Seeing Sophie being manhandled by her father was the last thing I expected. The malice I saw in his eyes, the hatred and fear I saw in hers, that can’t be faked. Besides, why would they fake it when they believed they were all alone, in a quiet part of the house?
Does that mean we have been wrong about Sophie this whole time? Is she not in on her father’s plans? If that’s the case then what is she doing here? Everything I saw tonight is only raising more questions, causing more issues.
Sighing heavily, I take another pull of the joint in my hand before leaning my head on the back of the sofa and staring absently at the roof of my pool house.
I moved out here permanently when I turned fifteen. This has always been where Preston and I locked ourselves away, in an attempt to forget all the shittiness in our lives. Not that I have many problems in my life, or at least I didn’t, until a certain dark-haired minx turned up and started causing havoc.
I’m not saying my childhood was all beer and skittles. It was just the normal level of shittiness that comes with neglectful, self-absorbed parents that view their social status and increasing wealth as being of greater importance than their only son.
I don’t care to spend much time in the company of either of my parents, so their continued absence in my life is a blessing more than anything.
Although I do often wonder what it must be like to have a functional family instead of a drugged-up, zoned-out alcoholic of a mother and a cheating scumbag of a father who would prefer to fuck a girl my age, than someone his own.
No, my lot in life hasn’t been too bad, not in comparison to Preston anyway. Preston pulled a fucking shitty draw.
He isn’t safe at home. He never has been. Not when his father is there, and since his mother died, he’s always around. So, for him, I made sure the pool house was ours and would always be open to him.
Letting my mind wander, I think back to the events of tonight. After what I saw in the hallway, I snuck back into the ballroom and trailed Sophie and her father all night with my eyes. I noticed he constantly kept her by his side for the rest of the night.
When Preston and the other one-percenters mentioned something about a party elsewhere, I couldn’t bring myself to just leave Sophie there. I had to know she was ok, hence why I took the huge, fucking, completely idiotic, risk of sneaking up to her bedroom and waiting for her.
I just wanted to check on her. I did not expect what happened to happen. Damn, was it good though, more than good, it was incredible. Hell, I didn’t even get myself off and I’ve never enjoyed a sexual experience so much. I’ve never been so drawn in by someone’s bodily reaction to what I was doing to them, and her enticing moans were driving me crazy.
What has me thrown for a loop, though, is how much I enjoyed just holding her afterwards. Her body fit perfectly against mine and somehow I got the feeling I was giving her everything she never knew she needed in that moment. Fuck, if that didn’t make me feel like I was exactly where I was supposed to be, like this strong, ferocious woman would fall apart without me.
I hated seeing her so vulnerable, and I was surprised at the disappointment that came over me when she erected that impenetrable wall of hers, clamming up and refusing to tell me whatever it was she was going to say.
Usually I’m trying to get out the door ASAP after I’ve been with a girl, but with Sophie, I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to be there for her, and I have no idea what to do with that feeling, especially since she was right to put a stop to things before they went any further. Heck, things shouldn’t have gone as far as they did. It’s only going to make everything more complicated going forward. Preston is still insistent that she can’t be trusted and I can’t afford to let him down now. As much as I may be drawn to Sophie, Preston is my brother and I have to stand by him.
Before I can dwell on it much more, I hear the sliding door open and close, announcing Preston’s arrival.
“Hey man, where did you get to? I thought you were coming to Cece’s party?” He asks, dropping himself into the seat beside me and stealing the end of my joint.
Glowering at him, “Yeah, just wasn’t feeling it tonight.”
He gives me a ‘what the fuck look’, knowing that I am always up to party. Switching the subject before he can enquire further, I ask, “So, did you dig up any dirt on the Montgomerys tonight?”
Leaning back in his chair, he sighs heavily and runs his free hand that isn’t holding the joint, through his hair, messing it up, before digging into his jeans pocket and pulling out a lighter.
“I dunno, I found this, though, in Robert's bedroom,” he informs me, passing the lighter to me so I can have a closer look at it.
There is some sort of logo on it, made up of the face of a mountain lion, with the name, The Feral Beasts, engraved across the top of it.
“The Feral Beasts?” I enquire. “Who are they, sounds like some sort of, I dunno, MC or something?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking, but I don’t know for sure, or how they are associated with Robert. Maybe they are working for him, or working with my dad? I don’t know. Hell, they might not even have anything to do with either of them; Robert could have picked the lighter up anywhere. I’ll do some research in the morning, just to be safe, see what we can come up with,” he replies wearily, as exhausted as I am from this evening's events.
“Man, there’s something I gotta tell you; something I saw tonight,” I blurt out before I can change my mind, knowing I have no choice but to tell him.
At this, Preston turns to look at me, giving me his full attention. I explain to him what I saw in the hallway, the way Robert grabbed Sophie’s arm, and the threatening look in his eye.
I decide to skip over what happened in the bedroom though. It’s not like I usually give Preston a play-by-play of my sexual conquests so this time shouldn’t be any different.
Well, that’s what I tell myself, but even I know it’s a lie. This is totally different.
“Bro, you don’t really know what you saw,” Preston finally says, after sitting thinking about everything I’ve just offloaded onto him in the last few minutes.
Giving him my best ‘are you fucking serious’ look, he raises his hands in acknowledgment.
“Yeah, yeah. It sounds suspicious as fuck,” he agrees, “but it’s not enough evidence for us to rule her out as a co-conspirator in whatever her father is up to,” he deadpans.
“Man, you didn’t see her, she was shaken up by the interaction. I just don’t think she knows any more than we do about what’s going on.” I continue to argue, adamant that I’m right on this.
Sighing heavily, while he rubs his eyelids with his fingertips. Preston finally looks back at me, looking even more exhausted than when he first arrived at the pool house tonight.
“Look, for all we know, they knew you were there and staged the whole thing. I get what you’re saying,” he continues before I can interject with a protest. I know what I fucking saw and it was not staged. “And I’ll take it into consideration, but we can’t afford to get complacent. I need my dad gone, man, but that won’t happen if he has people on his side that we don’t know about. I don’t care who is in the way. This needs to end, soon.” He admits, giving me a rare glimpse at his vulnerability, which only serves to make me feel guilty, both about what happened between Sophie and I tonight, but also for pushing him to go easy on her.