Society Girls: Rhieve (2 page)

R
hieve

I can’t believe I’m sitting in Reina’s office waiting for Calum. He was once my best friend, but when he moved away, he broke off all contact with me. Now that we’re grown up, I run into him too often, and despise what I know he’s become. The playboy who doesn’t care about anyone except for himself.

He’s hiding something big, something that could negatively affect all that he’s built for himself. He hides it well from the people in his social circle, and his family, but I stumbled onto his secret a year ago. So yeah, I know he’s not the upstanding businessman everyone else thinks he is. My personal feelings towards him don’t matter right now, though, because I need his help.

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell me what’s going on before he gets here?” Reina asks.

“No.”

I’m about to reveal his secret, and the little girl in me who was once his friend feels guilty about it. The woman whose brother is missing doesn’t care one damn bit. The two are warring inside of me, and I can’t ignore either one.

“No matter what it is, we’re here for you,” my mentor, Jade, tells me.

“Thanks.”

“He’s here,” Reina says, just before her doors open.

I have my normal reaction to Calum, which means it takes me a moment to catch my breath as he walks in. Tall and lean, but muscular, he has blond hair that’s cut short, and piercing grey eyes that seem to see right through my clothes to where my panties are wet for him. I don’t want to be attracted to this man, especially now, but I am.

“Reina, Jade, Rhieve. How can I help you ladies today?”

Reina looks to me and nods. “Rhieve needs your help with something.”

“That right, love? What can I do for you?”

“You can help me find my brother.”

“Rhys is missing?”

“Wait, what?” Reina asks, but I ignore her.

“He was last seen at Thorns in Norwich.”

“I haven’t been up North in months, and I don’t know of this place you mentioned. Is it a pub?”

“It’s a sex club,” Jade says. “Or rather, a chain of them in small towns around the world. One that seems on the up and up, and is
very
exclusive.”

“He knows what it is,” I say, glaring at him.

“Are you a member of Thorns, Calum? Can you help us get in?” Reina asks.

“This conversation is making me a little uncomfortable,” he says, pulling at his collar. Mr. straight-laced businessman all the way. Well, at least in appearance.

“You didn’t answer me.”

“I don’t believe I’m required to.”

“Rhieve, do you believe he can help you?”

“I know he can. He’s not just a member of the clubs, he
owns
them.”

“I most certainly do not!”

“You most certainly do. I heard you talking to one of your bodyguards at a party last month. I was in a room, trying to get away from the latest man my mother foisted on me when you came in. I thought it was him, so I hid behind some curtains. Imagine my surprise when I heard you talking.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“Wait, seriously?
You
own Thorns?” Jade looks impressed.

“No one can know.”

“No one will as long as you help me,” I tell him. “I’ll keep your secret.”

“This is an unexpected twist, Rhieve, and I wish you’d told me about it before Calum arrived. Regardless, what exactly are you expecting him to do for you?” Reina asks.

“Let me see the security footage. I tried to hack in, but the encryption is too strong. You didn’t even know he was the owner, so I’m guessing Ainsley hasn’t found her way in, either.”

“She did run into trouble with a routine hack, but other things came up before she could dig deeper. Since there were no reports of anything illegal going on, we let it go for now.”

“You would find nothing illegal, because I make sure nothing happens there that isn’t consensual. I protect the people who go to my clubs.”

“And now you’ll protect me while you take me to the Norwich one.”

“You want to go to the club
with
me? As my date?”

“It’s the best cover. Despite what I think of you, I trust you to keep me safe.”

“I can take you there, and I’ll also give you any assistance you need to find Rhys, but I need something for you in exchange.”

I’ll do anything for my little brother, and this fucker knows it. “What do you want?”

“I want you to be my fiancé.”

“Oh hell no!”

“Yes. That’s my offer. I need someone suitable by my side, and there’s no one cleaner than you.”

“It actually might help you,” Jade says, and it’s her I’m glaring at now. “It would make sense for you to be at the club with him if people think you’re together.”

“It’s up to you, Rhieve. I can put a team on the club, and get the info you need, but he could give it to you faster,” Reina tells me.

“Can’t you just torture him into helping?”

“I could, but I’m not inclined to. He’s just asking for a fiancé, and if he tries to do something stupid like force himself on you, he’ll have us to deal with.”

“Or you could just practice your hand to hand skills on him, since you need some help there.”

“I’m a black belt, and I’ve played around with MMA, so we can spar whenever you want,” Calum offers.

I get to hit him? Sign me up. “Fine. My ring better be spectacular, though.”

“Consider it done.”

He reaches out a hand, and I shake it. I know this is a bad idea, but it’s a small price to pay for finding my brother. He’s always managed to get himself in trouble, no matter how hard my family tries to rein him in. And there is a bright side to this—my mother will have to stop trying to fix me up with men who can’t even keep my interest through the first drink. Yes, I’m going to focus on the positive, and then I’m going to kick that smirk right off Calum’s face.

* * *

C
alum

Rhieve needs me. Rhieve needs me. Rhieve
needs
me. I keep saying it over and over in my head, marveling at the truth in those words. For years, I’ve wanted just a piece of her—the friendship we had when we were young, her body in my bed,
anything
—and now I’m getting my chance. I told her I needed her help, and I do, but I would’ve used any excuse to be able to have her near me, so this is just a bonus.

I know Rhys hasn’t been seen after he left my Norwich club, because I’ve kept tabs on him since he became a member. He’s her brother, and just like I’ve watched over her from afar, I’ve kept an eye out for him, too. He’s young, and thinks sex games are exciting, but I only approved his application because I knew I could make sure he was safe. I didn’t lie when I said everything was consensual in my clubs, but that doesn’t mean people always think clearly when they say yes.

We don’t allow drinking or drugs, but having one woman on her knees for you, while another is letting you play with her tits, can cloud your judgement just as much as alcohol or narcotics. When those two zeroed in on him, I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist. Hell, once upon a time, I hadn’t resisted them, either. The difference between me and Rhys is that they knew better than to try and take things outside the club with me. I don’t go home with women and I sure as hell don’t take them to
my
home. We can put on a show in the clubs, but it ends there.

Rhys, on the other hand, was more than happy to leave with them. I have a good idea where he’s been and why he hasn’t been seen since then. He might be where he is voluntarily, or he might be a prisoner—it could honestly have gone either way. I was being serviced myself when he left, but I should’ve warned him, even if he wasn’t Rhieve’s brother. I don’t blame myself exactly, but I don’t feel entirely blameless either.

So I’ll give Rhieve what she needs, and I’ll even lead her to the right place if she doesn’t find it herself, or with the help of the Society. After helping Reina some time ago, I was made privy to her secret, which has helped me keep my own. Now that I’ve been exposed as the owner of Thorns, I’ll need to stay on her good side for everyone’s sake. This agreement is just what I need to show them I’m legit while also claiming Rhieve as mine. Because no matter what she thinks, or how many women I’ve played with, I’ve always been hers.

R
hieve

I’ve been part of the Society for a few months now, and for the first time ever, I can finally be me. Not the Stepford socialite I was trained to be, or the Ice Queen I became to mask my hurt at the constant betrayals by “friends.” I have real friends now, people who don’t care about who my parents are, or how much money my trust fund is worth.

Jade has been my biggest supporter, alternating between kicking my ass on the sparring mat, and bringing me ice cream when I’m upset about how bad I still am at fighting. The other mentors really care about me and the other recruits, and those recruits? Well, they are my rocks, and I’m theirs. We help each other through the rough stuff, and while there are no cliques here, we’re definitely the “cool chicks” of the Corrigan & Co. building.

I need them all now as I enter into this unholy alliance with Calum Benson. The boy who I once considered my best friend, my confidante, my everything. We were only ten when he moved away, but sometimes when I see him at galas and parties, it seems like it was only yesterday. He has the same smile, the same mischievous twinkle in his eyes, and the same charm he used to get us both out of trouble more than once. That all went away when he moved, and not just because he was an ocean or two away.

He stopped responding to my emails and letters, and he was too busy for my calls. I’ve never known what I did to make that happen, or if it was because he didn’t think I was cool enough to be friends with anymore, but it hurt. Honestly, it still hurts, and if I wasn’t desperate to find my brother, I’d never make myself vulnerable to him again.

Rhys
is
missing, though, and Calum has what I need to help me find him. Of course he couldn’t just give me what I asked him for two weeks ago. No, he had to extract payment from me in the form of this fake fiancé bullshit. We’ve laid the groundwork with photos of us being strategically placed with the most effective media outlets, and today is the day I’m getting my ring. I demanded spectacular, but that was more to make it believable than because I need a big rock. Appearances are everything in our world, and no one would believe Rhieve Madison would settle for less than the best.

“Nervous?” my friend, Camari, asks as she walks into the open door of my apartment. We usually keep our doors open unless we’re “entertaining” because we have an unspoken agreement to be there for each other. Studying, a shoulder to cry on, or just binge-watching Quantico—it doesn’t matter, we’re up for it all.

“Resigned is a better word for what I’m feeling.”

“Your engagement is a PR dream,” she says with a sigh. She is still the Corrigan & Co. PR guru, although she does more overseeing now than hands-on work. “The billionaire heir who could give two fucks about being proper, and the most proper girl in the world. At least in public, that is.”

“Wipe that smirk off your face. The world will never see me in my cheap jeans, drinking my even cheaper beer. My mother would have a coronary, and while she annoys me, I don’t want to be her cause of death.”

“
That
would be a PR nightmare, so I’ll have to concur. I hate to see you hiding who you really are, though.”

“I’ve been doing it for so long, I almost forgot it was an act. Coming here, and being with all of you has been something of a dream come true.”

“You’re not supposed to make the big, bad, PR lady cry,” she says, wiping away a stray tear.

“Oh, sorry. That wasn’t in the rulebook,” I tell her with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood before I start crying, too.

“Probably because there isn’t one.”

“True.”

We have posters on the walls of the rooms we’re trained in, and we receive heavily encrypted files—that we have to decode as part of our training—on our tablets, but there isn’t a student handbook or anything else for us to go by. We were told some basics about what to do, and what not to do, but Reina is relying on us to use our common sense in training because we’ll need to rely on it when we’re out in the field.

“At least we talked to Reina, so things won’t be moving at such a crazy pace.”

I’m glad our friend Waverly talked Matisse into getting us to tell her. I know she was trying to fast-track us to take some of the weight off the mentors, but I think we were almost all ready to pass out from the pace we were keeping. We have no illusions of things being easy, but they will be a little less grueling, and we can actually have time to breathe a little.

“Yeah, and she’s letting me look for my brother, and play fake fiancé, so I’m feeling extra lucky.”

“Your luck’s about to run out, I’m afraid,” Jade says, standing in the doorway.

“He’s here?”

“Yep. Ainsley says the bulge in his pocket is Harry Winston, and not because he was happy to see me.”

“Since Nate would kill him if he hit on you, I’d say that’s a good thing,” Camari reminds her.

She shrugs. “From what I’ve seen and heard about him, he’s pretty scrappy. I think he could hold his own for a minute or two.”

“No bruises on a socialite’s engagement photos, Jade. Remember the part I’m playing.”

“It’s hard to forget when you’ve traded your jeans for that.,” she says, gesturing to my white sheath. It’s covered in a white sequined design, making it look like a monochromatic Japanese screen.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back to ‘casual Rhieve’ in a couple of hours.”

“I’m not worried about the clothes, Rhieve, I’m worried about you. You’re not really ready for a mission, and although Reina approved it, I wish there was more I could do to help you.”

“You’ve already helped me more than you’ll ever know, Jade. Now let’s go before Calum complains about how precious his time is.”

* * *

C
alum

I bounce back and forth on the balls of my feet as I wait for Rhieve to come outside. This engagement may not be real, but I did what I could to ensure the proposal would be something she’d like. Or at least something she liked when we were kids. She may hate it now, but that’s a chance I’m willing to take.

I’m biting my lip, which is bullshit since I’m not a nervous guy—at all. Cool, calm, and collected are the words I live by. I shake myself and try to put my mask back on.

“This is new,” Candi Griffin says with s raised eyebrow.

I’d forgotten she was there, and she obviously saw my unease. I can’t pretend it didn’t happen, but I’m not going to admit it either.

“Isn’t the guy proposing supposed to look nervous? I hope you caught that, because it could be your money shot.”

“I’m not selling these pics to the Society Pages, just the Society,” she reminds me. “And yes, the guy or girl asking usually looks nervous when it’s real, but since this is supposed to be fake, I’m wondering why you’re reacting this way.”

“Maybe he wants it to be real,” Olivia Griffin, her assistant and sister-in-law says.

I need to nip this in the bud right now. “I definitely don’t want to be engaged to Rhieve for real.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Rhieve says from behind me, and I hang my head and curse myself before turning around.

The sight before me steals my breath, and it takes me a moment to speak. Rhieve is in a white dress that looks like something she’d wear to an art gallery opening. It’s artsy while still being classy, and the bracelet on her wrist is made of mini Japanese screens, mimicking the design on the dress. Her dark blonde hair is pulled back into an intricate bun, and her makeup is flawless. She’s the perfectly perfect trust fund baby, and it shouldn’t be as sexy as it is.

Her loose dress shouldn’t make me harder than the women in lingerie at my clubs. I shouldn’t want to mess her up, and take her, but I do. God help me, I always have, and with my luck, I always will. Rhieve Madison is my kryptonite. I know it, I fight it, and sometimes in the dark of night, I even own it. I’m way past resisting her pull, but I need to make peace right now.

“You only heard the end of this conversation, but I’m sorry for upsetting you.”

“I’m not upset, Calum. You’re the one who demanded this engagement. I certainly wasn’t asking to be on your arm.”

I don’t need to be reminded of that, but then again, maybe I do. “Nevertheless, as I said, I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Let’s just get this over with.” She starts to walk around me, but stops short. “What? How?”

“Is something wrong?” her friend, Camari asks.

“The flowers in the water. The candles. Why is it decorated like this?”

Shit. Maybe she doesn’t want what she wanted as a little girl. She probably wants something more fancy and suitable to our status. I thought she was still rebelling against that inside, but I guess I was wrong.

“Calum did it,” Candi tells her, and I know I need to apologize. Again.

“I remembered what you told me when you were little. I thought you’d still want it, but I guess I made a mistake. Today’s apparently going to be a day for apologies from me.”

“You remembered?” she asks, and her voice sounds a little breathless.

“I remember everything you’ve ever said to me, Rhee.”

She places her hand on my forearm as she searches my face. “Thank you. I know this isn’t real, but thank you for doing this for me.”

“You’re welcome,” I tell her, my own voice sounding shaky. “I made you do this, but I want it to be good for you.”

“That’s a stretch, but I don’t think it will be horrible.”

I want so much more than that, but I’ll take it for now. “I would never make it that way for you.”

“Perfect,” Candi says, and we both turn to stare at her. “What? The two of you looked like a loving couple. I got some great shots.”

Rhieve instantly removes her hand from my arm, and squares her shoulders. “Where do you want to propose?” she asks me, as if she still doubts that I know what she wants.

“I told you I remember everything,” I remind her, taking her hand in mine, leading her to the low diving board, and helping her sit down.

I go to a knee in front of her, and pull the ring box from my pants. “I know this isn’t traditional, or proper, but will you marry me, Rhieve?”

“Pretend to be engaged to you, you mean.”

No, that’s not at all what I mean. “Yeah, that.”

“Do I get to see the ring first?”

“Is that a deal breaker?”

“I told you it had to be spectacular.”

“I can assure you it is.”

“Open it. Please.”

Always polite, even when she’s demanding. I can’t help wondering if she’s like that in the bedroom, too. Then I think back to the men I’ve seen her with over the years, and doubt they would know how to handle her like that.
I
could handle it. I would let her be bossy sometimes, but I’d demand to be in charge as well.

I can’t and won’t deny her anything, so I snap open the box, and watch her eyes go wide. I can hear Candi’s camera snapping away, but I don’t let it spoil anything. Right now, it’s just me and Rhieve.

“Well?”

“It’s not an engagement ring.”

“For you, it is. You’re not a solitaire type of woman, Rhieve. You like statement pieces.”

“I do.”

“I know.”

She tentatively reaches out to touch the ring. There’s a square diamond measuring over five carats in the middle, surrounded by forty-two square and round diamonds totaling another five carats. The ring is big, heavy, and took a nice chunk out of my bank account. Nothing I couldn’t afford, and I would’ve paid ten times as much to see the wonder and happiness in her eyes that I’m seeing now.

“It’s perfect for me.”

“Does that mean you’ll let me put it on your finger?”

“Yes,” she says, and then looks up into my eyes. “Thank you for thinking of me. You could’ve just gotten me a standard ring, and I would’ve worn it, but this…this is stunning.”

“It’s only what you deserve.”

I slide it onto her ring finger before I say anything else. There’s so much I want to say, but it’s not time yet. She’s not ready to hear the truth from me. I’m finally ready to tell at least part of it, though.