by Shel Stone
Yes, there was definitely a part of her that wanted that, but she was torn. It would be a bad message to send giving in with the first kiss. It had been a very nice kiss, though.
Chapter 12
THE KISS STILL LINGERED on Cecily’s mind as she walked the halls of the school the next day, a little tired from lack of sleep. All night, she’d tossed and turned, her mind turning over the date—and the kiss. And what a kiss it had been. She’d felt it in her very bones. And now she was going to English Lit and he would be there.
As soon as she walked in the door, she searched for him, but he wasn’t there yet, which wasn’t all that atypical as he was usually the last to class.
When he did arrive, his hair looked messy, but his clothes were perfect. Cecily felt her gut twist when she saw him. He was just so cute, and he seemed to really like her.
The teacher walked in and started talking about Hawthorne. Cecily could barely pay attention. The entire period, she was so aware of him sitting next to him. And then it was time to leave. Time had both flowed and seemed impossibly slow. This was the only class they had together and she wouldn’t have a chance to be near him again.
“Thanks for inviting me out last night. I like hanging with you,” she admitted.
“Hang back a bit,” he said as people streamed out of the class, including the teacher. Before long they were alone. Did he want to say something to her?
Looking around, he smiled and drew her to the back corner of the classroom. Walking backward until his back hit the wall. “You like hanging with me, huh?” he asked. Mischievousness lit his eyes and Cecily felt her gut twist. More so as he drew her into a kiss again. Those awesome lips of his teasing hers. Soft at first, the barest touch, then coming back for more, for a deeper kiss.
Pleasure flooded Cecily’s brain as she gave herself over to the kiss. It was perfect. Her hand on his hip, she moved closer until she felt him along her front, her breasts flattening to him. His hand was on her neck, drawing her deeper as his tongue invaded her mouth, exploring and teasing. Warm wetness, promising so much more.
All thoughts fled her mind and she just felt the kiss, felt him—drew in his scent and let it feed something deep inside her. Her kisses with others had never been quite like his, so all-encompassing.
His tongue explored deeper in her mouth, promising more. It wasn’t gentle now, more demanding. Cecily felt wetness starting to seep from her. She wanted him and he wanted her. How was this not the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.
A strong arm held her to him, sneaking lower until he drew her tightly to him. Clearly this was turning him on too. She felt it.
The kiss ended with the tip of his tongue teasing along the curve of her upper lip. Her heart was pounding so hard, she felt it through her chest, but neither of them moved away. “That’s some kiss, Cecily Chambers. I think you’re trying to seduce me.”
“You drew me into the kiss,” she shot back. Not that she was having any issues with the kiss. Her whole body was pumping out heat inside her uniform jacket. “Not that I mind.”
“Yeah?” he said, breathily. His eyes were dark and glassy, and she loved seeing him so undone. His hands were still on her hips, not far away from where her insides were contracting with anticipation. “Look, I have to go away for a few days, but I’ll be back for the Ball. You’re going to come to the afterparty, right?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Good.” Another quick kiss stole her thoughts away again and then he stole away from her, leaving her to watch as he walked to the door. Turning back, he smiled. “Think of me until then.”
With a nod, she promised. Not much of a promise, because she’d be thinking of little but. Until then, she repeated in her mind. What did he anticipate would happen then? It wasn’t all that hard to figure out. To explore this undeniable chemistry between them, and she was not opposed. She’d never been this hot for a guy, and that included her ex. Her panties were soaked with just a kiss. That kiss would be everything she thought about for the rest of the day.
*
Where Adrian had ended up going, she wasn’t sure, but she was over at Tilly’s, getting ready, absently listening to the girls talk about what they wanted to happen that evening. Was she being a little disloyal by not getting ready with Morgan? She couldn’t help feeling that way, even if Morgan completely understood. Her success with these girls was their success with these girls. They had all majorly stepped up in the school due to her association with Tilly and her girls. And they were cool. Anastacia was cuttingly sharp and Sapphire was bitchily funny.
Tilly’s bedroom was like a boudoir, with pale velvets and chrome. Honestly, Cecily had never paid that much attention to her bedroom décor. Maybe because her bedroom hadn’t felt like hers for a really long time. They were mostly guest bedrooms she stayed in, and at her school, the basic furniture wasn’t allowed to be change. Her school had not believed in the notion of luxury, which apparently appealed to parents imbued in it.
“You look divine,” Sapphire said as she approached behind Cecily. “Adrian’s a lucky guy.” Cecily knew enough to know that wasn’t true in their eyes—she was a lucky girl, and they didn’t quite know what she had done that had drawn Adrian’s attention. Truthfully, she had no idea. She’d just turned up and he’d shown interest in her from day one.
Sapphire checked her watch. “Last call. The guys are going to be here any minute.”
They looked like gorgeous birds in their dresses and gowns. Skin shone, hair perfect, smoky eyes. Who didn’t love to dress up in a beautiful dress and go all out to look their best?
Two of the guys were already there, but Adrian wasn’t. Nerves clenched Cecily’s gut. What if he didn’t show? Could this possibly be some joke he’d played on her and then stood her up? Although why she would think so, she wasn’t sure. Something about all this felt… too easy. Hottest guy in school wanting to take the new girl to the ball.
The elevator pinged and Tilly’s date soon came in the door. Adrian still wasn’t there. Then again, he was out of town, although she had no idea where. Most likely, he was just running late. Cecily’s nerves grew and bubbled inside her stomach. What would she say if he didn’t show? These girls would be staring at her with pity in their eyes. Would it look worse if she got out her phone and texted him like some desperate reject.
“I wonder where Adrian’s got to?” Tilly stated.
“Timeliness was never his strongest characteristic,” Anastacia said. “Seriously, we should go. I don’t want to stand around here all night waiting for Adrian. I waited enough for him while we were dating.” Cecily hadn’t known they’d dated, which perhaps she should have expected as Morgan had said Adrian had at one point gone through every suitable girl in the school. The exact definition of suitable wasn’t something she’d got a handle on yet.
“Alright,” Cecily said with a tense smile and a sinking heart as it turned out she may be that girl who turns up at the dance without her date. A serious infraction, although not as bad as that girl in her school that had hired a male model and tried to pass him off as her boyfriend. It was still what she was known for. So there was that.
The others walking ahead of her out the door and to the elevator, but it pinged just as they reached it, and there he was. Relief washed through Cecily. Of course he had come. What she had felt in those kisses was real. She knew it in her gut. He’d just been running late.
“Hey,” she said as he approached.
“Afraid I wasn’t going to show?”
Was she really that easy to read? “I have been told that late is pretty standard for you.”
“Slander and lies,” he replied with a smile.
There was the awkward silence that elevators always induced as they rode it to the ground floor. “Good thing, though, because I came in my own car.” Which meant they didn’t follow the others to the luxury van that looked like the inside of a private jet. A plain black town car, but they got to spend more time alone.
Adrian’s interest in her seemed to have caught the interest of others and she felt watched all the time.
“I was starting to worry I would have to go to the dance alone.”
“Would you have gone?”
“Yeah, of course.” Pride would not have let her run off, but she would have hated every moment of it. “But going as planned is always preferable.”
Chapter 13
CECILY LOOKED GORGEOUS in her dress. Her makeup was done by an expert. She almost looked like a doll. Part of him was holding himself back from reaching for her and messing up every bit of that expertly done makeup. But in a way, he felt as if the cards weren’t really on the table yet.
“If it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t be going to this ball at all.”
“I’m honored, considering you look so nice in your tux. They should make you wear it all the time.”
A smile crept along his lips and they stared at each other for a moment. Her eyes had the capacity to draw him in.
The car took them toward the newest, hottest restaurant in town. Sometimes it pleased him to get tables no one else could. Although it had been a little more fraught lately due to his father’s reduced esteem in the city. It was clear by the tone of their concierge that bookers were now a little more torn about giving him those seats that were impossible to get. In the end, they’d relented, still fearing the damage he could do to their reputation. And he could.
The restaurant had a view over the Hudson and the sunset beyond. The whole sky was lit up in oranges, pinks and mauves. They were led to a seat by the window.
“This is stunning,” Cecily said.
“I’m glad you think so. I ordered the spectacular sunset just for you.”
“I think you’re actually a bit of a romantic.”
He really wasn’t.
The drink menu came first and Adrian picked the wine, before turning his attention to the menu. It was all in Italian, and although he didn’t speak Italian, he knew what was on offer in Italian restaurants. There was always a nice, creamy truffle dish, which tended to be good.
“So you’ve been here a while now. What’s your verdict? Still planning to run off to Europe at the earliest opportunity?”
“It’s where I grew up,” she said almost a little apologetically.
“New York a tough town and you need the kind of skin to take it,” he said, looking down on the city that had always been his playground. Not everyone fared well in the city. “But I guess it all depends on the kind of place you have in it.”
From across the table, she studied him for a moment, and he wondered what she saw. It wasn’t as though he’d gone out of his way to augment his personality. And her, there was something guarded about her, something he couldn’t entirely reach, but she was here, be it due to ambition or curiosity, he didn’t really know. She certainly hadn’t rejected the social leg up he’d given her.
But there was fire in their kisses. There was no denying it. None of that was contrived. You couldn’t fake desire like that. And he wanted more of it.
“What kind of place do you want to have in it?” she asked.
“The place I’ve always had. I think things always come easy to you,” he said.
“Don’t know about that,” she replied.
“Gorgeous, loaded, comes from the right family.”
“Same could be said about you. Are you saying things haven’t come easy for you?”
A tension had asserted between them and he didn’t know exactly where it came from. Maybe because something felt raw between them, and he couldn’t explain why.
“As I said, this is New York, and nothing comes easy.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Just that you have to fight for what you want.”
The waiter came and they ordered, and Cecily spoke to the waiter in Italian.
“Can’t deny that didn’t just turn me on,” he said with a smile when the waiter left. In some ways, she was so worldly, so skilled, but in other ways, she was anything but.
A flushed smile graced her lips in return. From what he could make out, she wasn’t insanely innocent, but there was a lack of something in her that came from growing up here. Almost like a lack of cynicism, but at the same time, there were hints of not being a total pushover. And the fact that Tilly and the girls had embraced her showed she wasn’t completely clueless, because their patience wouldn’t stretch that far. Cecily Chambers was an interesting puzzle. And when they kissed, she burned.
“Are you going to stay with me tonight?” he asked.
She choked on her mouthful for a moment. “That’s a bit presumptuous.”
“Can you blame me? Like I said, you have to go for what you want.”
It wasn’t just a flush on her cheeks now, but a stain. “Are you saying you are taking me to this ball just so you can sleep with me after?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting approach.”
“Nothing like honesty.” Well, she wasn’t storming out the door, which was interesting. “So Cecily, what do you want? We could go to the ball, and be seen by everyone you know here. Certainly can’t hurt you. You do know that some of the easiness with which you’ve slipped into this town is because of me.”
“I am aware.” Curious response. She wasn’t so caught in her own privilege and self-importance that she didn’t see it. “At least amongst the senior girls. I believe I had a few friends before you happened.”
“Mishti and Morgan.”
“Nice girls. I like them,” Cecily said, her arms crossed. “Contrary to what you believe, I’m not here for the social success.”
Big statement. “Although it kind of looks like you’ve dumped them for a better crowd.”
There was a terseness in her eyes now. Things had gone off script. He just couldn’t help himself. Something in him wanted to know what about her was real.
“Maybe I am facilitating their ambitions. Something I could easily give.”
“How saintly. You are using me to get your friends into the right crowd?”
She watched him for a moment, as if deciding on how to deal with him. “Honestly, I haven’t made up my mind.”
“In how you’re using me?”
“In regards to anything with you.”
“So cautious, Miss Chambers.”
“With you, I have a feeling I need to be.”
The main course came and it was rich. The richness justified the small portion, because you’d feel sick if you ate too much.
“You’re different from the girls in our school,” he said after a while.
“How so?”
“You don’t seem to trust what people give to you.”
“People give what they can afford to give away,” she said.
“So it’s meaningless?”
“I didn’t say that,” she replied, but she believed it. She’d grown up with every material luxury, but never her parents time or consideration. Things were cheap when you had lots of money, and it didn’t make up for love and affection, even as people tried to suggest it did. “It’s just that if it doesn’t mean much to you, how much does it mean if you give it away?”
“So you want the things that are hard to give away?”
“Don’t you?”
The question posed turned over in his mind. He had no answer for it. “Honestly, I am mostly guarding against what people try to take from me.”
“You mean all that social climbing?” she said, smiling into her drink.
“How people present themselves to get what they want.”
“Fakeness is easy to give away.”
He studied her for a moment. “So what do you want? I told you what I want.” There was her blush again. “What do you want? To go to the ball and be seen?”
“Don’t really care that much, to be honest. I’m just going along with the flow.”
“So now I’m the flow?”
“I don’t really know what you are.”
“Do
you want dessert?”
“What?”
“Dessert. They’ll bring over a cart with every choice on it if you ask for it.”
“Alright, dessert it is,” she said and he drew the waiter’s attention. The dessert cart was an old-fashioned method that was coming back in vogue. Anything to make the dining experience more of a spectacle. But then a good dinner was about seduction, wasn’t it? You came to be seduced, and to seduce in return.
The cart was drawn over and the choice was a treat for the eyes. Cakes, and plates of shiny delectables.
“I’ll have the opera cake,” Cecily said, and the pastry chef cut a slice of finely layered cake and placed it down for her.
“I’m alright,” Adrian said. Sweet wasn’t really his thing, but he liked watching Cecily cut small pieces of the cake and enjoy it. It was a sight to behold. “I could watch this all day. I really should do more of this.”
“Take girls out to restaurants?”
“Maybe it’s only fun when it’s you.” Truthfully, he couldn’t imagine doing this with any of the other girls he hung with.
Her eyes sparkled when she looked at him. She just about glowed, and he felt heat rise in him again.
“I don’t want to go to the ball,” he finally said, still not entirely sure how she would take it.
“Alright,” she said, not missing a beat. “Let’s not go to the ball.” Cecily finished each torture inducing bit of her cake and Adrian was almost relieved. “So now what?” she asked.
The bill was discreetly slipped onto the table and Adrian signed it. Then they rose and left. It was cold when they walked out onto the street. “Come,” he said and turned around as he started walking.
“Where are you taking me?”
“You’ll see.”
They walked for a while, until they crossed the street. “The Met?” she said.
“Why not?”
“We’re a little overdressed.”
Adrian shrugged. “Giving art the proper respect. Or did you have something else in mind? I know there is certainly something else we could be doing right now, for which we are definitely overdressed.”
