‘Prove it.’
I throw my hands up in exasperation. The action pops my breasts out of the water and his eyes immediately dip down to them. I slide back down and his eyes take the slow route back up to my face.
‘Nice tits,’ he says, his eyes doing a slow burn.
Suddenly he stands and takes a stride towards me. A totally Alpha move. I panic. Oh my god. I can’t let him kiss me. I just can’t.
I hold both my hands out, palms outstretched, as if I am in a horror movie and warding off Dracula or some other evil. ‘Let’s talk this out,’ I say urgently.
‘Let’s not,’ he says, and before I can do anything he is already bending over me. His hand claws into my hair, making my topknot loosen and my hair tumble all over his hand. He fists the hair at the back of my head and tugs downwards, pulling at my neck.
‘Tori,’ he whispers, and then his lips touch my exposed throat. His mouth sears my skin. My gut constricts and my sex starts to throb and crave something. Something called Cash. My hands come up to grip his shoulders and my back arches and pushes my chest out of the water.
Then his lips touch mine and, to my shock, I moan into his mouth. At any other time I would have cringed. I sound like an animal, but at that moment I don’t care. I open my mouth, our tongues touch and … Oh Lord, everything goes white. The whole world drops away. I fall into a huge vat of warm chocolate or toffee and I get sucked deeper and deeper into the thick sweet liquid. I feel myself melt. I could have stayed in that moment forever. The kiss going on and on …
But he snatches his mouth away from mine.
‘Wha—’
‘You can thank me later,’ he mutters, his voice so thick it is almost harsh. With dazed eyes I watch him stride to the door, open it, and walk out without looking back. For a few seconds I stare at the closed door blankly. What the hell just happened? Then I hear Britney’s laugh come from the top of the stairs. Cash says something indistinct and their voices move away.
Oh, sweet Jesus, I was so involved I did not hear them come in. I could have been killed by an axe murderer and I would not have known.
Yup. That’s me all over.
No sense of self-preservation.
Chapter Five
Tori
‘Tori, can I come in?’ Britney calls from outside my bedroom door.
For heaven’s sake. The last thing I need is to see anyone. What if she notices that I have been kissing her brother? Then I take the long view. I’m in the bath. Of course I’ll be flushed.
‘Come in. I’m in the bath, Britney,’ I call out.
She comes in and sits at the very place her brother had occupied. I definitely did not need to have worried about her noticing anything. She’s in a world of her own. Her eyes are shining.
‘Will you come with me to a pool party tomorrow, Tori?’
I sigh inwardly. A party full of spoilt teenagers is not my idea of a fun evening. ‘Of course,’ I say politely.
‘Guess who will be there?’
‘You got me.’
She excitedly clasps her hands in front of her chest. ‘Taylor Swift.’
Britney is a massive Taylor Swift fan.
‘Great,’ I say, injecting some enthusiasm into my voice. ‘Where is it being held?’
‘At Cash’s house.’
‘Oh! Oh I see.’ I pause to cough. ‘Look, since it’s at your brother’s house maybe Victor can take you there and back. You don’t need me to come and cramp your style.’
She stares at me astonished. ‘You don’t want to come?’
‘Well, I thought I could stay home and read. You know, have some time to myself.’
Her eyes fill with tears. It never fails to amaze me no matter how many times I see it, how Britney can go from super happy to the pits of depression in a New York minute.
‘Oh, no,’ she cries dramatically. ‘You have to come. You know Dad won’t let me go if you don’t come. Please. This might be the only chance I ever have of seeing Taylor.’
Tears are running down her cheeks unchecked. Britney truly is the queen of exaggeration, but it looks like I’m stuck. I paste a smile on my face. ‘Of course, I’ll come.’
She leaps to her feet and, running up to me, slaps her hands on either side of my cheeks, and plants a noisy smacker right on my kisser. Oh, for heaven’s sake. First the brother then the sister.
‘I really do love you, Tori,’ she says with a laugh. Then she goes to the door and, hanging on to the edge, she begins to twerk and sing a made-up song.
Oh, yeah. I’m happy. So happy.
Tori said, yes. She said yes.
Oh yeah. I’m happy. So Happy.
Tori said, yes. She said yes.
She looks funny doing it and I laugh. I kinda like Britney when she is like this. She’s cute and adorable. When she stops twerking, she twirls around the small space like a ballerina and says dreamily, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to meet Taylor tomorrow.’ Then she stops suddenly and looks horrified.
‘Oh my God! I’ve just realized. I’ve got nothing to wear. We’ll have to go shopping tomorrow.’
‘You’ve got karate at two o’clock,’ I remind. ‘We can go in the morning if you want.’
She pulls a face. ‘Do I have to go? Can’t I just skip this once?’
‘Look, Britney. You know your dad really wants you to be able to defend yourself. It’s only an hour.’
‘But I won’t be in the mood, and I’ll be tired after all that shopping. And I want to go to the hairdresser. I need to get my roots done,’ she whines.
‘OK. This is what we’ll do. I’ll call Mr. Wong and see if he can fit you in sometime in the morning, then we’ll spend the rest of the day shopping.’
‘All right,’ she agrees reluctantly.
‘Good. I’ll try to make it for nine, OK?’
‘OK.’ She brightens. ‘We’ll have to get you something super-sexy too. You never know there might be a hot guy there for you.’
‘I won’t bother. I’ve got loads of stuff I can wear.’
She puts her hands on her hips. ‘No you don’t. You only have jeans and T-shirts.’
‘I thought it was a pool party.’
‘Pool party dress-code is: come in something that looks amazing when it’s wet.’
‘Right.’
‘OK, I’ve got to go. Cash is taking me out for ice-cream.’
‘Have fun,’ I say.
‘Wanna come with us?’
‘No,’ I say immediately.
Her eyes widen in surprise at the abruptness of my reply.
I smile to soften the rudeness of my refusal. ‘I would have loved to have come, but I can’t because I promised to call my friend in the States and she’ll be waiting for my call.’
Fortunately she accepts my explanation at face value. ‘OK. See you later then,’ she sings.
‘See ya.’
She skips out, then pops her head around the door again. ‘You will make that appointment for me at the hairdresser, won’t you?’
‘Of course.’
‘Oh, and can you make sure it’s not Eileen that does my hair. She drives me mad talking about Cash all the time.’
‘Oh? Yeah, I’ll make sure you get someone else.’
‘Thank you,’ she sings and is gone from my room. My brain starts ticking again. In a funny sort of way I feel numb and detached from the weird situation I have gotten myself into.
The bad boy kissed me. And I kissed him back.
The water is cold. I really should get out.
Chapter Six
Tori
I dry myself and look at my reflection in the mirror. Tori Diamond. Blonde with a really guilty look in her cornflower blue eyes. OK, so the big plan is basically in tatters. Leah will have a fit when she hears where the plan has gone.
I look at my watch. It’s too early to call her. She will still be sleeping. She’s an author and she works at night and sleeps until noon.
I put the hairbrush down and wander over to my bedside table. Picking my cell phone up I call Mr. Wong and yeah, no problems. He’ll take Britney at 9.00am. Then I call the hairdresser.
‘Er … is Eileen around tomorrow afternoon?’
‘No, it’s her day off tomorrow,’ the receptionist says, after checking their roster.
‘Shame. Never mind, can I book an appointment for Britney tomorrow afternoon? Anything available about threeish?’