by BETH KERY
She laughed and offered him a bite, which he took. “I hope so. The bonfire is tomorrow and they’ll be announcing the team totals. I could use any edge I could get. I can’t believe camp is over this Friday, and the kids leave on Saturday.”
“Red Team was on top last week. I’ve heard it’s still in the running this week.”
Alice nodded, forking more cake in her mouth. “We’ve got a good chance, but Thad’s team is always a threat, and Dave Epstein’s Gold Team and Brooke Seifert’s Silver have had good weeks. Everyone is really coming together and forming solid team identities.”
He smiled in memory of his days as both a camper and then a counselor at Camp Durand. “You might have to do something a little out of the box to get the managers’ attention. Team building is crucial, but at this point, they’ll be looking for more. Some dazzle.”
“Dazzle?”
He shrugged. “Salesmanship is a huge part of being a successful manager. You know that. That’s how it’d be in the business world if you were competing for a contract, talking retailers into higher product numbers or negotiating for product placement, convincing a bank Durand has a high trust value for expansion loans . . . whatever. It’s not enough to just show them numbers, you’ve got to be different from everyone else. You’ve got to stand out.”
She looked thoughtful and grim as she took another bite of cake. “Don’t worry about me. Brooke Seifert has been telling me from the start I was different.”
“You are,” he assured her, skimming his fingertips over her shoulder. She glanced at him uncertainly. “I’ve been telling you from the beginning, that’s a good thing.”
She ducked her head. She stuck her fork into the cake with great focus. “Thank you again for yesterday,” she said quietly.
He stroked her shoulder. “It was my pleasure. It was a special day for me, too.”
He saw color spread on the cheek nearest to him. She continued to study her cake like she’d discovered it held the secrets of the universe.
“You probably have had it happen a lot,” she murmured.
“What?” he asked, sensing her disquietude. He continued to stroke her silky skin, silently reassuring her.
“Have women tell you they love you.”
“You were the first.”
Her fork plinked on the china plate. She turned fully to face him, clearly startled.
“What?”
“You were the first person to ever tell me you loved me. When you were four years old. Of course, you told Angelfire you loved her constantly, and the Raggedy Ann doll you’d fed strawberry preserves one day and had a permanent red beard and mustache as a result, and the mangy stray cat that hung around the stables . . . so I’m not sure how much your proclamation of love meant,” he said, shrugging. He met her gaze, his amusement fading. “But you were the first.”
For several seconds, she just stared at him, her dark blue eyes glistening.
“It meant something,” she finally said feelingly.
He nodded. He wasn’t quite sure if she’d understood how much hearing those words for the first time when he was an angry, lonely boy of fourteen years had meant to him, or if she was saying her innocent declaration of love had been more than just the passing childish sentiment of a little girl. It didn’t matter.
The light shining in her eyes at that moment was all that did.
THEY spent an idyllic day together. Dylan showed her the workout facility. They did a workout together—more or less, anyway. They were in the same room, but there was no way she could have approximated his routine. The wonders of his lean, powerful body started to make perfect sense to her.
He told her to bring along a swimsuit, and they’d go for a swim after their exercise. Alice hadn’t even realized there was a swimsuit among all the items he’d purchased for her. When she looked, she discovered a sophisticated low-cut black maillot that was about a thousand times sexier than Alice’s practical camp swimsuit.
After their workout, he showed her to a beautiful pool that was hidden, nestled as it was among the trees and gardens at the far side of the house. There, they spent a few hours in the hot afternoon sun, sipping chilled white wine, swimming, talking, and snacking off a tray of fruit, crackers, and cheese.
At one point, Alice’s eyelids started to grow heavy while she lay on a chaise lounge. They flickered open again at the pressure of Dylan’s mouth brushing against hers. Her hand went to the back of his head, and their kiss deepened, turning hot, wet, and deep.
“Let’s move this party to the bedroom. You’re getting a sunburn,” he murmured next to her lips a moment later. His fingertips skimmed the inner swell of her breast. Despite the heat, her nipples tightened. Wearing the skimpy swimsuit, skin that was usually covered was exposed, both to the sun and Dylan’s admiring stares and caressing fingertips.
“That’s your excuse for getting me into bed?” she teased, nipping at his lower lip.
“Do I need an excuse?”
“No, but it’s cocky just to assume.”
He opened a big hand on her hip and ass, his fingertips sinking into a buttock. “I am cocky, though,” he said, and she saw the gleam of his eyes in the shadow of his lowered brow. A thrill went through her. She loved the way he touched her: so possessive. So sure. He never held anything back. “Is this a complaint?”
“No,” she whispered. “Not at the moment, it isn’t. I reserve the right to change my mind though.”
His small smile widened a tad.
“You go ahead. I’m going to clean this stuff up and take it in,” he said, waving at the remains of their meal and wine. “Go and take a quick shower to cool off your skin. I’ll meet you upstairs in a minute. Pull down the covers all the way and lay down on your back,” he said, his eyelids heavy and his stare hot as he looked down at her. “I’m going to restrain you.”
“Any other commands, master?”
His brows slanted. “Quite a few, in fact,” he said, ignoring her sarcasm.
She laughed.
A moment later, she walked along the slate stone path alone through trees, shrubbery, and waving flowers. The workout, two glasses of wine, and the hot sun had her feeling drowsy and content. The pool area was extremely well secluded. When she reached a split on the stone path, she hesitated. They’d taken a different route from the workout facility to the pool. Knowing she’d eventually find her way back no matter what, she chose the left-hand path.
It was the wrong way. She realized that as soon as she heard the waves hitting the shore in the distance. She continued forward, knowing that when she left the trees, she could just walk through the backyard and terraced garden to the house. There was a clearing just ahead.
She emerged from the wooded area, breathing deeply of the fresh breeze. She saw the gray and white cobblestone fence at the very end of the property, and the blue, sea-like Great Lake taking up the entire horizon. A memory popped into her head of seeing Thad, Brooke, and Tory Hastings—another Durand counselor—standing at the edge of the bluff at the fence and down at the lake. She’d seen them in the distance on the evening of the counselors’ welcome to Camp Durand several weeks ago. It’d been the night Dylan had found her, alone and disoriented in the castle’s dining room, convinced she’d heard a gong. Later, she’d stood shoulder to shoulder with Dylan, staring down at the Camp Durand party that took place on the terrace. Thad, Brooke, and Tory had stood at this very fence.
Alice herself had never ventured to the end of the yard or the edge of the bluff. The fence was quite sturdy, though—at least four feet high and nine or ten inches thick. It was a fence made for safety, not a delicate garden ornament. Curious, she stepped forward and cautiously glanced down.
The waves collided against the shore far below her, startling her.
Of course it was all so strange, everything that had happened to her since coming to Camp Durand. But the reality of her singular circumstances seemed to crash in at that moment with as much force as the waves hitting the rocks below.
For a few panicked seconds, however, she couldn’t move. She stood frozen, staring down as if hypnotized by the sight of the waves hitting the dramatic, stark shoreline. The sound held her in a spell, too. The rhythmic rush and slap of the waves struck her as forceful and bizarrely intense, given the sublimely beautiful summer day.
Violent.
“Alice?”
She spun around at the sound of Dylan’s voice, the action unsteadying her. She faltered and reached out in a panicked fashion to catch hold of something.
“Ouch,” she cried out when her hand struck a cobblestone hard, and pain shot through her. For a split second, she had the experience of falling in the direction of the shore. The wind rushed in her ears. Vertigo and blind terror struck her.
Then Dylan’s arms were around her and he was pulling her away from the stone wall.
“Are you okay?” he demanded tensely.
Alice stared up at him, knocked utterly off balance. Not just physically. Mentally. Her entire being had rocked there for a moment. She stared over his shoulder, her mouth gaping open. The fence looked perfectly steady and solid. It’d just been her vertigo that made it feel as if it were giving way, and that she was falling.
“I’m fine,” she mumbled. Embarrassment swept through her when she noticed his fierce, anxious expression as he looked down at her.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were going up to the house,” he said sharply.
“I don’t know. I lost my way.” Irritation pierced her anxiety. She glared at him. “Why are you snapping at me? Do you think I’d come here and stare off the side of that bluff on purpose?”
She saw his shadowed gaze flicker from the path she’d taken to the drop off the bluff. “No, I suppose not,” he said slowly after a pause. What was that she read on his rigid features? Trepidation? Caution? No . . . it wasn’t that. The gate had slammed down on his expression. It was the expression he’d get occasionally when he was keeping something from her. Wasn’t it?
Maybe it was, Alice wasn’t sure. She felt confused. All she wanted at that moment was to get away from the edge of that treacherous bluff. Her fear made her irrational, in more ways than one.
“Well, I know not,” she corrected heatedly. Her skin was prickling and she felt nauseated. “Can we please go inside?”
She broke from his arms and stalked toward the long yard that led toward the house. After she’d gone twenty feet or so, he halted her by grabbing her hand. She looked back at him.
“I know how scared you are about heights. I was shocked to see you standing there. It looked like every ounce of blood had left your head when you turned around. It just . . . alarmed me.”
“Well, it alarmed me, too!”
He closed his eyes briefly. His skin had darkened this afternoon. With the sun behind him, his face looked shadowed and enigmatic to her stunned brain.
“I know,” he said, opening his eyes. This time, she read the concern in his expression perfectly. “I’ll ask you again, are you okay?”
She nodded, her shoulders slumping slightly.
“I think I drank too much wine,” she mumbled. “I was feeling kind of dizzy and I took the wrong path and then . . .” She waved feebly in the direction of the fence and the edge of the bluff.
“And then I snapped at you,” Dylan finished, his mouth slanted. “I’m sorry.”
Their gazes had met and held. A silent peace was made. He stepped closer and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside.”
THE jarring incident was soon forgotten. Alice had never been so reluctant to leave the peaceful haven of the castle and the heaven of Dylan’s arms as she was that Monday morning. She’d have gladly curled up in bed with him for many days to come, basking in the newness and sensual delight of their mutually acknowledged love. It was difficult to pull herself out of her daydreams and resume her routine at camp. Although something did happen at breakfast that certainly sent a jolt of reality and euphoria through her.
She was standing alone at the coffee station, waiting for the pot to finish brewing and praying for an extra-strong pot. Someone spoke behind her.
“How is it that you always manage to come out on top?”
Alice spun around at the sound of the quiet, bitter voice. Brooke stood there, looking glamorous and beautiful, despite her casual camp attire. Brooke Seifert was the only person Alice knew who could do her hair and put makeup on for a hot summer day filled with rigorous activity, and still look disgustingly gorgeous and put together at the end of it all.
“I’m assuming that’s a rhetorical question,” Alice mumbled, staring at the coffeepot with quiet desperation. She hadn’t even had caffeine yet. How was she supposed to deal with Brooke?
Despite the fact that she’d told Thad she’d try to get to know Brooke better and give her the benefit of the doubt, she hadn’t really lived up to her promise. It’d just been easier to stay away from both Brooke and Thad for the past few days, although the avoidance hurt much more in Thad’s case than in Brooke’s.
She did a double take when Brooke shoved her cell phone in front of Alice’s face. Startled, she stared at the image on the screen.
“You haven’t seen it yet?” Brooke demanded quietly, obviously recognizing Alice’s shock. “All the managers are crowing about it, although Kehoe doesn’t seem too pleased,” she added with bitter triumph. Her victory was short lived. An uncertain, sullen expression came over Brooke’s face. “I suppose you put them up to it?”
Alice laughed abruptly. She grabbed Brooke’s phone, peering closer at the photo. “Oh my God. That’s awesome.”
Dave came up behind them, grinning. “Is this your first time seeing it? Everyone is talking about it. They sent out texts with the photo this morning. They somehow got most of the managers’ phone numbers, plus most of the counselors’. At least one kid on every team got one, too, so the photos are flying around with the speed of light. Hilarious. Nice one, Alice.”
Someone called out to Dave, and he walked away.
“There’s more. Next photo,” Brooke said through a tight mouth.
Alice took another long look at the first before moving to the next, however. The photo was of an iron goat perched on a stone pedestal—obviously Camp Wildwood’s legendary Bang. The area behind it was dark and empty. It was clearly the dead of night. Around Bang’s neck was tied the Red Team’s iconic flag. The goat was wearing sunglasses that Alice immediately recognized as Judith’s knock-off Cartiers. Beneath it, three hands held up in the V for victory sign: one large, light brown, clearly masculine, another feminine, paler with long manicured nails, the last small and delicate. Alice suspected she knew to whom all the hands belonged.
Alice swiped her finger on the screen. Her grin widened. This was priceless. Now the common area around Bang was filled with people. The photo showed Noble D, Jill Sanchez, and Judith surrounded by several other teenagers and adults, most of them wearing sweatpants, shorts, T-shirts, and pajamas. They were strangers to Alice. This must be the Camp Wildwood staff and kids. D and Judith appeared to be passing around pizza boxes, Jill handing out cans of soda. The girl’s mouth was open as though she was talking, and she was grinning.
Jill? Talking to strangers with what looked like genuine enthusiasm?
The caption underneath the photo read: How to make trouble and friends at once, Camp Durand-style.
Alice barked with laughter, unable to stop herself despite the fact that she knew Brooke would find her pleasure annoying.
“They gave the kids at Camp Wildwood a pizza party?” she blurted out incredulo
usly.
“After they snuck into camp unnoticed and took their pictures of the goat, proving they could have stolen it if they wanted to,” Brooke said, grabbing her phone back abruptly. She looked mutinous as she met Alice’s stare. “I know you must have set them up to it. It could have easily had the opposite effect, you know. All the managers could have been as pissed as Kehoe is. How did you know they wouldn’t be?”
“I didn’t for sure,” Alice said, shrugging. “The kids wanted the adventure and the challenge, and I thought they should have it. They are supposed to be here to have fun, you know. I just wanted to make sure they did as respectfully and safely as possible.” She nodded at the phone in Brooke’s clutching hand. “They came up with all the other brilliant ideas.”
“Brilliant,” Brooke spat. Alice’s spine straightened, until she noticed that despite Brooke’s bitchiness, tears pooled in her eyes and her lower lip trembled. Alice’s acidic retort evaporated on her tongue.
“What’s wrong?” Alice wondered, confounded by the other woman’s show of vulnerability. Brooke was always in control and smug in her superior knowledge and position. Alice had been intimidated by her from the first moment she laid eyes on her. To see Brooke on the verge of tears shook her a little. “It’s not a big deal, Brooke. They’re just kids, having a good time.”
“It is a big deal,” Brooke corrected in a hushed, but harsh tone. “I can’t win when it comes to you. I can’t beat you because I can’t figure out why everyone is so determined to act like you’re special when you’re really just a grubby, smart-mouthed, low-class—”
“Whoa,” Alice interrupted angrily. She pointed at the other woman in a menacing gesture. “Stop right there.”
Brooke inhaled shakily. A tear skipped down her cheek. “No matter what I do, I can’t beat you. If I don’t make it as a Durand manager, it’ll all be because of you.”
Alice gaped at her in disbelief. “Because of me. That’s ridiculous. First off, there’s no reason you shouldn’t make the cut. Everyone knows you’re a top runner. But if you didn’t make manager, it’d be because you’re more worried about yourself than you are your kids.”
