Forcing Gravity
Page 21
“Who’s party?” I asked Ethan, knowing I needed to get out and have some fun and find a way to stop thinking about Jase. Maybe I even needed to meet a new guy.
“Ooh, a party!” Henley chimed in from across the room.
She’d been in a great mood for the past week. She’d spent the first week post-Garrett crying and brooding with me, but then she’d snapped out of her melancholy state and went on a date with her lab partner from her chemistry class. Then she’d gone on two more dates with two other guys. She was moving on. It was time for me to follow her lead.
So I waved my hand to shush her while I listened to Ethan tell me about his friend Carter, who I’d heard about for years but had never met, because he spent every summer on his parents’ yacht floating around the world, so he’d never been around when I’d been visiting. But he’d recently gotten his own place in L.A. and was throwing himself a housewarming party.
Knowing it was what I needed, I agreed to go to the party. Then I told Henley she could come and even agreed to let her pick out my outfit. I was going all out, so I figured it was time for a real change, and the first step in doing that was to change my look. So I gave her full rein and cringed as she reached into her closet and pulled out a cream colored A-line dress that was strapless and short, and so not me.
“Here,” she said, thrusting it at me.
“Um, no,” I said, throwing it back.
“Wear it,” she said, a no nonsense tone in her voice as she tossed it back. I eyed her skeptically. “Just try it on, Lo. It’ll look great on you.”
She smiled encouragingly.
“Okay,” I agreed, doubtful as I slipped off my cotton shorts and boyfriend tank.
Maybe it was the fact that she was so damn encouraging and complimentary, but I actually thought I might be able to pull off the dress. I stepped into it as Henley returned to her closet and tossed a pair of four inch heels at my feet. I had yet to step into a pair of stilettos, but it seemed like tonight was my night. It was time to embrace my inner diva.
“Oh,” Henley said, stepping back from me as I stood up. I watched her warily as she appraised me, but I was afraid to move. My ankles already felt wobbly, and taking a step might send me toppling over.
“What?” I asked, leaning forward to see in her full-length mirror. “Do I look bad? Too slutty?”
She shook head. “No, it’s just that that dress is a lot longer on me, but it’s hot. You look like a model.”
“Shut up,” I laughed, not believing her.
“No, Logan, you look amazing.”
I took her word for it and spent the next thirty minutes pacing the hall outside our room to get used to my new, borrowed shoes.
“Looking good, Logan,” Riley said, as she and her hulking football player boyfriend walked past me.
I grinned at her, feeling more confident all the time. I made a promise to myself that I’d meet at least one guy that night, and if things went well, I might even agree to a date with him.
***
Carter’s party was like all the ones I’d attended with Ethan in high school. The girls were all model-thin, gorgeous and dressed in next to nothing – but I guess I couldn’t bitch about that since I wasn’t dressed much different than them that night thanks to Henley’s dress. There were also a slew of guys that I had been ordered to talk to when Henley had surveyed the crowd upon our arrival. She insisted that the only way to get over Jase was to move on with someone even hotter, which might be tough to do since I didn’t think there were many guys I’d actually classify as hotter than him. But, there were quite a few who came close as I looked at the multitude of seemingly perfect looking guys milling about.
“Who do you want to talk to first?” Henley asked eagerly, her eyes glittering in excitement. She’d told me how much she loved setting people up, and it seemed I was going to experience what that was like firsthand.
“Oh, um, well, I’m not sure. Let’s get a drink first. How about that?”
“Okay,” she said cheerfully, as she linked one arm with mine and the other with Ethan’s, dragging us over to the bar. I was glad she didn’t have any hard feelings for either of us after Garrett had ended things with her.
“Hey, hey,” a good-looking blond guy said as we crossed paths with him. “Two girls tonight, Lewis? You dog.”
The guy high-fived Ethan and smirked at him knowingly.
Ethan grinned. “They’re not with me, man,” he told the guy. “Logan is my best friend – no sexual feelings there – and Henley is her roommate.”
“You’re both single?” the guy asked eagerly, his eyes lighting up. He reached forward and took Henley’s hand, kissing it while he maintained eye contact with her. “I’m Carter.”
Henley giggled. “I’m kind of seeing someone,” she lied, “but Logan here is one hundred percent single.”
“Aww,” he said, his hand going over his heart. “That accent is adorable, just like you.”
Henley giggled again, and I thought I might vomit.
“Logan,” he said, turning to me. “Carter Jackson. I have heard about you for years, and it is a pleasure to finally meet you. Ethan never told me how stunning you are.”
Stunning? Really?! I really had to fight hard not to roll my eyes.
“Yeah, well, Ethan’s sort of blind to the fact that I’m actually a girl, so I’ll forgive him.”
“And I’ll thank him – if you’ll have a drink with me?”
“Maybe later,” I suggested, forcing a smile on my face.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” he said, winking at me. Man he was cheesy. “The closest bar is over there. I’m going to make the rounds, but I’ll catch up with you later, E.”
With that he was gone, and the three of us headed to the bar. I ordered a vodka tonic and took a sip as a pretty brunette bounced up to Ethan.
“Ethan Lewis,” she admonished, her hands on her hips. “Did you really think you could get away with not saying hello to me?”
The way she said it was so coy and playful, as she batted her eyelashes and tossed her long hair over her shoulder, that all I could do was stare in awe. She was completely flirting with Ethan, and she was fully aware of the sexual power she possessed.
“Hey Holly,” he said, grinning from ear to ear as he scooped her up into a hug.
She batted her eyelashes a few more times and said, “Find me later, cutie.” And then she winked at him and she was gone.
I realized I could spend months studying the flirting behaviors of women, and I’d still be lost. I was pretty sure the gift to turn a guy on with just a look or a smile was not one I possessed. It was always easier for me to just talk to a guy, but maybe that’s why I had more of them who were friends than boyfriends. That was a disturbing thought.
“Ethan!” two girls squealed simultaneously as they bounced over to us.
“I had no idea you were this popular,” I muttered to him, and he just smiled.
Through his teeth he said, “It’s how I get laid so much.”
“Pig,” I said, elbowing him in the ribs.
“Yeah, but you love me. Hey Celeste. Hey Delia,” he said, greeting the bouncing girls as they walked up.
“Sadly, I do,” I mumbled, ignoring the trampoline twins. “I’m going to do a lap. Henley, do you want to come?”
I turned around to see if she wanted to join me, but she was being chatted up by a really cute guy who I was pretty sure I’d seen on the Hollister website, so I didn’t interrupt. I did, however, notice that she had the hair flip down and made a mental note to ask her how exactly she did that without coming across like she was having a seizure.
“Okay, I guess I’m on my own,” I said to no one in particular.
“Who’s your friend?” one of the twins asked in her baby voice as I walked away. I didn’t wait around to hear Ethan’s answer.
I sipped my drink as I made a lap around the house, but I didn’t really talk to anyone. I wasn’t above starting a conversation wit
h someone interesting, but no one I came across really fit that description, so I just walked and observed.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t observant enough or I would have noticed who was in attendance that night. Instead I ran smack into him when I walked around a corner.
“Logan,” he said, equally surprised to see me. “Hi. How are you?”
My blood ran cold, and my heart started pounding as I realized it was Jase.
My mind flooded with thoughts of the story Ethan had told me, but I still couldn’t picture Jase as that kind of guy. He looked just as sweet and kind and charming as he always had, but maybe that was the trick.
I could see there was a level of excitement in his eyes as he appraised me, but it was masked by a feeling of doubt. Outside of the brief words we’d exchanged outside the club, the last time I’d talked to him had been the morning he’d dropped me off at my dorm after I’d spent the night. We’d been in a very different place then.
“Hi Jason,” I said firmly, steeling myself to push him away, simply because I knew it was the right thing to do.
“Jason?” he questioned. “You’ve never called me Jason.”
He was right. I hadn’t called him Jason since the night we’d met, and he knew that by using his full name, I was sending him a message, but I decided to make my intentions crystal clear.
“Yeah, well, things change,” I said coldly.
I sipped my drink and looked away. Ethan was watching me from across the room. He gave me a look that asked if I needed him to rescue me, but I just shook my head enough for him to know I was fine. Thankfully he wasn’t charging across the room. The last thing I wanted that night was a fight.
Out of the corner of my eye, Jase was appraising me with a puzzled look on his face. “What exactly did I do, Logan?”
I turned back to him and watched him follow where my eyes had been focused. When his gaze settled back on me, I could see in his eyes that he’d figured it out.
“Ethan finally told you about me, didn’t he?”
I shrugged nonchalantly, not wanting to drag Ethan into our conversation.
“What did he tell you?” Jase asked softly, and I could hear the concern in his voice. He knew that I knew.
“He told me enough,” I said simply.
Jase sighed, long and loud. “I’m not the guy he thinks I am.”
“And what guy is that, Jason?” I asked, purposefully using his full name again. I needed to hear him confirm for me what Ethan had disclosed.
“Someone who takes advantage of women,” he hissed, so low that I could barely hear him, but I was certain he didn’t want any of the ten women who were hovering nearby, on the off-chance that they could get a piece of the famous Jason Brady, to hear what he was confirming to me.
“Is that what you’d call it?” I asked, irritated that he was making light of something so severe. “Because where I’m from, we call that rape – gang rape, in fact.”
“Keep your voice down,” Jase hissed, a definite pleading tone in his voice. “My parents did enough to ensure my name didn’t get leaked to the press when that whole situation happened. I do not need it getting out now.”
“You are unbelievable,” I said, shaking my head and gritting my teeth.
An innocent girl had been raped by multiple guys, including the one standing in front of me, apparently, and all he cared about was his damn reputation. Well what about her? What about her reputation and her life? Did he even consider how what they’d done to her that night had affected her? No, probably not, because he’d left school soon after and never had to see her again. He went off to pursue his acting career and become rich and famous. He didn’t think about the fact that that girl had lost everything that night. Asshole.
“Why am I unbelievable?” he asked. “You don’t even know the whole story. You just know what that jackass told you.” He jerked his thumb in Ethan’s direction, clearly getting fired up.
“Jason, I don’t need to know the whole story. I know enough. And that ‘jackass’ has been my best friend for more than a decade, so back-off, or I will have to hurt you.”
“Fine,” he said haughtily, as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Believe what you want, but you should know that I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Amanda that night. She was my friend, and I never would have hurt her.”
There was so much conviction in his voice that I almost faltered.
“You know what, I don’t believe you,” I said, before spinning on my heel and walking away from him.
“Logan, you know me,” he called after me. “You know I wouldn’t do something like that.”
I didn’t turn around. I pretended like I couldn’t hear him, but I could hear every word as clear as day, and what he said resonated through to my very core. He was right. I did know him.
I tried to act like what he’d said hadn’t affected me, but in truth, the doubt had started to creep up in my mind when I heard the insistence in his voice and the look in his eyes. He wanted me to believe him, to see that what I’d heard about him was wrong. I knew he had every reason to lie about what had happened, but for some reason, a part of me, the part that had doubted the validity of what Ethan had told me from the beginning, thought Jase just might have been being honest with me. And as I walked away from him, every piece of me wanted so badly to believe him.
But I had to remember that as well as I knew him, I only knew the guy he was today. I didn’t know the guy he’d been four years ago, and because of that, I didn’t turn around.
“Hey, where you going so fast?” Carter asked, pulling me into the kitchen on my way by.
“Hey Carter,” I sighed. “I was thinking about leaving. I don’t really know anyone here, and I’m not sure I’m having that much fun.”
He smiled his award-winning smile. Seriously, was everyone in L.A. this gorgeous?
“Don’t go just yet. It’s my party, so I demand that you stay.”
“You demand?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. I was not in the mood to be told what to do.
He quirked a smirky grin at me. “I request it,” he said. “Does that sound better?”
“Yeah, it does,” I said and couldn’t help smiling back. He was really freakin’ cute, and right then, I needed something cute to take my mind off of Jase.
I glanced over my shoulder, but Jase wasn’t behind me, so I focused my attention back on Carter. I could do this. I could talk to him. I could push Jase to the back of my mind.
“Good,” Carter said, his tone all butter. “Now, come have a drink with me.”
He took my hand and led me to one of the bars stationed around the house. It still shocked me that a teenager had bartenders at his party. I was so not used to that world. Where I came from, it was Solo cups, beer, and if you were lucky, some unknown brands of vodka, tequila, and rum with some basic mixers. I had a feeling I could order pretty much anything at Carter’s party and the bartender would be able to make it.
“What’ll you have?” Carter asked me.
“A mojito,” I said, as his arm slid around me, pulling me against his side. He smelled like an Abercrombie and Fitch store, and I remembered Ethan telling me he was a model for them. It was no wonder he could afford a house like that at eighteen.
“A mojito?” Carter asked, looking down at me. “That’s a sexy drink.”
“I’m a sexy girl,” I said, as I attempted to flirt with him, Henley’s short dress and heels giving me new confidence.
Carter’s brown eyes sparkled as if he knew a secret. He leaned down, so his lips were right next to my ear. “You’re probably the sexiest girl at this party.”
Yeah, that was so not true, but instead of arguing, I shivered inadvertently at the mix of his words and his warm breath on my skin and smiled. I thought he might try to kiss me, and wasn’t sure if I wanted that, so I just stared straight ahead and tried to play coy.
“I love that dress,” Carter murmured, his lips lightly brushing my earlobe.
“You don’t love my dress,” I said, taking a big sip of my drink as his lips pressed against the skin under my ear, and I fought the urge to shiver. “You’re a guy. Come on.”
“You have the longest, sexiest legs, I’ve ever seen, and yes, I am a guy, so of course I noticed. I also noticed your shoes, but from there my eyes just traveled up, up, up and then I found the bottom of that sexy dress. So yeah, I love it.”
His hand reached out to finger the bottom of my dress, and I felt his fingers graze the outside of my thigh.
“Okay,” I said, pulling back. “I think I’m a little too sober for this.”
“I’m sorry,” Carter said, but he didn’t seem sorry at all. “You do something to me, Logan, and I can’t help it. I want to be close to you.”
With that, his arm looped around my waist, and he pulled me against him. With my increased height, my eyes were inches from his. His eyes hooded as he looked at me, as if intoxicated by what he was seeing, and a part of me felt like laughing. It had to be an act.
“I want to kiss you,” he murmured, his gaze drifting down to my lips. I watched him, watching me. “But I’ll wait until you say it’s okay.”
“It’s okay,” I said hoarsely, not at all sure I wanted him to kiss me, but before I knew what was happening, he was crushing his lips to mine. And it was actually kind of nice.
He deepened the kiss, hungrily moving his lips against mine, and I started to fall right along with him, as his tongue sought mine out and teased it playfully before he plunged even further, turning the sensual kiss into something more desperate and filled with need. His hand slid down to cup my backside, pulling me against him where I could feel his sudden erection pressing against my thigh. It was a heady feeling to know I could do something like that to a guy like Carter Jackson, who could have any girl he wanted, but at the same time alarm bells went off in my head, and I was glad when he pulled back.