“Like you just flipped out over Harv?”
Lane just glared at her.
“I’d be happy to be your prom date,” she smirked. “But you need to come over to Henderson High and ask me to it in some big, showy way.”
“And let your boyfriend and his gang beat the shit out of me. No, thank you.”
“If I had a boyfriend, would I be going to the prom with you?”
“I hope not. There they are,” Lane said, pointing in Vivi’s direction. “What’s your plan?”
“We maneuver ourselves a little closer to them. When a slow song starts, I’ll break in to dance with Harv, which trust me, will not be a hardship. That’s when you grab Vivi. Now that the two of us have been seen together dancing, no one will think anything of it if you’re suddenly dancing with my cousin.”
“Humph.”
“Trust me. This is good. Better than doing dishes, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he said, finally giving in and giving Tinley a smile. “Thanks. I think.”
There was no slow song. The band was not going to play a slow song. They had the whole party up and moving, so why would they mess with success and kill the crazy party vibe they had going? But Tinley and Lane had moved closer to Vivi. When Lane managed to catch her eye, she grinned at him and seemed happy, maybe relieved, even if they were dancing with different partners. Harv wasn’t pressing his attention, so to speak, but swinging Vivi around in jitterbug fashion no matter what song was played. Lane may be no match for Harv on the dance floor, but come hell or high water, at midnight-in about ten minutes-he’d be showing off some moves of his own.
“Kiss Harv at midnight,” he told Tinley. “Really kiss him. See if you can distract him enough that he forgets about Vivi. And I promise, when it comes time, I’ll make a grand public display of asking you to prom.”
Tinley’s smile was conspiratorial. “I’m only seventeen and he’s like twenty-three. A kiss like that might cause a big Henderson scandal.”
“Even better,” Lane said.
Tinley shrugged. “In for a penny. I’ll give it my best shot. Maybe he’d be willing to give me a ride home,” she scowled.
“Maybe your father or uncles will be willing to give you a ride home,” Lane suggested.
“Oh my God. Vivi can have you. You are way too straightlaced for me, Lane Kettering.”
Lane laughed. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
When the countdown to midnight came, Tinley performed beautifully. She pulled Lane over toward Vivi and Harv so that the four of them formed a small circle. She introduced Harv to the star quarterback of the Wilson Warriors-yeah, she had no clue-and then shoved her way between him and Vivi just as the confetti flew. She laid a kiss on Harv the likes of which can only be seen in the movies. Lane grabbed Vivi’s hand while the massive crowd was otherwise engaged and dodged through the couples and out of the room. Harry pointed toward a large butler’s pantry between the bar and the kitchen and that’s where they headed. It was small, quiet, secluded, and Lane would have bet money Harry was now standing guard at the door.
The excitement, the energy, the adventure of it all just poured into their kiss. His hands in her hair, her hands around his back. For the first time in two months, their tongues collided, and the pleasure was so intense it sent off warning shots throughout both of their bodies. They pushed apart, panting.
Lane stared into Vivi’s desperate eyes, feeling the same impulse to let themselves go. They were on the verge of breaking the rules. They both knew it. And Lane could see Vivi was struggling with that as much as he was. If he took one step toward her to reengage, he could have her. Right here, right now. Maybe not full-blown intercourse, but he didn’t trust himself to stop, even if he wasn’t carrying a condom in his pocket.
“Harry, open the door,” Lane said.
The door cracked open.
“Wider, please.”
The door swung open all the way. Harry was gone.
“I wouldn’t have done that,” Vivi stated, panting, her eyes wide and horrified. “I didn’t want to do that,” she said, going into her patent panic attack.
“That’s my job, S.B. Saving your ass. It has been since we met. I don’t plan to start letting you down now.”
“Lane.”
“Tell me you love me.”
“I love you.”
“Good.” He smiled. “The new year is looking very promising. In fact, I’ve already locked in a prom date.”
“Tinley?”
“Ah-huh. She caught me plotting to kill ol’ Harvey-boy and figured us out pretty quick. Well, not all of us. I just told her I was crushin’ on my statistics teacher pretty good and had plans to ask her out as soon as I graduate. She claims to want to help. Did a pretty good job of blocking Mr. Rolex from getting his lips on you again.” After a moment, Lane said, “Is that guy going to be a problem?”
“No. No, absolutely not. I’m sorry you were stuck watching that reunion, but we’re friends. Just friends. If I’d been able to, I would have introduced the two of you right away. He would have probably gotten a kick out of me dating a football player. It wasn’t his sport.”
“So I hear.”
“Harv’s a little too Hollywood for me. In fact, he and Tinley might really hit it off.”
“Isn’t she a little young for him?”
“Are you throwing stones?”
Lane laughed. “I guess not.”
“Thank you, Lane.”
“For what, Sleeping Beauty? Being your guy?”
“Being my guy under these oppressive circumstances.”
“Hell. Suddenly I’m dating two of Henderson’s infamous DuVal cousins. I look at it this way. If you and I don’t work out, I’ll probably have enough fodder to write a damn book.”
Vivi laughed. “I wish that wasn’t so true.”
Chapter Twenty Two
It was the first week back at school after the holidays when the news broke all over Wilson that Lane Kettering was dating Tinley DuVal from Henderson High.
It came in the form of Tweets, Instagram pictures, Facebook posts-Tinley had gone ahead and changed her relationship status to “in a relationship” and changed her profile picture to the two of them dancing at the New Year’s Eve Ball. When that had been taken, Lane hadn’t a clue. But from the continuous buzzing from his cell, Lane surmised Tinley DuVal had to be the queen of social media, an expert at getting her message out. And her message was being heard clearly way over in Oxford.
There wasn’t one person who didn’t mention it when they spoke to Lane that day. He was stuck answering questions he couldn’t answer. Stuck “in a relationship” with a girl he now wanted to strangle. When he wrote his note out to Vivi, he said he wanted to kill her cousin and needed her phone number to do it. Then he dialed up Tinley and had a shouting match while walking up and down the middle of the football field in thirty-two degree weather so no one could hear him.
He was livid when he called Vivi that night.
“Well, what did you expect?” Vivi said. “She’s in high school.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’m in high school. Hell, you’re in high school!”
Vivi laughed. “I really don’t think about you being in high school, Lane. I’m sorry,” she soothed. “You’re so much…more full-blown than a typical high schooler. You’re older. You have your act together. You aren’t a selfish ass, and you think before you do dumb stuff. You are also acing my class.”
“I told you I would,” he grumbled. “And that’s easy compared to the rest of this bullshit. I feel like I am being swallowed up by the rest of this bullshit, and I don’t have football to distract me anymore.”
“Well, what’s your spring sport?”
“I don’t have a spring sport.”
“Well, why the hell not? As fast as you run? Are the coaches around here insane? They should be reeling you in to being a fucking pinch hitter for the baseball team. If you can catch a fo
otball on the fly, you ought to be able to swing a damn bat.”
“What the hell is up with your language, Miss DuVal?”
“Sorry. I’m feeling worked up. And I’m sort of addicted to cheering for you. Secretly. So, fix that will ya? I need something that’s going to keep me going until graduation.”
“Okay, well, Monday I’ll talk to the lacrosse coach. It’s a new sport. Nobody’s that good at it. How hard could it be for a gifted athlete like myself?” He laughed.
“My thoughts exactly. So what happened with Tinley?”
“Well, she finally came out and told me that she was sorry she outed us on social media, but she had to. Because now I’m her beard.”
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah. Apparently, you were right, and Hollywood and Tinley did get along rather well on New Year’s Eve. Too well. And your uncle is not at all thrilled about it because Hollywood is six years older than she is.”
Vivi couldn’t say anything, she was laughing too hard.
“I’m glad you’re finding all this amusing. Now Tinley wants me to go meet your damn uncle and pretend to actually be dating her, when your father knows the truth-that I’m dating you. You need to talk to him about this S.B. I am not risking your father’s wrath over Tinley’s nonsense.”
“Oh, Lane,” she sighed. “This is getting to be a little more complicated than we planned.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Well, hasn’t Harvard left town? Why is this still a problem?”
“Apparently Hollywood is talking about moving back to Henderson. There’s some project going on that he wants to be involved in. So he and Tinley are not calling it quits. Or at least, Tinley is hoping that once she graduates, they’ll be able to date out in the open.”
“Hmm. Sounds like a couple I know.”
“And frankly, if that jackass is moving back to North Carolina, I wouldn’t mind him being tangled up with Tinley. Keep his damn mouth off you. That is why I am catering to your cousin’s whims. She needs my help, and on top of that, she knows too much. But right now so do I, so I’ve got her cooperation. Or, she’s got mine. Something. It’s all very debatable.”
“More fodder for your book,” Vivi teased.
“You are not kidding. You and your cousins are like…a mess.”
“You’re the reason I’m a mess,” she shouted. “You and your suntanned abs. You think I needed some he-man walking into my life and fixing every little thing for me back at the beach?”
“Yes.”
“Well…you’re right. And you’ve done that and more. And I love you for it,” Vivi said. “I’m snuggling down under my covers, wishing you were here.”
Lane had been pacing around his bedroom freaking out up to that point. But when he heard her words, he stopped fast, letting everything settle around him. He pulled off his shirt, toed off his shoes, relinquished his pants and joined her in bed. “You remember what Ms. Beaumont said, right?” he asked Vivi. “We couldn’t Skype sexy, but there were no statutes about talking sexy.”
“Mmm,” Vivi said, her voice going all soft.
Lane hit the lights. God, he was a lucky son of a bitch.
“When I first saw you on the beach, S.B., I nearly had a heart attack. It was like you’d been all laid out on a towel at my feet, waiting for me to trip over. Literally a gift from the gods.”
“When I first opened my eyes, I saw your ankle. It was trim and sexy and athletic.”
“And that bow sitting so sweet on top of your round, silky smooth, perfect ass. God, Viv, I got so hard staring at you. And when I thought you were topless, well, I really needed to go for a run. But all I could think about was you and your ass.”
“Is that why you had your hands on my ass within five minutes that night in the parking lot?”
“Guilty as charged. And at the time, I was sort of horrified by that. My body went on autopilot. But if I remember correctly, you didn’t seem to mind. I believe the words you used were life affirming.”
“Mmmmm.”
“Sleeping Beauty…are you…touching yourself?”
“Am I under oath?” she sighed. “It’s been a long time since I felt your…life-affirming apparatus.”
“Well, it’s feeling pretty life affirming right now. And under oath, I’d have to admit, I am touching said apparatus.”
“Does it feel good?”
“When you’re whispering in my ear like that, it feels damn good.”
“I love you, Lane.”
“I love you, too, Miss DuVal.”
“You’re gonna have to call me Dr. DuVal after five years at Notre Dame together.”
“If we last five years at Notre Dame together, I’ll be calling you Dr. Kettering.”
He could hear her faint giggle. “That has a nice ring to it.”
“Just another one of my big dreams,” he said.
Chapter Twenty Three
January was cold and miserable, except for the Skype sessions Vivi and Lane held every night. Those video chats had a way of keeping things warm, if not downright hot. Careful not to cross any statute lines, they tried to convince themselves they were in the home stretch. Vivi enjoyed hearing the antics of her cousin Tinley. Apparently, she was hell-bent on getting Lane to meet her father and attend a Henderson party so she could prove to everyone they were, indeed, dating.
Lane enjoyed reminding Tinley that they were not, indeed, dating, so she needed to get over herself.
As much as Vivi worried that this could damage Lane’s relationship with her cousin forever-even after all of the various charades finally came to an end-she could tell Lane was starting to enjoy bantering with Tinley, thinking of her a little less as a flighty blonde and a little more like a friend.
And Tinley was keeping their secret, as it was serving her own self interest too. She was a high school student after all.
On Valentine’s Day, Vivi baked heart-shaped cookies for her Statistics class-because it was the last class of the day, of course. And Lam got all kinds of ribbing for presenting her with a heart-shaped box of chocolates. “What?” he said. “Miss DuVal is hot,” he defended. “And I need to pass this class.”
March came in like a lion with a rare North Carolina snowstorm, but by the fifth, the Wilson Warriors’ brand new lacrosse team was on the field and scrimmaging any school who would line up against them. Lacrosse was new in this part of North Carolina, but it didn’t take long for all of the football and soccer players Lane had rounded up to look like they knew what they were doing.
Stopping by to watch their games was a little bit more challenging for Miss DuVal since the stands were not full. In fact, they were empty. She stood on the side of the bleachers, half hidden, watching as Lam was forced to play goalie simply because he was big enough to cover most of the goal. His hand-eye coordination was terrible at the beginning of the month, but by the end of the month, he was making more saves than the goals that snuck by.
Mr. L. came out to watch the team. At least that was his cover. He and Vivi chatted about the rules briefly, commented on the speed of the game, and together agreed that Notre Dame’s lacrosse coach might be tempted to steal their redshirt running back next year. Lane was a natural and seemed to love the game.
“I’d like an opportunity to sit down with you and discuss your contract for next year, Vivi.”
“Oh. Mr. Levendusky. I’m certainly not expecting you to renew my contract.”
“I’d like to. I really would. You’ve been an exemplary first-year teacher. Other than that previous relationship we’ve had hanging over our heads, I couldn’t ask for a more efficient, easygoing, helpful, and well-liked staff member.”
“Mr. L.,” Vivi sighed. “Your words mean a lot to me. They really do. But you and I both know that once Lane graduates, the wonderful parents here at Wilson High won’t want me coming back.”
“So you two are still planning to be an item. I would have thought the infatuation might die out, under the circumstances.�
��
“I understand. We’re both young,” she said, glancing back at the game.
“Have you heard from Notre Dame?”
Vivi eyed her principal. “You know about my application?”
“I know everything that goes on around here.”
“Oh,” she smiled. “Of course.” Then she began to laugh. “That seems like a rather heavy burden, though. Knowing everything.”
“Don’t I know it.”
They went back to watching the game.
Finally, Vivi voiced what she had yet to say out loud. “I’ve been waitlisted.”
“Oh? Well, that’s too bad. I’m sure Mr. Kettering is disappointed.”
“He doesn’t know yet.”
There was a moment of silence between them with just the sounds of the game going on in the background. Then Mr. Levendusky turned to her and wondered, “Why didn’t you ask me to write a recommendation?”
“I didn’t want to put you in an awkward situation.”
“I could have written an honest and glowing review. You’ve performed brilliantly and under a good bit of emotional distress. This couldn’t have been easy on you. But you’ve done everything I’ve asked of you and then some. I’d be happy to send a letter on your behalf now. In fact, let me do a little research to see if I have a connection there.”
Vivi gave her mentor a smile. “I’d be grateful, sir.”
“And I’d like to hold your contract open for a while longer. Just to give us both some options.”
Vivi probably should have told him right then that she wasn’t going to change her mind about Lane. And keeping their relationship under wraps after he graduated was not an option. She really had grown to love her job and the kids she taught. But at this point, her nerves were strung out and brittle. Keeping her hands off Lane had started to feel cruel and unnatural. And although she understood the position she was in legally, the real crime was how much it was starting to tear them apart. The two of them had given up a lot, and their months of celibacy were wearing thin. She saw it in Lane’s eyes and felt it in every fiber of her body the night they sat in his parents’ media room watching a movie, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and being Irish.
Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom Page 74
