Snitch looked like a missionary among the heathens. Her eyes were wide, starstruck, as the dildo leaned forward to brush something off her shoulder. She laughed. Who the fuck is vampire boy and where does he get off touching her?

“Gray? Do you want to get a drink or something?”

I tried to shake out of it, give my attention back to Lottie, but Snitch lifted off the rock as if to follow the asshole. I stood up quickly, tossing my blunt into the water. Some mermaid in the process of dumping her margarita yelled at me for littering.

“Where are you going?” Lottie asked.

I squeezed her shoulder. “Need some air. I’ll be right back.”

STORY

Hollywood guy wound his fingers in mine, leading me through the crowd. “It’s just beyond here.”

It felt wrong to hold his hand, wrong and dangerous, but I let him. I let him weave us through the crowd, past skimpy dresses and bikinis that shone like dragon scales. Above us, I even caught a glimpse of Abigail dancing on one of the stages, until we were at the edge of the club, overlooking the black sea.

Technically Grayson hadn’t said anything about holding hands with others.

“Do you know what’s inside these rocks?” Hollywood asked.

“Shouldn’t you be deep-throating the Academy?”

Grayson.

Grayson, with a twinkling sea of dancing at his back.

Hollywood heartthrob stared at me a moment longer, then slowly lifted his bright-green eyes.

“Nice to see you, too, Crowne,” he said easily.

Grayson didn’t look at me, but I knew better now than to think his attention wasn’t laser focused on me.

“This one belongs to me.”

Hollywood eyed me. “Didn’t see your name on her.”

Grayson stepped forward and grabbed my elbow, his grip surprisingly gentle. “It’s not on me they don’t teach you to read in Hollywood.”

Grayson didn’t wait for his response, dragging me away.

“Talk to you later, new girl…” Hollywood’s voice drifted over my shoulder. Grayson’s grip tightened at his voice. It excited me—it shouldn’t have, but it did.

My heart pounded. At Hollywood’s attention, at Grayson’s tight grip, at being talked about like I was little more than dirt once more.

Grayson shoved me into a room built into the rock and slammed the door.

“Am I not giving you enough attention?” he asked, tone deadly impassive. “Did you forget what you signed already?”

“Don’t talk to anyone,” I mumbled. “But that’s an insane request, and I won’t fucking follow it. And he came up to me.”

A pause followed, the thumping beat pounding against the rock like it wanted to get in.

“Why do you care?” I asked.

He laughed. “I don’t give a shit.”

“Liar,” I yelled. “You act like nothing matters, like you’re just as corrupt and depraved as the rest of them, but I see you, Gray.”