Tangled (25 page)

Fury
dissolved the ice sheathing Cameron’s gaze, but it collapsed just as quickly into
tightly controlled coolness. “You’re a piece of shit Adonis.” He approached
him. “I know it. You know it. So does everyone else.”

He
didn’t want to hear this. “Fuck you.”

“Fucking
seems to be the only thing you’re good for because you’re shit at everything
else, especially being a friend.” Cameron folded his arms. “Do you even know
the definition? Better yet, do you even have any outside of me? And I’m not
talking about the coke whores and potheads you toke up with. And before you
answer, think of how many would show up at your funeral. I know who’d attend
mine. Can you say the same?”
 

Adonis
ground his teeth so hard he could feel his molars cracking.

“I’ll
answer for you. You don’t. And that’s because you don’t give a shit about
anybody other than yourself. Or the next time you score drugs or ass. Are you
surprised that people feel the same about you? To them, you’re nothing but a
novelty, a sideshow to keep them entertained until something flashier comes
along. Out of everybody we went to school with, how many cared that you
overdosed? How many flew across the country to visit you in the hospital?”

“What’s
your point,” he snapped.

“My
point is you owe me. So stay away from her or lose the last person in your
miserable life who gives a shit if you’re breathing or not.”

Leave
it to Cam old boy to haul him aboard the this-is-how-your-life-sucks caboose
and hit every rut along the way. “If you can’t keep your girl, it’ll be your
own fault, not mine.” Adonis slammed past him and into the house.

Whatever
happened to bros before hos?

________________

The
burn in her calves was excruciating. Ignoring her muscles’ protests, she forced
her legs to keep up with the elliptical motions and focused on committing her notes
to memory.

Cold,
wet plastic rolled down the tendon of her thigh.

She
jumped and cleared nearly a foot of air. Punching the stop button, Tess whirled
around. Cameron’s crooked grin pacified her anger. “You know, a hello would’ve
sufficed.”

“But
wouldn’t have been nearly as amusing.” Cameron helped her down from the
machine. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah,
let me just wipe this down.” Tess retrieved a roll of paper towels and
disinfectant spray from the sanitization station. She felt his penetrating gaze
while cleaning off the machine’s handlebars and bit back a smile at her body’s
answering blush.

If
she thought that her little secret would forestall any further development in
their relationship, she was mistaken. After the other night, they picked up
like nothing every happened.

That
was a good thing, right?

After
recovering their things, they stepped outside of the building. It had begun
snowing again. The weightless fluff spiraled in slow, feathery tufts. Against
the countryside’s dark backdrop, it looked like static on a channel with bad
reception.

On the old school televisions anyway.

Tess
lifted her face skywards and inhaled. The icy coldness stung her lungs. “God,
it’s so quiet.”

“Finals
have got everyone running scared.”

“I
know. I can practically taste the fear in the air.” Tess groaned as they came
within reach of to the concrete stairs stacked on the incline of a perilous
hill. “My legs are killing me. I don’t think I’m going to make it.” Feigning
self-immolation, she wilted and pinned a limp hand to her forehead. “You’ll
have to go on without me.”

He
chuckled and presented her with his back. “Get on.”

Tess
needed no further encouragement. His arms hooked beneath her thighs as her arms
wound around his neck. Cameron scaled the flight of steps without breaking a
sweat. “Where to, Highness?”

“You
may take me to your abode, faithful minion,” she commanded gesturing regally.
“I want to say good-bye to Riley before he leaves. It’s so not fair the
engineering department gives their exams early.”

“Think
of it this way: soon we’ll have the entire house to ourselves,” he said,
squeezing her calves suggestively.

Tess
played with fine, blond hairs riding the valley of his spine. “When is Adonis
leaving?”

For
once it wasn’t the cold, gusting wind that caused the temperature to suddenly
plummet. “I think his last exam’s on Wednesday.”

She
wasn’t fooled by his blasé tone. While they’d resolved most of everything, the
issue of Adonis persisted like an ingrown hair that would pop up at the most
inconvenient times. Though Cameron had reiterated he was over her questionable non-relationship
with his other best friend, her gut insisted that the residual resentment
existed.
 

“What
are you doing for Christmas?”

“Just
dinner with a few relatives and my parents. Nothing fancy.”

“Mm,
relatives. Sounds like a fate worst than death.”

He
pinched her calf. “There goes your present.”

She
nibbled on his earlobe. “What if I make it up to you?”

“You
can try, but it’s not happening.” She blew lightly on the tender area below his
lobe and felt a tendril of satisfaction when his grip on her thighs tightened.

“Mm,
I beg to differ.” Tess scattered butterfly kisses on his nape.

“If
you don’t want me to drop you, I suggest-” He emitted a long, low hiss when she
tugged at his skin with her teeth.

Before
her smirk could take shape, he deliberately fell sideways into a lofty bank of
snow. Tess shrieked as cold wetness soaked through her pants and sweatshirt.
“Asshole!”

“Oops,
I must have slipped,” Grinning, Cameron stood and held out a hand to assist
her.

She
glared at it feebly, her own hand curling around a fistful of snow.

Cameron
caught the wicked gleam in her eyes a half-second too late. The snowball
materialized and hit him below the collarbone. “Oops. Must have slipped.”

A
growl vibrated in his chest. Tess rolled off the embankment and crab-walked
backward as he scooped up a handful of snow. “W-wait Cam,” she said between
giggles, “it’s over. We’re even. Truce?”

A
packed snowball hurtled faster than she could follow and lobbed her shoulder.
“Truce?” he asked laughingly.

Tess
let a snowball speak for her.

They
chased one another up the street, darting across yards laden in foot-deep snow
and ice, dodging and ducking behind parked cars and bushes to avoid the other’s
onslaughts, their antics drawing the snooty disdain of passersby.

When
they tumbled to the ground breathless and flushed, it took the last of her
energy to drag herself on top of his chest. His ragged breaths slipped past
parted, red lips and billowed in translucent puffs. His wet hair was matted and
spiked and so unlike his usual coifed style that Tess buried her face in his
chest to hide her chuckles.

Cameron
smiled up at her lazily. “What?”

She
kissed him in lieu of an actual answer. Although her lungs still burned from
the exertion spent on their snowball fight, the need for oxygen became
secondary.

___________________

Riley
looked up when the wet couple stumbled into the house, stomping snow from their
shoes and shaking partially dissolved flurries from their clothes and hair.
They looked dizzily happy, their cheeks glowing from their activities and the
cold as each helped the other out of their sopping garments. “Where’ve you two
been?”

“Working
out.” Kicking off her rain boots, Tess raced toward him. Riley made face as she
vaulted into his lap, her sodden clothing rapidly sinking through his thin
cotton shirt and plaid pajama pants. “Do you have to leave so soon?”

He
played with her damp ponytail. “Aye, I do. I have to go back home and take care
of a few things.”

“Jersey
City home or Ireland home”?”

“Ireland
home. Haven’t been in nearly two years. I’m overdue for a visit.”

Tess
reluctantly conceded. “Well, call us when you get back so we can hang before
classes start.”

“I’ll
think about it. Meanwhile, why don’t you change clothes? You’re
freezin
’,” Riley remarked rubbing her hands together with
his.

As
if Riley and Cameron occupied the same wavelength, her boyfriend walked into
the den, a change of clothes wadded under his arm. “I couldn’t find any of your
things so mine will have to do.”

Tess
rose to accept the bundle. “Thanks. Be back soon.” She pressed a kiss to his
lips and skipped off to the bathroom. After relishing in a shower made a
thousand times more incredible by their high-pressured showerhead, Tess toweled
off and changed into Cameron’s clothes.

“Hey,
it’s the hot chick.”

Tess
stopped outside the bathroom, startled by Adonis’s cokehead friend from
Halloween night. “I do have a name,” she said, turning off the bathroom light.

His
grin broadened. “I remember your name, Tess. It’d be rude of me to forget such
a babe.”

“And
you are?”

“Declan.
Deck.”

“Right.
So what’re you doing here? More partying?”

“Not
at all.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “We’re about to go study and
shit at my place.”

“You’re
about to go study?”

“Hey,
math majors have finals too. So,” Deck drew out the word and rocked back on his
heels with a lopsided grin, “it’s a shame about you and Adonis not working
out.”

“Yeah,
there’s a real tragedy,” she said wryly.

“Aw,
bitterness doesn’t become a girl as
babelicious
as
you. There are other fish in the sea.” He coughed as a not so subtle hint.

“Why
would I be bitter?”

His
smoky eyes clouded. “Because he moved on. But that means you’re up for grabs,
right?”

Before
she could correct him, the attic steps creaked under the weight of feet. Feminine
laughter resonated down the narrow passageway.

A
nameless emotion looped and knotted her innards into a morbid rendition of a
cat’s paw as the pair descended.

Another
blast from Halloween past emerged. The horny, leg-humping brunette who’d been
all over him that night was tucked under his arm.

In
spite of the shower’s vestigial warmth, the black ice that rimed his arctic
stare made her blood run cold. “Katie, you two go on ahead.”

Confused,
the brunette glanced between them before sliding out from under his arm. “We’ll
wait downstairs.” She snagged Deck’s sleeve and, with a few insistent tugs, towed
him away.

His
dark eyes rolled down her body, the crass inspection flinging her pulse into
hyperdrive
. She cleared her throat. “So, where’ve you been?
I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

She
held her breath as he advanced, breaching her personal bubble. “Whose fault is
that?” he crooned.

Something
was wrong with this set up. Tess backed up until her heel clipped the baseboard.
“Are you all right?”