“Words I already regret.”
He shook his head and sighed. “I have to go. I have a meeting.”
“Business or pleasure?”
“For me business is pleasure, and vice versa.”
“So you’re a gigolo?”
He raised his eyebrows and studied me in a way that made me blush. “What brings me pleasure isn’t what most people would pay me to do to them. I’m sure there might be a few exceptions.” He lifted my hand and kissed the back. “I really like watching you eat.”
“Because you’re fattening me up for the kill.” I stood up and took his hand in mine. “I’ll walk you to your meeting.”
I dropped his hand, because we weren’t dating or anything, but every time he brushed me with his arm, I shivered in the most pleasant way.
After my History class, Ian was waiting outside the door for me.
“Don’t you have a class?” I asked while he grabbed my books and headed away from my room. I threw Viney a wistful glance while she shook her head and gave Ian a truly terrifying sneer.
“He doesn’t want to give you the chance to bail. Can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to spend the rest of your day with Ian’s sweaty hands all over your body.”
“Is that jealousy, Viney?” Ian asked, giving her a glimmering golden smile.
She hissed at him and I patted her shoulder. “I’ll see you later. Dining room, six-thirty-five?”
She nodded and whirled around, away from the bane of her existence. I sighed as I headed after him.
We rehearsed on a small stage with a mirror at the back of the auditorium so I could see Ian and me in my pink leotard. He wasn’t anything like Drake. Twenty minutes of Ian’s hands on my waist and I was ready to chew them to bloody stumps. Macaroons and bonbons I couldn’t concentrate. He was just wrong.
When Zach showed up in loose pants and a t-shirt, I shoved Ian away from me. “Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen. Zach is going to be my partner, and you, Ian, are going to be our coach.”
Ian raised an eyebrow while he studied me as if curious. “You really dislike me.”
“Nothing personal.”
He grinned. “Oh, I think it is. I see why Drake found you so irresistible. Did you insist on keeping him at arm’s length as well? Of course you did. Seducing you would take artistry.”
Zach stepped between us and glared at Ian. “Can we get on with this? Unless you’re seriously attempting seduction. In that case, I have better things to do.”
Ian shrugged. “She wants you as her Drake replacement. Traditionally you’d resent that. What do you think?”
Zach glanced at me, down my body like he was analyzing it for flaws. He stepped close and put his hand on my waist, nothing reluctant or cautious, just a matter-of-fact placement, so why did I blush? No idea. I looked at the mirror, and saw the two of us standing like a frozen image. He was taller than me by maybe three inches, and he wasn’t quite as slender as Drake. Next to him, I looked slender and delicate, with my long limbs, my hair piled on top of my head, leaving my pale neck bare. His hand did not look wrong on my waist and when he stepped closer behind me and took my other hand in his, it felt natural. I nodded at myself and he gave me a soft smile back, both of us staring into the mirror.
“You don’t dance as well as Drake, but Penny probably won’t notice the difference.” Ian took Zach’s silence as agreement. Ian took that standing pose and spent the next twenty minutes fixing it. A standing pose. Twenty minutes. I didn’t hold my ribs right. My arms weren’t fluid, yet somehow not floppy. My turn-out, laughable. My chin, too high, too low, too tilted, not holding that je ne sais quoi quality that all beautiful dancers had. Zach just stood there in apparently the perfect standing position laughing silently at me. I accidentally elbowed him, but since we weren’t doing anything, it was pretty obvious. After three hours of the most tedious, tortuous, boring ballet lesson, I could barely walk.
I was headed from the small changing room off the little auditorium to the dining room when Zach came up behind me.
He poked my shoulder. “You’re soft.”
I stared at him and sighed. “I am. Sitting in my attic making potions doesn’t really tone one’s abs. Or legs. Ding dongs and ho-ho’s, I can barely walk. And we did what? Stand there. How does Ian make standing so hard? Thanks, by the way, for taking his place as Drake’s body double. Or body triple?”
He gave me an amused glance. “Why does Ian bother you?”
“You know how I am when you don’t wear a shirt? That’s how Ian is only times a hundred.”
“I don’t understand. Is it sex appeal, or something else?”
I wrinkled my nose? “Sex appeal? Gross. No, it’s the fact that I spent my whole life not seeing men who were naked, and Ian’s always naked.”
“That still makes no sense unless his clothing is magically invisible to you. Hm. That would be interesting.”
I rolled my eyes at him. How could I explain it? I’d grown up with Poppy, Grandmama, my mother, Revere, and the occasional Pitch. Revere always wore a suit. Always. He never took off his jacket to do his ritual exercise, and he wore his suit to do all the household chores. He never smiled, smirked, or otherwise moved his mouth in anything other than a slight frown. All these mages who flirted were so completely alien to me. At least Zach pretended to be gentle to cover up the psychotic, but he didn’t have that blatant masculinity that Ian so effusively exhibited. Drake was different. Ian was right about me holding Drake at arm’s length. So, why was I fantasizing about kissing him every five minutes?
I shook my head and focused on making it to the dining room and Viney.
The next day I’d no sooner walked out of Business class with Drake then Ian stopped me. “I talked to Professor Vale. You’re going to practice early. We must get in your three hours.”
I stared at him then glanced at Drake.
He tsked and shook his head. “The sacrifices we make for art.”
“And ego.” I spun around and marched towards the auditorium. Zach was already there, wearing a white tank top that showed off his shoulders and the dark patch above his low neckline. Chest hair? I stared at that bit of black until I shook my head and tried to focus.
I had left my hair messier than usual and strands kept falling into my face until Zach sighed and pulled it out and twisted it up into a much neater bun. I had my arms over my chest while I stared at his, that bit of black hair.
“Why don’t you glamour your chest smooth?”
“Maybe I glamour it hairy. It’s rude to suggest that a mage would ever stoop to using a glamour.”
I cocked my head while I raised my index finger and traced it down his cheek where I’d cracked it. “Pardon me for suggesting such a thing.”
Ian interrupted us. “Enough. Penny, come to the center of the stage and stand as though you were the only person in the world, as though all the energy and focus of existence rested upon your glory.”
I gave him a look. “Seriously?”
Zach elbowed me, the exact place I’d elbowed him the day before. “I think that’s right up your alley.”
I wrinkled my nose and headed to the center of the stage to embody the glory of existence. Or whatever. Ian came close, lifted my elbow, extended my hand and leaned in for just a moment. “Pretend that you’re Witley, or better yet, one of those Telenovela stars who just walked into a wedding to steal the groom in her nefarious plot.”
I gasped and looked up at Ian. For a moment he wasn’t golden, just a mage, but then he smiled and I leaned away from that smile.
Putting it in those terms changed how I looked at it. So I was supposed to play Marionetta, the seductive wench who brought all men to their knees. I wiggled my eyebrows at Zach and gave him a come-hither smile while I stretched my neck and shifted just so.
“Better. More here.” Ian put his hand on my upper back and pushed until I arched awkwardly, my chest rising as he pressed more and more until I thought my spine would snap. He pull
ed his hand away, gestured Zach to come, and in that weird position, I was supposed to gracefully flow over the stage like Marionetta, commanding attention and stealing women’s lovers. Playing the villain was fine, but the weird positions weren’t. After what seemed like eons of that position, Ian patted my back.
“Take a break. Don’t worry. We’ll get a good arch eventually.”
I glared at him, spun around and stalked over to get a drink in the hall. I drank and drank until finally, I stood and Zach was standing close behind me. I jumped and he laughed, a gentle, sweet laugh that belied the mockery in his eyes. Why in the world was I talking to him? No idea.
“Aren’t you worried that it’s poisoned?” he asked innocently then stepped forward and bent to get a drink.
“Zach, why are you helping me?”
“I owe Drake,” he said and tapped his cheek.
I groaned. “Seriously, that’s what this is? I guess that makes sense. Is Drake really that big of an ego?”
He leaned against the brick wall and studied me. “People aren’t egos, they have egos. Ego means ‘I’. Yes, he has a very strong self-definition. Let’s talk about his id. That’s more interesting. The id is his deepest, darkest self.”
“Yeah, I already know all about that.”
“Then why do you let him touch you? Why are you sitting with him at lunch and texting him? You’ve never texted me.”
“I don’t have your phone number. Also, he fixed me after you broke me. As for id, you’re the biggest id as in idiot I’ve ever met. If you had just liked me from the beginning, we wouldn’t have this whole mess.”
I gestured towards us, the hall, and the drinking fountain.
He smiled sweetly. “If you’d told me that you were Pitch, I might have believed you, and then you could have had me.”
I glared at him. “You did not just say her name. Also, you liking her is what makes you so stupid.”
He straightened from the wall and said low as he passed me to go back into the auditorium, “And you liking Drake makes you what, exactly?”
Touche. I was indeed an extraordinarily gifted imbecile. Which was why I was anxiously checking the clock for the rest of the afternoon until it was four-forty-five and I got to dash to my room to bathe, shave, and triple lotion my extremely long legs. It was too cold to have bare legs, but I did anyway. My little faux fur capelet looked lovely over my pale pink shoulder-length gloves. Was it too tea party? My princesses liked tea parties. I packed up all my deliciously healthy lollipops and bounced out of my room. Zach sat on the back of the couch, like he’d been waiting for me to come out.
“What?” I asked.
He held out his hand. “Phone.”
I frowned at it then up at him. “That’s a hand, not a phone.”
He gave me a gentle smile. “That’s right. I want you to hand me your phone.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?” I gripped my bag tighter and shifted so it was further from him.
“Are you going to give it to me?”
“Hm. Let’s think about that. Actually, no I don’t have to think about it. No. I’m not.”
“If you trust Drake, you might as well trust me too.”
“That’s like saying because you have one wolf inside your sheep enclosure, you may as well let another one in.”
He shrugged. “Do you have anyone else to call in case of an emergency, other than Drake, I mean?”
“Sure. My step-father.”
“He’s far away. I mean, if there was something interesting, I don’t know, involving Creagh or something, you might want someone to call who wasn’t…”
I put my hand over his mouth. His lips were soft, warm, and his breath tickled my fingers. “Give me your number. Write it on a piece of paper and I’ll put it in my phone, but don’t expect me to call you.” I pulled my fingers away and added, “slide it under my door. I’m going to be late if I don’t hurry.”
He nodded like that made sense. He was acting nice again. I turned and walked out of Lilac Stories, down the pillared walk to Drake’s car. He was waiting for me in spite of me being early. I beamed at him and offered him a lollipop. He took it with a smile.
“Dirt and herbs?”
“Are you feeling anxious?”
He twisted his lips as he fingered the cellophane. “Actually, yes. A little.”
“Really? Why?”
He opened the door for me and gestured me inside. “I’ll tell you later. First, Community Service.”
The drive to town was uneventful. I clung to his hand and my heart pounded while my stomach roiled with nausea, but I didn’t throw up on him or anything.
The princesses were lovely. I didn’t even mind that they completely wrecked my hair before Drake came to stand in the doorway, waiting for me.
I scrambled to my feet, gave everyone hasty hugs and then went over to him. “How did it go?” I asked once we were out in the hall, the door closed behind us.
“Go?”
“Your necromancer friend?”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s an excellent question. I’m not really sure. I spent the entire time helping Tim fill out a college application online. Would you like to fund it? Scholarships can be great for tax breaks.”
I blinked at him. “Um. I don’t think Tim should count on it. I do like the idea of doing something with profits, right now I don’t make enough.”
“Of course. We should do something about that.”
I glared at him. “No, we shouldn’t.”
He cocked his head, glanced around then took two quick steps until he was close against me, bent his head and kissed me. It was over before I realized it had happened.
I stood there reeling dizzily while he slid his arm around my waist and led me unresisting down the hall.
“I didn’t faint,” I mumbled although my head buzzed.
“I suppose that’s a start.”
I turned to stare at him. He was so close, his strong arm around me, hand cupping my side, protectively over my missing ribs. I loved that. I turned, leaned into him, and kissed the corner of his mouth. I parted my lips and inhaled the scent of him, tasting him= as he held perfectly still. He tasted of ashes and wind with an undercurrent of peppermint.
A nurse came along and I quickly pulled away from him blushing while he growled. I stepped away from him and bounced down the hall waving slightly at the nurse who gave me a stern look like kissing in hospitals was strictly forbidden.
Once we were in the car, and Drake started the engine, I rubbed my cold knees. “Two kisses and no fainting! Isn’t that amazing?”
He gave me an arch glance. “So amazing. Are you warm enough? That outfit is positively delicious. It’s something between a cupcake and fondant, neither of which can be terribly warm. Do you want to wear my jacket?”
I glanced down at his large black coat, wool and delicious. “But you would be cold.”
He gave me a flirty smile. “You could keep my hands warm.” He took off his jacket, slipped it over my shoulders then started the car and drove to the usual Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of town. After a moment he turned off the car and turned to me.
My heart pounded in my chest while his dark eyes gleamed at me from the reflected light of the red and gold sign.
“Can I tickle you?”
I blinked at him. “What?”
He smiled and leaned closer to me. He slid his hand over mine, up to my elbow then on my side. “I don’t think you’ll faint if you’re giggling.”
“Oh. I guess…” I gasped because he tickled my ribs, his fingers deliciously digging into my skin. “Drake, stop!” I squealed and wriggled and then his mouth was over mine, his lips burning and sweet, soft and smooth.
My lips were already parted and the taste of him along with the scent of black cherry was so overwhelmingly sweet. I drowned in his taste, his touch while his arms wrapped around me, pulling me close.
Before I could faint or really reciprocate, he pulled away,
brushed his fingers over my lips and got out of the car. I sat there blinking black spots out of my vision until I could manage to unbuckle with shaky fingers and climb out. He wasn’t there. He must have gone inside when I wasn’t watching.
I followed, wrapping his jacket around me like a beautiful Drake hug. I could still feel his lips on mine. I wasn’t hungry for anything other than more of Drake, but how could I kiss him without fainting again?
The server beamed and bowed several times before he led me over to a booth. I gave him my order without looking at the menu then heard a voice behind my head.
“You should try the Szechuan chicken.”
I turned around and saw Drake, or rather the back of his head because he was sitting in the booth behind me, his back against mine. I settled back down, heart pounding and lips tingling. He’d kissed me and now we were supposed to sit here like nothing happened?
“Thanks. Do you come here a lot?”
“I’m addicted to it. Some people try to quit addictions, but I prefer my life to be filled with irrational compulsions.”
“Do you know what I like my life to be filled with? Szechuan chicken.”
“What about waffles?”
“And waffles. Also, lollipops.”
He sighed. “This is the first irrational conversation I’ve had in ages. All everyone wants to talk about all the time is the Student Show, or the Blackheart Tourney, or the Chem exam. It’s exhausting.”
“Poor baby. In such high demand. I’m not sure if I can forgive you for having such tortuously high standards.”
“Hm. That explains it. I wondered why I liked you, but you may be the tallest girl I know. I must keep up my high standards.”
I snorted. “I’m not that tall.” All the same, I smiled because he said he liked me. And he’d kissed me. When my food came, I stirred it around a lot, but didn’t eat much. Finally, I pushed it away and stood up. When I turned, Drake was standing beside me.
We stared at each other for a long time, swaying closer and closer until his fingers brushed mine, and I gripped him back, squeezing his hand tight. He stared down at me, gaze on my lips. My face tilted up towards him, my lips parting, but instead of kissing me, he turned and dragged me across the worn red carpet towards the entrance and the server who beamed at us. Drake threw money on the counter and left without grabbing our fortune cookies.
Dread Delight: Rosewood Academy for Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 2) Page 31
