Why, after all that before, did you do it?
He gives me a cold look. “You were wearing my coat. They’d have tied you to me anyway,” he says, brushing it off. He turns to look at Blair. “Do you believe what she’s wearing? That’s so short I can almost see what’s underneath it.”
My cheeks turn pink and begin to burn, but I try to stay on topic. It’s about damn time one of these boys gave me a straight answer.
“That can’t be the only reason,” I say, but Astor isn’t paying any attention.
He keeps circling me, his eyes clinging to my body even tighter than the dress. “Where on earth did you get that?” he asks. “It doesn’t suit you. It’s not your style.”
My style? I don’t have a style. I have the school catalogue … all school uniforms and ill-fitting sweaters.
“Victoria loaned it to me for tonight,” I answer honestly.
“That figures.” He rolls his eyes and finally stops pacing. “I don’t like it.”
Anger begins to bubble up in me. “You don’t have to like it. I didn’t wear it for you.”
“Yeah?” he asks as his eyebrows rise. “Who did you wear it for?”
“That doesn’t matter—why did you tell Dr. Baxter that you took the lamp?” I demand, planting my hands on my hips. Maybe it’s the wine talking, or maybe it’s just that I’m tired of not getting answers.
His brown eyes take on a fire in them for a moment as he watches me grow increasingly frustrated.
“You don’t have to know everything, Sadie,” he says simply.
“Did you get into trouble? I don’t want you taking the rap for me,” I say. I don’t want to owe this bastard anything. “If there’s a punishment coming, it should be mine.”
He steps up close to me and slips his finger under my chin, raising my face so that I’m looking straight up at him. “Oh … there’s a punishment coming for you. Don’t have any misgivings about that.”
My heart starts pounding and my blood rushes. Unwarranted fear begins to bite at the edges of my mind.
“What about you? What happened to you?”
He’s silent a moment, watching me, and then he looks up past my shoulder towards the door. He lets go of my chin. “Nothing. Nothing ever happens to me here.”
I drop my eyes to the floor as I realize why. “Because you’re untouchable.”
Astor glances down at me coldly. “Damn straight I am. Blair, take care of this for me.”
He walks out of the room and closes the door partway behind him. I turn and watch him go, wondering what he’s talking about. A moment later, my worries have shifted because Blair is right behind me snaking his hands around my waist. I gasp and turn to face him, and am caught in his arms, lost in that bad boy green eyed gaze of his.
“Just for the record, I love the dress. I have a half a mind to put you on the back of my motorcycle and drive you straight out of here so I can have you all to myself.” His voice is low and soft, black velvet again, and I can feel myself melting inside.
“You … you have a motorcycle here?” I ask, just above a whisper.
He laughs softly. “Yeah, I do. But I don’t want to talk about my motorcycle.”
I can barely breathe, and my heart has somehow managed to beat itself right out of my chest. I don’t even know how I’m standing right now. It’s the wine. It has to be the wine. It’s going to my head. The room is getting warmer, and I’m getting a little dizzy, and being in Blair’s arms isn’t helping that at all.
“What … what do you want to talk about?” I ask him, trying to focus on his eyes. That little smile is at the corner of his mouth and it makes the butterflies in my stomach do somersaults.
“I don’t want to talk at all,” he answers me, and in the next breath his lips are on my lips. I gasp, drawing in a deep breath of my own at his unexpected kiss. Before I can even figure out how to react his mouth is moving slowly over mine. I can taste the wine on him, and then I can taste his tongue as it twists around mine.
A soft moan escapes me, and I have no idea where it came from. His hands move from my waist to my back, and up into the pretty braid that Victoria styled for me. His fingers slip slowly through it, loosening it so my hair falls back down around my shoulders.
He lifts his mouth from mine and begins to kiss my cheek, and then trails his lips to my ear and my neck. I’ve stopped breathing. It’s all I can do to keep standing.
“Don’t tie your hair up like this. I want it down. I like it down.” He brings my hair forward, running his fingers through it as he kisses my neck hotly. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the moment I saw you,” he murmurs in my ear, and I can feel him taking slow steps backward. I walk with him, wondering where we are going, until he lowers us both down onto the sofa where he had been sitting with Astor.