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Lifting her head, Elffa said, “You will go change.”
“Sure,” Sandy agreed easily. “But you’re not going to like what I planned as a backup either.”
Elffa’s eyes narrowed, but the promise was a genuine one. Sandy had two other outfits prepared – each more outrageous and salacious than the last. And her imagination for what else they could wear instead was only going to get worse as she had more time to think. So, Elffa could either take the first edition, or she could trade down – those were her options.
“Get in the hover,” she snapped, turning from them.
Sandy smirked, one corner of her mouth turning up. Victory tasted delicious.
“You’re beautiful, Sandy,” Rane whispered to her as they moved to the vehicle.
She beamed at him. “As long as you think so, that’s all I care about.”
Chapter 18
Rane
This party was beautiful and expensive and-
Dull.
So dull.
Rane stood with Sandy on his arm, the two of them walking around a beautiful event hall with three chandeliers absolutely dripping in white gemstones that cast beautiful rainbows on the wall. The walls were a neutral white, but everything was trimmed in glimmering platinum. It was a beautiful kind of place, meant only for the elites.
And it was boring.
These were people with credz. Those who had tons to waste and tons to spend. The team – his mother – had invited them all here to get them to part with those funds for charity. Which meant the team was walking around like trained beasts, dancing for coins. They were little more than attractions for those wealthy enough to pay to see them.
He’d done this kind of event multiple times before. It wasn’t just championship traditions that called him to do things like this. Regardless of the beneficiary of the charity, or the donors to it, everything remained the same.
Until today.
Because there was one new variable that hadn’t been here before. Rane, already the delinquent of the Eliviers, had on his arm a rare and precious and beautiful human. One that dressed in completely alien ways, and one that wasn’t at all intimidated by wealth or prestige. She looked at these people like she was their equal in all ways, and if their estimation lowered in her mind, she wasn’t above looking down on them instead.
When they gasped over her attire, she flaunted it. When they dared to make perverted or inappropriate allusions to her body, she rejected or snubbed them. She met them with the casual ease of someone who did this kind of thing all the time. It was incredible.
“How are you so good at this?” He asked, passing her a drink from a floating service tray. The small cup held barely enough for him to take one big swallow, but the sweet, slightly viscous beverage was meant to be savored in small sips.
“Good at what?” She asked, sniffing at the drink.
“Dealing with all these people? I’ve been doing this for the greater part of my life, and I still don’t handle them as well as you.”
“Oh. That,” she chuckled, unconcerned. “Honestly, I’m thinking about all of this more like a game than anything. Or maybe a play. It’s really not that different from grandma’s soap operas. We watched those a lot, and there was always some kind of party scene somewhere that brought a bunch of people together to be dramatic in one place. Really, I’m more surprised how similar all this is to dramatic fiction than anything.”
“Still,” he laughed softly. “You’re inordinately good at this.”
“That’s probably just my grandma coming out in me. She always said the best way to break down someone was with a smile. And she didn’t mean killing them with kindness. She meant smiling while you destroy them. She said laughter is a great tool, and one thing almost no one can tolerate is humiliation. Be confident and break them down and you control them like a puppet.”
“Good gracious.”
“Yeah,” She smiled fondly. “She was a hellion in her day. She said she had to refine her skills in school before anti-bullying campaigns and in offices where a good pat on the butt was still considered a compliment.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I take it to mean that you’re not having any fun here either?”
“Not hardly. You’ve been to one charity showcase, you’ve been to them all.”
