Treacherous (6 page)

“
What did you
do?”

“
I accidently spilled
some drinks on her. I tried to apologise. I even followed her into
the girl’s bathroom. But… she wouldn’t hear me out. I… I screwed
up.”

“
Well, you’re going to
go unscrew it, you hear me?”

“
Yes, Ma’am.” I pushed
away from the wall and hurried towards the dormitories.

“
And
Nathan?”

“
Yes?” I paused before
the doors.

“
I want her heart to
be yours. Not his.”

I couldn’t speak. I knew exactly what
she was asking of me.

“
Nathan? Are you
there?”

“
Yes. Yes, I’m
here.”

“
Make her fall for
you. You have a week.”

Chapter
Ten

Charli

It was bright when I
opened my eyes. I groaned, trying to shield my eyes from the glare.
I rolled over, then rolled the other way, and checked my phone
display. 7.45am. I remembered it was a Saturday and almost squealed
with joy. There were no classes on Saturday. I sank back into my
bed and pulled the covers over my head.

Then I heard the knock.

Bloody hell. No rest for the
wicked.

I groaned and rolled
out of bed. Searching for my fluffy grey bed socks, I found one
under the bed and the other under the bed covers. I pulled them on,
grabbed my robe, and stumbled to the door.

Who the heck would come see me at this
time on a Saturday?

The downside to cheap
student housing was that the dorms had no peephole in the door, so
I couldn’t see who was on the other side. I opened the door and
peered through the crack.

“
Morning. I want to
apologise for last night. Can we talk?” It was Nathan. He stood
there grinning at me. How the hell did one person look so good so
early in the morning?

“
Fine. But you better
have come bearing coffee.”

“
You’re in luck.” I
watched as he bent down and picked up two takeaway coffee cups and
a brown paper bag. I gave him a small lopsided grin and opened the
door wider.

“
You should’ve given
me a heads up before coming over here. I just woke up.”

“
Sorry. I wanted to
surprise you.”

“
Surprise, you did.”
He offered me my coffee, and I took a sip and moaned with
pleasure.

“
How did you know my
coffee order?”

He sat on the arm of my sofa and
crossed his ankles. Damn, he was sexy. I tried to refrain from
staring.

“
Turns out that you’re
pretty well known at the café. The barista knows you.”

“
Oh, right. Yeah,
Talia is in my English Literature class.” I took a few more slow
sips of my soy caramel latte, inhaling the sweet, delicious
scent.

“
Oh, before I forget,
I bought you breakfast, as well.” He stood and held out the brown
grease-covered paper bag towards me. I took it and peered
inside.

“
Mm, bacon and egg
breakfast roll.” My stomach growled. I hadn’t realised how hungry I
was. I walked into the kitchen.

“
Want half?” I asked,
bending down to grab some plates from the cupboard.

“
Only if you can’t eat
all of it.”

“
I’m a light eater.” I
grabbed a knife and placed the bacon and egg roll on one of the
plates. I attempted to cut into it, failing miserably.

Nathan chuckled,
watching me in amusement. “Here, let me.” He came to stand behind
me. Taking the knife from me, he pressed down into the bread and
commenced cutting. It was then I noticed our proximity to one
another. He was standing to the right and a little behind me. His
left hipbone was touching my right buttock cheek, and his left arm
grazed my right arm. I looked up and caught him looking at me. The
hand that was cutting froze. The knife fell to the plate and his
lips were crushed against mine before I even knew what was
happening. His fingers found their way into my hair, and my body
was pressed against the kitchen counter. My hands came up flat
against his chiselled chest, creeping up and over his shoulders,
making their way around his neck. His lean hips sandwiched mine
between him and the kitchen drawers, and I felt the handles stick
into my butt cheeks, but I ignored the pain. He pulled me closer
against him and his tongue found its way inside my mouth. I
couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. All I could do was
kiss.

He picked me up and
sat me on the counter, spreading my thighs to either side of his
hips. He kissed me harder and with more passion. Soon his hands
found their way underneath my robe and underneath my pyjama top. I
suddenly realised only a thin piece of fabric separated his hands
from my bare breasts. I shuddered at the thought.

“
Nathan,” I
gasped.

“
I’m sorry. We can
stop if you want.”

Did I want to stop? “No. No, don’t
stop.” I kissed him again. That was when my mind went to Frankie. I
pulled back.

“
What?”

“
Actually, yeah. We
should stop.” I jumped down off the counter and went to find my
phone. I was aware of Nathan following me into the
bedroom.

“
I shouldn’t have done
that. I’m sorry, Charli.”

I checked my phone and noticed I had an
instant message.

“
Charli? What is
it?”

“
Nothing. I… you
should go. I have to get ready.”

“
Are you going
somewhere?”

“
Yeah. Mia and I
usually go jogging in Centennial Park on Saturday.”

“
Okay. Well, I’ll talk
to you later. Call me?”

Distracted by the message waiting for
me in the chat room, I half-heartedly dismissed Nathan. “Bye.”

Nathan glanced at me
once more and then left. As soon as he was gone, and I was alone
again, I turned on my computer.

A blinking chat window awaited me. I
clicked on it, expecting Mia or Frankie. I was surprised and a
little disappointed when it wasn’t either.

“
Hi
Charli,”
read the message. It
was from a person unknown to me.

“
Do
I know you?”
I typed. His
username read
A.D.
Walker.

“
I am hoping you
might. I’m in your social studies class.”

“
There are a lot of
people in Professor Stanley’s class. What do you look like? Do you
have a picture?”

There was a pause of a few seconds
before he answered again.

“
No.
Sorry.”

“
Well, describe
yourself.”

“
Tall, dark and
handsome.”

This guy was so cocky!

“
Right. That sounds
like half the male population.”

“
No, I’m only stating
the obvious.”

My phone vibrated
with a text message. It was Mia asking if I was awake yet. I texted
back saying I was and looked back at the computer screen. After
a
second, my phone buzzed
again.

“
Get
your ass down here, lazy bones.”
It read. I laughed and replied.

“
Coming.”
I typed
“G2G” into A.D. Walker’s chat window and signed out. As I changed
into exercise gear, I pondered over why everyone suddenly wanted to
talk to me. In high school, I was like the disease people wanted to
stay away from. Or rather, I stayed away from them. I didn’t want
to be friends with someone who only wanted to use me because of
my
status
. Sometimes I wished I wasn’t the daughter of
one of the most powerful couples in the state.

* * * *

Ten minutes later, I
met Mia by the entry gate to the University. She was stretching out
her legs and giving some of the male students a good view. I rolled
my eyes and she smiled when she saw me.

“
About time. What kept
you? Frankie?” She said with a smirk.

“
Um, no.”

“
Are you blushing? Are
you getting all embarrassed about something?” She laughed,
playfully shoving me as we walked to the park.

“
No…”

“
You totally are! Tell
me what happened.”

“
It wasn’t Frankie.
Okay?”

“
Then who was it?
Nathan? Some other guy you’re now hooking up with?”

“
Mia! I’m not a slut.”
It was my turn to shove her. She laughed and broke into a jog. I
started running too. After a few minutes of silence, I finally
confessed.

“
Nathan came to my
dorm this morning.”

“
Ooh! He’s so sexy.
Have you felt his muscles? Damn, that guy works out.”

“
Uh… yeah. I have.”
She must have seen the blood rush to my cheeks again.

“
Something happened,
didn’t it?”

“
You can say that.” I
fiddled with my hair, uncomfortable.

“
Oh My God! Did you
sleep with him?”

“
No!”

“
Well, what did you do
that’s making you blush like that?”

“
We made
out.”

“
It must have been a
pretty hot make out session for you to be getting all flustered
about it.”

“
It was.”

We made it to the
park and turned onto the wide dirt track. It was nice, warm, and
sunny this morning and there were many other joggers in the park.
As my feet beat a steady rhythm in the dirt, my mind drifted to
thoughts of my two men. Was it right to call them mine? They had
made themselves a part of my life in such a short amount of time
that it was hard not to get caught up in their webs.

Once we had jogged about two
kilometres, I paused to catch my breath. I was so out of shape. I
really should start up my ballet again. But after being treated
like a pageant queen since a young age, being paraded in front of
the world like a human doll… I quit as soon as I turned eighteen. I
found a drinking fountain and bent over to take a sip. I didn’t
hear his voice until it was too late.

“
Hey.” I glanced
sideways through my hair and my heart skipped a beat.

“
It
seems like you
are
stalking me, Franklin.” I said his
full name deliberately, hoping to annoy him.

“
Whatever do you mean?
This is my usual route.”

I stood up and faced
him full on. “Then why haven’t I seen you here before?”

“
Okay, you caught me.
I saw you were going for a jog, so…”

“
So, you followed me,”
I finished for him. “Sounds like stalking to me.”

I began to walk back the way we had
come, until I realised Mia was no longer around.

“
Have you seen Mia?” I
asked, turning in circles.

“
I passed her on the
way here. She said to tell you she got a cramp and was heading
back. She’ll see you later.”

I exhaled, blowing my
bangs out of my face momentarily. “Great.”

Something didn’t add
up. Why did Mia seem to disappear every time Frankie showed up? I
made a note to confront Mia about it later. Right now, I had
Frankie to deal with. I took a moment to take him in—every inch of
him. It was the very first time I had seen all six-foot-something
of him.

He wore lightweight
black jogging shorts and a sleeveless army-green shirt. It did
wonders for his lean but muscular physique. He caught me looking
and I blushed.

He chuckled. “Like what you see?” he
said, smirking.

“
Why are you here,
Frankie?”

“
Isn’t it obvious? I
wanted to see you, Charli. Last night, when you left… I thought you
were mad at me about something.”

“
I wasn’t. Sorry. I
just wanted to get home.”

“
You don’t do that a
lot, do you?”

“
Do what?”

“
Get out
much.”

“
Isn’t it
obvious?”

“
I’m sorry to say, it
is.”

“
Right. Thanks.” I
shoved him. He laughed and shoved me back. When I went to shove him
back, he caught hold of my hand and pulled me to him. Again, he
spoke in that low and sexy tone of his that made me
shiver.

“
We still haven’t been
on our date.”

I couldn’t speak. I flattened my hands
against his chest and inhaled his scent. Sweat, aftershave and the
distant smell of leather.

“
Unless, of course,
you’re seeing that Nathan guy?” he added. I flinched and met his
gaze.

“
I’m not. Seeing
Nathan, I mean.”

“
Good. Then I’ll pick
you up at six.”

I still couldn’t find the words to say
okay, or yes, or anything. Why was it that he always rendered me
speechless? When I didn’t move or say anything, Frankie’s hand came
up and brushed my hair, tucking some behind my ear.

“
You’re so beautiful.”
He whispered.

Oh God, I had the strongest urge to
kiss him. But I didn’t need to make a move, because he did it for
me. His lips were warm and moist against mine, making me crave him
more. What was this man doing to me?