“Whatever,” snapped Chastity, glaring at Paul to let him know that should he even be thinking of saying a word to prove her wrong he would regret it. “My point is that if she doesn’t say anything then he’ll totally forget her and probably start going out with someone else. Jamie is gorgeous after all.”
“Thanks a bunch,” Jinx muttered, throwing a pebble towards the sea with great force and taking a deep toke on the last of their spliff. “I feel really, you know, confident about the whole thing now. Some friends you lot are.”
“Come on, Jinx,” Liberty wheedled, “we’re only trying to help. You are the best, prettiest, cleverest, most charming and funny friend I’ve ever had, and if he doesn’t jump at the chance to hang out with you then the guy’s obviously a total retard and not worth any of your bother, okay?”
“Thanks, angel,” said Jinx, putting an arm around Liberty’s shoulders and squeezing her tight. “You’re right—I know you are. I just feel really, like, totally squeamish about calling him up out the blue. But you guys are right. I’m going to do it.”
The girls and Paul were sitting at a table in the window of Lal Quilla, their favourite Indian restaurant at the back of East Street. Liv and Charlie never turned up, claiming “unfinished business.” The table in front of them groaned under a plethora of silver dishes containing creamy curries and various side dishes.
“Paul!” shrieked Chastity just as a blob of bright red vindaloo sauce landed on her cream Burberry trench coat. “Look what you’ve done!”
“Sorry babe,” Paul said, leaning over to wipe up the mess using his napkin.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” said Chastity crossly, batting his hand away, “you’ll just make it worse. I’ll do it my bloody self. After six months together you’d think you’d have learned to be more careful.”
Liberty and Jinx exchanged a quick, shocked glance. They’d almost never seen Chastity and Paul bicker like this, but these days it seemed to be very much their normal mode of interaction. They finished their meal mostly in silence.
“Great day, guys,” said Jinx as they finished signing their credit card receipts and started looking round for their coats. “The best. And special thanks to Chas and Paul for providing the entertainment.”
“I know,” Liberty said slyly, “dinner and a show—who’d have thought we’d be this lucky!”
“Shut up, you stoner cretins,” squealed Chastity, shoving Jinx in the back and propelling her at great speed through the front door of the restaurant and out onto the street. “It’s high time you two got boyfriends of your own and stopped laughing at mine.”
“Stoner cretin?” said a deep and sexy voice in Jinx’s ear as her inevitable flight across the pavement and into the railing that separated the sidewalk from the busy seafront road was broken and stopped by a pair of strong arms that encircled her waist from behind. “Surely that girl can’t be talking about you like that, Jinx Slater?”
Jinx could not believe her ears. She couldn’t, simply couldn’t, countenance the fact that the best thing that had happened to her in her life to date was happening—and without any warning whatsoever, just like the last time in fact—again.
“Jamie?” she whispered, feeling like swooning all over the place but managing to hold it together as she turned round, making a conscious effort to do so as deliberately and sexily as she could manage. “You are the absolute last person I expected to see! What the hell are you doing here?”
Jinx focused her attention on Jamie and was delighted to see he was looking as hot as ever in faded, low-slung Evisu jeans, a navy blue T-shirt emblazoned with a dragon picked out in silver and gold threads and the same Onitsuka Tiger trainers he’d been wearing on New Year’s Eve.
Jinx pulled herself together and, feeling doubly pleased that she’d made an effort with her makeup and worn her nicest grey skinny jeans with her leopard-print slip-on shoes and favourite black polo neck, shot him a wide smile. Studying his gorgeous face, she realized he was amused about something or other. Oh God! He must think she was an absolute crazy. Why oh why couldn’t she just bump into him in a nightclub or a bar or when she was doing something normal? Using the tiniest corner of her eye to check him out, Jinx realized he was desperately trying not to laugh and decided she needed to urgently pull herself together. She gave him what she considered her most mature questioning glance—not that she wanted to rush their encounter in the slightest or anything, but she felt it was important to keep up at least the pretence of conversational momentum, even though she herself would have been happy to stand and stare at him all day.
“I live here, remember?” he said in response to her quizzical look, his grin so cheeky and inviting it almost stopped Jinx’s heart right there in its tracks on the pavement, gesturing along the street in the direction of Stagmount. “That’s my block. You’ve been to a couple of my house parties, right?”
“Right,” she murmured, “right. Of course I have. That one last term was great by the way.”
“Hey mate,” Paul jumped in, offering his hand to Jamie. “I’m Paul, Chastity’s boyfriend and general friend to this lot of reprobates. I picked Chas up from your place last term—it looked like it was kicking off in there.”
“Hi Paul,” Jamie said, clasping Paul’s hand in his own before turning his grin towards a beaming Chastity. “Of course I remember you—and I’ve met you a few times, haven’t I, Chastity?”
“You sure have,” Chastity replied, slightly too skittishly for Jinx’s liking—she had one bloody boyfriend already for Christ’s sake! “And it’s lovely to see you again. You should come out with us next time, shouldn’t he Paul?”
Ignoring the furious looks Jinx was shooting at Chastity and a frantically nodding Paul, Liberty couldn’t stop herself from jumping in feetfirst either.
“Jamie,” she said, giving him a bigger hug than Jinx thought appropriate given the circumstances, “it’s great to see you! Chastity’s totally right, we should definitely arrange a big night out.”
“That,” said Jamie, turning to Jinx and wrapping a warm arm casually around her shoulders, “sounds like a great idea. I’ll organize it with this stoner cretin I’ve got here, shall I?”
“Perfect,” snapped Liberty, beaming at him and winking at Jinx. “Make sure that you do.”
“Liberty!” Jinx hissed in her ear, “cool it, will you?”
“So,” continued Liberty breezily, completely ignoring Jinx, “were you off home when Jinx threw herself at you?”
“Liberty!” Jinx hissed again, but to no avail.
“I was out checking on my car actually,” Jamie replied, hooking his thumbs into the belt hooks at the front of his jeans and rocking slightly as he stood there in what was—according to Jinx anyway—an almost maddeningly sexy fashion. “My housemate Daz borrowed it yesterday and it hasn’t been seen since. I thought I should check that it still had four wheels, an engine, windows—you know, the usual stuff.”
“Tell me about it,” agreed Paul, shooting an amused glance at Chastity, who was learning to drive and kept forcing him to take her out and about so she could practice. “I’ve been worried about mine lately.”
“Hey,” Jamie said, jangling the bunch of keys in his pocket, “were you guys on your way back to Stagmount?”
“Yep,” said Jinx, staring up at him through her lowered lashes, “we were just about to hail a cab.”
“Well in that case,” Jamie said, ostensibly speaking to the group, though all his attention was focused on Jinx, who was holding her breath and had suddenly gone very still. “Why don’t I drive you? I should take it for a quick spin anyway and check that Daz hasn’t done any lasting damage.”
“Thanks,” Jinx said delightedly. “We’d love it, wouldn’t we girls?”
“That’s really kind of you mate,” said Paul, who always made a point of delivering Chastity and her friends directly to their door before heading home himself. “And it means I can get straight off from here.”
Whilst Pa
ul and Chastity snogged each other’s faces practically off on the pavement, not giving a damn for the sensibilities of anyone who might walk past and see them and made totally unnecessary—in Jinx and Liberty’s opinion anyway—baby noises as they said their goodbyes, Jamie strode off down the road to pick up his motor.
Liberty let out a low whistle as she and Jinx clutched each other and stared appraisingly after his exceedingly pleasant rear view as he disappeared into the distance.
“Bloody hell, Jinx,” she said, digging her blushing best friend in the ribs and cackling madly. “That boy is HOT! No wonder your face is currently changing colour even faster than Chastity’s was earlier.”
“He is hot, isn’t he?” Jinx replied dreamily. “And don’t you think he’s just so, like, goddamned nice as well?”
“Of course,” Liberty assured her. “I always think it’s super sexy when boys make a real effort to be nice to a girl’s pals, too.”
Jinx blushed as she thought about it. She thought Liberty was totally right—the way Jamie had taken such an interest in her friends was beyond sexy. The fact that he’d made such an effort to make a good impression on them made her feel like he was really interested in her.
“And he was great with Paul,” Liberty said, nudging Jinx and jolting her out of her reverie. “I really like him.”
“Jinx the minx!” yelled Chastity, running over to join the two of them after Paul had jumped on his bus and blown her a kiss from the open door. “I am seriously impressed. He’s gorgeous and obviously mad about you.”
“Do you really think?” asked Jinx, blushing again and beginning to wonder if her cheeks would ever return to their normal pale peachy colour. “Isn’t he just being friendly ’cos of George and stuff?”
“Shut up, Slater,” Liberty and Chastity yelled in unison. “Your problem,” Chastity continued, pointing at Jinx with a very fierce expression on her face, “is that you don’t take yourself seriously enough. If you want him you can get him—of course you can—but you’ve got to make a bloody effort. Put—ha!—your back into it girl.”
Whatever Jinx might have had to say about this was lost to the increasingly fierce wind blowing off the sea as Jamie pulled up alongside them in a mud-splattered old black BMW estate, George Michael’s “Faith” blaring out the speakers.
“I fucking love this song,” said Liberty, yanking open the passenger-side front door and shoving Jinx onto the tan leather seat before slamming it shut and jumping in the back, pulling Chastity after her. “Nice car, dude!”
The four of them sang along at top volume all the way along the seafront. Jamie’s car smelt pleasantly of dogs and salt, from all the time he spent hanging ten no doubt; the boot was stuffed to the brim with wetsuits, and a huge breast-shaped pot of surf wax lay by Jinx’s feet. She picked it up and giggled as she read the top of the tin. It was called Mrs. Palmer’s Mighty Mound and claimed to have smaller, harder nipples to guarantee satisfaction. Jinx shivered deliciously but imperceptibly as she read this. Jamie had swept a great pile of CDs, yellowing newspapers, and magazines onto the floor to give the girls space to sit down. The song ended just as Stagmount came into view, looming above the cliffs. Even though myriad lights were twinkling through the gloomy sky it had a very austere look about it.
In summer, visitors professed astonishment at the huge Gothic building’s warm beauty; in winter they invariably likened it to a prison. Today was so wet and miserable it was very much the latter. The stone seemed to absorb the sun; golden and welcoming from May to September, it quickly turned grey and foreboding in winter.
“I’ve always wanted to come up here,” Jamie said with a sideways smile at Jinx while using his rearview mirror to wink at the girls in the back, “but I never quite got round to it. I thought I’d get lynched for sure if I got caught. Infiltrating Stagmount is in most of my pals’ top-ten fantasy events.”
“You’re not alone,” said Chastity with a giggle, leaning forward and resting her arms on the back of Jinx’s headrest. “Paul’s friends all say the same thing. And Mrs. Bennett told me once that during the World War II they had to hand the place over to the army and there was a sign up in all the dorms that said, ‘If you need a mistress in the night, ring this bell.’ According to her that bell had never seen so much action in its life.”
“Did she say that?” asked Jamie, surprised. “That’s not quite the language I imagined the headmistress of England’s most exclusive school for girls to use. I guess she’s keen to move with the times, huh?”
“Well,” said Chastity, “she probably didn’t use those exact words, but you know what I mean.”
“Chas just loves to paraphrase,” said Jinx, emitting a most unladylike snort and immediately wishing she hadn’t, given the present company she was currently trying to impress. “She never lets the truth ruin a good story.”
“So,” Jamie said, turning to Jinx and resting a hand lightly on her thigh as they waited to turn off up the hill at the traffic lights by the marina, “if I find myself in need of a mistress in the night, what bell do I press?”
Jinx squirmed in her seat as he locked eyes with her. She was totally surprised by the intensity of the shockwaves of pure, unadulterated lust that immediately began coursing through her entire body and, once again, found herself frozen to the back of her seat and bereft of speech. This whole losing the ability to talk thing was getting pretty freaking tiresome pretty freaking rapidly. She made a quick mental note to get a bloody handle on herself ASAP.
“You ring Jinx, of course.” Liberty, realizing Jinx wasn’t about to say anything of any note anytime soon, jumped in to help her out. “She loves nothing more than a good old chat in the middle of the night.”
Jinx, Chastity, and Liberty all laughed. Jinx loved her sleep and was notoriously rude and fierce with anyone who dared to phone at what she considered an unreasonable hour. She always intended to put her phone on silent before she went to bed, but rarely managed to get round to it as she usually fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. But at that moment she firmly decided it would never be switched to silent again. She also knew that in the unlikely event she was ever woken up by Jamie she’d be the exact opposite of cross about it. Rude maybe, she thought with a delicious shudder, but certainly not cross.
What did make her cross was when the lights went green and Jamie had to take his hand off her leg to change gear. She sank back in her seat and surreptitiously studied his profile as he drove. God, he was a good driver—fast, but totally in control. There was something incredibly sexy about being tightly buckled in next to a great-looking guy who took his corners fast but never made you feel unsafe. And his tunes were pretty fantastic, too. Out of ten, Jinx decided, a small smirk spreading across her face, she would give him eleven.
“Tune,” she said appreciatively, as Maximo Park’s “Our Velocity” came blaring out of the speakers.
Jamie didn’t say anything, but turned to smile at her before turning the volume up loud.
When Jamie pulled an expert handbrake turn and swerved into the space next to Mr. Morris’s outside Tanner House, Liberty barely had time to say goodbye to him before Chastity grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out of the car.
Yelling something decidedly shady and improbable over her shoulder about homework, Chastity dragged Liberty through the front door and straight into Jinx’s bedroom where the two of them would sit on the bed giggling whilst they waited for Jinx’s return and the most almighty run-through of every aspect of the evening.
“So,” said Jinx brightly, picking up her handbag and turning to Jamie, “thanks so much for the lift. I really appreciate it and so do those ungrateful bitches.”
He laughed and turned off the engine. “Allow me,” he said, jumping out of the car and strolling round to her side before opening the door with a flourish.
“Thanks,” said Jinx, yet another—Christ, she thought, this was becoming bloody relentless—massive blush staining her cheeks. She was convinced it w
as an unsightly purple colour, but it was, in fact, a very pleasant pale strawberry. “You are kind!”
He didn’t step aside to let her pass, so she stood rather awkwardly in front of him and wondered if he was going to kiss her. She was too focused on the highly distracting combination of praying the answer to her silent question was yes, the gorgeous stubble that graced his strong, tanned jaw with flecks of gold and his generous, widely smiling mouth to notice that her fingers were crossed so tightly they were beginning to hurt.
Jamie threw an arm around her shoulders and drew her in close to him in a hug that was anything but friendly as far as Jinx was concerned. She leant her head briefly against his chest and breathed in that wondrous smell. It bought back such intense memories of New Year’s Eve and all her subsequent daydreams about him that she felt her knees might actually give way at any second. Jinx clenched them together—she was determined to hold it together and not start gibbering like an idiot at him again. No way. From now on Jinx Slater was going to be in control.
“Hey,” he said, his voice decidedly lower than it had been in the car, “I’m really glad you ran into me, Slater. And your friends are great. We’ll definitely arrange that night out.”
He let go of her, leant forward and dropped the tiniest, lightest and most sexy kiss Jinx had ever had right on her lips.
The lust that Jinx had felt in the car was instantly bested by the most animal feeling she had ever had. It was so unlike anything she’d experienced before that when she was telling Liberty about it later on, she swore she’d seen actual stars. She had no time to say anything before Jamie bent forward and did it again. Jinx couldn’t believe that such feather-light kisses on the lips—so light she couldn’t have sworn they’d even happened were it not for the white-hot laser beams of lust that shot through her body as they were administered—could physically affect her in the same way as if she’d been punched hard in the stomach. When he tugged gently on the curly strands of hair sticking out of her short ponytail, she felt actually winded. It threw her into such a spin that she had no time to react before Jamie flung open his door, settled himself back behind the wheel, started the engine and backed out of the space.
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