Chapter 29 #4
“No, sorry, did someone ask you?”
I saw him look to the side, curling his upper lip.
“Are you saying this in case there are video cameras, James?”
He looked at me askance.
“No, get with the program. I’m not anymore,” I muttered seriously, almost offended. He gave me a suspicious look.
“Do you think that changes anything whether you still are or not?”
I was officially losing the plot.
“You’re not sober, and besides—”
“We aren’t,” I corrected him.
“So what? What are you getting at, White?” he asked, amused this time.
Why can’t I ever be quiet?
“Nothing, I was just saying . . . I was highlighting your—”
At that point James moved, and I was under his body.
“Don’t try to play games with me, princess.”
“Or what?”
James didn’t speak, but his gaze drifted along my quivering body, making me uncomfortable. Then he took off his already unbuttoned shirt.
“I’ll ask you a question.”
“Go ahead.” I invited him, lifting myself up on my elbows.
“But you have to answer honestly.”
“I’m waiting, Jamie,” I teased, suppressing a giggle.
But he didn’t wait any longer. He bent down to me, and in a second, his chest fit against mine. I felt the heat of our bodies pressed against each other.
“What were you thinking about doing in my bed?”
I looked up at him, astounded. It was a provocation. I had no doubt.
“Nothing, given that you’d sleep on the floor in my imagination.”
I bit my lip at the reply that was a little too bold, and he narrowed his eyes.
“You always have to be a bitch, don’t you?” he whispered.
“You’re one to talk.”
I lifted my chin and inhaled his breath, which smelled like mint instead of the vape pen.
“You’re talking too much for someone whose legs are open under me.”
“I don’t—”
I would’ve wanted to respond to him in kind, but I was in a hard place physically. I couldn’t find the right words, so I tried to bring my knees closer, but the presence of his body between my legs prevented any movement.
“James.”
His chest started moving rhythmically. I felt a strange connection between our gazes, and when he put his forehead on mine, I closed my eyes instinctively.
I didn’t know why I decided to do it, but I put both hands on his bare chest. My right palm fit over his heart.
Maybe I’d dared too much, because when I opened my eyes again, his blue eyes were staring at me.
I felt weird. It was like his body was capable of transmitting electricity into mine.
“You would’ve done it,” he whispered in my ear at some point.
“No.” I rushed to answer.
“You don’t even know what I’m talking about.” He was talking about himself, me, and Will.
“I know what you’re saying, and the answer is no,” I insisted, with labored breath.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
James caressed my cheek with his breath, without taking his eyes off my lips.
“What did you think I meant?”
“I felt it,” he grumbled, before letting his fingertips slide onto my bare thighs.
The intensity of his gaze made me crazy. I sucked in the breath that was trapped in my throat. What was he waiting for?
I don’t know why I did it, but I closed my eyes again. Like that was enough to convince someone like James Hunter to kiss someone like June White.
And it didn’t happen.
So, encouraged by a jolt of courage, I stuck my head up and grabbed the little silver chain hanging from his neck to pull him toward me.
James let out a husky moan until he parted his damned lips. “Oh my god.”
His tone of voice was so seductive it made me tremble.
“What?” I asked, almost scared.
“Sooner or later someone will bang you properly, princess,” he whispered on my mouth, making me jump.
“James.”
“And fuck, I wanna be that person so much.”
“How did you . . . what did you . . . ?” My eyes widened incredulously.
“Nothing, let’s go,” he hissed, grabbing my forearm to drag me off the bed.
“Why? Where?”
“I’m taking you home.” Another cold shower.
“I wanna stay here,” I said, turning over on the mattress before sinking my cheek into the soft pillow that smelled like him.
But James didn’t seem to have any intention of listening to me.
“I can’t sleep with you.”
“And I can’t go home like this. You complain so much, but we’ve already done it.” I shrugged like my statement was trivial.
“Yeah, we slept together already, but not like that.”
“What does that change? We just have to sleep—”
“What does that change? You must be really trashed to not notice.”
“They’re all excuses. You sleep on one side then, and I won’t move from here,” I retorted firmly.
“You want to get me in trouble, Snow White,” he grumbled before sitting back on the bed. But instead of lying down next to me, he turned around on top of me.
“Shut your eyes and sleep, what’s your problem?” I provoked him without taking my eyes off him.
He let his eyes drift along the T-shirt covering my body.
“It’s that—”
“Your words, James,” I teased.
“I’m not used to this.”
“This?”
“This. I don’t know. Having to control myself so much. For what?” What was he talking about?
“What are you—”
I wasn’t fast enough to ask him; James stopped me on the mattress with one hand planted on my hip.
“Of the fucking desire I have to take you on this bed now.”
My lower lip quivered when our eyes met in the dark. His body pressed between my legs gave off unexpected heat, and I started to question myself.
I wanted him. Jesus Christ, I wanted him?
“But I won’t do it,” he added, bringing me down from the roller coaster.
“No, of course not.”
I took a trembling breath and forced myself to turn away from him. He was making me lose my mind.
“Look, I’m tired. Good night,” I announced, turning over to one side with my heart racing.
“Yeah, it’s better if you go to sleep.”
James turned away from me and balled himself up on his side, making me feel small against his giant back.
“Who knows what it would be like . . .”
My hand flew to my mouth. In the dark, a thought escaped me that James seemed to perfectly guess even though I hadn’t fully articulated it.
“I don’t think it’s the right time to find out. Trust me.”
>> <<
When I opened my eyes wide, the sun was already peeking through the blinds.
James was still there with me. I smelled his scent and sensed it from how his warm body molded into mine, but most of all by how his arm held me tight against his broad chest. There was no malice between us, just that uncommon feeling that had enveloped me when we’d woken up together at Will’s house.
I opened an eye slowly, almost afraid.
In front of me stood two tiny figures, and my heart almost skipped a beat.
I rubbed my eyes with my knuckles to get a better look at what I’d just seen.
“Oh my god, are there kids here?” I shouted.
“What the fuck are you saying?” James reprimanded me raspily and sleepily, pushing the curve of his perfect nose deeper into my throat. It wasn’t a dream like I’d thought initially, nor was it a hallucination. Two small and disturbing figures were in the middle of the room.
“Who’s that?” shouted the first girl.
I looked at the other one, who stood still at her side, and noticed that they were identical twins. A blond braid fell on their right shoulder while thick bangs covered their eyebrows.
“Who are you? Answer!” the other exclaimed, pointing a toy gun at me. I sat up with a rat’s nest for hair and noticeably dizzy.
“I’m, um, June?”
The girls began running around screaming, with no regard for my headache.
“June loves James! June loves James!”