Brutal Blueblood

which she finally allowed with a secretive smile. This was their weird, violent version of foreplay, I guessed.
I never pictured the two of them together. But if I were being honest, they’d circled each other since we’d all arrived at Pembroke like a couple of caged lions. Sometimes, I worried about Lennox’s safety. Sloane was an odd duck, being the daughter of a legitimate spy and all. If you crossed her, you might wake up missing your nuts—if you woke up at all. But he loved her, which I still found odd because it wasn’t an emotion I understood easily.
You loved your parents; you loved your mates. But hell, my mates were dropping like flies, wanting to lock things down with these girls in bloody high school that they barely knew. The girls were nice enough. But really? That forever shit?
Don’t worry, that won’t be you.
Damn straight, it wouldn’t be. I would have Tanith because I could. And then she’d be out of my system, and I could go back to normal. Back to my pre-Ibiza, pre-Tanith-ruined self.
My gaze skipped back over to Tanith. Her lips made the perfect cupid’s bow. They looked pouty and soft as hell and were completely unadorned. I kept staring at her lips and realized that was the last thing that would help with the problem in my jeans.
Meanwhile, Serafina watched our friends like they were her royal court, laughing at their antics. She was the unspoken queen of them all, or rather of us all. She had a full itinerary for this trip, and she was in charge. An itinerary and a guest list.
Sera was bringing Sloane and Aurora and . . . Tanith.
Which meant I would have my chance to finish what we’d started in Ibiza even sooner than I’d thought. But, I had to get myself under control first. I’d get to the city and then figure everything out.
I forced myself to turn around. Nothing good would come from watching Tanith. However, my dick begged to differ. It twitched as if to say, “Me, I could come.”
Jesus.
I did a mental checklist of all of my mates.
Keaton had already headed to the airport to pick up his girlfriend, Iris, who was coming in from France. He’d meet us in the city later. Rhys was riding with me, and I’d seen him outside downstairs lounging insolently, waiting for the limousine. Lennox was going with Sloane because she was going with Sera, so he was already accounted for, which left bloody Phineas. God-fucking-Phin.
Was he wasted? Again? This heartbroken-over-Aurora shit had to stop.
I didn’t understand having some emotional response to a bird. I’d allow some concessions for it, though. But this was going too far. These days, we were more likely to find Phin plastered than sober.
I took the dark mahogany stairs of the boys’ dormitory two at a time, weaving my way through the underclassmen who looked vaguely shell shocked and confused. Many of them were going back home for the first time since coming to Pembroke and were desperate for a sense of the familiar.
I mentally did my scan of the blokes to see if any of them made good Hellfire candidates. I had until the end of January to finalize my pick for my replacement. If I were being honest, I hadn’t really given the nomination much thought. I’d had my hands full with school and losing that fellowship, scrambling for something else to pad out my CV. And hell, the family business. But I’d have to pick soon. Luckily—or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it—such things were carefully controlled by the Hellfire Club alumni. While, in theory, I would choose my replacement, in practice I knew the alumni had a very short list they wanted me to pick from.
The dim dormitory halls with their dark, stained wood had light streaking in through the stained-glass windows, giving the dorm a strangely churchlike feel. Ironic, that, when I was heading to the room of the biggest sinner I knew.
When I reached Phin’s room, I knocked on his door loud enough to get his attention. When there was no answer, I tried the knob. When that didn’t work, I pulled my lockpick kit out of the back of my jeans.
My internal judgment meter started flashing, but I muttered to myself. “Don’t judge me.”
Last summer, we’d learned how to pick locks from an actual thief Rhys knew. God, to be young, rich, and bored. I hadn’t wanted to learn, but fuck, it certainly came in handy this time as the lock released.
I should have been worried about what I was walking in on, but I’d seen Phin’s bare arse more times than I cared to, and naked girls with my mates happened more than I liked. But, thankfully, with all the torrid drama between Aurora and Phin. He did keep shagging anything and everything that looked like her, though. Or what she used to look like before she went full maneater and dyed her white-blonde hair a midnight black.
When he didn’t budge. I calmly went into the bathroom, grabbed a glass, filled it with cold water from the faucet, and then calmly marched back into the main room. I tugged back his blankets, and then I poured the water on his lap.
That did the trick. He jumped out of bed. “Fuck! Jesus Christ!” He scowled at me. “Why would you do that?”
“Because it’s nearly fucking eleven, mate. We’re trying to get to the city. You’re the last one not up yet. Let’s go.”
He mumbled something under his breath that sounded like, “Time-keeping German asshole.”
“I’m not fucking German; I’m half-British. You’re thinking of Lennox. And he’s half-British, too, anyway. Move your arse.”
“Look, I’ll just hire a fucking car. I’ll meet you guys there.”
As he tried to tug the blanket back up, not giving a fuck that he was wet, I shoved him back.
“Listen, you little twat, we’ve had to put up with your bullshit long enough. It’s time to get yourself cleaned up. I don’t care who you