Chapter 34
June
I loved the sensation that enveloped me when I left the bathroom after a warm shower. I brushed my wet hair and thought about Tiffany again. It felt good; I couldn’t deny that.
Tiffany was so beautiful that sometimes I wanted to be like her. Not to have a perfect appearance, but to feel the thrill of feeling sure of myself at least once in my life. But then in bed with James I felt so weird. I went back to Jordan’s words.
I didn’t know anything about James.
Up until a month ago, he was nothing more than the class jerk in my eyes, but now that description didn’t hold up anymore.
He was still the guy who threw wild parties, who switched who he was with three times a night, sold drugs at school, loved to get in fights and take part in illegal races—basically everything I’d always hated.
But then? Jordan’s words broke my heart. I wanted to find out more.
James often talked a lot, but rarely about himself.
“June, move it!”
My mom was already going on the offense; she was doing nothing but taking out her irritability on my poor bedroom door.
I put on the white shirt and pleated skirt she’d picked out for me and, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked like I was ready to go to church.
I decided to take off the shirt and put on a supernormal white T-shirt.
I went downstairs and withdrew into a corner.
After a few hours, the living room of my house had turned into a haunt for old ladies with weird hair and guys with differently shaped glasses.
When James and Jasper arrived, I noticed them right away.
“June Madeline White!”
My mom shouted at me because she’d just seen me bite into a pastry. Obviously her reprimand didn’t go unnoticed. Jasper immediately covered his mouth to snicker.
“Do you think you can sneak into the kitchen to raid the trays they’re going to serve at the reception?”
“Mom, don’t call me by my full name!” Especially not in front of these two.
“Get away from the food, please, and keep your hands to yourself!” She reprimanded me with a glare before turning back to her friends, smiling and syrupy sweet.
Her face suddenly changed, like someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
“I think Madeline hides vibrators under the bed, Jas.”
James’s voice made me roll my eyes, but when my eyes went to him, all my neurons wavered.
He was wearing a white shirt and a pair of dark pants.
The tight-fitting fabric emphasized the athletic figure of his statuesque body, once again reminding me that he was the picture of perfection.
The problem was that he wasn’t just hot, he was a mind reader.
“If you find me irresistible, you can tell me out loud, Madeline White.” He bit his lip, overwhelming me with his midnight-blue eyes.
“Yeah, look, I’m fatally attracted to the still life in front of me.”
James didn’t dignify that with an answer, but his eyes moved along my whole my body. That was enough to shut me up.
“Jasper, there’s a bunch of fruit juices over here.”
Jasper and I made a run for the juices while James started chugging glasses of sparkling wine like it was water.
I would’ve wanted to tell him to stop it, but my mom’s eyes were glued to me. Luckily, Jordan dashed over to her, removing the opportunity for her to focus all her attention on me.
And when I saw her talking with him and her best friend, I couldn’t resist.
“Hey, Jordan,” I said politely, then turned to the other woman “Hey, Melissa.” I gave my mom a phony smile as she looked at me wide-eyed.
“Sorry, I’m going talk with my daughter for a second, and I’ll be right with you.”
She pulled me aside abruptly, possibly afraid that I would say something else.
“Incredible, Melissa is real,” I teased.
“June, don’t embarrass me, please.”
“Maybe I can make an effort, if you do too.” I smiled and invited her to agree to a pact of silence.
“Okay. But starting tomorrow, the tune changes in this house!” she threatened, before returning to her guests.
“I don’t know how you put up with her.” James ran his fingers through his dark hair with one hand and I, given how boring the exhibit was, decided to listen to him.
“Are you done fusing the two poor neurons that you have left?”
“My neurons are just peachy, think about what you got up to last night with your—”
What did he mean?
“And then I bet that yesterday you were so gone that you don’t remember anything.” He clucked his tongue on his palate and put on a superiority complex. Was that an underhanded way of understanding what I remember about yesterday? Well, well.
“But you’re wrong,” I said out loud.
I waited for James to answer, but he didn’t. He pretended to ignore my answer, chugging down another glass.
“I remember what you said very well,” I clarified. That sentence was enough for him to bring his eyes to me again.
“You don’t remember shit, White.”
“I remember perfectly well, Hunter.”
His lopsided smirk left me no way out. James leaned on the table and crossed his arms.
“So you remember the ‘I only trust you, James.’ Well—”
He imitated my tone of voice, which, combined with his full-of-himself attitude, startled me.
Strangers passed us by, but he said those words like we were all alone.
I looked down, slightly embarrassed.
“I’m glad you memorize everything I say word for word.” James peeled himself from the table and took a step toward me.
“Do you think you’ll sleep tonight, or can you only think about it?”
He provoked me with innate self-assurance, tipping the scales in his favor.
My cheeks started to itch. I tried to keep up with him, but I never could. James was sure as fuck of himself while I just put up a front.
“What do you want to hear?”
My voice wavered, and that happened with every step James took toward me.
James loved to use his gift of gab to manipulate; I definitely had to practice before I could get to his level.
“I don’t know, Snow White. Try telling me the truth.”
“Like I actually believe what I said yesterday? Or that I was drunk and I said that just to say it?”
“Look, I’m not your mom, don’t try that with me. I’m just interested in the truth,” he said, without being perturbed in the least.
“So you do care.” I bit my lip and lifted my chin.
He smiled.
“So you do care that I care about you.”
I bowed my head when our lips got too close together.
“Did you tell Will I slept over at your place?”
“No.”
I held my breath so I wouldn’t inhale his mint and champagne breath.
“But I will,” he added.
“Okay.” I looked around a little apprehensively. “But not today, okay?”
“Yeah, today,” he shot back, narrowing his eyes. What an irritating child.
The looks I started shooting around were now more worried.
“Do you want war to break out at my mom’s exhibit?”
“Do you prefer to keep secrets between you, me, and Will?”
“No, I agree on being honest. Will needs to understand that he doesn’t have the right to be that way anymore—like, jealous of me.”
“That’s not easy.” James furrowed his brows.
“Is that why you haven’t told him yet?”
“Should I have told him how you begged me to sleep with you, White?”
My eyes widened. “I said I wanted to sleep at your place, not with you!” I clarified. I cleared my throat before continuing. “You’re the one who said it, Hunter.”
I felt my cheeks burn even more.
A flash of anxiety shot across James’s eyes, and his tone of voice got more urgent.
“And tell me, what would I have said?”
“Well—”
I definitely wasn’t going to repeat it.
“I didn’t say shit, Snow White. I also didn’t ask you to sleep with me.”
James looked up arrogantly.
“I’m just saying that you seemed to have a different opinion last night.” That was an affront, and he liked those.
Maybe that was what caused his gaze to go perilously low. I felt him burn along my neck, then my chest, until he got to my skirt-clad hips.
I involuntarily squeezed my legs right away.
“Did you really believe me when I was drunk?”
Okay, that was true. He was definitely drunk and high, but he still didn’t seem like he was lying.
“You were convincing, Jamie.” I taunted him with his annoying nickname.
“Was I convincing?”
I admired his dimples.
“Princess, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” He said it absentmindedly, like he was used to seducing anyone without any effort.
Don’t give in, June.
I repeated it to myself a few times because James was staring at me in that way, like he wanted to use the power of his eyes to set my senses on fire.
Don’t get thrown off just because he’s a little hotter than the rest. But his sideways gaze combined with his mischievous grin made me lose the plot of the conversation, and all my good intentions went up in smoke.
“What are you going to tell Will?” I asked him.
“That you want me, or at least there’s something you and I did that I still have to talk about with Will.” I would’ve wanted not to understand, but unfortunately I understood exactly what James was referring to. The photos we exchanged that night. And unfortunately, it hadn’t just been one.
James kept his eyes glued to the glass, and I shivered at the thought.
“Are you talking about . . . ?” He nodded.
“Exactly, Snow White. I’m talking exactly about that,” he whispered, getting so close to my ear that I felt the tip of his tongue graze against it.
I held my breath.
My mom was two feet away from us. Is that why he was doing this? Is this what turned him on?
“James, I don’t want you and William to fight.” I gulped loudly. The time to make digs at each other seemed to end early, because his face suddenly became serious too.
“I’ll have to tell him sooner or later.”
“Okay, I’ll just ask you one thing, James. Not today.” I pleaded with my eyes, pointing at the people around us.
“Okay.”
I frowned because I hadn’t expected compliance, but James already seemed to be taking the next step. With all the arrogance in the world, he took out a baggie of weed from his pocket. I turned white as a sheet.
“Put that away! What if my mom sees?”