His Corruption

Chapter 9

The Grey's mansion was definitely something. I felt as though I'd just stepped into an art gallery, one that smelled like wood and...oranges?

I had spent the last 5 minutes observing the pieces and statues they had as decoration. Some of the paintings dated back to the 1800's. It was completely  awe striking. I was always amazed by history, but my friend?

She sank into the couch, sipping her glass of champagne and putting her feet up on the table. "I don't know why you find interest in those paintings." Beverly mused. I'd brought her along to this dinner party because I was surrounded by so many men, I feared I'd become one myself.

"Elena." I heard in the distance. I didn't need to look back to see it was Romeo. "Dad's asking why you aren't in the main room." He said with an irritation looping his voice, knowing how suffocating our father is, but my mind was elsewhere.

I gave Beverly a knowing glance. Her crush on my brother had been growing rapidly these past months, and I could tell she was seconds away from flirting with him. I tried not to support it, because I knew that if she saw what Romeo was capable of, her feeling would disperse. Romeo was a monster.

I loved my brothers but they all were, and if they weren't my family I'd walk on the other side of the road seeing them on the streets.

I left the living room and entered the hallway, watching my brother and Beverly from a distance. Beverly tried provoking him, but Romeo never obliged. He wasn't into her the way she was with him, but I told him not to let it show. She had a soft heart.

When I stepped into the main room, I fought hard not to show my annoyance. My dad always wanted me under his gaze and I was tired of it. I'd done some things behind his back, but I'd never shown him a reason not to trust me. God I was a hypocrite.

Swallowing my guilt sown, my hand clasped over the other and I stood there like a tree - before the clearing of a throat made me jump.

Shit. It was only Adrian. "Oh my god." I breathed. "We were looking everywhere for you."

He took my hand, and pulled my towards the middle of the hall. Adrian's family and mine were great allies and friends, which meant that me and him were very close. We did everything together when we were kids.

But as we grew older my father started to restrict how much we saw each other. I guess he didn't trust another man around me, but he couldn't say anything about us dancing could he?

Smooth, classical orchestra played from the end of the room, and I tried to sway to the music. "I heard about your engagement."

"Yeah."

"And you're totally in love with her."

He lowered his eyebrows. "No I'm not."

"I beg to differ. You can't tell me that...." My sentence continued as Adrian spun me out, which seemed like an okay idea at first but then I smacked into a rock hard body. A gasp jumped out of me, before I was caught by a strong arm.

"Sorry" I muttered, but my body froze when I saw it was Cristian. My gaze stopped on his, feeling a mixture of surprise and confusion at the heat tingling around my waist.

Cristian, however seemed less than unimpressed by my clumsiness. In fact he looked at me like I was vermin in his eyes.

"Watch where you're going next time." He bit out, and I watched him disappear into the crowd. Of course he'd be at a gathering made for criminals. What else could I have expected?