Chapter 8

Derek Stark was speechless as he watched Tophyr Hurst walk down the staircase on the arm of her twin brother. The twins were dressed to kill. He heard many of the girls swoon and sigh as they saw the youngest Hurst boy. His blond curls were tamed and his eyes held mischief. But Derek's eyes were for the youngest Hurst.

Tophyr stood out among her siblings when she stood with her family at the bottom of the grand staircase. Her silver dress caught the light and threw flashes all around her. He couldn't tell if she was happy about the party or feigning interest. Whichever, she was doing it very well.

Her hair was swept up, leaving loose tendrils to fall about her face. She was radiant. Every guy in the room thought so as well. He had to wait his turn to talk to her as everyone bombarded the twins for happy birthdays and congratulations.

He stood in the background and waited. There was no way she was going to leave his sight for the night, not with all the other good looking guys around her vying for her undivided attention. She was the main attraction tonight. Not him.

Percy smiled and looked at everyone in the eye as he walked and talked but his attention kept going to one person. His sister was shy and had been all their lives. She didn't talk easily to anyone except close friends and family. At the moment she was talking lively to Johnny and Duke, who had somehow become her wingmen for the night. He was suddenly so happy about that. Johnny, with his huge crush now in the open, wouldn't let anyone near her to hurt her and Duke was her best friend so she was equally covered.

But the sinking sensation that something was going to happen hit a new high when he spotted Derek Stark and Stephen Vanderbilt talking to each other. He wasn't oblivious to the fact that the Starks and Vanderbilts were two of the five powerhouse families of New York and that they would know each other. The fact that Stephen Vanderbilt had been after Tophyr since they were fifteen was the gut wrenching part and now he was talking to Derek Stark who also had a thing for the birthday princess. This night wouldn't end without one of them receiving a bloody nose or worse.

"Everything all right, Perce?"

Percy shook his head. "I'm not sure, Alain. Stephen and Derek are talking to one another."

Alain turned to look at where his youngest brother was looking. "This can't be good, can it?"

"No, brother, I don't think it is." He turned and looked at Tophyr who was now surrounded by Emma, Claire, and Kate, all girls she had gone to school with back in college. "I think we're okay for the moment."

"Duke and Johnny won't let anything happen to her."

"Let's hope not, but just to be safe, I think we should all work the room."

"Well, you got to work the room anyway. It's your birthday. I'll recruit Matthew, Jason and Everett for the dirty job which Alex and I are about to undertake."

"Geez, you sound like Indiana Jones, Al."

Alain ruffled his brother's already curling hair. "Don't worry, Lil Man, we'll take care of our sister."

"Thanks and don't call me little. I'm taller than you." His reply landed on deaf ears as Alain walked away. "Sometimes I wonder about him."

"Mumbling to yourself again, Perce. Sooner or later people are going to think you're losing your mind," Tophyr said as she walked up to him, her men in black in tow.

"I swear one of these days Alain is going to walk into my fist and that won't be pretty."

"Neither will picking you up off the floor," Duke rebounded.

Percy turned his friend. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means Alain might be short but he packs a powerful punch. He's bulky for a New York lawyer," Johnny said. "He takes after Jim."

He was right on that account. Jim and Alain bonded over times at the gym. Both men were into mixed martial arts when they could get around to it. They didn't take pills to boost their metabolism or anything like that. They were naturally thin and naturally bulky. Johnny had seen Alain punch a guy when he was a kid because the guy had said something about Britani. If anything could be said about the Hurst family it was that they took care of each other.

"Heads up. Stephen Vanderbilt on the rebound," Claire stated in hushed tones.

"What happened between him and that Rockefeller girl anyway?" Kate asked.

"There are plenty rumors that he slept with his girlfriend's cousin, best friend, and maid," Duke said.

"Who sleeps with a maid?" Claire asked.

"I'm more concerned with the fact that Duke knows that bit of information since he's been in Vermont these last few weeks," Tophyr said as she looked at her best friend closely.

Duke cringed. "A guy's got to know the hot gossip when he returns to the city after long days in the cabin." Her eyes narrowed on him. "So I asked around. Is that a

crime?"

"Depends on the reasons you asked around."

"He's nosy," Emma stated bluntly. "He has to know the juiciest bits of information before everyone else does."

"Umm-hmmm."

"Tophyr Grace, it's such a pleasure to see you again. It's been what? Three years?" Stephen said as he walked up to the small group. Dressed in a black suit and tie, he looked the envy of all the guys but was toning it down because it wasn't his party.

"It's been three weeks, Vanderbilt," Percy replied icily. "What do you want?"

"Can't I just come say help to some very pretty friends?"

"No, not when you tried to humiliate me last summer."

"That was all in fun, Percy. No one took it seriously, not even your parents."

"You snuck into my room to sleep with my sister."

Duke looked sharply at Tophyr. "Where was I during all this?"

"You were in Ireland visiting your grandfather," she replied. She had shut down instantly.

"And you didn't tell me because…?"

"By the time you got back, it didn't matter. Percy told Mom and Dad that Stephen was drunk and couldn't get home so he slept in my bed while I slept in the other room." Tophyr grabbed her best friend's arm. "Duke, don't. It's not worth it and neither is he. Come on, Johnny. Let's go dance."

Derek watched in wonder as the little entourage split, leaving Stephen Vanderbilt all on his lonesome. He didn't hear what had been said, but he knew from the looks on everyone's faces that it was bad enough to make the good mood the birthday kids were in to disappear. Percy found Penelope on the dance floor as Tophyr danced with her brother's best friend. It was a cozy dance that made Derek jealous.

Tophyr let Johnny lead the dance as they moved with the music. She was shaken up inside but she wasn't going to let anyone see that. Percy bringing that up brought back a lot of old beaten memories she had hoped would go away during the course of the year. They hadn't but that was to be understood.

Being on the dance floor with Johnny was a soothing distraction. He was good at dancing, probably because his mother put him in dance classes since he was seven. He had enjoyed them so much he continued even after he grew into adulthood. It made him

very long and lean, muscle bunched everywhere. She was comfortable with him, more so because he didn't have a girlfriend she had to argue with, not like she argued with Emma.

"What's on your mind, Toph?" he asked gently.

"I didn't want this party in the first place," she replied, being totally honest.

"What did you want?"

"I wanted a night out with friends. Maybe some bowling and pizza, but not this. This is too much and it isn't me."

Johnny stepped back a little and looked at her. She was looking over his shoulder, her eyes glued on the door. "You really hate the way your family lives, don't you?"

"I don't hate it. It's just not me. I'm happy living in a fifth floor walk up or backpacking through Europe for a month and a half. I don't want to be wealthy like my parents. I want to strike out on my own and become the person who I want to be." She looked up at him with those Hurst electric blues. "I don't want this lifestyle anymore, Johnny."

He looked at her, searching her face for some sort of deception. But that was the thing about Tophyr. She didn't lie. She was completely honest when she said anything to anyone and she was honest now. She really didn't like this lifestyle. She was a simple person in an extravagant world. The fact that she had survived this long was a testament to her character.

He looked around the room. Percy, Alain, and Alex were busy with their own dates, Britani and Lily were talking with some stockholders across the way and Jim and Lucille were turned away from them. He looked at Tophyr and smiled as he took her hand.

"Come on."

"Where are we going?" she asked as she followed him.

"We are going to do what you wanted to do in the first place."

"What about Duke and Emma?"

"Let them have fun for now. We'll call them and tell them where we are when we get there."

Tophyr laughed as she got on the elevator with him.

Derek watched out the window as the two got on a motorcycle and sped away. Sneaking out of your own birthday party was amazing. Doing it while your mother was in

the room was just epic. But that also made his plans of wooing Tophyr that much harder. She didn't like him and he was determined to make her change her mind about that.

He turned to the rest of the room and looked at it before discreetly leaving the party as well. He had to step up his game if he was going to win the girl.