It’s not a very flattering analogy. Unfortunately, the room proves to be far from private as the doors swing open, and bodies begin to spill in.
“Surely not,” I mutter, doing a comic double-take as my gaze catches on my brother. “Who authorised his membership?”
Matt glance follows mine, his expression unconcerned. “Weren’t you just saying this place wasn’t your concern anymore?”
“There used to be standards,” I mutter, watching as Griffin caresses the cheeks of a tall brunette—not the cheeks of her face—who appears to be wearing little more than high heels and body paint. With any luck, the paint will stain. Him, at any rate.
“That was when the place was run for fun, not as an enterprise. I’ve heard your brother is making friends in high places.”
Half-brother, I silently correct. “You can’t have heard correctly,” I reply, taking a glass of champagne from a passing server dressed as a French maid. Her frilly pinny makes me think of Holland, and I shake my head against the highly inappropriate places that thought might take me. “Griffin prefers to make friends in places much lower than you’re used to.”
“How do you know what I’m used to. You’re barely around these days.”
I sit back in my chair and rest my weary head against the chair. “I know.”
“All work and no play makes Alexander a very dull boy.”
Don’t I know it. “Come up to Kilblair this weekend,” I offer—demand—suddenly sitting straight.
“Isn’t it the tourist season?”
I almost laugh as his expression crumples as though smelling something offensive.
“I’ve closed it this weekend,” I say, waving off his concerns. “We’ve got some of Hollywood coming to play.”
“Play?” Matteo tilts his head in suggestion, and my gaze follows his in a scan of the room. I wonder when I became inured to sights such as these. Naked flesh, heavy petting, hands kneading and stroking. In short, the beginning of an evening of a sexual free-for-all.
“No, not like this.” Perish the thought. “Just the usual pursuits. Grouse. Whisky. A little stalking.”
“Deer, or something else?”
“And dinner with some of Hollywood’s elite,” I add, ignoring his teasing.
“Yeah, why not,” he replies. I don’t know who is more surprised; him or me. “It’ll be good to catch up. To get away from the city.”
As I spot Griffin heading our way, I resist the urge to settle lower in my chair, hoping he won’t see me. “I really don’t know where he found the funds to cover his membership,” I mutter. He’s always pleading poverty.
“I hear Griffin has been chosen to head up the legal team of the elusive oligarch.”
“Van’s uncle?” I ask. Matt nods. “But Griffin practises criminal law, not corporate.”
“And Van’s family is not particularly law-abiding. Didn’t he once describe them as law adjacent, and his oligarch uncle the worst of them?”
“I think he described him as a despotic, money laundering, drug trafficking overlord.” But one of the few in his position that draws the line at human trafficking.
“His uncle also loaned him the money to buy you out.”
Of course, I’d known that.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.” Without waiting for an invitation, Griffin settles himself into a seat between mine and Matt’s.
“Expectation implies thought, doesn’t it?” My gaze bounces between the pair with an air of bewilderment. “I thought you saved that for billable hours.” The rest of the time, I almost certain he thinks with his cock.
“Hilarious, as always, big bro. What’s wrong with your face? Have you got cummy ache?” he asks with a childish pout. “That’s what happens when you get blue balls.”
I send him a withering look.
“You two would’ve gotten along famously as kids,” Matt says, straight-faced.
“As we do now,” I mutter, tightening my grip on my glass.
“That reminds me, I’ve got a bone to pick with you.” The dark liquid in Griffin’s crystal tumbler ripples as he points his finger at me around the glass.
“I’m sorry?”
“Holly, that cute server from your charity night.”
I frown as though confused. “Is the name supposed to mean something to me?” I ask, keeping my tone vague.
“It means something to me. It means you are a cockblocker.”
Matt snorts, tactfully turning the noise into a cough.
“You know I was into her, so you sent me on a wild goose chase looking for some knob who wasn’t even there.”
“You can’t mean Charles St John, surely?”
“Was he the goose or the knob?” Matt asks.
“What does it matter when he wasn’t even there,” Griffin replies, his gaze boring into mine.
“He was when I left the ballroom.” I take an unconcerned swallow of my champagne without a flicker of conscience or concern. “To look for you.” Holland deserves better than to be used by him. Besides, if anyone in this family gets to fuck her, it should be me. Ah, see. I win already, I think smugly.
“What are you smiling about?” he grunts. “Admit it—you chased me off because you knew she was into me.”
“You’re delusional.” And I’ll break your arms if you so much as touch her.
“And you just wanted to get your hands on the American bit.”
“American bit of what?” Matt interjects, clearly entertained. I glance his way, hoping he has enough sense to stay out of this.
“You should see her, Matt,” Griffin replies, warming to his theme. “Cute as a button and as feisty as fuck. She’s got this arse . . .” With a look that I’m sure is meant to convey his rapture, he shapes globes in the air between us.
I’m not biting. Though I am silently correcting him because her arse isn’t round. It’s more like a heart that’s shaped upside down. She has dimples in her back made for my fingers and the noises she makes when—
“She was like a siren.”
“Sounds more like she was a false alarm,” Matt retorts, “if Alexander was able to whisk her from under your nose.”
“I tell you, Matt. If he’s fucked her,” Griffin says, ignoring my friend’s teasing, “I’d be tempted to suck his dick. Just for a taste.”
“Griffin Middlemass QC, ladies and gentlemen. My half-brother. The other half must surely be Neanderthal.”
“There’s a joke in there somewhere. But surely, your grace, you aren’t maligning my mother,” Griffin says, a hint of warning in his tone.
I’m sure the joke is our shared blood. “I wouldn’t dream of it. She has already suffered so much in raising you.”
“Now, now, children,” Matt interjects with amusement. “Besides, you’re not telling me this woman would rival the brunette you just had your hands on.”
Griffin’s gaze flicks to the woman in question, appearing to give the question some thought. “She is gorgeous, but she’s more plastic than skin. Plus, she’s a working girl.” One of the changes Van sought to implement when he took over. High end escorts for those who prefer that sort of experience. “Holly is real. Soft in all the places you want a woman to be. There’s something about her.” Griffin shakes his head and I find myself almost commiserating as he presses his elbow against the arm of the chair, leaning forward as though about to impart something of note. “And her blow job mouth is one-hundred-percent natural.”