She bounced up to her knees. “Yay! You shower, and I’ll be back with a few things for you to pick from.” Hopping off the bed, she headed for the door. “Good thing Theo is in meetings all evening. That makes sneaking out so much easier.”
I rushed through a shower and then did my hair. I didn’t have much experience with makeup since it had always been out of my budget, but when Sofia returned, she had a bag full of things I didn’t even understand how to apply. Within an hour of her suggesting we go out, I was looking in the mirror at a complete stranger.
My friend had a gift, that was for freaking sure. I didn’t even recognize myself with the way she’d highlighted certain parts of my face, while making other areas seem like they weren’t even there. The outfit I’d picked from the pile of clothes she’d brought was a simple sleeveless black dress. There was no back to it, but there was a built-in bra so my boobs weren’t bare. The hem ended a few inches short of midthigh, and the heels Sofia insisted looked amazing with it were gold and six inches high.
How the hell I was going to sneak out of the house—which was basically a damn fortress—in those neckbreakers I wasn’t sure, but Sofia didn’t seem all that concerned about it.
It was another hour later—and a few heart-stopping moments when I was sure we were going to be eaten by the dogs that roamed the Volkovs’ property—that we walked into a club in the middle of downtown.
Sofia at my side, we’d been ushered straight inside, bypassing the line and the hundred or so people standing on the sidewalk outside of Project X.
There were two levels to the club, and after taking my hand, Sofia led me to the second floor. A bouncer at the bottom of the stairs gave her a lifted brow but stepped aside without question. At the top of the stairs, a hostess-like person was already waiting.
“Welcome, Miss Volkov,” the woman greeted, her smile bright, but something in her eyes suggested she was nervous. “How long will you and your friend be joining us tonight?”
“As long as we fucking want,” Sofia told her. “We’re going to be in that back corner. Keep the drinks coming, and keep the goons away because we’re here to have fun, not have your trained apes chase all the guys away.”
The woman pressed her
lips into a firm line but nodded. “As you wish, Miss Volkov.”
Without another look at the hostess, Sofia pulled me through the crowd to the corner she had indicated, and we plopped down on a long, buttery-soft couch. No sooner had our butts touched the seats than there was a waitress asking for our drink orders.
After ordering for both of us, Sofia waved the girl away and then let her eyes trail over the people in our vicinity. I was doing a little people watching myself. This was the first time I’d been to this club. Really, it was my first trip to any club. I was always too busy with school and tutoring to even think about partying, so this was all a new experience for me.
The music was loud, but not so much that we had to yell to be heard when we spoke to each other. The lights were dim, giving the whole place an intimate ambiance. There was no mistaking that the people on this floor all came from money. Every single one of the women had on jewelry that looked like it could easily fund small countries. But it wasn’t so much what they were wearing as how they held themselves that told me all of these people were used to snapping their fingers and getting what they wanted then and there.
Our drinks arrived, both of them nonalcoholic since Sofia wasn’t flashing her fake ID around. I sipped at my cola and listened to Sofia as she filled me in on several people and the juicy details of their social lives. I didn’t know how she kept up with all the things going on in other people’s lives and still remembered all the stuff she needed to in order to pass her classes. But some of the stories she told me were so amusing, I was almost in tears from laughing so hard.
It felt good to be out of the house, out from under Theo’s and Mrs. Volkov’s watchful eyes and to just breathe. I didn’t have to wonder what Theo’s motives were for spending time with me or worry about hurting his mother’s feelings if I did or said something unknowingly wrong.
There was just Sofia and me and the music and a club full of strangers who didn’t know me from Eve. It was so easy to let my guard down.
Two guys in dress slacks and button-down shirts took a seat across from us. I let my eyes skim over them both. The one in the blue shirt had pretty green eyes, while the one in black had on glasses that were tinted ever so slightly to restrict his exposure to the strobes on the dance floor below. They were both leanly muscular, and going off the identical shape of their jaws, I was sure they were brothers or at least cousins.
Sofia smiled at the one in the blue shirt, and the guys both asked if they could buy us drinks. She was quick to accept, but this time, instead of nonalcoholic beverages, she told them we wanted shots.
The guy ordered a bottle of vodka and a bottle of tequila from the waitress. Both drinks were quickly brought back and set on the low table that separated our seats from theirs, along with four shot glasses.
I’d never had liquor before, and I wasn’t exactly keen to try it now, but I didn’t want to be the odd one out. Promising myself I’d only have one shot from each bottle, I tipped the vodka to my lips and downed the drink just as Sofia did.
But no sooner had our glasses touched the table than the guy wearing the glasses filled them back up.
My throat was on fire from the first shot, so I wasn’t about to down another so quickly. Pushing it away, I sat back, sipping at the drink Sofia had ordered for me earlier in the hope that my throat would stop burning soon.
Sofia, however, was already on her third shot. I didn’t know how well she could handle her liquor, so I watched her closely. One thing I noticed instantly was she got more and more flirty with each shot she took, and soon she was sitting on the other couch with the guy in blue.
Which meant the guy in black moved to sit beside me.
He sat down, his thigh brushing against mine, and gave me a smug little grin. “I’m AJ,” he said, offering me his hand.
“Tavia,” I muttered, placing mine in his just to be friendly.
His fingers tightened when I started to pull away, his thumb skimming over the backs of my knuckles for a moment. I frowned down at our joined hands and couldn’t help thinking of when Theo did that exact same thing. Only when Theo did it, butterfly wings started to stir in my stomach. With AJ, all I felt was annoyance.
“Pretty name. But I expected nothing less from a woman so beautiful.”
I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. If that wasn’t a line he used on every woman, I didn’t know what was.