“Fuck,” he grunts against my back. “Your needy cunt is soaking up everything I have.”
Even as we settle down, the crowd turning away slowly, Aiden doesn’t allow me to move. No. Instead, I have to ride the waves of his pulses still buried inside me.
“Now. Get to your homework and do it right,” he says, tapping on the paper in front of me.
“While you’re still…like this?”
“Yes,” he says simply, mouth brushing my ear in somethingthat’s almost a kiss. “And when I’m ready, we’ll go again.Harderthis time.”
TheOmegameetingwraps late on Monday evening, shifted one day because of the holiday weekend. My entire body aches from the drugs. From taking Aiden all afternoon. My brain fried fromstudying.
As sisters trickle out of the room in clusters of perfume and prejudice, the chandelier in the foyer humming above with dimmed yellow light.
I’m halfway to the front door when Olivia’s voice cuts through the chatter.
“Ashlyn. Would you stay a minute?”
The others scatter faster. No one ignores an order from the queen of the house.
Her office on the first floor glows gold and pink, a decadent little den with crystal decanters, neat piles of files in mauve envelopes, and the faint scent of dried roses and control. She gestures to one of the striped satin Louis XV chairs in the middle of the room. “Sit.”
I do. She doesn’t. Instead, she leans a generous hip on the front edge of the white French Country desk.
“I have a favor to ask…and it’s unusual. But I think you’re therightwoman for the job,” Olivia asks, folding her arms.
Now I’m intrigued. No one has ever singled me out to do something important, and the look on her face says this may be.
I tilt my head. “What is it?”
“Well…” She walks behind her chair but still doesn’t sit, eyes tired under the lamplight. “Tomorrow night, I was hoping you could visit Valen Von Dovish’s house in Gnarled Pine Hollow.” After clearing her throat, she finally looks at me. “And stay the entire night.”
“Stay?” I echo.
“Sleep over, drink, talk, I don’t care what you do. What matters is that if anyone asks where you were Tuesday night, you’ll say you were with Valen and me. Theentirenight. From the moment the sun went down until it came back up. Can you do that?”
A present of possibility lights under my ribs. I smile carefully. “So you need an alibi.”
This power doesn’t come often. And I relish the sweet taste of it.
Olivia doesn’t answer directly.
“I would be willing if…” My voice trails off as I pick at the seam of my jeans. The ones Aiden let me wear tonight, since I was supposed to come right back to his room.
“If what?”
“I need something in return.” Or a few things, by the desperate look on her face.Hmm, what can I squeeze out of her…
She smiles gently. “Of course you do. What is it?”
“First, I’d like an invitation to your grandfather’s holiday party.”
Her head tilts. “Of course! That’s no problem! I’d be happy to?—”
“And one more thing.”
My pulse races. I’m about to get everything I’ve wanted. A weapon to use at theright time.When I tell her what it is I need, she’s nervous, but agreeable. The alibi has to be worth a lot. And I? Well…
I just became the owner of a priceless prize.