Roommates with the Party Boy

Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

"Holy shit, you look so hot. Everyone at the party is going to want to bang you," Haley says as she zips up the back of the tiny black dress she was loaning me for the evening, since I did not arrive with any sort of party attire.

I felt like I could not breathe in this dress. But I would take her word for it. The slit in the side came all the way up to my upper thigh, showing off the good part of my tattoo. I wasn't accustomed to seeing myself wearing this, therefore I could not say if what she was saying was true or not. I would take her word for it.

"That is the goal," I reply sarcastically, willing the fabric on the chest to come up just a bit higher.

It was after 9 at this point, so not only were we late, I was insanely uncomfortable with showing this much leg. And Gianni's words kept echoing in my head.

"Of course I am going. Who else is going to supply the drugs?"

"Now all you need are some shoes... but your feet are bigger than mine are, so I can't really help you there," she says with a sigh, hands on her hips before she leans in closer to the mirror to fix a fake eyelash that was drifting out of place with the wet glue.

"Do gym shoes count?" I ask hopefully.

She laughs and shakes her head. "You wouldn't dare pair that dress with gym shoes, no matter how expensive. But... people won't be paying attention to your shoes if you know what I mean," she says with a wink. She was far too excited about this party.

"I can just... go see what I have..."

But, going back to my condo right now was the very last thing I wanted to do. Scratch that, going to this party was the last thing I wanted to do.

"Go on, I'm sure Gianni is already at the party. Just make it snappy," she says before shooing me out of her bedroom.

To my dismay, the front door was unlocked. I could hear Gianni shuffling around his room when I walked past. Peeking in, I see him kneeling to tie up his black dress shoes.

Make it snappy, Haley had said.

It takes me a minute or two to locate them, but eventually I dig a pair of flat strappy sandals from a duffle back in the back of my closet. I hadn't even unpacked them yet.

When I look up, Gianni stands in my doorway with his body leaning against the frame, hands in the pockets of his black dress pants.

There was an all-too familiar stirring between my legs at the sight of him. Maybe it was his black long sleeve button down that wasn't fully buttoned. His dark eyes stared back, but they were void of emotion.

"So, you're really going, huh?" he asks before he steps into the room.

I turn and look at myself in the mirror. Haley had dawned my face with a touch of makeup, something I never, ever wore. She did a good job. I still looked like myself... just more refined, as she had put it.

He watches me in the mirror as I turn from side to side slowly. I was too distracted with myself to notice he had stepped closer. I shiver as I feel his fingers tuck the size tag into the dress on my back, after his fingertips barely brush along the sides of my hips, accentuated in the tiny dress.

"Just be careful, Camilla. These are my people, and they are not nice people." He meets my gaze in the mirror, jaw tightening.

I turn to face him and he looks down at me, lips moist from a chapstick poking out of his pocket. "I'm strong," I insist.

A chuckle rumbles low in his throat and he nods his head. "Yes. Yes, you are. But this is an entirely different beast."

The moment the door opens, I'm smacked in the face with the terrible, alcohol soaked breath of Gerald. It's so bad, my body instinctively takes several steps back into the hallway and my stomach churns.