And will the jealous Ophelia finally accept my relationship with her brother? Or will she get even madder?
Chapter One
The sweat was sticking to the back of my neck.
“They’re waiting for you,” Trevor said again.
“Who are waiting for me?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
We were standing on the back steps of the fire escape, my heels teetering on the metal floor. It seemed like a long way down and I glanced through the gaps in the steel grates at the ground below. A black car was waiting for us, hidden in the shadows with the glow of a nearby flickering street lamp casting shapes across the tail lights.
“Are you ready?”
He placed a hand on my back and I reveled in feeling his warmth penetrate my clothes.
“Yeah, I think so.”
The robe was trailing behind me as I walked, the velvet fabric caressing me in darkness.
“You look terrified,” Trevor laughed as he opened the car door for me.
“I am,” I said as I took a seat.
Sliding in beside me, he wrapped an arm around my back and kissed my cheek.
“There’s nothing to worry about. We’re just going on a little…adventure.”
There was a strange look in his eyes as he spoke. He was obviously amused by the whole charade but I wasn’t. I looked at the driver’s face in the rearview mirror and saw he had a large scar that snaked down one side of his face. Sensing he was being stared at, he met my gaze in the mirror. It was then that I saw he had a glass eye and my fingers tensed up around Trevor’s hand.
“What are you thinking?” he whispered in my ear.
“I’m thinking the driver is a Bond villain.”
He chuckled and kissed me again.
“He’s far more interesting than that but don’t you worry about him. Tonight is all about you. It’s going to be amazing. You’ll be so popular. I’m sure everyone will love you.”
That strange look came over his eyes again, a glassy look that made him resemble a child on Christmas Eve. The car pulled out the alley and stealthily glided along the city streets but it wasn’t long until the buildings fell away behind us and we were speeding down an empty road. Large, looming trees arched over us, their leaves tickling the roof of the car.
“Where the hell are we going?” I leaned over and asked Trevor.
“We’re going to a party.”
“Yeah but where exactly is it? It looks as though we’re in the middle of nowhere. This is almost the freakin’ wilderness.”
“If you must know we’re approaching The Hamptons.”
“Oh.”
I’d heard of that, seen glamorous movies where people holidayed there amongst the vast gray stone mansions with their politician husbands and children who wore cashmere sweaters. Now I was going to join them, but something told me the mansion I was going to wasn’t going to be housing a happy family on vacation.
“Can’t you at least give me a clue?” I asked as I became increasingly nervous.
Trevor looked at me and shook his head. Pressing his forefinger to his lips, he signaled for me to be quiet.
“Enough questions, just relax.”
It was impossible. As I rested my head against the window and watched as the wide streets passed by, bigger and bigger houses zooming past, my stomach was in knots. I flexed my hands to release the tension and felt my clammy palms dampen the inside of my sleeve. Looking down at the robe I had been gifted, I saw how it drowned me, how the folds of velvet fell from my slim frame as it swamped me.
“We’re almost there,” he announced as we turned a corner.
The silence of the smooth road dissipated as the tires crackled along a gravel path and Trevor’s eyes widened in excitement.
“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”
He nodded eagerly.
“Many times. More than I’d care to admit.”
I watched as the driver narrowed his eyes, the lid covering the glass eyeball lagging behind the other. A shock of goosebumps swept up my arms despite me being too hot. Then it was in front of us. I gasped when I saw it, the tall, granite structure with the endless turrets and stained glass windows. It dominated the landscape as it emerged from the darkness of the evergreen forest. Its entrance was a gaping doorway that gave the impression the house was in a perpetual state of surprise. Or horror…
“What is this place?”
“It’s the home of a friend of mine,” he answered dryly.
“Someone lives here! Is it Vlad the Impaler?”
He shot me an infuriated look.
“What did I tell you about asking questions?”
The car slowed to a halt at the entrance. This was the time when I was supposed to get out and walk inside. This was the time when I was meant to become acquainted with the dark side of Trevor. I kept thinking about what my brother said, how he described The Hades Society as some sort of insidious cult.
I heard the click of the driver’s door and watched as he came around to the back of the car. In the pale moonlight of the woods, he looked even more sinister. His lips were hideously disfigured, twisted and scarred like a scarlet streak dashed across his face. Part of me wanted to know what happened to him. Part of me couldn’t bear to hear it.
“Ma’am,” he said as he opened the door.
I stepped out with my heels crunching on the ground. In the distance, I could hear the soft sound of a scratchy violin carried by the wind. But there was something else too, something that was moving with my heartbeat, something tribal. It was the sound of drums battering underneath the music like a booming invocation. It sounded like the house was trying to conjure the Devil.
My legs trembled as I walked. Trevor arrived at my side and took me by the arm with a dazzling smile. Inside the house the low tones of a sacred chant began to sound in a language I didn’t understand.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” he said as he led me up the steps.
“I don’t believe you.”
The music got louder, the chanting more desperate. Glancing over my shoulder I saw the driver staring back at me, his one working eye fixed on my silhouetted body as I hesitated on the stairs.
“Come on,” Trevor yanked me.
“I’m not sure about this,” I whimpered.
“Shhhh….”
My stomach lurched when the front door fell open, letting the music escape into the nighttime air. It echoed around the trees and lingered in the moonlit mist. I was wondering who opened the door when I heard the sound of footsteps punctuate the blackness of the hallway. I was expecting to see a butler, a snooty boy in a boy tie with a side parting and an attitude. Instead, what I saw made me stop in my tracks and dig my heels into the ground. I felt winded, terrified, too scared to move any further.
“Come on now, Tammy.”
“I don’t wanna go inside.”
The figure at the door was tall, much taller than Trevor. It too was wearing a long black robe with another one dangling from its outstretched arm.
“This one is for you,” it said as it pushed the robe into Trevor’s hands.
I watched as he placed it on his body with ease, an act he must have done a thousand times before. Then I looked back at the figure by the door and wanted to cry. It had no human head but rather it had the head of a goat placed upon his own. His voice was low and raspy as he spoke, a crepitated sound that could only come after years of smoking.
“You’re late,” he said.
“I know,” Trevor answered. “Aren’t I always?”
As we stepped inside I could see the goat’s head up close, could see the way it was balanced on the man’s shoulders. I was so close I could see the fine hairs that prickled up from the mask and the way the once living eyes of the animal were pointed down at me. I shivered once again.
“She’s quiet, isn’t she?” the goat asked Trevor.
“She’s nervous. Aren’t we all at our initiation?”
I
nitiation? I began to panic. Meanwhile, the music was getting louder, the chanting and drums reaching a frantic crescendo as the violin continued to shriek like a wounded animal. As we walked down the darkened corridor, the goat leading us toward the bowels of the building, the glow of firelight began to emerge from the shadows. A stream of smoke drifted out to us, the smell of something herbal and earthen twitching at my nostrils. I wrinkled up my nose and grimaced. Trevor laughed pulled me to him.
“It’s Frankincense,” he explained. “I know, it’s pungent.”
“It’s horrendous.”
The firelight grew brighter, the sight of the flickering flames casting shadows up the walls. As we turned the corner we were confronted with a set of double door. A large knocker sat in the middle and as I stepped toward it, I noticed it was in the shape of a devil’s head, its long tongue hanging out as it waited to be rapped against the black wood.
“It is you who must knock,” the goat said to me.
I glanced at him then back at the devil head. From inside, the music was reaching a fever pitch, the banging of the drums thundering in my chest.
“You must,” the goat emphasized. “Go ahead and knock.”
I took the devil’s tongue in my fingers and took a deep breath.
“Three times,” said the goat. “No more, no less.”
I closed my eyes and did as I was told. The music stopped in an instant and suddenly it was silent. All I could hear was my own heavy breathing as I leaned against the door, the sweat pouring from my brow under the heaviness of the robe. Then the last remnants of steadiness left my body as the door was pulled away.
“Welcome,” came the man’s voice.
Chapter Two
Another goat’s head was in front of me, its beady eyes daring me to stare into them. I looked at Trevor, my face open and begging for him to save me but he pushed me in the back.
“Go on,” he urged. “It’s important that you go.”
Looking over the second goat’s shoulders I could see there was a full room behind him. An orchestra was situated at the rear, the drummers standing with huge batons raised in their hands like talismans. Yet instead of the taxidermy goat’s heads, their faces were adorned with gold Venetian masks. Reaching up on tip toes I saw that everyone else was wearing them too.
With nothing left to do, I stepped into the room and felt my legs turn to jelly. The crowd turned to me, a great black caped homogenous mass of golden-faced anonymity.
“We have been waiting for you,” the second goat said. “Waiting such a long time.”
Standing to the side, he gestured for me to enter. The crowd parted as I approached them, forming a circle around me until I had nowhere to run. I saw the door behind them, thought about how long it would take for me to dash through them and make a run for it. But where would I go? Out into the forest and the darkness? Out to where the one eyed driver was waiting in the blacked out car?
“Wear this.”
Trevor was by my side again with a Venetian mask in his hand. Before I could speak he had strapped it on, securing it around the back of my head with a velvet ribbon.
“It suits you,” he said.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” I wailed.
“The fun thing is that you don’t have to know what’s going on. You just have to enjoy it.”
Everyone was still staring at us. It unsettled me as I looked to their faces and saw nothing but the smooth jaws creeping out from the bottom of their masks.
“It’s time to reveal yourself,” Trevor said as though it was perfectly normal.
“What do you mean?”
I took a step back.
“You know what I mean.”
He took a step forward and dug his fingers into my robe. I shook at the thought of what was happening. Leaning in close to him, I wrapped my arms around his muscular shoulders and cried into his ear.
“Please! Tell me what’s happening.”
Sensing my fear, he took my hands in his and looked me in the eye.
“You’ll love it I promise. You know how you told me you liked to be watched. You know how you love to flaunt your looks.”
I swallowed back my anxiety as I nodded. Of course, those were things I loved to do.
“I know,” I said. “But all these people? What are they going to do?”
“They’re going to watch us?” Trevor said as he pulled off his own robe.
Pulling off his jacket and tie, I realized he was going to get naked in front of these people. It was a thought that both terrified and aroused me in equal measures. I watched as his clothes fell to the floor, his boxer shorts coming off last as they glided over his thighs. He was hard already, his length standing up to attention as he approached me.
“It’s your turn now.”
I wanted him so much. Running my hands down the center of his chest, I couldn’t stop my body responding to him and having an audience certainly seemed exciting, if not also frightening.
“This is all so new to me,” I said as I let the robe fall to my feet.
Trevor helped me unzip my dress, caressing my neck and kissing my cheek as it fell around my ankles. Standing in nothing but my underwear and heels, I felt an unwavering sense of empowerment as I showed myself to the horde of people around me. As I snapped the back of my bra open I looked at the man nearest to me. His eyes were piercing blue through the slits of his mask. He licked his lips and pushed his hand under his robe. I watched as his arm pulsed up and down, his eyes clenching shut for a second as I pulled my bra off.
“I knew you would like this.”
Trevor was behind me, his erection pushing into my back as his hands cupped my breasts.
“I knew you were the perfect girl to join the club. You’re so beautiful, so naughty but innocent. You’re everything I want.”
Sliding his hand down the front of my panties, he rubbed his fingers against my clitoris. It was hot and swollen, begging to be pleasured. I bit my lips and leaned back against him, my head resting on his shoulder as he cradled me in his arms.
“Take them off,” he whispered into my neck.
Hooking my fingers into the sides of my panties, I slid them over my bottom and embraced the fact that I was naked in front of a room full of people. Yet, just when I thought things couldn’t get any more bizarre, the music began to play once again. This time it was slower and more macabre. The violin was melancholy but ominous, the sound of the beating drums slow and rhythmic as it reverberated through the floor.
I relished the thought of having a hundred eyes on me, loved the feeling of sharing my pleasure with people while my heart beat wildly in my chest. A bead of sweat ran down the space between my breasts and Trevor licked it from my body. He looked up to me in awe, as though I was his queen, as though he’d never seen anyone so special in his life. He lay back on the ground and I marveled at his body, the way his muscles rippled in the dim light and how his face was so refined yet masculine. He waved his finger in a hitherto motion and I climbed onto him, my hands still trembling as they intrepidly traced over his chest.
As I looked into his eyes, everything around us fell apart. It was as though there was no one else in the room and the music tumbled into the back of my mind. There was nothing in the world but the two of us and the touch of our bodies as they tangled together.
Lowering myself onto his hardness, I flung my head back. He was so big, and still, my body wasn’t entirely used to his size. It stung for a moment, but then the pain drifted away and I was left with a feeling of pure, soaking wet ecstasy. I rode him hard, my nails digging into his skin and my body wanting more and more of him. I grew wetter as I listened to him grunt, his hands gripping me hard by the waist as he thrust into me.
I was close to climax when I noticed people around me were moving, letting their own robes drop to the ground. As the room began to fill up with naked bodies, I realized there were women in the room too. Some were shier than others, choosing to watch their friends while some wer
e more confident and eagerly collapsed on all fours willing to be penetrated by the nearest man. Meanwhile, others were writhing together, their painted lips and perfect bodies joining together as they fell to the floor desperate to taste one another.
It was the most hedonistic spectacle, pure debauchery, and pleasure and I was at the center of it, like their leader set upon a sordid pedestal. I came hard as I watched, falling forward onto Trevor as he wrapped his arms around me. Biting into his chest as a tidal wave of pleasure rippled through me, he held me tight, stroking the hair from my face and whispering:
“I knew you were perfect for this, knew you were the right girl. Look at how much they all love you.”
Gazing up over his shoulder, I watched the tangled limbs and squirming bodies. The air smelled like sweat, sex and pheromones mixed with the bitter tang of alcohol. Underneath it all, there was the acrid scent of tobacco. Not seeing anyone smoking, I darted my eyes across the sea of bodies but still couldn’t see the source of the smell. I couldn’t explain why it meant so much, but there was something so mysterious about the thought of someone admiring the view with a cigarette in hand and a deadpan, dark look in their eyes. At last, my eyes caught the sight of a ribbon of smoke and I followed it up and up until it was trailing down from a balcony I hadn’t previously seen.
I saw Ophelia there, her face stormy as her hair fell down over her shoulders. The most remarkable thing about her appearance was that she was fully clothed. With a long, black dress draped over her lithe limbs, she looked little more than a pair of crimson lips blowing smoke out into the night. Our eyes met. I watched in horror as she raised a hand with delicate, bony finger protruding out across her neck. She traced a line across her throat in a slow and deliberate movement. I got the message loud and clear.
“Trevor,” I said as I shook him by the shoulders.
He looked into my eyes and smiled.
“What’s the matter, my princess?”
I looked up to the balcony and saw Ophelia was no longer there. I parted my lips to speak but couldn’t think of the right thing to say.
Too Curious Complete Series (Books 1-5) Box Set Romance Series: (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Series) Page 11
