Chapter 7
7
“ T here you are!” Li nearly crashes into me. I assume she’s on her way to the bathroom, since it’s near the catering entrance. I’ve just pressed through that door with another tray of champagne.
People dressed in black, white, and red swirl around us, moved by the music of a string quartet. The tall paneled room is stifling, and the stone of the ceiling doesn’t help with sound attenuation. It’s loud, hot, and stuffy in all senses of the word. I catch sight of the dark-haired angel, dancing with a black girl. He seems to turn up at all of the same events I do.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Li says, wiping at her forehead.
“Champagne?” I ask, channeling my finest butler voice.
Clara sweeps past us both, brandishing her own tray and rolls her eyes at me. She hates this as much as, or more than, I do. I saw her physically flinch when they asked her to put on an apron.
Li’s eyes sparkle. “Oh, thank you good woman!” Then she drops her voice. “I really wish you were finished volunteering, we’re getting bored without you. And hot,” she says, swiping two glasses before chugging one and eyeing me.
“I think soon?” I hedge into the doorway so I can look like I’m serving drinks and not socializing. I’m uncertain if anyone’s observing. If this is truly my test, I want to appear attentive. Nothing out of the ordinary has occurred, no wolves on the path. Nada, unless you count ushering drunk people to the loo so they don’t vomit on the floor. I showed up, got handed a black tuxedo jacket and a tray, and la voila.
“You look amazing, at least.” Li reaches over to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear.
That much is true, thanks to her. My usually messy hair flows over my shoulders in big voluminous Hollywood waves, sleek and impossibly shiny. Framed by dark lashes, my large dark eyes look larger and almost doe-like with the makeup. Regretfully, I allowed Li to “try” on a bright red lipstick, only to realize later that the lip stain would be nearly impossible to remove from my lips. The same stain graces my cheeks, giving me a just-kissed look that is compelling as hell. I have to hand it to her. She’s drawn a siren out of my mousey usual. Several men in the room sought champagne from my tray repeatedly—pulled away by their wives with cold stares. The power I gain from just a little makeup and blowout is heady.
“I even dig the tuxedo jacket,” Li says. “Are you sure you don’t like women?”
I sigh, “Sadly not, but you’ll be the first I contact if I change my mind.” Across the room, Dominic laughs and talks with other students, drawing my eye as if the universe orchestrated it.
“He hasn’t been able to stop watching you all night either,” Li says, rolling her eyes. “Hopefully you have time at the end to dance and put the poor guy out of his misery. Just make sure you two go back to your room and not Dom’s, I don’t want to hear it through the walls.”
“Li, it’s not like that.” But a blush creeps up my chest, envisioning it.
Dominic’s eyes connect with mine, and I wave just as my vision fills with one very pissed off Kendall, stalking toward me. The test, whatever it is, approacheth like a dark rider of the apocalypse.
“Oh um, yes miss,” I say loudly for effect, “the restroom is just through that door.” Li takes my hint and heads off while I try to square my shoulders and wade into the crowd with my tray.
Kendall’s stride doesn’t falter. In his suit, he looks intimidating and seven years older than the guy recently graduated from high school. Elegant but cruel with his hair is swept back, spotless turnout and ferocious eyes locked on me.
Why does he always look like he’s going to eat me? It’s like I’m Red Riding Hood and he’s the Big Bad Wolf come to claim his meal. I lift my chin in a show of bravado I don’t feel. I haven’t done anything wrong. He’ll stalk right past me and grace the loo with his wrath. Surely?—
His big body presses me back into the catering hallway. I give ground, glasses rattling on the tray.
My body screams that he’s too close and far too angry. Prey sensing a predator, my body instinctively wants to escape anything related to Kendall. I brandish the tray between us and offer what I hope is a disarming smile.
“Champagne?”
He passed four trays on his way to me.
He takes the tray and sets it on a serving platform near the door to the kitchen. There’s nothing between us now and I can’t go backward unless I want to end up in the serving station.
“Go home,” he says, his eyes dropping from mine to run once, perfunctorily, over my body. I don’t think he means just from serving. It’s another warning, and it gets my dander up.
“I don’t want to go home,” I say, tilting up my chin. “I like it here.”
His eyes flash. And now I worry that he thinks I mean I like it here , sandwiched between his body and the wall. His eyes drop back down, and I’m pretty sure he’s eyeing what little cleavage he can see under the tux jacket. Something primal settles across his face for a flash so brief, I wonder if I truly saw it at all. Longing? No, that’s too soft. Something more like possession.
Goosebumps break out across my skin, proving yet again that there is something wrong with me . Unlike the sweet and full feeling I have around Dominic, this tiny nugget of thought of being owned by Kendall’s big body is… doing things to my insides. Things I absolutely refuse to investigate any further. He is my enemy . He hates me. And sure, maybe he’s a boob man, but it doesn’t affect our mutual feelings. He wants me gone from Oxford, and I want to stay.
“Your volunteer shift is over,” Kendall says, eyes still on my chest. I should correct him. Mostly, I just want to escape all these veiled threats.
“So did I pass?” I can’t help asking.
His eyes glitter as they meet mine. “Wouldn’t you like to know? I’ll take your jacket.”
Fine.
Bastard.
Within the tiny confines of the space Kendall has allotted me, I struggle out of the tuxedo jacket. Or I attempt to. I’m well and truly stuck. The more I try to escape the fabric, the more like a straightjacket it becomes. I struggle and twist, and soon, true panic starts to well in my stomach. I feel like I’m about to be strangled by this monstrosity of a garment.
Kendall’s hand reaches between us, and I freeze while his fingers graze the front of my coat. Is he…is he going to touch my boob? Am I going to let him ?
Panic surges through me as I realize I’m completely paralyzed, my eyes fixated on his finger lingering above the fabric covering my—oh God—my heaving chest . I’m gasping for air, and it’s as obvious as if I’m wearing a corset on Bridgerton. Am I really going to allow this man, who despises me, to grope me while I’m cornered?
His forefinger brushes against my skin, dipping just inside the jacket.
No one has ever touched my boobs, except for Joe Gazorski who honked them like they were made of rubber over my sweater in 10 th grade at a dance. Nothing like this subtle brush of skin against skin that has everything inside my body tightening and coiling in a most alarming manner. I shouldn’t be allowing this. Not from him. I know what happened the very last time I let this person touch my body, and I’m in zero hurry to repeat it.
Helena 2.0 is not a pussy.
I reach out and slap his hand away, just as his finger dips behind the material and runs between my skin and the coat. As his hand falls, the jacket comes open like magic. He’s undone the single button with three fingers. I’d forgotten the inside button.
I swear something like satisfaction sits on his stupid smirky mouth a moment too long. It’s like he’s relishing in my response. Loving that I’m yet again proven inferior. Can’t even get a coat off. He’s messing with my head, and I need to leave.
I shrug out of the coat and shove it into his hands. Pushing roughly past his shoulder, I run smack into Dominic. We’ve amassed a small audience. Behind Dom, a wide-eyed Clara regards Kendall with open jealousy. It probably looked like he was feeling me up. Absolutely cracking, as the Brits would say, that everyone here got to witness my complete humiliation.
“Everything okay?” Dominic asks, reaching out to steady me. His dark eyes dart between me and Kendall, a challenge there if I say I’ve been wronged. I believe he’d slay dragons for me if I asked.
“Just turning over my uniform,” I say with false cheer, looping my arm through his. As if it’s perfectly normal for your shift manager to undress you with his eyes and his hands in a public corridor while you hyperventilate.
Clara doesn’t look convinced, but she is forced to turn back to a person approaching her tray. I’m given a reprieve on that front too.
“Yeah, alright,” Dominic says, casting one more distrustful look at Kendall. He allows me to pull him away. “Li texted she thought she got you in trouble.”
“Nah, my shift was up.” I offer him a sunny smile, feeling Kendall’s eyes on me. I can prove he has no impact on me. Maybe that’s the test. Maybe someone assigned Kendall the task of trying to scare me into leaving. Too bad for him. Helena 2.0 is here to run the world.
“Want to stay here or go to the party?” The kindness in Dominic’s eyes melts my heart, and I’m amazed at how he can sense that something significant occurred, even though I tried to brush it off.
“Let’s head out,” I say.
“I’ll see you later,” Kendall calls at my back, as if he can read my mind. Or as if he’s listening to our exchange.
Goosebumps break out because God help me, it doesn’t sound like a casual sendoff.
It sounds like another threat.