The house was dark when Jax and I finally arrived home. Mom and George had gone away for the weekend, and Maeve was visiting her grandchildren in Arizona, so we had the whole place to ourselves.
My head was spinning horribly now, like I was seasick, and I stumbled on the steps leading up to the front door. Jax grabbed my right arm, holding me steady. He helped me inside and upstairs, and when we finally reached my room, he picked me up and carried me over to the bed. I felt tiny and weightless in his strong arms, like I was nothing more than a doll.
As I slid under the silky sheets with a tired groan, Jax strode out of the room. He returned a moment later with a tall glass of water and quietly set it down on my bedside table. Then he leaned down and pulled the duvet over me, covering everything up to my chin. “It’s cold,” he muttered. “You just can’t feel it now because you’re drunk.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, feeling a strange flutter of excitement in my belly as I stared up at him.
He was arrogant. He was insufferable. I hated him. But now, in this moment, my intoxicated mind viewed him as my savior.
I slid a hand out from the blanket and reached up to stroke his thick, tousled hair. Then I pulled his head toward my face and pressed my lips to his. He didn’t stop me. He kissed me back, slowly, as if he wasn’t sure, and then he deepened the kiss. I let out a satisfied moan and ran one hand down the side of his face, letting the stubble on his jawline graze my fingertips.
Suddenly everything started lurching and spinning around me. The room went fuzzy, and I felt like I was swimming in the dark.
Shit.What the hell was happening? What was I doing?
I jerked away from the kiss and wiped my lips with one hand. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I… I thought you were someone else.”
It was a pathetic explanation, but I knew Jax would buy it. After all, I was drunk. Drunk enough that I needed his help to walk inside and climb into my own bed.
He abruptly drew back as if I’d reached out and slapped him. “Yeah, I figured,” he muttered. He rose to his full height and looked down at me with furrowed brows, eyes lingering on my lips as if he couldn’t believe his mouth was just on them.
“I hate you,” I whispered, needing him to know the kiss meant nothing. It was a mistake. A stupid, meaningless mistake. “I hate you so much.”
“So do I,” he said, looking away.
His reply could mean one of two things—either he hated me too, or he hated himself. Perhaps both. I couldn’t ask, though, because my eyelids were getting heavy with exhaustion and my mind was whirling again, sending me spiraling into another place.
I closed my eyes, letting the tide of darkness overwhelm me. I let it wash me far, far away, and then it finally pulled me under.
8
Jax
My phone was going crazy.
Four, six, eight, eleven, fourteen, nineteen.
I saw the notifications for all the missed calls and texts, but I ignored them. I already knew exactly what they’d be about—people asking me where I went, if I knew anything about Nate getting beaten up at his own party, or if I witnessed Kinsey’s humiliation.
I strode into my room and sprawled on the leather sofa with a frustrated grunt, one hand resting on my aching forehead. Jesus, what was Ithinking? In one night, I’d sabotaged a whole month’s worth of progress, and I had no fucking idea why.
The plan to create the prize pool was mostly mine, and the intention was clear and simple—get rid of Kinsey Holland.
I set it all in motion with the anonymous owner of the Dirt app after Kinsey’s first day at school—the creator tended to listen to people like me when we sent in tips or suggestions—and then I made sure everyone kept quiet about it and behaved civilly to her face so she wouldn’t suspect anything.
I didn’t change my behavior or attitude toward her, of course, and neither did Cerina or her friends, because that would’ve been too suspicious after our early run-ins with her. Everyone else, however… she’d never see that coming in a million years.
Once someone seduced her, claimed the prize, and subsequently shattered her heart and self-esteem, I figured she’d be humiliated and broken to the point where she’d never want to show her face at CPA again. She’d probably beg and plead for her mom to let her go back to Oakland and stay at a friend’s place while she finished out her senior year at her old school, and then I’d never have to see her again or worry about her intentions with my father.
None of that was going to happen now. Sure, Kinsey was humiliated after learning of the scheme, but she wasn’t completely destroyed, so I doubted she was going to leave town anytime soon.
It was all my goddamned fault. I wrecked the scheme the second I busted into that room and not-so-subtly warned her about it.
“Fuck!” I sprang off the couch and started pacing the room, hands clenched into fists at my sides.
Why the hell did I do all that shit tonight? Why should I care if that skank Kinsey wanted to fuck Nate Ellingham? Especially when she was actively trying to seduce my dad behind her mother’s back. She was a dirty little bitch and I shouldn’t give a single fuck about her.
But I did.