“I might.”
“Not good enough for the shit I have. It’s all documented and with evidence.”
He narrows his eyes before quickly going back to normal. “Fine.”
Of course Cole would choose his battle instead of anyone else’s. He’s Cole, after all.
Friends? Fuck that. Those don’t exist when it comes to himself.
“You go first, Captain.”
Teal insisted she doesn’t have a secret, but as I said, everyone does.
And when I have hers, nothing will save her from me.
She’ll wish she’d never said yes.
6
Teal
Since I turned eighteen a month ago, I’ve been waiting for this moment — or rather waiting for the response.
The letter with the black envelope and red writing.
The acceptance.
The possible solution to all the fuckery that’s been happening in my life.
I adjust my mask as I walk through the hall of the club.
It’s more exclusive than the palace and needs more intervention than MI6’s agents. I first got my ticket here a month ago after I convinced one of the random men I met at a pub that we could meet here.
It was, of course, a lie. Spending one night with him had already been too unremarkable.
He was the last one. I’ve been dissatisfied for a long time now, and I realised after that night that I should stop. It was all a waste of my time.
I cut out all my random escapades a few days before the official engagement with Ronan. I wouldn’t call it that official, though. People know about it, but it’s not announced vastly, and I refused the ring until we’re at least out of school.
Not that this game will go on until then.
The reason I stopped the encounters has nothing to do with the engagement and everything to do with me.
It’s been more than a week since that dinner at the Astor mansion. Ronan still lives his life as if nothing happened, and I get to live mine the same.
After all, it’s just a contract, a convenience, a link between our families and a thread to my plan. Nothing more or less.
I meant it — he can bring it. Nothing will sway me, and there’s no way in hell he’ll have me abandoning what I started.
Holding the acceptance letter between my fingers, my insides hum with excitement as I follow the girl down the hall with red carpets and walls covered in black flowery wallpaper.
It’s the theme of the club, La Débauche. As its name suggests, it’s for debauchery, depravity and…fantasy.
I first discovered it in my trips through the dark web. Then I found one of its members on Tinder and hooked up with him that night. That meeting got me my entrance recommendation.
Since then, I’ve been coming here to be part of the Audience Society, the voyeurs who watched the titillation of the human mind through their bodies.
It was fascinating. It was the first time I thought of something as that in…forever.