Hi everyone. This is my first fanfic. It's a Rose/Christian, and I'm hoping it'll end up novel length, so plenty of chapters to go after this one. It'll be told in Rose and Christian's perspective. Let me know your thoughts, I love to hear them!

Liars

One

Rose

This guy was good. I'd been on top of a lot of guys recently, but Jed Connors was a pleasant surprise.

It was because he wasn't a royal, I decided. Royals had too much arrogance; too focused on their own pleasure because they were spoiled brats. Jed, however, was giving me just about everything I wanted.

He pulled my bottom teeth between his lips, and a low moan escaped my lips. For once, I was genuinely tempted to go further than a quick make-out session in the back of a dorm party.

I'd always been good at finding parties, but since killing a few Strigoi I was back on all the what's hot lists. Invitations flew at me left, right and centre. Some more innocent than others.

This was one of the innocent ones. Marina Conta was having a party to celebrate her birthday, and Lissa and I had both been invited. Lissa had brought Christian along. Sometimes I went to parties Lissa wouldn't dare, and they were the most fun ones. The ones where I drank so much I couldn't see straight, and then fell into the first lap willing to accept me.

Those provided the best distractions.

Jed was good, though. His hands gripped my hips, but they weren't quite rough enough. His mouth was insistent on mine, but it wasn't hard enough to bruise.

I craved it.

Why would no one be rough with me?

I'd just killed two Strigoi, for fuck sake. I wasn't a gentle little flower who needed protecting from the real world.

Just because I'd taken to dinking a tad too much and throwing myself at anyone who was willing to give me a few minutes of reprieve from reality didn't mean they had to run hands through my hair as though the soft gesture would turn me on.

Still, Jed was better than most. His fingers were still hard on my skin, he dared to grind my hips into his.

He didn't know I wasn't going to have sex with him in a million years.

It was a stupid rationale. I'd make out with anyone willing, a bit of mutual masturbation was fair game, but I couldn't bring myself to fuck them.

Because of Dimitri.

I was a loser.

He'd left, and he didn't deserve anything of mine. And yet I kept my virginity close to my chest because I was scared of losing it and changing. It was the only thing I had left.

I used guys as a distraction, from Dimitri and life in general. It was easy to forget the image of Mason's face turning cold and pale when someone had a finger down my pants. That didn't mean they could take something permanent from me.

Jed's hands began to dip below my waistline, and I let them. People weren't paying us any attention, and coming was the best distraction known to man—or woman, in this case.

I threw my head back, and let Jed change his lips' attention to my neck. Music blasted in the dorm room. We were in the furthest one from the guardians' posts that was possible, and so it was easy to get lost in the pounding beat. Jed's fingers brushed against my swollen nub, and I shivered in his arms, hands tightening in his shaggy blonde hair.

I'd never been a big fan of blondes, but my vision was so blurry I could barely tell anyway. The lights were dimmed.

Honestly, I could have been getting off with anyone. The fact I knew his name was more than I could say for a lot of the past month.

He quickened the pace of his thumb, and my muscles clenched. I forced down a cry, back arched and head thrown back in ecstasy.

This was the real escape.

Nothing but pure euphoria.

I came down from the high, lip hurting from biting it to keep my moans in, and glanced around the room to make sure no one had been paying me too much attention.

My gaze locked with an icy blue one.

Christian Ozera was staring right at me, and there was no doubt he'd witnessed everything. His gaze was hot; a deep intense stare that turned me on more than the man beneath me. His jaw was tense, his posture, too. Clad in a tight black shirt, I could see the restraint as he played with one of his shirt buttons.

And then he sent his classic smirk in my direction.

Fuck.

I turned an obscene shade of red, swallowing the instant resurgence of my arousal.

Forcing my gaze away, I shoved it down. I was drunk, and Christian was Lissa's boyfriend. He'd have forgotten about it in the morning, and so would I.

I hopped off Jed's lap, and he made to protest, but I gave a fake sway, pressing a hand to my lip. "I'm so sorry, I think I might throw up."

That was enough to stop him being interested, despite the obvious tent in his pants.

I was a bitch, too.

Sifting my way through the crowd, I found the table with the alcohol on. There was still an unopened bottle of vodka on there, and I bit in the inside of my cheek. No one would notice if it went missing, and I had a big bag on my shoulder that would swallow the bottle.

Money wasn't something I was doing well with right now. The few savings I had left were dwindling quickly, and alcohol was top on my list of priorities.

I stared at the bottle for a few more seconds before sighing and grabbing a plastic cup. I hadn't sunk low enough to steal vodka quite yet.

Maybe in a couple of weeks I'd reassess my dignity levels.

For now, though, I hadn't quite reached the stage of blackout drunkenness, and that was unacceptable.