tossed the kernel of hope away. In less than a month, I would be leaving Blackwood Keep. Getting close to anyone was out of the question. It would only make running that much harder—and give my father a chance to find me. I had no idea how far he’d be willing to go to get me back, but I knew I couldn’t risk anyone getting hurt because of me.
“Good luck with that,” Jamie said, snorting. “Elliot definitely wouldn’t approve of his precious daughter mingling below her station.” Suddenly our gazes met, blue against brown. “Does your father know where you are? I wonder what you told him so he’d let you out to play.” Turning his head, he regarded his cousin. “That you were on a date with your fiancé, perhaps?” Snickering, his cruel gaze traveled to Four, sitting close by Ever’s side. “You three definitely give new meaning to ‘double date.’”
With a look to kill, Ever started to stand, but Vaughn beat him to his feet. “Did I hear someone mention beer?” he asked.
“Oh… yeah,” Wren said, tilting his chin toward me. “Bee—” we grinned at each other at his use of my nickname—“brought a case. I put it in the fridge to chill.”
“Beer’s beer,” Vaughn replied as he stepped over legs and feet until he reached Jamie. “Come and help me in the kitchen.”
“For what?” Jamie said with a twist of his lips. Vaughn’s only response was to kick his foot hard as hell. With a growl, Jamie shot to his feet and followed Vaughn into the kitchen.
“Sorry about that,” Tyra apologized with a gentle smile.
I shrugged, knowing they all saw through my indifference. Everyone seemed to think I was the one in need of rescuing, but I wasn’t the princess in this fairy tale. I’m not even the villain. I’m nothing while Jameson is everything.
As much as I wanted to hate him, I knew if Jamie had callously ripped out my heart as I had done to him, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to make him feel that pain tenfold.
So I’d take his lashes and bear the pain with the hope that it lessened his own.
“Music anyone?” Four offered as she stood. “Luckily, I commandeered Jamie’s iPod before school this morning.” Disappearing upstairs, she came back a few minutes later with an iPod and a handheld speaker shaped like a pill. “Any volunteers for deejay?”
“As long as it’s not some old country western, I don’t give a fuck what you play,” Tyra replied. “I’m depressed enough.”
Flipping her off, Four scrolled through Jamie’s iPod. “Just because I’m from the south doesn’t mean I listen to country.”
“It doesn’t mean you don’t, either.”
Sauntering back into the living room as if nothing had happened, Jamie butted in. “Good music is whatever sets your soul on fire. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you have bad taste because you stayed true to yourself.”
“Unless it’s Justin Bieber!” Vaughn shouted from the kitchen.
“Oh, yeah,” Jamie agreed with a vigorous nod of his head. “Fuck that guy.”
I noticed he only had two beers in his hand just before he handed me one. Was I mistaken or was this a peace offering? Hesitantly, I accepted it. When I felt his finger caress mine at the very last second, I wondered if he should be tested for mania. He could be so cold one moment and setting me on fucking fire the next.
When he sat down this time, he was close enough for me to smell his body wash or maybe his shampoo? Whichever it was, it made me lean into him.
Hmm… maybe I need to be checked, too.
It was beginning to feel as if we were trapped on an emotional roller coaster—one that wasn’t planning to stop any time soon.
“Did you know that Rihanna is Jamie’s favorite singer?” I announced with a bat of my eyelashes. My mind needed a distraction before my body did something crazy. “Not someone notable like Elvis or even Michael Jackson. Rihanna.”
Jamie frowned as he took a sip of his beer. I found myself mirroring him and took a sip of mine, too. “Show me someone else who can be that savage and still sexy. Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
“Holy shit!” Four interjected, her southern twang ringing loud and clear. Her eyes were wide as she clapped her hands over her mouth. “That explains everything! There were far too many of her songs on your iPod.”
“You mean the one you keep stealing?” he shot back.
Four didn’t bother defending herself and