Chapter 22
June
I didn’t know whether to go to Poppy’s party or not, but Will kept insisting so much that I gave in.
I had three goals for that evening. Talk with Will. Ignore James. Not drink.
I’d also written that in the Notes app on my phone, like such banal things needed mental preparation.
“I’ll come, but promise me we’re not gonna drink,” I told Will on the phone.
He promised me, so I took a shower and put on my best pair of jeans under a white long-sleeved sweater.
Loose hair, no makeup, and now I was at Poppy’s house.
She seemed particularly happy to see me, and all my doubts disappeared in a second.
After exchanging a warm hug, she surprised me with an unusual request.
“June, I’m gonna finish getting ready. Can you give Amelia a hand in the kitchen?”
“Well, maybe you don’t know, but—”
“I know. And that’s exactly why I want you guys to make peace, please, do it for me,” she implored.
Poppy seemed sincere. And who was I to ruin her birthday?
“Okay.” I sighed, unaware of what awaited me.
I went into the kitchen with all good intentions. But when my eyes met Amelia’s cold gaze, my smile vanished.
“Will you help me with the frosting?” She pointed at a row of incomplete cupcakes.
“Sure.” I nodded, washing my hands in the sink.
Amelia handed me a dishcloth then showed me how much sugar and butter to mix. We were silent, concentrating on finishing the job with the mixer, until I heard her scream.
“Get any closer, and I’ll cut your claws off!”
Her angry tone led me to turn to her.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw James’s tall silhouette crash into the wall, preventing her from leaving.
She tensed up, just like my back. Why did he do this with all the girls? My god, I hated him so much.
“I’m hungry.”
“Should I care?” she spat, looking him in the eyes.
“Let me try one.”
“No.”
“Just one.”
“I said no! Get the fuck out, Hunter,” she yelled as she left the kitchen, irritated. “June, I trust you,”
Amelia had spoken to me in a civil tone twice, an absolute record.
In a fraction of a second James’s blue eyes darted to me, but I’d promised myself I’d ignore him. Even though that was easier said than done. I’d noticed he was showing more skin than he should have in his tank top.
I went back to my cupcakes. I didn’t want to talk to him. But all it took was one look too many to make him come up to me. I remembered the ambiguous words he’d told me in the bathroom.
A game.
And if he liked to play, I didn’t like players at all.
“So I was right . . .”
His voice made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“Keep your distance. I don’t know what you’re talking about, Hunter.”
“The fact remains that I was right, White.”
“I don’t care. You got me soaked this morning. I only had a jacket as a change of clothes, and I almost caught bronchitis.”
I bit my tongue. He was stronger than me. I didn’t know how to shut up when he was around me.
“In seventy-five-degree weather?” He burst out laughing. “Besides, who got violent first?”
“Shut up,” I snapped tensely, putting the frosting into the pastry bag to pipe it on the cupcakes.
“You threw a book at my head.”
James giggled, letting me know that he wasn’t angry anymore.
“And you deliberately insulted me.”
“It’s just an expression. Then I apologized after.”
I turned to glare at him. “Is it an expression you use when you want something you can’t have? Huh?”
I went back to concentrating on the cupcakes. I lined them up obsessively, hoping it would keep my mind occupied.
“You’re pretty convinced princess—” He paused. I kept an eye out.
“—for someone who was about to get railed violently against a wall this morning.”
The saliva was trapped in my throat. Kick that tempting devil out.
“I wasn’t . . . Get out, James!”
“Besides, I never denied it, White. You did.”
“What?”
“That you wanted to.”
He’d never denied it? He said he’d never stoop so low for someone like me and that I didn’t have any effect on him. Was I going crazy? Yeah. Was he doing it on purpose? Of course. But I didn’t have to fall for it.
“I didn’t do anything. As usual you’re the one who did everything. Because this is how you do it. I get it,” I declared, finishing the cupcake work.
“And what would I have done? Do you mean when I almost kissed you?”
I turned around suddenly like I’d just been stung by a wasp.
“What do you mean? Are you crazy?”
It wasn’t true. How could he say that so casually?
I had to learn to control myself when James was near me. I had to be firmer when I kicked him out. Otherwise he’d just continue to mess with me. “You getter go. We have nothing to say to each other.”
“Suit yourself,” he grumbled without taking a step. “I’m just here for the damn cupcakes. I’m just trying to distract you to steal one from you, Snow White.”
I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling angrily.
Now I was going to shove one in his arrogant face.
“James, no!”
And before I could say anything else, he slyly reached a hand and dipped his finger in a cupcake.
“Now that I put my finger in it, it’s mine.”
I felt his presence behind me. James greedily sucked his index finger, making an indecent and at the same time arousing sound.
“Um, I have to change my mind. You do know how to make desserts,” he whispered.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” I said stiffly.
But then his frosting-dipped finger tickled my lower lip.
“The cook should always try it first,” he said in an enchanting voice. And I didn’t recognize myself anymore.
James was standing behind me when I parted my lips to welcome his index finger. He pushed it in deeper, letting it slide languidly along my tongue, and my lips were all of a sudden reawakened by the cool touch of his ring. I impulsively turned my head toward him, but I soon regretted it.
“You still have a little here.”
He wiped a bit of the frosting on the side of my lip with the tip of his thumb and brought it to his tongue. It was a relief to know that James was behind me, because looking at his lips sucking on his finger was very dangerous.
The cupcakes, June. Take away the ruined one and put the others in the oven. I mean, in the fridge. I felt the heat of his chest against my back.
His scent made my head spin, and I immediately felt my knees quiver. But there was no hesitation in his touch. It was sure and firm, like it had been at school that morning. With his warm hand, he skimmed my right hip, and my heart started racing in a panic.
For a moment I didn’t really understand what was going on. I pulled back, but as I backed away I bumped into his body. I collided with his pants, and he immediately backed away.
“James, it’s better—”
When I turned around, I was struck by the hardness in his eyes.
“Fuck. You got spit all over me, eww,” he muttered, motioning at his finger. “I’m gonna wash my hands.”
I looked down, embarrassed, and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. But my gaze unintentionally drifted to the elastic band of his pants, where his bulge was jutting through the gray tracksuit fabric.
I averted my gaze immediately.
“I gotta finish up. You better go.”
At that point there wasn’t any more room for screwing around. James sure enough turned around and left the kitchen.
I hoped the water in Poppy’s pool was cold. Because I seriously couldn’t wait to jump in.
The house started really filling up around ten. And it was around that time that William and Jackson arrived.
My stomach was still doing flips because of what had happened, so much so that when Will offered me French fries, I turned them down.
“Why not? What’s gotten into you?” he taunted.
“We need to talk,” I announced, sitting down by him on the couch.
“About what? The full moon?”
I stared at him, confused. William was there, nice and comfy playing video games next to Jackson like he hadn’t just punched his best friend the night before and accused me of something that . . . oh my god, we really needed to talk.
“Full moon?” I asked, biting my thumbnail.
“Everyone’s talking about it,” added Jackson while his light-blue eyes went back and forth between the TV and an isolated corner of the hallway.
Following the trajectory of his gaze, I fell into James’s trap. He was making out with a girl.
Here’s the umpteenth warning for you, June.
And it was agony and also a little bit of a relief. Seeing him so unreachable made me go back to a comfort zone. It made me feel safe, as if I’d never left my bubble. The danger was out there, and I was comfortably protected in a place where I couldn’t hurt myself.
But an electric shock jabbed at my senses when he pulled away from the brunet’s full lips and looked right into my eyes. My stomach turned. Sure, I had feelings for Will, but they weren’t so intense. Maybe the only way to numb them was to not return his looks.
“What were you saying about this full moon?” I hid behind William, who was superconcentrated on a game with Jackson.
“That people go crazy during the full moon. They do things they shouldn’t do. They fight more. So they all become lunatics.”
“Ah,” I muttered skeptically, when I saw Poppy and Blaze come in.
Poppy was now ready to party. Her hair was in a hairdo that showed off the purple ends, and she was wearing a very tight-fitting white minidress. If I’d worn the same thing, I’d have burst out of it and looked like an egg timer in its eighth month of pregnancy.
“Brian?” Amelia asked, looking around her.
“He’ll come when he wants to,” I heard Blaze tell Amelia.
Blaze waved at me, then shot a quick glance at Jackson, who didn’t pay attention to him at all because he was so engrossed in the game.
“Come on, Blaze. I need your precision to make the cocktails.” Poppy called to him.
“Hey, birthday girl.”
James positioned himself in front of her, but his blue eyes were looking at Blaze, who was having a hard time holding his intense gaze.
“Will you come with me? I gotta do something.”