Darkly Sweet

by Juliann Whicker

  I glanced over at him. Why did he watch me like that? There was nothing to see.

  “Lollipops. What?” I added when he smiled like that meant something.

  “That’s what you want for dinner?”

  I shook my head. “Who eats lollipops for dinner? I’m going to make them. Colt’s foot, I think for the pain and borage to help with their homesickness.”

  He stared at me for a moment before he nodded unsmiling. “Of course. What do you want to eat?” His shoes squeaked against the tiled floor and his voice was brisk and no-nonsense.

  “Food?”

  He nudged me. “I’m going to feed you before I take you back to school. You threw up lunch so you must be starving. I’m surprised that you didn’t gobble up a child or two.

  We can stop at a restaurant or go to the cafeteria here. I should warn you that hospital food is terrible.”

  I stopped and stared at him. He wanted to take me to dinner? That sounded suspiciously like a date. I wasn’t on a date with Drake Huntsman, was I? Of course not.

  Community service was not a date, and people didn’t throw up on dates or pin them to cars. I was almost positive about that.

  He smiled slightly and reached up to flick a hot pink bow in my hair. “I know it’s a difficult and important decision, but try to make it quickly before I get too hungry and nibble on you.”

  “What kind of food is in the cafeteria? That seems like the most efficient choice. That way we wouldn’t have to drive anywhere else.”

  “It’s delicious if you like reconstituted freeze-dried potatoes, slimy green beans, soggy cheese toast, and cardboard meatloaf. I mean, cardloaf, and we can’t forget about the coleslaw.” He screwed up his face horribly.

  I laughed and tried to smother it. I cleared my throat and smoothed my skirt down. “I might throw up again and the idea of tasting slimy green beans twice…maybe we should go somewhere else.”

  He smiled and we walked out of the doors into the evening air, a little cooler than before. I slowed down as we got closer to his big car truck thing.

  “Do you want me to knock you unconscious? I’d have to grab you, for purely transportational purposes, naturally.”

  I shook my head and pressed my lips together. “I’m fine. Just… can we take it slow?” I looked up at him and couldn’t help the weakness, the vulnerability.

  He grinned. “If you’re worried that I’ll be bored with you too quickly if we move fast, that’s fine with me.”

  I pulled out a lollipop and undid the cellophane. I sucked on it, Lavender and St.

  John’s Wart, until he put his hands on my shoulders, pulling me closer. I struggled not to bite him. I did not need him to touch me anymore, couldn’t handle it and maintain my macaroon persona.

  His voice was a low growl, his eyes dark and intent. “I’ll go slow if you let me have your lollipop.”

  I took it out of my mouth and he bent down, covering it with his mouth quickly.

  “Hey! I’ll get you a new one, not this kind. This isn’t the nice kind and I haven’t brushed my teeth since the last time I threw up. That’s really gross.”

  He pulled his head back, pulling the stick out of my hand. He tongued it into the side of his mouth and smiled at me. “Do I look as sexy as you do when I suck on this?” He bent his head down, making his eyes go all soft and sweet, green beneath the fall of auburn hair.

  “You have freckles on your nose that make you look like a five-year-old. No wonder you like tea parties.” I shook my head, walking faster. “Let’s get this over with. Drive fast.”

  I climbed in the passenger door and put on my seatbelt while he walked around to the driver’s side. I noticed him take out the lollipop, frown at it and then put it back in his mouth before getting in.

  He reached forward, turning on the stereo so that loud music filled the car. I covered my ears at the sudden sound while he started the engine and pulled out, driving smoothly this time, not jerking to a stop and accelerating. After driving through town,

  he pulled up outside a little Chinese restaurant that lacked the gleam of cleanliness the shops closer to town had.

  He turned off the engine and it was suddenly quiet. “How do you want to do this?”

  Drake put the lollipop back in his mouth while I inhaled deeply.

  “I think that this time you shouldn’t pin me against the car although… can I hold your hand?” I was such an idiot, but that short of a ride left me weak and my stomach knotted.

  He raised his eyebrows as he extended his hand towards me, palm up. “Who’s the five-year-old now?”

  I grinned at him as I gripped his hand with both of mine. “I love tea parties.” I squeezed his fingers and felt an almost immediate dimming of the nausea along with the growing scent of black cherry.

  He rolled his eyes. “I meant how do you want to get food? This place isn’t that popular with kids from our school, but I can’t guarantee there won’t be someone who might report the shocking scene to everyone else. I know you’re concerned with your reputation so that guy you’re angling for doesn’t think you’re unavailable. I wondered if you’d like to put my shirt over your face, like a disguise, or if you’d rather I ordered and got everything and we could eat out here.”

  I stared at his hand, my fingers white from hanging onto him so hard while his own skin might wear my imprint after I let go. I had to let go of him. In a minute. What were we talking about? How to order? He made it seem so complicated. “Okay. What do you want me to get you?”

  He frowned. “What do you mean?” His hand gripped me back easing the panic.

  “I can go in and order while you wait in your car. Didn’t you say that we shouldn’t be seen together?”

  He pulled his hand away until I reluctantly let go. He shook it and smiled slightly.

  “You have a good grip. No, I said that you don’t want to be seen with me because you like someone else. I’m giving you the opportunity to deny that you could ever want someone without freckles.”

  “How do you know that he doesn’t have freckles?”

  He raised an eyebrow while his lips curled. “So, there is someone else.”

  I laughed and turned to open the door. “There are a lot of other people. You do realize that you aren’t the only person in the world, don’t you?”

  He followed me over the blacktop towards the low-slung Chinese place. “I don’t take girls to restaurants.”

  I paused for a moment before I nodded. “Then you didn’t take me. We’ll just go in, order separately and eat separately. You’re making this more complicated than it needs to be.”

  “You want to eat alone?”

  I hesitated. I was supposed to be a macaroon. I turned and batted my eyelashes at him. “It seems to be the most logical solution, don’t you think?”

  I gazed up at Drake sort of shyly. He looked uncomfortable, possibly nauseous then walked into the restaurant ahead of me. I followed after a minute or so and ordered my food. I sat on the other side of the restaurant from the bar where he leaned, looking irritated. I ordered plates of dizzying variety. I ate until I couldn’t eat anymore, and then I got up and noticed that Drake wasn’t in the restaurant. Maybe he got bored and left me there. It would be hard to find my way back to the school, but maybe walking up a mountain through the woods in the dark would be less stressful than riding with Drake.

  Yeah, not really a maybe there.

  I shrugged as I went up to the counter to pay for my meal. The host refused my money, explaining in only slightly accented English that ‘my man’ had insisted on paying for my dinner as well as his. I tried, but I couldn’t be a bon-bon and still push people around.

  I took the fortune cookie he gave me, thanked him, and left the restaurant. Drake was sitting on the hood of his soccer mom car, leaning back on the windshield to look at the stars.

  “You didn’t have to pay.”

  “You’re welcome.” He still had the lollipop stick in his mouth and didn’t look at me
.

  I stood there for a minute before I went closer. “Aren’t we going?”

  “You eat a lot.”

  I exhaled and crossed my arms instead of hitting his leg, gently, you know, cutesy, not breaking bones or anything. “That’s not polite to say to a girl. It’s true though, I’m always starving. After the cook left, it’s been kind of horrible eating at home. There are lots of cans of food and salad and fruit, but not actual cooking very often. Revere can cook, don’t get me wrong, but he’s more into dusting and laundry than cooking.”

  He swung his legs off the hood and slid down, landing with an ominous thump beside me. He took my shoulders in his strong hands and looked at me intently. “That is the most heart-wrenching poor little rich girl story I have ever heard. What can I do to console you?”

  “You can take your hands off me.”

  He raised an eyebrow at the tone of my voice, but he did let go of me and stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest. “I see. Sometimes you like me to grab you and sometimes you don’t. You’re very complex. I’ll have to learn how to read mixed signals.

  Do you want to get a malted in a cup before we head back?”

  “Yes.” My mouth watered as I remembered the taste of the shake the girl had dumped on me. Maybe it watered from something else, something to do with Drake licking it off me. I did not want to spend more time with Drake and I definitely didn’t want to be in his car more than necessary. Yes was not the right answer, but I’d said it so certainly that I couldn’t take it back without sounding crazy.

  He studied me for a long drawn out moment, his eyes falling to my mouth for some reason. Maybe I had soy sauce on it, nothing to do with shake and him wanting to taste me. Finally, he stepped away and opened the back door, gesturing inside.

  “Drive through. Let’s go, princess. Your chariot and driver await.”

  Chapter 13

  The next day I rolled out of bed feeling strangely okay. I should feel worn out from my panic attack the day before, but instead I felt relaxed while I dressed slowly, weaving a few small braids with ribbons that mingled with my curls. I wanted to take a walk in the woods. No, I wanted to run and feel the wind rush through my hair, spinning the ribbons behind me while I spread my arms and flew.

  I fed Señor Mort, scratched behind his ears and headed to the cafeteria for a muffin and juice or something. I ignored the scathing looks of basically everyone before ducking out and heading to my class. I felt so strange, happy or something. When someone opened a locker into my face before ballet, I just rubbed my nose and didn’t apologize because I didn’t feel angry or vengeful, just fine.

  Drake wasn’t going to be in my class. I knew that, but I still searched the room for his green gaze before I focused on my own reflection, my own hazel eyes. They looked different, slightly less focused, softer. I shook my head and remembered Drake’s hand on my knee, his voice coaxing my body into the correct position. I pushed myself until I was shiny with perspiration at the end of class. The freshman girl I’d accidentally kicked bumped me on my way through the door, her elbow digging into my ribs while she gave me a nasty smile. I smiled back at her, but I didn’t feel anything close to anger.

  In my linguistics class I tried to participate as well as I could in Zach’s group, having something to say about how to ride horses when Zach carefully led the conversation in

  that direction. I gave him a grateful smile and he nodded slightly before the conversation once more veered into foreign territory. Barry wasn’t in class. Why did Drake know that I gave Barry lollipops?

  During lunch I wasn’t as hungry as usual. I took a sandwich and an apple before sliding into a seat on the edge of the room where I wouldn’t get bumped so much. It was too distracting, and I had to think. Drake. I had to figure out what exactly I’d revealed about myself the evening before so I could cover for it. If Drake and Zach were friends instead of enemies, which still seemed impossible, then Drake would tell Zach what an idiotic and pathetic person I was. Zach would never marry a spineless puke-face. Who would? I ate quickly and slid to the side as a girl ‘accidentally’ tripped and dumped her plate of noodles where my head had been.

  I smiled at her and handed her a lollipop before I turned and walked away. In dressage, the instructor nodded his head into the annex to the main building where Zach had helped me the day before. Again, Zach was there, standing with Henrietta. I hesitated in the doorway before I straightened up and smiled at him brightly.

  “Are you here again? That’s so nice, but don’t you have other classes you need to take?”

  He gave me a slight smile while he rubbed Henrietta’s nose. “Marcus is giving me extra credit for keeping you out of the regular class. Come on, let’s get started. You have a lot to learn.”

  I smiled at him and by the end of the class was riding short distances without Zach holding the bridle.

  “How are you liking linguistics?”

  I glanced at him and smiled brightly. “I’m so bad. It’s really nice of you to be so patient with me. Barry wasn’t in class, so I’m worried that he’s in a coma or having a sex change, or had an affair with a mob bosses’ wife and gotten run over by a car.”

  He smiled slightly, an odd smile that I wasn’t used to. There was something kind of crazy in his nice blue eyes. “That would be terrible, particularly if it was Drake’s car. It’s a tank.”

  “I thought it was more of a soccer mom car.”

  His smile grew slightly. “Did you tell Drake that?”

  I shrugged and winced. “Maybe.”

  “How did last night go?” He didn’t look at me while he asked me the question, walking beside me back to the barn.

  I inhaled then blurted out, “I threw up. It was awesome.”

  He looked up, his blue eyes large before he grinned and his eyes crinkled really adorably. “Did you throw up on Drake?”

  I shook my head.

  “Too bad. Maybe next time.”

  I sighed. “I get carsick sometimes. It wasn’t very…”

  “How was he?”

  I studied him. He didn’t seem all that interested in me throwing up, either way. How was Drake? “Weird. He didn’t seem to mind the puke nearly as much as…” Why had he pushed me up against the car, eyes shining green with rage? Did he really hate people being afraid of him so much? He probably shouldn’t break people’s arms then.

  “Wow.” He walked silently for a few steps. “I’ve heard a lot of descriptions of Drake Huntsman, and weird hasn’t ever been one of them. What did he do to earn that title?”

  I shifted and tightened my grip on the reins too much. “I don’t know, just the whole thing was really strange. He stole my lollipop, the one in my mouth, which is gross, and then he was muttering like a crazy person, said it was a foreign language and I should mind my own business, like he had every right to mutter to himself in the parking lot.”

  He made a sound like that was interesting. “What flavor of lollipop?”

  “Lavender. Not the good kind, but what I use to help with car sickness. Also, he stole it after I threw up, which is so disgusting. I don’t have the slightest idea why he’d do that.”

  “What did you do for dinner?”

  Why were we talking about this? At least if Drake told Zach about the whole sordid affair, he’d already have heard it from me, well, a version of it. “Szechuan chicken and Pot-stickers. And sweet and sour soup, and broccoli chow mein, and sesame chicken along with porcini mushroom stir-fry. Also a side of fried rice and some hot and spicy soup. And egg rolls. The Szechuan Chicken was amazing.”

  He laughed. “You guys ate all that, or do you have leftovers?”

  I frowned at him. “Leftovers? I don’t know what that is. We didn’t share it. It’s not like we were on a date, or anything. We just happened to arrive at the same restaurant in the same car at the same time.”

  He grinned at me. “You didn’t eat together?”

  I shrugged. “It’s not interesting enough to talk a
bout.”

  He gave me that slightly wild smile again. “I think it’s safe to say that ninety percent of the student population would love to hear all about it.”

  I flinched. “Right, Drake is big news, but I’m not. You won’t talk to people about it, will you?”

  We reached the barn and he didn’t answer, just helped me dismount and unsaddle the horse.

  Before my business class, I smoothed my skirt down and fluffed up my hair. I walked in, finding a seat without looking around for Drake. When I heard his voice, I looked over to find him leaning against a girl’s desk. He was talking to her, low with this sinfully seductive smirk then he walked up to his normal seat in the middle, barely glancing at me as he passed my desk. He opened his computer and stayed focused on his work except for one time close to the end of class when he raised his hand and interrupted the teacher, asking about a complicated point of business law that distracted the teacher from the lesson.

  I read my textbook and jotted notes in the margins about how I might be able to apply some of the concepts to my own business. I had to get a handle on classes or I’d never be able to regain my equilibrium with my shop. By the end of class my happy state had shifted to some kind of foot twitching, lollipop craving, nail-biting monster. I gripped my book and focused on it, refusing to look up at Drake. He’d paid so much attention to me the day before, but apparently he was over whatever wild hare had him chasing Penny Lane.

  I got up and swept out of the class without looking backwards, desperate to spend some time alone in my room. Of course, I had to make it through History first. Viney stared at me suspiciously, but I only beamed back at her and took a seat beside her.

  “How are you doing? Did you like reading that assignment? This is my favorite class.”

  She curled her lip, her dark eyeliner looking more ominous than usual. “How dare you talk to me?”

  I cocked my head to study her. “What do you mean, dare?”

  The teacher, Professor Vale called class to order and I didn’t get to hear her fabulous response. I took notes feverishly and by the end of class was ready for solitude. That’s when a vaguely familiar brunette blocked my exit, her eyes serious and stern behind her sensible glasses.