Elegant Sins - Stasia Black Page 0,54

no matter how much I will want to.”

She squeezed my hand back and nodded. “I understand. And as objectifying as this is, I seriously doubt it can be worse than the branding. I got this.”

She picked up her kimono and walked toward the bathroom. She paused and looked over her shoulder at me with a warm smile that caused my heart to skip. “We got this.”

With sake in hand, I sipped as I kept watch over Grace. The sick asshole inside of me loved the sight of her nearly exposed and naked body adorned with colorful sushi and flowers. She was beautiful, and the way her eyes stared at the ceiling as she dutifully performed her role as sushi girl made her even more so. The woman’s strength fueled my own. I truly knew I would not be able to survive this without her.

But I also hated watching men walk up to her with their chopsticks, plucking fish off her like she was nothing more than a piece of fine china. Eyes lingered on her tits and her pussy for far too long, and I wanted to gouge their eyes out in retaliation for the act. I hated each and every one of them at that very moment, and there was nothing I could do to stop the party and what they considered to be the highlight.

My Grace for all to feast off of.

The only thing good about the night was that the other recruits were allowed to attend this event, so I at least got to see some friendly faces. They were actually respectful to me by trying to control where their gazes lingered. I appreciated the small display of loyalty.

Walker St. Claire was the first to walk up to where I stood with his own sake in hand. “How’s the Initiation going?”

“How do you think?” I answered tersely. “I’m ready for this hell to be over.”

“I’m not ready for mine to come up either. But I do look forward to being able to use the political gain I’ll get to my advantage.”

Walker noticed Sully casually strolling toward us. “Don’t let Sully fuck with your mind. He’s in a mood for sure. He’s sour that he’s pulled into this life even though he swore he wouldn’t ever be. No escape from our lineage chains.”

Sully rarely did formal greetings. Nothing about the man was formal, so when he just cut into Walker and my conversation, I wasn’t surprised. “So, can I eat some sushi, or is that like cheating with your girl?” Sully teased with a wicked smile. “I’m hungry but… I’ll respect your wishes.”

I rolled my eyes and took another sip. “Just stay the fuck away from her.”

“Figured as much,” Sully said, sipping his sake. “Are you at least getting good sex out of this shit?”

An Elder walked up to Grace and poked at a sashimi right at her pussy. He licked his lips in hunger, and not for fish. My temper grew with every single minute that passed.

“I hope to God you both have huge cocks, because all these old limp dicks will be watching how you fuck. Nothing’s private anymore.” I knew my tone was prickish, but it took all my might not to punch something.

Sully downed his sake and shook his head. “This is all fucked up. I need something stronger than this shit to drink. I hope it’s worth it. I really do.”

He didn’t say anything else and stormed off on the hunt for anything to help ease his own hatred of The Order of the Silver Ghost.

I should have remained and continued a conversation with Walker, but I was feeling far from polite at the moment. Without excusing myself, I walked over to the table and leaned down to Grace’s ear.

“You’re doing great. Stay strong.” I wanted to caress her face, kiss her cheek, something to make her feel not so alone in all of this.

I didn’t expect for her to answer as I’m sure they all but placed the fear of God into her when they were going over the rules and expectations of what she was supposed to do as they put sushi all over her.

“I’ve never been one for sushi,” my father said as he approached me with a bourbon in hand as well as his chopsticks. “But I may make an exception tonight.”

“I heard today that you were meeting with Harrison.” I needed to try to distract him for Grace’s sake, as well as my own, because if I had