BLAIR'S POV
"LOOKS LIKE DADDY MCKINNEY HIT A NERVE ON LANA." I almost cringed at Elle's words following her line of sight. Lana stood a step above
Hadley's father. Her dark eyes can be stopped from a distance. The rage and annoyance that built behind them were clear as day.
Her jaw tightened with every word Edmund spoke, making Lana's fist clench hard at her side. Ford stood not far behind her ready to pull her back before any moves are made. My eyes drift and fall on the brown-haired boy standing at her side.
I hadn't realised he was here this entire time but then again I don't go out of my way to look for him in the crowd whenever I entered a room. It'd make things too obvious, and I don't want Dalton to be suspicious of me and learn of my feelings towards his friends.
He looked good in his suit. the way the material stretched over his broad shoulder and the length of his chest. The trousers clung to his thick thighs almost suffocating them.
His light brown hair gelled back out of his accentuating his sharp features. His brown eyes almost seemed darker in the distance.
"You having fun there Blair?"
"Huh?" I snapped my head to Elle.
A smirk tugged on her lips, "you know if you like him you're going to have to talk to him to get him to actually notice you, darling."
"I don't like him….plus if I did things wouldn't be that simple. Dalton wouldn't be pleased about me dating one of his best friends."
She shrugged, "just saying, I mean Corbin is a catch as I've heard underneath that cold and bitter exterior. You might want to sweep him away before anyone else gets a hold on him, Blair-Bear."
"Ugh! I swear if Owen tries to set me up with one more of his friends, I'm burning this place down." Hadley came stomping over before snatching the drink from Elle's hand and taking it down in one go.
"Lana might just beat you to that…your dad has been getting on her nerves for the last ten minutes."
Hadley let out a snort, "he's just asking for them to pull their votes and everyone else's"
"What do you mean?"
"Roman and Lana are the only reason why anyone is voting for my father. I don't know how they convinced them to do so but they did and if they pull their votes everyone else will follow. No doubt the Antar family will since they grew up with Roman and Lana, and their loyalty runs for centuries. But once those two go half his votes are as well and he loses in the election."
Elle let out a sigh, "If I wasn't straight, I would so screw Lana. She'd be such an amazing sugar mommy."
"Don't let Roman hear you speak like that; he might just whisk his sister away from you Ellie." A scowl twisted on her face as her eyes glared at a tall, tanned boy.
"What do you want Isaiah?"
"Oh, come on, is that any way to greet an old-time friend, Ellie?"
"I would greet you the same way if you pissed me off as much as you did her." a dark-haired boy standing behind Isaiah spoke in a mutter.
"Oh, screw off, Ronan. You're just upset you got tongue-tied around Lana earlier." My ears perk before I shot a look over to Hadley who had a wide grin pulled on her face.
"Tongue-tied you say?" Hadley raised a brow at the boy watching a crimson blush take over his face,
How adorable.
I bit back a squeal from his blush. Lana had a lot of attention growing up from men, I mean who wouldn't stare at her? she screamed confidence and intimidation. Everyone fell to her knees when she spoke to them or smiled.
It was given Roman was protective of his baby sister when he discovered the news and Lana grew a pair of boobies but that didn't stop anyone from asking her out to every school event and slipping love confessions into her locker when no one was around.
She never took any of them up unless it was for a one-time thing and again people were more than accepting to take what she was giving to them.
But Lana never dated. She wanted to save the title of being her boyfriend for the right person so when she found him he would be the first and only one who can stand there and tell the world he was Lana Azad's boyfriend and the first one to exist.
She was a beauty and every man reacted to her, but none reacted the way this boy did at the mention of how he acted around her.
It was cute. the way he hid behind Isaiah and the way the blush took over his face almost instantly.
"Yep. I had never seen him drag me out of a conversation faster than he did when she was around."
"You were about to plaster my sex life in front of her. Of course, I rushed you out of there. I don't need you to embarrass me in front of Corbin's friend." He pinched Isaiah's side making him squeal with a slight jolt.
"Ow! You fucker!"
I chuckled watching them argue. It was like watching Roman and Corbin argue every day. in the midst of the chaos, none of us had noticed Lana slowly approaching eyes, her eye set on Ronan as she made her way.
"Isaiah…" His attention turned to her in an instant before both started talking in Arabic. Both their eyes bounced back and forth between each other and Ronan. I understood Elle's feelings when she said she would sleep with Lana if she was gay.
Hearing her speak in a foreign language and her voice so deeply laced with an accent was such a turn-on and so damn hot. She spoke so beautifully as well not to mention the language itself was beautiful.
I remember I made Lana teach me some words in Arabic growing up but with the lack of practice, I forgot most of them.
They jumped back to English not long after, "where are your parents? I want to see them before I head out."
"They both go called in for a pile up in the ER, so they already left."
She let out a huff of air, "tell them to call me when they get a chance, Roman wants to invite them over to the manor for lunch when they had a day off."
He nodded, "I'll let them know."
"You're leaving already?" I ask, drawing her attention towards me.
"Yeah, I have to get to the office tomorrow and sort out my stuff before the end of the month so we can start running again." I nodded, pursing my lips, and staring down at my glass.
"Hey…I'll still be around. You'll see me on the few days when I'm on campus in Cambridge and on my days off. Plus, I'm going to need someone to vent to or else I will murder Roman for shoving shit down my throat every two seconds."
"He does like to parent you a lot."
she rolled her eyes, "don't get me started on the shit he pulled in America. You would be seeing me in an orange jumpsuit right now.
I shook my head, "You think Roman would let you sit behind bars for a minute?"
"He would if he believed it would teach me a lesson, but I never learn."
As soon as I got home, I took a deep breath before pushing the front door open. I was the last one to come home as I was the last one to leave the venue with Giselle. Mum and dad were gone the second Roman decided to leave a few hours after Lana departed.
Corbin was left to babysit Dalton in case he made a fool out of himself or better yet our "family image" as my mother likes to say. The whole night, I held a breath and forced a smile while having the sons of politicians and ministers thrown at me as if I was going through a round of speed dating.
that all these were for them. To just set Dalton and me up with someone that they will approve of when it comes down to the time of settling down and providing heirs. That was all up Dalton's alley. He wanted to take over, so he was the one who had to get himself a perfect wife and make perfect kids, preferably sons, to take over when Dalton retires.
I don't get why they were shoving it down my throat.
I couldn't tell if they were genuinely concerned for me and wanted me to find someone.
Or if it's another one of their ploys to get me out of the house so they can do whatever they wanted.
It stirred something inside of me when I thought of the latter. I couldn't tell if I was hurt they wanted to get rid of me or happy to be able to leave this house and never have to return to it.
Locking the door, my steps falter when I see someone walking down the stairs. I held my breath thinking it was my father but once he stepped down and into the hall, I found myself staring right back at Corbin.
He froze in his spot. He was still dressed in his suit only he no longer had his blazer on, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. His hair was dishevelled mostly likely from having to haul Dalton up the stairs and into bed.
Dalton was a stage 4 clinger when he was drunk. I learnt the hard way of suffering through it.
"I thought you were asleep already."
"I had to drop off Elle first," I muttered, holding onto the wall, and removing my heels. my dress dragged along the floor after me as I head upstairs, "don't take it personally."
My head snapped around, gazing down at him, "what your parents did tonight with introducing you to everyone…they did the same for Dalton when he was your age so don't take it to heart, kid."
"I think I take you calling me kid more to heart than tonight's events."
He rolled his eyes, "if I had to suffer being called a kid at eighteen then so will you and your friends."
I almost scoff in his face. I can't remember the last time someone called Corbin a kid. He's never acted like one. He was always thinking and moving through life as if he was an adult already.
He was always level-headed and calculated. He planned everything to the dot. He was slicker than any other adult I have ever seen in my life. It was why dad liked having him around so much. He was the son he wanted. the smart and focused one. Not the one who gets a drink every second day and doesn't remember what he ate for breakfast two hours after having it.
Dalton and Corbin were two opposites. One was messy while the other was clean. one had his entire life together while the other had no idea where he was heading in life other than the business he was born to inherit.
One was loud and chaotic while the other was calm and collected.
One spoke before he thought about what he was saying while the other stayed silent until he had the right words to speak.
They were different in so many ways, but they worked. Corbin needed the chaos that Dalton provided as Dalton needed the calm that Corbin gave.
It was like me and Lana. She was the calm that I needed from everything that goes on around me. I was the chaos that she needed when she needed to get her mind off that storm in her head.
"Goodnight, Blair." He nodded before making his way to the door.
"Corbin?"
He glanced at me over his shoulder, his hand hovering over the handle, "no one ever called you a kid when you were eighteen…Goodnight, Corbin."
As soon as I entered my room, I pressed my back against the door, letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding back.
A tingling feeling settled in my chest for the rest of the night. My mind was trapped in a haze as I stared at the ceiling.
And for once, I was able to sleep with peace.