Tap. Tap. Her eyes watched the ash fall from the end of the blunt, and dust over the crisp white bedsheet. She brought it back to her parted mouth, inhaling the bitter taste and then letting the pillows of smoke fall from her ruby red lips as she exhaled. She felt a warm hand sweep her thick locks over her bare shoulder, her neck completely exposed, and a cold pair of lips kissing lightly at the back of her protruding shoulder blade. Her body shivered slightly as a chain was draped around her neck, the cool metal causing her skin to tingle in pleasure.

"My queen," a hoarse voice whispered, kissing again at her shoulder, the cracked pair of lips trailing softly to the back of her neck. Her hand reached up to her collarbone, where the silver necklace rested, and her fingers felt blindly for the small pedant.

Diamond.

"And to what do I deserve such a gift as this?" she murmured quietly, lolling her head back until it hit his shoulder. She peered up at him- at his jaw sharp enough to cut at the diamond around her neck, at his cheekbones that jutted out from under his caramel skin. She hummed contently to herself, bringing her hand up and following the contour of his jawline with her almond-shaped nail, pressing at the skin just enough to tear lightly at it.

"You know the answer to that, Vicino." He reached for the joint resting between her forefinger and thumb, and brought it to his lips, taking a deep drag, his chest filling with smoke. He placed his fingers under her chin, tilting her face up and kissing her lips gently, parting them with his tongue as he exhaled the white smoke into her sweet, poisonous mouth.

Her throat burned slightly as the smoke trickled down it like thick liquor. His sharp canines grazed against her tongue, before biting down on the muscle until the taste of metallic blood filled both of their senses.

"I can give you more, my love," he spoke as he pulled away, smiling down at her softly as his thumb brushed against her temple. "You already know how this works."

Carmen looked into his eyes, the alluring blend of sincerity and greed amidst the hues of chocolate brown. She gazed at them for a moment before looking away.

"I need a favor from you, Stephan," she spoke up, shifting her hips so her thick thighs rubbed up against him. Her bare feet played with his, her back splayed against his naked chest. She could feel his heartbeat, the thick pulses quickening as her small hands rested against his thighs, inches from where he needed her most.

"Whatever you want," he cooed, gathering her hair in his hand and beginning to kiss at her neck. His plump lips sucked on the thick vein under her skin, just below her jaw, drawing the blood to the surface. He grinned triumphantly as he eyed the fresh purple mark his lips had left in their wake.

"I want you to put my name with yours on the apartment," she explained, her voice slow and rich and dripping off her tongue like wine. Stephan hummed for her to continue, her words not really registering with him as he cupped her bare breasts in his hands. She bit back a soft moan.

"I want it to seem as though I live here."

He pulled back suddenly as her words hit him, his eyebrows raising and his lips twitching in order to contain his excitement. "You're saying yes to moving in with me? Finally?"

"No."

She watched apathetically as his face fell. His dark eyes searched hers morosely, and a deep sigh pushed through his chest- the kind of sigh that signified he had been through this plenty of times before, and would go through it, willingly, plenty of times again. Carmen was a challenge, as simple as that, and Stephan was well aware he would never win.

"Let me get this straight," he spoke slowly, trailing the ends of his calloused fingers along the contour of her cheeks. "You want it to seem like you live here- with me- but you don't actually want to?"

"Precisely," she sang, nodding her head and taking a strand of her hair in her hand. She began to braid it, out of boredom really, her brows creasing as she bit her lip in concentration.

Stephan shifted under her body, sitting up and looking down at the angelic face before him. She resembled a child in that moment- careless, occupied with much simpler things than the worries of life. He smiled to himself. It was moments like these that reminded him she was an actual human being, not the seemingly cold and distant seductress that she always played. He knew her better than anyone, from what side of the bed she preferred (the left), to her odd need to have a spoonful of honey before she slept. "It has all the necessary B vitamins," she would explain to him whenever he asked, with the usual roll of her eyes.

He chuckled quietly to himself. "I love you," he mouthed silently as her gaze was still drawn to her dark hair as she braided it. He shook his head, his lips still tugged up in a content grin.

"So, my dear," he drawled out as she finished her braid, undoing it before turning to look at him. "Care to explain why you want your name on the lease?" he hummed curiously, rolling their bodies over lazily so he rested on top of her. She giggled as he buried his face between her breasts and blew raspberries against her skin.

"It's a secret," she whispered childishly, bringing her hand to his thick hair and running her fingers through it. She gazed down at him as he began to kiss the supple curves of her breasts, and tugged her bottom lip between her teeth to suppress a moan.

"You really are beautiful," she breathed out, her voice thick. "Any woman would be ecstatic to warm your bed."

He propped his chin on her chest to peer up at her. "You always say things like that," he reminded her, smiling sadly. "And yet you still refuse to move in with me."

"Stephan..." she sighed, gripping his hair tighter in her hand to lure his face to hers, their lips breaths apart. "You already know how this works." She smirked in amusement as she used his words from only minutes before. He felt his chest tighten, a slight pang underneath his breast, but he ignored it, sealing his lips over hers.

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Styles was slouched over in his desk chair, his lean fingers tapping idly in an uneven rhythm, his puffy eyes raking over the list of names until his mind went numb. There was a crazed sort of aura haunting the dark, endless space of his office room. It was past midnight, the entire building of workers left for the night, either to go home to their families or out to their hours of dancing and sipping at liquor.

"What do I have to go home to?" his voice called out rhetorically, echoing quietly against the walls. He leaned back in his chair, his back aching a bit from sitting hunched over for so long. "All I have is a fucking list of names," he grumbled, running his hands tiredly over his face.

Sleep. That's what he needed. What his body was craving. But something as necessary as sleep seemed so unattainable and trivial as he sat there, reaching across his mahogany desk for the bottle of wine. Find the girl first, sleep later. That's what he kept repeating through his mind as his eyes began to droop from exhaust, and his head hung low over his shoulders.

"She wasn't even that hot," he lied to himself, seemingly speaking to the bottle of Merlot as he spun it in his hand. "And she smokes."

He sighed, bringing the bottle to his lips and gulping down some before pulling it back and swiping the back of his hand over his mouth. "Fuck this," he muttered under his breath, setting the wine back down on the desk and grabbing the single sheet of paper again.

A single sheet of paper. A single list of names, no more than twenty or so. He had already gone through about half of them, typing them into the browser on his phone and reading upon as much as he could. The process would have gone a lot faster if Crook had been doing it for him, but something in the pit of his stomach had prevented him from sharing the search with his partner any longer.

"Are you sure you don't need them anymore, Styles?" Crook had questioned earlier, unconvinced.

"Yes, I'm sure. I thought it was some bitch that had stolen something from me a few months ago. I was wrong," Styles had replied cooly, shrugging his shoulders and waving his hand dismissively. His chest had tightened in yet another foreign feeling- envy. In his mind, the poison had already seeped in, the images of his good friend with a pair of milky legs wrapped around his torso. The thought of it caused him the deepest pain.

"What is your name, my beautiful girl?" Harry hummed, tapping his finger against the next name on the list. Last one, he promised himself as he let out a yawn, his hazy eyes reading over the name.

Vicino.

"Let's see who you are, Miss Vicino." He typed the name in, and almost immediately his lips curled into the devilish smirk that had been robbed from him for the past week. The kind of smirk that was natural to him, something he was comfortable and familiar with- unlike envy and the painful yearning that had been haunting him since he had watched her dark curls blow in the London wind as she fled from his limo.

The kind of smirk that meant he was about to bite into his prey.

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Um sorry its short-ish. And really crappy :/

Btw, it will all make sense soon i pinky promise.

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