Harper wrote down an address and “password” on a napkin and surreptitiously passed it to the girls. “You shouldn’t wait for me, though-I have to stick around here for a while to take care of Adam.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “Don’t tell anyone, but he and Beth had another fight.”
There, that should get the gossip chain started and hopefully put a nice shiny nail in the coffin of that relationship.
“But you know what,” Harper said, smiling at her own bright idea, “why don’t you invite Kaia along? I’m sure she’d love to see what a good party looks like around here-and she certainly won’t want to spend the rest of her night in this dump.”
“Thanks, Harper, that’s a great idea,” Mini-Me enthused. “You’re really the best, you know that?”
Harper just smiled. “Actually, I do.”
The girls took off, and Harper watched them as they headed back to their table and collected their stuff. Looked like they were taking the bait. She felt a momentary twinge of guilt at the thought of them wandering through a dark and empty warehouse wondering where the frat boys were and where the keg was hidden-but Harper didn’t believe in rewarding stupidity with leniency. And at least this way they would learn their lesson.
Maybe.
Now if only they could drag Kaia along with them. She peered through the crowd to check out Kaia’s table-but Kaia was gone. Home for the night? It seemed unlikely that such a wild party girl-or so she claimed-would have given up on the nightlife so early, pathetic as it was. More likely, she was off somewhere looking for trouble.
Speaking of which… Adam had been gone forever, and the bathroom just wasn’t that far away.
So where was he?
“You know you want me,” Kaia whispered, her breath hot and moist against his ear.
Adam said nothing, but didn’t-couldn’t-push her away.
He’d pushed her away in the motel room-and she’d come back.
He’d pushed her away in the locker room-and she’d come back.
He’d pushed her away when she accosted him outside the bathroom-and yet she was still here. Still had her arms wrapped around him.
He was so tired of pushing.
And she was so beautiful.
It amazed him-how Kaia and Beth could be so different, how Kaia could be the opposite of almost everything he loved about Beth (and he did love her, he reminded himself, reassured himself). Kaia was hard where Beth was soft, confident where Beth was shy, determined where Beth was so easily deterred. Kaia’s jet black hair, her sparkling green eyes, her icy beauty-they were nothing like the silky blond comfort he found in Beth’s arms.
So different, and yet-
And yet he wanted them both so much.
But Beth would never forgive him.
“Beth would never have to know,” she whispered, as if she’d read his thoughts.
Or had he spoken them aloud?
Adam no longer knew. Kaia’s perfume washed over him, mixing with the smoky air, and he was suffocating, he was dizzy, he was lost in the pounding of the music, the vibrations running through the floor, through their bodies, the thunderous bass. He was lost in the sight of her swollen lips, her wide eyes, her body pressing against his in the darkness.
He thought of Beth, of the look on her face when she’d walked away from him outside the school, of the sound of her voice through her tears, telling him she didn’t trust him, could never trust him. He thought of what Beth would think, what she would do if she saw him here with Kaia. Thought of proving her wrong, thought of proving her right-
And then, as Kaia’s hands tightened around his waist, as his chest pressed against hers, as her tongue slipped past his lips-he wasn’t thinking about Beth anymore.
She should never have gone looking for him.
That was all Harper could think, the only words her mind could muster as she stood frozen, staring at the two of them. Together. Wrapped in each other’s arms.
Harper wanted to say something-wanted to spit out a venomous one-liner that would make them leap apart in shame. She wanted to shoot them both a murderous look, then shrug her shoulders, spin on her heel, and walk off in disgust.
A perfect exit.
Classy.
Cool.
Unconcerned.
But she had no words-she’d lost the power to speak, to stalk away. It was all she could do to keep standing, breathing… watching.
And so, paralyzed, half-hidden by the darkness-not that either of them would have noticed her had she been lit up by a spotlight-she stayed, wanting nothing more than to turn away But couldn’t.
Couldn’t stop watching him, his hands running through her hair, his lips pressed against hers, her hands running up and down his back, then their hands clasped, their fingers intertwined-Kaia’s hands, Kaia’s fingers, Kaia’s lips where she had always dreamed that hers would, should be…
No.
Harper took a deep breath and forced herself to turn her back on the couple, on her best friend, on what the night could have been. Turned away.
She would not cry. No matter what, she would not cry-and she would not stay.
She pushed her way through the smoky bar and threw herself out into the cool desert night.
Let him wonder where she’d gone.
Let him find his own ride home.
And-she knew he would.
Hating her, hating him-hating herself for being so weak, for being so pathetic, for not being able to hate him at all-not even now, when the two of them, together, all over each other, was all she could see, Harper walked aimlessly down the empty street.
She was shaking, but she didn’t feel the cold-could feel nothing, except the painful, empty hole in the pit of her stomach. Her bare hand, which had so recently been warmed by his touch. And finally, after a few blocks and a few deep breaths, the rage.The hot blaze of anger-and the cool certainty that this was not over, that this was not a fight she was prepared to lose.
Adam would be hers… and Kaia would be sorry.
They went back to the abandoned motel. Of course.
Adam felt like he was watching the scene happen to someone else. That couldn’t be him, clutching Kaia’s hand, following her down the long and dusty hallways and into one of the cramped, dark rooms. It must be someone else giving in to her warm touch, the soft pressure of her hands forcing him down onto the mattress. It couldn’t be him.
All his willpower had drifted away, all the excitement and energy that had surged through him in the club as he finally let himself go and ran his hands over her body, as she nibbled his earlobe and whispered, “Let’s get out of here”-all that had seeped away. This wasn’t a crime committed in the heat of passion-it was a crime of omission, a failure to stop the chain of events that had started in the bar, that had brought him here.
But who could stop an avalanche? Who could stop a train wreck?
Inevitability.
That was the word he was groping for. Everything had taken on a strange tinge of inevitability, as if everything that had happened in the last few weeks, everything since he’d first seen her, first taken her hand in his, had led directly to this moment. To Kaia.
She stood before him and, with a sultry smile, pulled off her halter top, revealing the black lace bra that lay beneath.
Then off went the shimmering silver skirt.
Off went the lace.
