Six

Christian

I still wasn't sure how I'd ended up sat on a couch with a plastic cup of vodka and coke in my hand. Rose sat beside me, legs folded under herself in a dress that was too short for comfort, sipping her own drink.

Every so often my gaze would slip down and take in the full length of her legs, and I knew I'd made a big mistake. The answer should have been to stop drinking so that I didn't lose my inhibitions, but drowning out my sudden attraction seemed a lot more appealing.

It was her face, haunting my vision. We were back in a dorm in the middle of the night, sat in the back of the room where no one was paying attention.

Rose could be sat on my lap right now, her body taut with the same raw pleasure I'd witnessed just a week before.

Shit, she was talking to me, and I had no idea what she was saying. Her lips moved, and I had to force myself not to watch them. I leant closer. "I can't hear you, the music's too loud."

"Oh, right." She budged closer to me, our sides pressed completely against each other now. Heat pooled in my belly, and I swallowed hard. I was just drunk, and obviously Rose was attractive. This was nothing new. Nothing special. "I was just saying that I'm sorry for dragging you along, I know this is probably the last place you want to be."

Rose had warned me: this was the party full of single people who were here to drink and make out and nothing more. And so far it was living up to what she'd said. The dancing was crude grinding, and every corner was filled with couples.

I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it. With Rose practically latched onto my side, my mind was blank of just about all things.

"I don't mind. You don't have to sit and talk to me all night, by the way." I'd seen Rose at the last party, and at plenty before that when Liss had dragged me along. She wasn't shy about being with guys.

"I want to," she assured me with a quick smile. My pulse raced. "I don't always come just to be a slut, honest. I'm always up for an excuse to drink."

She'd been drinking a lot since Spokane, and I couldn't blame her. I'd been doing the same, to a lesser extent. "Me too. I need to go and find someone who can sneak some in for me on a more regular basis than stealing people's at parties."

Rose laughed, running a hand through her hair and causing her skirt to rise just a tiny bit higher. "I can be your alcohol dealer. I get Adrian to buy for me."

"It's a deal." My gaze was lingering too long. I needed to cool down a bit. "I'll go get us another drink."

Away from Rose and her undeniable presence, I poured us a drink each. It'd been happening too much lately, me having the wandering eye. I couldn't turn back into a horny teenager now my feelings for Liss had dwindled, and her best friend was the worst possible person to be lusting after. I at least had to control myself. I was doing well so far. I hadn't so much as laid a finger on Rose, even as she pressed herself against my side and her breath tickled my ear so we could talk over the loud music.

Did she even have any idea what she was doing to me?

Probably not. She was Liss's best friend. As far as she was concerned, everything was completely platonic between us. Of course it was.

Back on the couch, Rose hadn't been joined by anyone like I expected. She sat with her head leant back, eyes shut. I let myself get a good look at her before sitting down and disturbing her. After my initial hatred of Rose Hathaway had subsided, I'd been forced to admit how attractive she was.

Normally it was a simple thought, Rose looks good today. It didn't normally send my cock hard just to see a bit of her legs exposed.

It was that face. I'd seen her come, and I couldn't forget it.

"Here." I passed her the drink.

"Liss is going to be so pissed I brought you to this party," Rose told me, readjusting herself so that we could hear each other again: her chest pressed against my arm, though she seemed completely nonchalant to it.

Surprisingly Liss wasn't the overbearing type when it came to things like that, but then again, I was never invited to things without her. "Why?"

"Because you've been getting so much attention."

I arched a brow, and Rose's expression changed for a second, a faraway look taking over her face. She brought herself out of it almost instantly though, like normal. "I have?"

She chuckled. "Are you blind? I've counted at least three girls who look tempted to come up to you."

Apparently I was. "Oh. Well, they know I'm with Liss, anyway."

"True. But they also never know what you're willing to get up to behind closed doors."

"I guess I shouldn't be too surprised if everyone thinks I'm an asshole like that."

She grinned up at me, sipping on her drink. "Everyone wonders it about everyone. They think you're attractive and they're drunk, and you're drunk, so they're at least considering coming to chat to you. I think Liss's potential wrath might be scary enough to ward them off, though."

"I think they might be more scared of you in the more immediate sense."

Rose gave me a sly smirk. She must know what she was doing, sending that sultry look in my direction. "I'm nice as pie."

"So who would you go for, if I wasn't here cockblocking you?" I looked around the room at the mix of Moroi and Dhampir.

Rose followed suit, scouting out the room. "You're not cockblocking me, I told you I'm mainly here for the vodka." She tapped her fingers against her plastic cup, gaze still combing the dorm. "I think I'd go for, hmm." Rose turned away from the crowd to look up at me, and words died on her tongue. She bit her lip for a second, before blinking twice. "Erm, that guy over there."

It took me a minute to break the heated gaze and follow her finger. "I don't know him."

"Yeah, me neither. That's normally a bonus."

"What do you get out of making out with random guys?" It wasn't something I'd ever done, despite Rose's claims that people here would be willing.

Her face blazed in my mind. The physical aspect of it was obvious.

"Distraction," she answered without hesitation.

I could see the appeal of that.

"And is watching a distraction?"

I could see it in her eyes that I'd asked the wrong question, that I'd let it slip. That I'd brought up the thing I'd been trying to push away ever since it happened.

Kind of trying, anyway. When I wasn't getting hard over it during my morning shower, or late at night when it haunted my thoughts.

And now I'd brought it up, in front of her, when she was pressed against me in that flimsy dress and we'd both had too much to drink.

Her lips were still at my ear to be heard over the music when she replied. "It's never as good as the real thing."

A shudder ran down my spine and the heat went straight to my cock.

Fuck.

We turned, met each other's heated gaze and leant forward. She was so close her breaths, getting slowly more rapid, warmed my face. I could see the small flecks of amber in her brown eyes.

We stopped at the same time, too. When my lips had barely brushed against hers and my heart had practically stopped.

She cleared her throat and stood up. I did the same.

"I think we've probably partied enough," I tried to joke, but it was awkward, and we walked back to my dorm in silence.

She was still there though, right beside me.

We both wanted each other.

I'd never hated Lissa like I hated her in that moment.

Back in my room, we took it in turns to use the bathroom. Rose went first, and when I was finished she was already curled up on the floor, facing the other way. I slipped under my covers, and wished I could have offered her the other side of my bed. To be comfier, if nothing else.

There was a tense silence.

I laid in bed, cock still hard, and focused on her quiet breaths. They were still faster than normal, and I dared to believe she was imaging fucking me just like I was imagining fucking her.

It could still happen. All she had to do was move two feet, get into my bed, and kiss me.

But it wouldn't. It never would. I had a girlfriend, and that girlfriend was her best friend.

And what we had was lust. Intense, dark lust that I longed to live out more than anything. Intense, dark lust that absolutely wasn't worth risking the destruction of the Moroi to my mother's arm because of.

I turned away from her, too, and ignored my erection.

"Night, Rose." It was a dejected statement of resignation. I wouldn't mention this in the morning, and neither would she.

"Night, Christian." Hers was just as disappointed.

He shut his eyes, and dreams of a completely different kind to normal taunted him all night. They came in the form of a brunette Dhampir telling him that the real thing was always better.