“This is who you decided to come with?” Cole asked, his voice dripping with disgust.
“She knows a good guy when she sees one,” Justin said stiffly.
Lips I’d kissed pursed with irritation. “I need to talk to Ali. Alone.”
“No way I’d ever leave her alone with you. You’re not the kind of—”
Cole was in his face before Justin could finish that sentence. “If you don’t go inside, you’ll be eating your teeth. You know I can make you do it. I have before.”
“Enough!” I got between them and pushed them apart. Still Cole didn’t meet my gaze. “Seriously, that’s enough.” Clearly these guys had some history, but come on. Ruining a party before it had even begun was overkill.
“Why don’t we let Ali pick?” Justin said with a smug inflection that had me gnashing my teeth in annoyance.
“Ali,” Cole snapped. “I waited for you for a reason. You can guess what it is.”
“I—” might have a vision, I realized. This was the first time I’d seen Cole today.
Neither one of us knew what would happen when our eyes met. “I’ll, uh, meet you inside,” I said to Justin.
His gaze whipped to me, hurt falling over his expression. “You said you weren’t seeing him.”
“I’m not.” At least, not now. “He’s my friend.” Kinda sorta.
“His friends die.”
Yeah, but Justin had no idea why. “Well, I won’t.”
“Fine. Whatever,” Justin snapped, and I realized I’d probably lost his friendship sooner rather than later. “I hope you enjoy being stabbed in the back, because that’s all he’s good at.”
He stomped inside, leaving me alone with Cole—who grabbed me by the wrist and tugged me into the shadows.
“Do you have any idea what a snake that guy is?” he demanded, pressing me against the cold of the wall. “Are you working with him?”
“No!” I kept my gaze down, on his boots. “I don’t even know where he works.”
Cole mumbled something like “Are you kidding me?” under his breath. “So you’re just dating him, then.”
“I’m not dating him.” I want to date you. “We’re just friends.” Kinda sorta.
“Like we’re just friends?” he sneered.
I balled my hands. “I haven’t kissed him, if that’s what you mean.”
A pause. A sharp inhalation. “Just so you know, he’s the kind of friend who will go for your throat—while you’re sleeping.”
Definite history there. “He basically said the same thing about you. So what happened between you guys?”
“That’s none of your business.”
His voice had risen with every word. In a few seconds, he’d be shouting and kids would be spilling out of the house to discover who Cole was murdering. “Let’s just get this over with, okay? Look at me.”
“Not okay. Don’t you want to know where I was this morning?” he asked, settling his hands on my waist.
So warm, so strong. So distracting. I cleared my throat. “Will you tell me if I say yes?”
“I was reinforcing your house. I saw the worry in your eyes when I mentioned that we draw the…you know, and not the you know you were talking about last night. I wanted to make sure your grandparents were protected.”
That was, like, the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me. “Thank you.”
“And then I find you here with Justin Silverstone.” Anger pulsed from him, each wave slamming into me. He placed two fingers under my chin and lifted my head. “So yeah, we’ll get this over with and go our separate ways.”
I had to purse my lips to hold in my protest. Had he meant go our separate ways permanently or just for tonight?
The moment I met those gorgeous purple eyes, the world vanished and my mind blanked. No longer were we standing—
—we were lying down, and he was on top of me. We were dressed, though my shirt had ridden up to just under my bra. Grass cushioned me. We were in a backyard, but it wasn’t mine. Sunlight spotlighted us, but we didn’t care. He had one hand on my stomach, and one on my face.
“Are you sorry?” he asked.
“No. Are you?”
“Never. I just wish we could—”
Someone laughed from inside the house, and the too-short vision vanished in a puff of smoke.
I gently beat at Cole’s chest. I think we were destined to be interrupted every time.
He accepted the abuse without comment. When I settled, I murmured an apology, unsure how many others I’d have to make tonight, and leaned my forehead against him, despite the fact that I wasn’t certain of my reception. His heart thumped wildly, a mimic of mine, and I took comfort in that.
“What do you think I was sorry about?” I asked.
“Your date with Justin?”
I hit him again.
“What? It was just a guess.” At least the anger had drained from him.
That was, hands down, my favorite vision, even though we hadn’t really done anything. Would have been nice to know what we’d done before the conversation—and what we’d been leading up to.
Whatever the answers, happiness began to flood me. Everything we’d seen had happened in some form or another. Therefore, Cole wasn’t done with me permanently. We would sprawl in someone’s backyard and touch and talk and…whatever else.
“Let’s go inside before I do something I’ll regret,” he muttered, ushering me to the door.
“Like what?”
“Like, I can’t say. Knowing you, you’ll run.”
Before he could open the glass, two boys I’d never met peeked out. They leered when they spotted me, even issued my mouth an invitation to the party in their pants—or tried to. Their words tapered off when they noticed Cole. They frowned and backed away, the color draining from their cheeks.
“You weren’t lying when you said everyone’s afraid of you,” I remarked.
“I know, and that’s the way I like it. No one asks me any questions about what I’m up to, they just expect the worst and keep their distance. You should take a lesson.”
“Ha! I’m not afraid of you, and I never will be.” I wouldn’t mention the times I had, in fact, been afraid of him.
“So you keep saying. But I’ll keep trying to change your mind.”
Cole held the door open for me, and I swept inside the house, purring, “With your lethal manners? Good luck.”
“Funny.”
Music thumped from speakers in the ceiling, voices and laughter mingling and creating a ragged soundtrack of chaos.
Kids meandered throughout, some drinking from plastic red cups, some chanting, “Go Tigers!” Some were more interested in talking, but a few were more interested in making out against the wall. I couldn’t locate Justin in the crowd, but can I just say that there was more T and A in here than in a bucket of the Kentucky Colonel’s best? Shirts were more bralike than anything and skirts and shorts were totally butt-tastic. I was way overdressed in my pink tank and jeans, but that hardly seemed like a good enough reason for all the girls to be looking at me with disgust.
Surely I was mistaken. Except, equally weird, the boys couldn’t keep their eyes off me, either, most of them leering at me just like the ones at the door. Twice I checked my zipper to make sure I wasn’t flashing pantie. (I wasn’t.)
“Be careful of snakes,” Cole said, and turned away from me. He tried to walk away.
I grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “At least tell me what Justin did to—”
“Nope, I’m not talking about that here.” He gazed pointedly at my hand.
O-kay. I released him. “Who’s running now?”
The taunt worked; he stayed put. For a long while, we simply stood there, silent. Finally, he massaged the back of his neck and growled, “Do you want to dance?”
“With your attitude?” And after what had happened the last time we’d danced in public? No. But that was not the word that left my mouth. “Yes.”
I should have continued my search for Justin. I shouldn’t have allowed Cole to pull me into the center of the action, but I did. Everyone else rocked out at a swift pace, but he hugged me close and swayed slowly.
This was my night to pretend I had no troubles, and I planned to pretend my heart out.
“What time do you have to be home?” he asked.
“Twelve-thirty. Why?”
“No reason.”
For a long while I debated whether or not to rest my head on Cole’s shoulder. Debated whether or not I should lock my hands around his neck, toy with the ends of his hair, peer deep and meaningfully into his eyes. I’m not sure what I actually did while I was debating.
“Relax. I’m not going to bite you,” he said. “Not tonight, anyway.”
“Funny.”
“Who’s joking?”
He was. He had to be. In the end, I did rest my head on his shoulder, if only to hide what I’m sure was a bemused expression. Then I thought, what the heck, why not do all of it? You’re normal, remember? I locked my hands around his neck and toyed with the ends of his hair. He stroked his fingertips up and down my spine, then over my hips.
I could have stayed like that forever, but after a few songs, we both started to press even closer, rubbing against each other, sweating from the heat of the room, struggling to breathe properly. I straightened. Our gazes connected. He leaned toward me.
I think we realized the consequences of kissing in front of everyone at the same time because we snapped apart a split second before contact.
“Come on,” he muttered, leading me away from the dance floor. “I don’t want to leave you alone, but I can’t stay with you, either.”
I understood. Thankfully I spotted Kat, who looked as beautiful as always though she was even paler than she’d been on her fake sick day. “No worries, I’ll be with Kat.” I raced toward her, concerned.
