line of fire as Beck took my arm in his. “But he’s right. You look stunning, Butterfly.”
I huffed at the use of that nickname, despite my requests he not. But this wasn’t the time or place for yet another argument with Beck, so I let it slide. Not to mention, seeing him—and all of the boys—decked out in black tie had me all frazzled. Like, they were super fucking hot. Do something stupid and regret it in the morning sort of hot.
“Are we going to meet the mysterious Graeme Huntley tonight?” I asked, needing a subject change. I peered around like he might just be standing close by.
“He’s not all that mysterious,” Evan commented from my other side as we entered the main party room. “Growing up like we did, you run in the same circles as other families of considerable wealth. Huntley being one of them.”
“In saying that,” Dylan added quietly, “None of us had ever met Katelyn before or any of her siblings.”