Madly and Wolfhardt (3 page)

Jackson’s voice was light and happy, and his question took me so off guard, I had to look up at him to make sure someone else hadn’t taken his place. 

He was smiling, his face relaxed and gorgeous.  He glanced down at me, a teasing and flirtatious gleam in his eyes.  I was instantly confused.

“What?”

His brow wrinkled slightly, his smile widening enough to bring out the single dimple in his right cheek.

“You mean you don’t remember that?”

“Of course I remember that.  I just- I’m just—”

Jackson chuckled, a sound that resonated in my chest and tugged at my heart.

“Who could blame the poor guy?  The way you flirted with him—touching his arm and laughing up at him—he was overcome by your extraordinary beauty.  I’m sure if I had killed him, he’d have died happy.”

“I wasn’t flirting with him.  I was just—”

“Oh, come on!  You had the attention of every guy at the ceremony.  It’s almost as if you were trying to make someone jealous,” he said, winking down at me.

My heart fluttered behind my sternum.  I felt like I’d had a mini-stroke or something.  What happened to the surly Sentinel that I’d been walking with two minutes ago?  Where had this Jackson—the one I’d known forever, the one I’d thought I’d loved—been all this time?

Before I could comment, the prolonged creak of a door opening reached our ears.  Jackson stopped and turned toward me.  Although I couldn’t take my eyes off him, I saw movement in my peripheral vision.

“Admit it.  You were trying to make me jealous,” he said, grinning down at me.  “Sell it, Madly,” he whispered, barely moving his lips, his eyes looking meaningfully into mine.

It was then that I figured out what he’d been doing.  And it made me furious.  He’d been pretending, merely playing a part with his friendly repartee.  Meanwhile, I’d been falling under the spell of the Jackson that I used to know.  Fortunately, two could play that game.

Turning on my brightest smile, I stretched up on my toes and wrapped my arms around Jackson’s neck.  “Of course I was trying to make you jealous.  How else was I going to get you to kiss me?”

I stared into the powdery blue of Jackson’s eyes, daring him to back down now.  I saw the gleam of challenge light the shimmering pools, but behind it was something else—something warm and dark and forbidden.

“Is that what you wanted?  For me to kiss you?” Jackson asked quietly, his hands drifting lazily up and down my sides. 

As I watched, his pupils swelled to eclipse the azure of his eyes and his gaze flickered to my mouth and back.

“Mmm,” I murmured, unable to speak past the lump of excitement in my throat.

“You asked for it,” he whispered, tilting his head to one side and lowering his lips to mine.

The first touch of his soft mouth was feather light, little more than the kiss of the wind on my skin.  But in that brief contact, electricity passed between us, a jolt that made my lips tingle, and I wanted more. 

As if he could read my mind, Jackson obliged.  Bringing one big hand up to cup the back of my head, he angled his face and deepened the kiss.

I felt the pressure of his mouth everywhere.  It spread like fingers of flame down my neck and chest and puddled like boiling lava in my stomach.  It overflowed and ran in hot rivulets down my legs, setting fire to my toes.  My lips parted and I felt as much as heard Jackson’s groan, his breath flooding my mouth with moist warmth.

“What are you kids doing in my yard?” a harsh, old voice called, shattering the private world Jackson and I had found.

Jackson lifted his head and stared down at me for several long, intense seconds before he stepped back and turned toward the voice.

“Sorry, ma’am,” he called.  “We were just out for a walk, heading that way,” he explained, pointing to indicate the other side of her house.

“Be on your way then.  There’s no trespassing on my property.”

“Yes, ma’am.  I apologize.  We were just leaving.”

Taking my hand once more, Jackson pulled me along behind him. 

CHAPTER THREE

We were almost past the house into the woods on the other side before I finally managed to take my eyes off him long enough to glance at the woman standing on the front porch of the white mansion.

Considering her voice, she was taller and more elegant than I would’ve expected.  In my head, I had the mental picture of a stooped, steely-haired, heavily wrinkled old woman in tattered clothes.  But this woman looked nothing like that.  Her short, dark brown hair was perfectly coiffed and her back was ram-rod straight.  She was clothed in black slacks and a deep red blouse, and I could see her matching lipstick from all the way across the yard.

When we re-entered the woods and were well out of earshot, Jackson stopped and turned back toward the house.

“Do you think that was Kellina’s grandmother?” I asked.

“Probably,” he said, still holding my hand.

When he turned back to me, we simply stood looking at one another for what seemed like an eternity before he slowly dropped my hand and said, “We’d better head back.”

I nodded, feeling inordinately disappointed that our outing was over, to say nothing about how I felt about the end of our kiss.

Jackson and I walked all the way back to the dorm in silence, though this silence was filled with a thousand different things.  Or at least
I
felt like it was.  Gone was the anger from earlier, replaced by a quiet introspection, a shared awe over what had just happened.

I desperately hoped that Jackson had felt something real, too.  It seemed as though he had, but with Jackson, there was no way to be sure.

When I opened the door to my room, we looked at each other and I smiled.  After only a tiny hesitation, one side of Jackson’s mouth twitched up into the ghost of a smile before he disappeared through his own door, closing it quietly behind him.

With a sigh, I did the same, only on my side, I was greeted by one aggravated Jersey.

“Where have you been?” she demanded, her hands on her hips and a deep frown creasing her brow. 

“I was with Jackson, checking out the woods near Kellina’s house.  Why?”

“With Jackson?” she asked, straightening, clearly confused.

“Yeah.  Why?”

“What were you doing with him?”

“I told you.  We were check—”

“I heard you the first time, but why were you with
Jackson?”

“Because he’s the Sentinel assigned to me, that’s why.  What’s the big deal?  Geez!”

Jersey continued to stare at me, her frown making me uncomfortable.

“Madly, I think—”

Jersey stopped herself, as if she’d suddenly changed her mind about what she was going to say.

I watched her impatiently.

“You think what?” I prompted.

Jersey shook her head.  “Nothing.”

I could tell by her body language that it wasn’t
nothing,
but I wasn’t in the mood to press, so I let it go, turning instead toward my closet.

After a couple of minutes of strained silence, Jersey plopped down on my bed.

“So, what did you find?”

“Huh?”

“In the woods.”

“Oh.  Nothing really.  Kellina’s got a really nice house, but her grandmother sounds mean.”

“Hmm,” she muttered distractedly.  “We still on for the beach tonight?”

“Yeah.  Why?”

“Well, I thought maybe we could turn it into a little more of a party, so I invited a few people from school.”

“Jersey!”

“I thought it would look more…authentic,” she smiled, proud of herself.

“But I told Kellina it would just be us.”

“Settle down, Madly.  I only invited a few.  We need to get to know these people, right?  I mean, now more than ever.”

She had a point.  There was no arguing that.  It still just irritated me that she’d taken such a liberty without asking me.  Of course, that was pretty typical of Jersey.  She was a  worry-about-the-consequences-later
type of person if I’d ever seen one.

“I know you’re right.  I just…” I trailed off, letting the words die on a sigh.

“Besides, it’s not like it’s turning into a rave or anything.”

A couple hours later, I’m pretty sure Jersey reconsidered that statement.  We could hear the loud throb of music long before we got to the beach.  Then, once we got a little closer, we saw the thick throng of people surrounding a huge bonfire that was already ablaze on the sand.

Kellina stopped with one foot still on the sidewalk.  “I thought there were just going to be a few people here.”

I cast a withering look at Jersey.

“It was supposed to be just us, but word got out.  I hope you don’t mind.”

I could see the indecision on Kellina’s pretty face.  She did mind and I knew it. 

“Come on, Kellina.  Stay.  It’ll be fun,” Jersey chimed.

Kellina looked from the crowd to me, to Jersey and then back to the crowd. 

“I guess I can stay for a little while.”

I smiled in relief.  “Good.  Come on.”

Before we left, Jersey said she’d seen Jackson and that he was sending several Sentinels to the party.  For the first time (probably ever), I didn’t mind.  I knew Kellina would be safest in the midst of the Mer.

My stomach flipped over at the thought of Jackson, but I ruthlessly pushed him away and put all my focus on Kellina.

As we approached the mass of squirming bodies, I caught sight of Aidan.  He’d preceded us to the party.  He was so outgoing and funny, he’d made a few friends almost instantly, friends Jersey had invited to the party.  And you knew the majority of them would be male.  You could always count on Jersey to invite the boys.  She loved to flirt.

He spotted me, turned and said something to the two boys with whom he was talking, and then made his way over to our trio.  He was smiling and happy as he approached, but as I introduced him to Kellina, his smile faded somewhat.

“Aidan this is Kellina Stratford.  We have Calculus together.  Kellina, this is—” I trailed off, looking helplessly at Aidan.  I’d never had to introduce him to a stranger, a non-Mer, before and I had no idea how to categorize our relationship.  I couldn’t very well admit that we were to be betrothed in a few months.

“I’m Aidan,” he provided, swooping in to save me from a would-be blunder.

Relieved that he’d taken the lead on that one, I turned back to Kellina.  I watched her cheeks flood with color and a sweet, shy smile curve her lips.

“It’s nice to meet you, Aidan.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around,” he admitted.  “I would’ve remembered that.”

More color poured into Kellina’s cheeks and I looked to Aidan.  His eyes were fixed on her face in an odd way, a way that said he couldn’t have looked away even if he’d wanted to.  I felt like I recognized that look.  It was the expression I imagined my face carried when I looked at Jackson.