Page 47 of Lust

Iwake the next morning before Juliette and Rowena. Light snores tell me they are both still asleep. I check the time on my Hell Cell and am surprised to find a message from Remy.

SURE THING. TOMORROW NIGHT. 8pm?

I scratch my head, trying to make it make sense, and it takes a few moments for me to realize he’s answering the message I sent him last night. The one I sent after Dade ripped my heart out and stomped on it. Deservedly so too. I sigh and switch my Hell Cell off. Do I really want to go out on a real date with Remy? The last one was nice enough, but I felt more in the two minutes I spent in Dade’s room yesterday than I did on my whole night with Remy.

The two minutes where Dade told me he’d rather use ancient torture equipment than have sex with me.

I turn the Hell Cell back on and hit reply.

LOVE TO. MEET U IN THE ATRIUM

I slip out of bed as softly as possible so not to wake Rowena and Juliette. Neither stirs as I grab my clothes and leave out of the back door. Back in my room, I take a shower and ponder the clothes in my wardrobe. It’s full of clothes I never would be able to afford when I was alive and yet since coming down to the second circle, I’ve worn nothing but jeans, t-shirts and sweaters. I need to feel pretty. I hate how much Dade’s words have gotten to me, but they have. I run my hand over the rack of dresses and pick out a sexy leather black number. It’s the shortest dress in the closet and reminds me of something Juliette would wear. It’s perfect. I need a little of Juliette’s confidence, and if it doesn’t give me that, well, at least it’s dark like my mood. I pull it down from the rack and place it on my bed before going back to the closet and picking out a pair of faded jeans and an old t-shirt to wear. I can hardly wear the leather dress all day. I’m determined not to let Dade get to me any more than he already has and that means going out and having breakfast as I normally would.

Neither Juliette nor Rowena have made it down yet, so I message Twila for the third time this week. Not that she’ll answer. Our little goth friend has been MIA since the very first day here. I wait for a few minutes and, when she hasn’t answered, slip the Hell Cell into my pocket. A demon appears and asks what I want for breakfast. After ordering something I know will be so sickly sweet it will make my stomach curdle. I glance around the restaurant.

Hoping to see a pair of black wings?

I must be a masochist, because that’s exactly what I want to see. The restaurant is almost empty due to the early hour, and it’s clear he’s not here. Dade is a creature of habit and always sits at the very edge of the restaurant in the shadows. As I search the rest of the restaurant, my eyes fall on Felix, who’s sitting alone with his head down, clearly not wanting to be spotted. One cheek is black and his eye is puffed up and almost swollen closed. He catches me looking at him and turns his face away. My instinct is to get up there and tell him what I think about him, but I think Rowena has done a good enough job to dissuade him from hurting her again. He’s a mess.

A flash of red diverts my attention. I look to my side to see Anthura striding past. Felix ducks in his seat, but it’s too late. She’s spotted him.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Her voice is loud enough that I can hear clearly what she’s saying.

“None of your business,” Felix snaps.

The waiter appears at my side with my breakfast. I thank him and will him to leave. If anything will take my mind off Dade, it’s watching a show like this.

I should have ordered popcorn.

“It is my business,” corrects Anthura and sits opposite him in the booth. “I don’t fuck ugly people, Felix, and at this moment, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so putrid.”

Felix grimaces. “Will you shut the fuck up?” he hisses. I have to lip read what he says next, though it’s pretty obvious. “People are watching.”

He nods to me and I know I’ve been rumbled. Anthura turns her head and gives me one of her patented sneers. I give them both a grin and a wave and pick up my plate. I take it back up to my room and eat it there and when lunch time comes round, I order room service using my Hell Cell.

It takes an age for eight pm to roll around and by six, I’ve already started getting ready.

I take longer than I usually do, curling my hair into submission and applying make-up. When I force my body in to the skintight dress and check out my reflection, I gasp. I’ve gone darker than I usually do, with black eyeliner and a deep plum lipstick. I’m channeling Twila for sure. The dress accentuates my curves, making me look less skinny than I usually look and more womanly. Due to the tightness of the dress, my breasts are pushed up, almost spilling out of the top of it.

I give myself a wolf whistle.

An overwhelming sense of self-consciousness engulfs me as I descend into the atrium. Remy has yet to arrive. I hesitate to sit on the chairs, anxious about my dress riding up, so I position myself in the center and patiently await his arrival. Each time someone walks by, their gaze fixates on me, their expressions full of surprise and desire. I’m not used to being looked at the way people are staring at me. I’m well known down here because of my place in the Inferno Games, but until now, it was always Juliette that captured all the attention. When she was around, I faded into the background.

“Can I have your autograph, please?”

I turn to find a couple of young men staring at me, both looking nervous. One hands me a note book and a pen. The page isn’t blank. I read through, recognizing the names already written down. Juliette’s signature takes up most of the page with her big looping J and a heart instead of a dot over the I. Other signatures are squeezed around the edges. It looks like he’s nearly got the whole set, although there aren’t any of the male contestants' signatures. He’s only missed Maggie, Rowena and me.

“I wasn’t going to get yours,” he admits as I hand him back the book after I sign it. “But you are super hot tonight.”

“Yeah!” agrees the other one. “Like smokin!”

“Er, thanks.”

I feel Dade before I see him. My gaze shifts and there he is, standing near the doorway to the platform. Our eyes meet, and for a moment, the world seems to narrow down to just the two of us. I can’t look away as the two men dawdle in front of me. My body heats as I take Dade in, staring behind them. I feel like I’m caught in his flame.

“Er, do you wanna come with us? We’re going to Infernos.”

Yeah, it is hot," I murmur absentmindedly, lost in thought.

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