The days after the welcome dinner, as the staff indicated, are a chaotic, organized mess of small intimate meets, while we also try to find our classes, adjust to the very demanding curriculum at St Joseph’s and get used to living away from home. The sheer amount of work they distribute in the first week alone has me clenching my teeth at the end of each lesson as I struggle to figure out how I will juggle all the expected assignments and homework tasks. My mind is abuzz and I feel like I am being pulled in every which way, even sometimes struggling to remember the names of people in my class. Either way, I am really enjoying the challenge and quickly force myself into a good structured routine.
Each morning through the week, I start the day at the gym at five am, meeting my PT to work through a cardio then weights session. The workout leaves me sweaty, energised, and focussed for the day. Even at home, I have always been active, participating in a myriad of sports, after school activities, committees. The physical challenge certainly helps me reign in the buzz in my head.
I usually go straight from the gym to breakfast and sit with everyone at our regular table. Dom, Drew and Caleb are always there by the time I sit down with my green tea and bowl of fruit, I share a lot of classes with them, so we study a lot in the study rooms that are allocated around St Joseph’s when we are not in class. The girls are on a different schedule to us due to our majors, but we always meet up for meals, which ends in a catch-up goss and a laugh.
Hartley has installed herself in the popular clique and spends her time fluttering around from group to group but she is always close by. She is still my BFF but she needs more than I can give her, my drive always competes with our time together, and it always wins.
St Joseph’s feels good. Surprisingly, I think I am starting to feel confident with the people around me. I have always been one of those people who doesn’t have a lot of friends. It is hard to find real people, people that get me, and who have me no matter what. So often people just want to friend me for my money and my connections, and I certainly don’t have the patience or smarts to handle teenage drama and angst. It is just not in my makeup. I am used to an older crowd because of my involvement at Bellafonte Corporation but I am slowly getting the hang of Saint’s life.
“I’m thinking we need a night of movies, popcorn and laughs, what about you Ginny, you in?” Hartley asks, throwing her arm around my shoulders on Friday night in the hallway of our suites. I have just finished three hours slogging through advanced calculus and my brain is mush.
“Sound’s perfect. Where?” I ask as we break apart and I start towards my room to change.
“Umm, Dom has offered to host tonight. We are going to go up after dinner if that is good?”
“Yep. Let me change and call mum, I will meet you downstairs at dinner in about twenty,” I say as I finish opening the door, I hear her murmur behind me as the door closes.
One of my habits that Grandpa taught me is to unpack my books and laptop onto my desk as soon as I get home, pretty much before anything else, in preparation for a new day. We used to sit together when I got home from school, he would always be waiting at the door, together we would walk up and chat about my day while leading me through how to plan for the next. Such a little thing but even far away from him, it brings a smile to my face, makes me feel not so alone. I look at his photo again, that sits near my diary, before I hop up to get changed. A movie is just what I feel like after an afternoon of quadratic conversion.
I am walking back from my study lost in the assignment I need to work on tomorrow, my tie is hanging undone, my white St Joseph’s shirt is unbuttoned, hanging open and I am tugging it out of my formal uniform skirt, when the doorbell sounds.
“Come on Hartley, I said I would meet you! It’s unlocked, you impatient wench! I am going to shower,” I speak clear enough so that she can hear me. The door pushes open as I finally wrestle myself out of my shirt leaving me in just my white push up bra, but it’s not Hartley standing there, it is Hunter.
His eyes drop down from my face instantly drinking in my half undressed state. He takes his time and isn't ashamed to do it, slowly. Stepping further into my room so that the door shuts behind him. The lack of noise is deafening, and my heart starts a loud thudding in my surprise and shock. He doesn’t move an inch, well except for his eyes, which keep dancing over me.
“Hunter? What the hell! What are you doing here?” I say loudly, to break the spell he is under, while reaching down to grab my shirt, holding it up to shield myself from his gaze.
“Gigi, you always answer the door like that? I really don’t want you to. Who knows who it could have been.” His voice is so low and husky. I don’t know this side of Hunter, but jeepers creepers, I want to, my body responds instantly.
“What do you want Hunter? You made it pretty clear the other day you weren’t going to speak with me, not going to be my friend, so I am a little confused as to why you are here now?” I growl back at him. I didn’t realise how angry I am after his rejection the other day, but the sleepless nights when I have done nothing but run our conversation on repeat has seen my hurt to blossom into growing anger.
“I never said I didn’t want you, Gigi. I just said I wouldn’t be your friend,” he says, his eyes stopping their caress of my body, instead zeroing in on my mouth.
“You know what Hunter, I can’t do this. I won’t. I want you to go. You were ridiculously clear, your words stingingly so when I arrived. Run off back to your little girlfriend, I have places to be,” I say and then I made the mistake of turning my back to him.
He is on me in an instant, pulling me back, tearing my shirt out of my hands, letting it fall to the floor. His hands are so gentle, but confident too, as they twist over my bare stomach, trailing their way up my body as he lowers his mouth so that it hovers over my shoulder. I feel his breath on my skin before he spins me so that I am facing him and his eyes, dark and huge, are demanding, giving away his intention before he even moves.
His body towers over mine, his presence is so enthralling that I can’t move, even if I try, but I’m not held in fear. Instead, my heart races in my own excitement and interest. His hands move determinedly, but excruciatingly slowly, like he is touching glass and doesn’t want to leave a mark. He trails them over my body, finally stopping his journey of discovery on my face, where he just holds me with beautiful fragility. His eyes are ablaze and I honestly am trapped, I can’t escape even if I want to. Just like the time behind the shed when we promised and swapped our blood, time stills again as he moves his face to mine, his lips getting closer and closer to mine. I feel him breathing before I feel him kissing me ever so softly, so sweetly, that I lean forward in response. And then suddenly, the world regains its spin, and I swear we hurtle into hyperdrive.
He pushes me against the wall before he kisses me again. This time it is pure possession and passion, his lips are searing hot and commanded my everything. His tongue wants in and I give it to him without hesitance. He holds me like I am crystal and then he shatters me into a thousand pieces with each touch, each lick, kiss, and noise he gives. His body moves impossibly closer, his huge hand drops to my leg and he hitches it up over his hip so that there is less space between us. Without thinking, I pretty much jump up and hook both my legs around his waist, binding my feet together behind him, drawing him nearer still.
He stops once he feels me settle into him, looking at me with those stunning azure blue eyes, his mouth open, his panting inhales the only noise in the room, before he dips his head slower and this time kisses me like there is no tomorrow.
I am lost in our kisses and touches and didn’t notice his hand dropping until I felt them around my neck, but he tricked me as he drops his mouth to my throat as well. He licked, sucked, and bit me without abandon and I know I will be wearing his mark, but still, I stretched my neck giving him better access. He finished with a little kiss at the base of my throat before pulling his head up, laying it softy to my forehead.
We don’t speak, I can see what he is saying in his eyes. I am sure he saw my response and he smiled. His hands settled carefully around my throat in a very manly display of dominance that turned my inexperienced body on more than it should have. His gentle touch alluded to the vulnerable position he had got us into.
“Gigi, I won’t say this to you again. But no-one and I repeat no-one is to touch you. If I see anyone laying a finger on you, like fucking Dom or those dickhead Savage twins then I won’t be responsible for my actions. I know that you are so goddamn intelligent and I know that you are not short of hearing, so my words should not be that difficult to understand. I am deadly fucking serious Gigi. You are mine. Don’t be fooled into not believing that, again,” his hands gently squeeze my neck and he licks his tongue across my mouth again which sends us tumbling headfirst into even more fevered kisses, as I push up against him and the wall.
“You promised me, Gigi. You have been mine for a long time, you will always be mine. I just wonder if I am yours?” he whispers before those wicked lips of his kiss me again and again, until my head is spinning. And then he undoes my legs between one kiss and the next. I feel the change before I see it, he is closed off and angry again at me.
“Not one word to anyone here about this Verginius. I mean it,” his anger slaps out at me and leaves me reeling in confusion, but he is still close enough to me that I can see his conflicted emotions.
He leans down and kisses me confidently before turning away, walking straight out of my door, leaving me conflicted, confused, turned on, and unable to stand.
