Chapter 7
SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN
KIARA
“You know you have to tell him, right?” he asked, his hand squeezing mine. His hands were shaking.
I covered his palm with my hands. “I will when the time is right.”
He took a shuddering breath, his gray eyes glinting. “Please, Kiara. You have to—”
He was interrupted when someone opened the door. My breath hitched in my throat when I saw it was Ethan. He glared at Liam, clenching his jaw and balling his hand into a fist. Uh-oh.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked, his blue and green eyes swirling with the turmoil of anger.
And he says he’s not intimidating at all. My ass. Anyone would pee their pants looking at him straight in the eye when he was angry.
“He was just leaving,” I said before Liam could say anything at all.
Liam turned to me. His eyes turned cold when I let go of his hand. I tucked my damp hair behind my ear. “I don’t care, Liam. Please leave.”
He opened his mouth, but Ethan walked toward me, shutting him off. “That’s enough. Leave unless you want to get your jaw checked.”
I froze when both men glared at each other. Great, just what I need. I held Ethan’s fist and his mismatched eyes flickered to me, “Can we please go home?”
He was beside me in a second, cradling my face in his hands. “What is it? What happened? Are you okay? Should I call Nurse Gina?”
I let out a weak chuckle holding his hands, and stood up. He helped me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, and I smiled, knowing I smelled like cinnamon mixed with the musky scent because I was wearing his shirt, which reached my knees.
“I’m fine, Ethan. It’s just a small headache,” I said and looked at Liam, who seemed furious staring between the two of us.
Ethan’s arm tightened around me, pulling me closer, and I leaned on his chest. “I’m just tired,” I mumbled, the headache growing worse in my head, and all I wanted to do was hibernate.
He pecked my hair. “Come on, I am taking you home.”
Everything after that was bits of a blur.
I was overthinking about things I shouldn’t think about.
Katherine, Volt, and Rio hugged me and said their goodbyes when I sat in the passenger seat of Ethan’s car.
He smiled at me when the car started with a soft purr.
I remembered him tucking me into the bed and staying with me, doing his homework and checking up on me every five minutes until my mom sent him home because he was worrying too much about me.
I vaguely remembered Ethan kissing my cheek as he left and I clutched the blanket thinking, I can’t tell him, Liam. I am sorry, Ethan.
* * *
I groaned when Katherine threw another one of my T-shirts over her shoulder, which fell directly over my face. I snatched it down and looked around the mess my best friend had made in my room. My mom was going to scold me if I didn’t clean it by tomorrow.
“Do I really have to go to this stupid frat party?” I asked, closing my diary and safely keeping it in my desk drawer. I picked up my cotton underwear and shoved it into the drawer of my dresser.
She turned around, her hawk-like green eyes squinting at me. “Yes, you have to! Ryan is throwing this party, and everyone from his university and everyone from our high school are going to be there.”
Of course she wants me there. I ran a hand through my hair.
She thinks I have turned all sad and quiet after the incident at the pool.
Especially after Alice spread a rumor that Liam pushed me in the pool because he was jealous of my relationship with Ethan.
It didn’t affect me, but it did affect my mood because it was Friday and all I had done today was complete my assignments, write and read.
Until Katherine showed up at my doorstep unannounced.
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I asked and looked in the mirror at my white graphic T-shirt and dark washed denim. I gasped. “Oh, shit. Ma is going to kill me for this.” I tried to scratch off the splotch of red chutney.
She snickered, continuing her hunt for a dress to wear at the party.
“Is Ethan going to be there?”
“Of course he’s invited. I hope you both do the Bow-Chika-Wow-Wow!”
“You and your weird vocabulary.”
But personally, I did hope that my best friend and me would do the Bow-Chika-Wow-Wow. After that skinny dipping, I was way more attracted to my best friend than I should have been.
Katherine went to my lingerie dresser and without a shame looked through the contents. She picked out a black lace bralette, “Oh-la-la, this seems exciting.”
“Uh, shukriya?”
She gave it to me, “Go wear this. Now.”
I looked down at the skimpy fabric. “Katherine, I can’t wear it to a frat party. This is a bralette and it’s too revealing.”
She rolled her eyes. “You will be wearing a jacket over it. Try it on with these jeans.”
I reluctantly took my high-waisted black denim and went to get changed.
I had B cups, so it was a relief that I wouldn’t need to wear a bra for this, and I found bralettes more comfortable than wired bras.
The top hugged my body and even gave my breasts a little cleavage, which was magic.
The denim was high-waisted, and I tucked the hem of my bralette underneath it.
It wasn’t as revealing as I thought it would be, and I looked quite classy if I said so myself.
It covered all my private bits with sheer lace over my waist.
“I am wearing a jacket over it,” I said as soon as I stepped out of the bathroom.
Katherine whistled, checking me out. “I swear, if I had a dick, I would bang the shit out of you.”
“Not creepy at all.” I wore a black leather jacket that reached my torso and wore gold hoop earrings with my dainty necklace.
Katherine changed into her navy-blue dress, which ended at her knees, hugging all her curves and accentuating them.
Ryan’s jaw was going to drop, and he would have a hard time keeping men and women from checking her out.
She looked like she was on a mission when she curled her blond hair and added some waves in my hair.
She did my makeup because I didn’t trust myself to do smoky eyes or else I was sure I would look like a raccoon. After doing my makeup she told me to apply red lipstick, and I was surprised how much one swipe of red lipstick could change your whole look.
I wore black sandal heels with straps so I didn’t high-five floors with my face every two seconds. I felt like conquering the world. Or Ethan. I scolded myself for having such unholy thoughts.
“Ladies.” Volt whistled and winked at us when we stepped out of the elevator.
Being the quarterback of our team, he looked dashing in his plain white T-shirt that showed his muscles. I was sure he wouldn’t be sleeping alone tonight . . . unless he tried to woo Becky, his childhood crush.
“Damn, Volt,” Katherine said in ‘Damn, Daniel’ voice and pinched his cheeks. Rio was talking to Ethan leaning on his car and my breath got caught up in my throat at the sight that met me.
He looked delicious. Yes, that’s the word I would use to describe my best friend.
He was wearing a black T-shirt that hugged his chiseled muscles in all the right places.
He was wearing a black jacket over it and completed the look with jeans.
His onyx locks were sleeked back and one strand was falling over his forehead.
I wanted to run my hand through his hair and never stop touching him.
I swallowed the lump in my throat at my filthy thoughts about my best friend.
His dark eyes met mine and for a flicker of a moment, the world faded into nothingness and all that existed was me and him. And a whole lot of sexual tension hovering around us.
He licked his lips, his eyes slowly raking over my body, and I felt goose bumps on my skin at the way he was gazing at me.
As if I were standing naked in front of him like the day we skinny-dipped in Ryan’s pool.
I felt proud of the bralette I wore when his eyes stayed glued on the little cleavage my perky breasts were showing.
With newfound confidence, I walked toward him with my chin held high and prayed to God to not let me trip this time. His eyes turned hooded when he noticed I was wearing my intimate as top and there was nothing else covering my breasts.
We settled in his and Katherine’s car, and I was not surprised when we were alone in Ethan’s car.
I was sure Katherine was the one who told Volt and Rio to let us drive alone to the farmhouse.
And the sexual tension between us had increased twofold in size.
Being this close to him, in his car that smelled like cinnamon, wood, and chlorine made me dizzy.
He smelled amazing with his spicy cologne and I had the urge to lean up to him and lick his neck.
Thank God, I didn’t.
“You look gorgeous, Kiara,” he said, a small smile curling over his lips and even though I was used to this, seeing him smile made me blush.
I looked away from his intense stare. “Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.”
I hope he goes downtown tonight. Literally.
We could hear the muffled sound of music before we arrived, and it was already in full swing when he parked the car.
Ethan wrapped his arm around me when we entered, pulling me closer to him, and I didn’t mind it one bit.
The calm farmhouse had turned into a chaotic frat party house.
The pounding music blaring in our ears, the illuminating neon lights, the stench of smoke, drugs, alcohol with a hint of sex.
It was wild.
I held my laughter when I saw a six-foot-tall guy, shoulders wide and shirtless, wearing a cowboy hat that was lit up with small fairy lights in a coil.
He kept getting high-fives as he hooted and walked outside in the backyard and dived into the pool.
Instinctively, I looked at Ethan and saw how he gazed at the rippling water and I wondered if he was thinking about the same thing as I was.