A blonde wasp sat across from him, reaching her hand out to cover his clenched one. I felt numb as I swallowed my pride and moved forward, the wine bottle shaking in my grip.
We hadn’t said anything about being exclusive, I reminded myself.
With the doors to the many balconies left opened, the summer night breeze blew through but did nothing to calm me. If anything, it rattled my temper further.
I smiled at her, but the girl was too focused on Nathaniel sitting across from her to register my presence.
Nathaniel’s calculating gaze took me in and I knew, by the same way he looked at me before a debate, he was trying to understand me before I even understood myself.
I wanted to pour the red wine down his perfect white suit and watch his perfect composure break.
I shook myself out of it. This wasn’t anything. Nothing was between us, but anger and sex. He was allowed to date other girls. He didn’t belong to me and I definitely didn’t belong to him.
I stood at the edge of the table and politely smiled his way.
Nathaniel simply stared back, two fingers under his mouth.
“Good evening. Would you like some white or red wine tonight?” I asked, keeping my voice cool and composed.
Sweat ran down my spine.
“Red wine,” the Wasp said, flashing her teeth at me as she patted her napkin down on her lap.
I nodded, pouring the red liquor into the crystal glass.
The Wasp turned her attention back to Nathaniel. “My family sends their hellos.” She grinned at him, her dimples appearing in the crease of her cheeks.
I could still feel his gaze on me, burning a hole into the side of my head.
Slowly, I turned to face him, straightening. For once, I was taller than him, towering over the man before me.
“And you, sir?” I choked on those words.
He lowered his eyes, dark lashes fanning over his olive cheeks. He scanned me, from head to toe, as a man would someone he knew intimately and the back of my neck grew hot. Because he had. He had kissed places on my body no one had ever even seen.
“Red, Ms. Monroe,” he said, my name sitting like heaven and hell on his full, arrogant lips.
My hands trembled.
“Do you know her, Nathan?” the woman asked, her eyes darting between us. Her fingers played with the edge of her crystal glass, manicured nails raking up and down.
His bright eyes swept over me again and returned to my face. He leaned back in his chair, appraising me and I couldn’t snap back at him.
“Yes,” he finally spoke, the smugness gone from his voice and expression. A sound I couldn’t understand echoed in his voice. “She offered to help my mother this summer. We compete at Yale. She’s my greatest rival.”
My throat grew tight and I struggled to hold his powerful gaze. I watched as his mouth relaxed and opened.
“Your greatest rival?” The woman laughed, her nails dragging painfully across the expensive crystal. “How ancient. Plus, I couldn’t believe anyone being as intelligent and savvy as you, Nathan.” Her hand reached out and stroked the edge of his. He didn’t move away from the touch.
Yet, his gaze still held mine.
“You would believe that until you saw her singlehandedly destroy men with that sharp tongue of hers,” he said, a smile growing ever so slightly at the corner of his mouth.
My chest felt light, too light as I gawked at him.
Wasp’s cheeks hollowed out.
“It seems you’re invincible to my sharp tongue,” I said, tilting my head to the side.
That earned a smile and it blinded me like the sun. “I’d argue the opposite.”
A heat grew and I couldn’t stop myself from flushing.
And then the heat cooled as a splash hit my skin.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, her slender hands picking up the crystal glass. “I’m so clumsy.” She laughed again.
I slowly looked down at myself, seeing the harsh red stains on my white clothes.
When I glanced up at her, she hid a smile behind her fingers, as if trying to appear upset.
Standing in front of them, in a room full of people so much more powerful than I, I felt small, humiliated.
I swallowed.
“Juliette,” Nathaniel said, standing.
“No,” I bit out harshly and turned back to the Wasp. “Have a lovely evening.”
Her smile wavered and I turned away, rushing out of the dining hall and down the hallway. A few couples stopped at my appearance, but I kept walking, hoping I could outrun the embarrassment.
I slammed open the woman’s bathroom and stalked to the sinks, grabbing the ridiculous deluxe paper towel imported from France and wetting it.
The red stains looked like blood as I scrubbed, blinking back angry tears. She had done it on purpose, it hadn’t been an accident. I’d been crossing the line.
I shook my head, mumbling curses to myself.
At the sound of the door opening, I glanced up at the mirror, ready to excuse myself, but then I saw him.
Nathaniel walked in, shutting the door behind him.
I dropped my head again and focused on the stains. The stupid stains that weren’t coming out, only slightly fading.
“Are you here to apologize on behalf of your date?” I hissed between my teeth.
Nathaniel stayed silent for a moment. “No.”
I huffed. “You rich boys move on fast.”
Again, silence followed, the only sound my harsh breathing and my hands viciously scrubbing at the stains.
“She felt threatened by you,” he said.
My head snapped up. “What?”
He shrugged lazily, his hands stuffed into his pockets. “She felt intimidated by you.”
I shook my head, again scrubbing. “She has everything. Beauty, money, a bright, easy future ahead of her. I’m just the maid, remember?”
“No, she doesn’t.” I looked up when I heard the bite in his voice. For once not cool, not composed. I saw his throat muscles move as he swallowed and he took a step forward. “She doesn’t have your intelligence. Or your anger.”
I scoffed and bowed my head, viciously scrubbing at the red stain on my skirt. “Anger is not a desirable trait, Nathaniel.”
His fingers touched my wrist and I froze. His long, tanned fingers wrapped around my wrist and he lifted my hands from my skirt. “You’ll rub your hands raw, Juliette.”
I reddened, curling my hands into fists. I saw the pinkness on the tips of my fingers. When I became stressed, obsessive, I couldn’t stop.
“Your anger is desirable to me,” he said and my eyes snapped up to his, capturing my entire attention.
I tried to straighten, tried to gather my wits, but under his gaze, I felt naked. “You’re the only one who makes me furious.”
A smile stung his mouth. “Good.” He looked far too smug. “I’m the only bastard who gets your wrath.”
I hated how his words made me weak, made me loose and warm and giddy. I wasn’t that girl. I wouldn’t lose focus on my end goal. My future.
“You should get back to your date,” I said and pulled my hand back.
He watched me for a moment. “She’s not anyone important, if that’s a concern of yours.”
I fixed my lopsided skirt.
At my silence, he edged closer, hands in his pockets. “But maybe we should set some ground rules to our affair.”
My stomach heated at the word affair. It made it sound so forbidden and secret and sacred.
“Until summer ends, we won’t be with anyone else,” he said, watching my expression.
I nodded.
His mouth twisted ruefully. “Give me your word, Juliette.”
I swallowed at his tone. “I agree.”
His body relaxed from my words and I stared at him in wonder.
“And why were you having dinner with her?”
“She’s a family friend.”
I nodded at that. “She’s pretty.” Blonde and tall and tanned.
He smiled, looking at me as if he knew something I didn’t and moved closer, cornering me against the sink. “She doesn’t get me hard like you do.”
He was so close, his front skimming mine and I felt his erection.
“Are you scared of me?” He tilted his head to the side, examining me, looking for cracks in my armor. “Are you scared of a challenge?”
“No,” I said, but my voice shook, the depth of my stomach stirring with heat and passion. I remembered how he felt from behind me, towering, his heavy body pounding into my depth.
I remembered him and his three friends. How their names were spoken like sacred hymns and how much power, terror, and legacy came with them. He was bigger than most men. More important, more powerful and he would only grow stronger, larger than life itself. I felt it in my bones like a storm was approaching off the ocean and onto the sandy quiet beaches. He had been immortalized the moment he took his first breath.
The only thing I was afraid of was my own mortality in front of him. Gods fell in love with mortals and demolished them piece-by-piece. I had been fighting against the electric pull between us, but I was becoming hungry for more of him.
His fingers skimmed the edge of my hip, dipping beneath the fabric of my skirt. “Then lift up your skirt.”
I paled. “What if someone walks in?”
His brows wrinkled while his finger skimmed my skin and I shivered. “Are you scared of a challenge?” he repeated, cocking a brow to irk me.
I glared at him. He was taunting me. He knew I wouldn’t back down, just like in each of our debates.
Still keeping my heated gaze on him, I lifted the hemline of my skirt, exposing my white panties.
My breath hitched as he lifted me up onto the sinks, spreading my thighs open for him to settle between them. He didn’t waste a second, finding my slit beneath my panties and feeling how wet I was. He smirked, unbuckling his belt and freeing his engorged length without removing his pants completely.
“You’ll never back down,” he hissed between his teeth, pushing my panties to the side as the blunt head of his cock found my entrance and he rubbed it up and down, spreading my wet lips, teasing me. “And neither will I. And right now, you’re my challenge, Juliette.” He thrust deep and I gasped, my hands going to grip his broad shoulders.
His mouth took mine in a bruising kiss before I could shout and I hated how he knew my body, how he knew my mind.
He pounded, deep and slow, not worried if someone would walk in on us, and I both despised and loved that fact about him.
He never let others control him. He never let others dictate his time or presence. He was steel and iron. Forged and unbreakable.
I felt like delicate glass in his powerful hands.
I fought him—thrust for thrust, kiss for kiss, nip for nip, and he met me each time, working each other to a pleasure so intense, I feared it would end us both.