Page 5 of The Monster of Hotel No. 7
As I take a messy gulp from the vodka-cran Cosmo concocted, I guiltily marvel in my constant pipe dream and wonder if Sullen would ever show up to stop me from fucking my friend. Especially here, a familiar haunt of Writhe. But this silly fantasy has been inside my head since he vanished two years ago, and his father said there was no use looking for him despite the ransom money he offered up.
It didn’t make sense though.
The highest-ranked member’s son goes missing and Stein Rule’s hollow face—so like his son’s—and dark eyes betrayed nothing of worry anytime I saw him? He wasn’t tearing the world down to get him back?
Why?
“Woah, slow down,” Cosmo says with a laugh, and I realize I’ve sloshed vodka along my chin and tossed back three-fourths of the drink already, cherries bobbing around my lips.
I swallow hard, the sting pleasant and spiking in my belly as I set the glass down, then pluck out one cherry by its stem.
“Can you do anything with that?” Cosmo asks suggestively, his hands planted on the bar top between us as he stares at me with light green eyes.
I nip the sweet cherry off with my teeth and shake my head as his pupils dilate, watching me bite down on the garnish.
“Nope,” I tell him honestly after I swallow. “But we both know what I can do toyouwith my tongue.” My cheeks heat as I say it, but the alcohol has already made me brave because I don’t look away.
I’ve slept with Von, before he was committed to Isa, and I’ve had sex with Cosmo many times, but that’s where my count ends.
Of the two, only Cosmo knows the thing I really like, and it has nothing to do with my tongue.
He glances down as I set the cherry stem on the bar top and cup my hand around the ice-cold glass in front of me.
“Finish it,” he says, his voice soft as he flicks his eyes up to mine. “Then another. And another. One more, maybe? When you’re woozy, I’ll set you down on the couch.” He glances at the space with the table and books and plates. “When you’re nodding off into unconsciousness, I’ll have my hands all fucking over you.”
I tighten my thighs, one knee still crossed atop the other, and my entire body grows hot. But he doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I like to be touched when I’m out of it. Sleeping, drunk, drugged.
It’s my thing.
Maybe I feel less guilty that way, since my parents always alluded to the fact they would decide my fate in terms of relationships, and there was a subtle hint that I should stay as pure as I could, not whore myself out and ruin my prospects, all of the usual indoctrination.
But if I’m incapable of fighting back or saying no, I’m not ruining anything, am I?
I finish the drink, the ice hitting my teeth then clinking together on the counter before Cosmo makes me another.
Then one more.
Three.
I havethreein a row, on an empty stomach, only cherries in my belly.
Cosmo’s stare grows more intense as I let him get me drunk and I slip a little on my bar stool, but only laugh it off.
It’s just us here, in a cave of sorts, surrounded by blue light and dim shadows and bottles of expensive alcohol. Sullen won’t come for me, but as Cosmo finally helps me off the stool, his arm around my shoulders, me leaning my weight into him as I stumble, maybe I can pretend for tonight the nightmare of my dreams is my present company instead.
Cosmo slides his arm off my back once I stand in front of the plush, black leather couch in the open room of the bar. My vision is a little blurry and if I squint, Cosmo is Sullen, although the latter is a few inches taller.
I remember that. The shadow he cast over me.
But when I sway on my feet, a giggle leaving my lips, and Cosmo pushes me harshly onto the cushions of the loveseat, it’s easier to pretend.
It’s how I imagine Sullen would touch me. Unattached, casually rough.
I want Cosmo to fuck me up.
I want to see how Sullen feels.
