Chapter 29 #3
When I opened my eyes again, she was on top of me. An inexplicable warmth spread from my stomach to my cheeks when her bare thigh made space between my legs. I barely opened them while continuing the kiss that kept us together.
Tiffany took that gesture as an invitation to continue, because she started applying light pressure, rubbing her leg against my underwear. My breath was so labored that my chest felt like it was about to explode.
“What the fuck, Tiff!”
I heard James’s voice, and I was so scared that I almost fell out of the bed. Tiffany backed away from me guiltily, adjusting the dress on my knees.
“What is it, James?”
“What the fuck are you doing?” He glared at her with a stinging look. Tiffany’s initial frustration seemed like it was water under the bridge, because she started bantering with him.
“Since when are you a party pooper?”
James ignored her and gave me an awful look, putting an end to my laughter.
“It’s usually the other way around,” Tiffany then said, addressing me.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the fun only starts when James comes.”
“What do you mean?” I whispered, covering my mouth with one hand, as if that was enough to make him not hear me.
I looked around, trying not to look too interested in the male figure looming at the door.
“Nothing. It doesn’t mean anything,” he shot back coldly.
“It means Jamie’s so depraved that he doesn’t even bother to show himself out unless he has at least two girls in front of him.”
My eyes drifted to Tiffany’s full lips, reminding me of the kiss we’d just exchanged.
“What the fuck are you saying?” he snarled, annoyed.
James narrowed his eyes to two sharp slits that he aimed keenly from her to me. Suddenly the temperature in the room skyrocketed, and I was speechless.
I realized James lingered on my legs for a few seconds, and I immediately closed them.
I held my breath when I saw him take a step toward us.
“It’s time to go. Becky’s coming to get you,” he said to her gruffly.
“What? Why?” asked Tiffany bitterly.
“I called her, you can’t go home alone like this.”
“You’re boring now. You were more fun before juvie,” she declared, getting up.
“What do you mean?” I asked quietly, ignoring the fiery glances he kept shooting me.
“James was terrible,” she answered, piquing my curiosity.
“Why, he isn’t now?”
I looked for James’s eyes, but he was too busy finishing a slice of pizza, leaning on the doorjamb.
“Compared to how he was before, he’s an angel. Listen to this—”
The brunet sat down cross-legged on the bed.
“Take those boots away from there and go home, I’m serious.”
“Do you wanna be alone with her?” she asked.
James’s expression became sad. “No, I wanna take her home and get to bed.”
“Come on, then let me tell her first,” she insisted.
James grumbled, annoyed, then he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth while Tiffany turned a vape pen on.
“There was this girl who was the daughter of the owner of the smoke shop at the corner by school.”
I shook my head when Tiffany tried to pass me the vape pen.
“He saw her every time he went to get a cartridge. She barely even looked at him. All she thought about was studying and helping her dad. James got it in his head that he wanted her and wouldn’t leave her alone until she gave in.”
“By gave in you mean—”
“Yeah, June. He took her out on date after date until he slept with her at a party. Since the girl wanted something serious, and he didn’t, she told her brothers out of spite, and they beat him up to a pulp and left him in a pool of blood.”
“Oh my god, then what?”
“Then nothing.” He cut Tiffany off, leaving the bathroom with his shirt unbuttoned.
“And then Jamie here, along with Will, Jax, and Marvin, went to destroy her dad’s business.”
I was flabbergasted. James’s eyes shifted to one side impressively fast.
“But what did that poor guy do?”
“He lost his business, and his daughter lost her virginity in one fell swoop,” said Tiffany.
“You’re forgetting that I gave him back his money and now that asshole has a decent business and not a shack. Go on, White, move your ass, I’m taking you home,” ordered James, pointing me to the door.
“Me too,” intervened Tiffany.
“No, I can’t deal with both of you at the same time.”
“Oh, really? And to think I thought that was your specialty.”
“Shut your mouth,” he snarled, looking at his phone.
“Now he’s calmed down, June.”
“Come on, Becky’s here. She’s waiting for you downstairs.”
Tiffany slapped a kiss on the side of my mouth then stood up. I followed her movements as she stumbled to the door. She went up to James and unabashedly called him out.
“You want her all to yourself, don’t you?” I heard her say faintly.
“Good night, Tiff.”
“Since when are you so selfish, Jamie?”
“Get out of here,” he finished, literally throwing her out of the room, followed by silence, except for the thud of the door closing. And then his blue eyes lingered on me. For a moment I didn’t know what to think.
“Get out of my bed.”
“Okay.”
I said that without moving an inch.
“My legs feel like jelly,” I added, as he stared at me, exasperated.
“Can I borrow a T-shirt, James?”
“Why should I?”
“Because I’d sleep uncomfortably like this, and I don’t know where Tiffany put my clothes.”
“Come on, are you just taking it for granted that you’re sleeping here?”
“I told you, I can’t go home like this,” I explained, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
James blew the air out of his lungs, then rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, I got up from the bed with uncertain movements. My head was spinning, but I went to his closet and opened a drawer without asking him.
“You shouldn’t touch my stuff. What are you doing?”
I recoiled, frightened by his reaction, and banged my knee against the corner of the door.
I whimpered until I looked down, then noticed a little wound on my skin. The cut was bleeding a little.
“For Christ’s sake, you’re worse than a little kid, White,” yelled James, while I limped to the bathroom.
I sat down on the edge of the tub while James opened a little cabinet hanging on the wall.
“Let me see.”
“What are you doing?”
My words cracked when he kneeled on the floor and grabbed my ankle.
“Shut up for once.”
He applied a cotton ball drenched in hydrogen peroxide to the wound, making me groan.
“Ow!”
“It’s just a scratch, oh my god you’re so dramatic.”
I was startled when James gently slid his thumb along the cut after treating it, caressing it slowly. All I could do was keep looking down. I didn’t have the courage to look him in the eye while his hands spread my legs open, and he licked his lips. I felt hot again.
“Take me to bed.”
James remained with his head bent down on my knee. He looked up at me fiercely. An unknown sensation coursed through my veins when our gazes met.
Every time that he looked at me like that, I felt something pleasant rush through my chest and an insistent sound ticking in my head. And the mess in my mind didn’t subside even when he reached his arm out as I grabbed it to stand back up.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
His question shocked me. Just like his tormented expression. Sure about what?
I nodded instead of thinking about it, avoiding his gaze, which sometimes became too brazen to sustain.
“Put this on.”
I was already sitting on the bed when James threw me one of his T-shirts. I pouted and grabbed it, then turned around when I saw him unbutton his pants. What’d gotten into me now? I’d asked to stay here. I sighed then put his T-shirt over the dress. I heard him laugh.
“Of course you’re all weird.”
I pulled the shirt down, which turned out to be longer than the dress I was wearing, and I tried to pull the dress down to take it off. The sound of an unexpected rip startled me.
“Oh no!”
“What kind of genius takes something off like this?”
“Help me!” I groaned, pointing at the fabric caught on my hips.
“Did you just rip Tiffany’s dress?” James cracked up, showing two dimples that made him look so much like Jasper.
“Pull, please.”
I tried to wriggle out of the dress, but it wouldn’t move past my hips. I lay down on the bed, hoping that that would make the task easier, while James didn’t have to be told anything twice and pulled it down in one fell swoop. What a gentleman.
“Wasn’t there a zipper, White?” he teased, looking at the ripped piece of fabric. With the reflexes of a sleeping cat, I pulled the shirt down before he could look down at my bare legs.
“Specializes in ripping other peoples’ clothes,” he continued.
“What do you mean?”
“You did the same thing at Will’s house. When you came back in half bleeding with that dress in shreds.”
The unbridled anger set off by his mocking words escaped. “You locked me in a basement and never apologized!” I raved, sitting up again.
James moved over on the bed and came so close to my face that it made me forget how to breathe.
“You’re right,” he whispered convincingly.
Now he was apologizing? I didn’t believe him.
“White.”
I sat waiting for him to say it, while I tried not to melt in front of his provocative lips.
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself?” he hissed, before lying down next to me.
“I hate you, James.”
He burst out laughing.
“You always have to be half naked, don’t you?” I tensed, noticing his open shirt over a pair of tight-fitting boxers.
“Do you have a problem?”
Yes, absolutely. I really had to bear in mind what Tiffany had told me a little bit ago. He does things out of boredom.
“What the fuck do you want?” He became embittered when he caught me looking at him.
“What do you want?” I groaned, embarrassed.
And everything became less dreamlike and more real when his hot breath teased my earlobe. The sensation was so pleasant that I let out an involuntary moan. It wasn’t the time to get embarrassed; tonight I’d had one embarrassing moment after another, and by now he would be used to it.
“You’re trashed, and even if you weren’t, you’re Will’s girlfriend.”
His words hit me like a blast of cold water.