Page 32 of You + Me – Against the World

“We have work to do, so you can continue your discussion another time!”

Lily plants herself in our path and silently mouths “I love him!”

This doesn’t go unnoticed.

We climb the stairs in silence, pass by Basile’s wide-open door—he doesn’t even lift his head from his books to say hello—then go lock ourselves in my room. Finally alone. I slide down against the closed door, slump on the hardwood floor, and let out a groan of frustration.

“Now that didn’t go so badly, did it?” Leaning against the nearby wall, Vadim looks at me smugly.

“Did you really have to shove their house, their money, and their privilege in their faces?”

“I can’t stand people who complain when they have everything. And who think they know everything just because they own more than others.”

“Yeah, it’s true my father is rich, and we all benefit from it. But he worked for it! Why should he be ashamed of it?”

“This was a bad idea, Alma. I should go.”

“You just got here!”

“Yes, and I already want to leave. I don’t feel like I belong here.”

“You pretty much insulted them, and you expect them to welcome you with open arms and shower you with kisses?”

“No, but I’d like it if you kissed me.”

My heart skips a beat.

“Is that too much to ask?” he whispers, sliding down next to me against the door.

My heart races.

I tilt my head to bring my lips closer, but deliberately stop an inch from his mouth. “Bad boy.”

“Little Miss Perfect.”

I feel his hot breath, his intoxicating scent, the soft skin of his bare arm brushing against mine. My heart is going to explode. We stare into each other’s eyes, both resolved not to crack. Vadim wets his lips and manages to make me glance down at the tip of his tongue, which vanishes immediately. I stare at his little scar. Our breathing quickens.

He breaks the silence with a husky whisper. “If I let myself go, you don’t know what I’m capable of, what I might do to you.”

“Whatever you want.”

Vadim throws himself on me, pins me to the parquet floor, and kisses me… like the bad boy he is. We roll on the floor, our mouths once again drawn together like magnets, our tongues entwined, our bodies feverish. The kiss shuts everything else out.

Vadim’s hands slip under my clothes and meet my skin. The most intimate parts of it. My teenage bedroom becomes the stage for a scene it thought it would never witness. Frenzied and forbidden. Burning and silent.

Vadim touches me, caresses me with his fingers, and silences me with his mouth. I’m losing myself. My brother is just on the other side of the wall, and my sister and my parents one floor down, under the same roof, but I wouldn’t give this up for anything in the world.

“Alma, open up!”

Basile pounds on my bedroom door.

My heart lurches.

Vadim leaps to his feet, pulls me up and pushes me toward the door, which is still being hammered by my brother’s blows.

For a few seconds, I catch my breath. I can’t help stopping to admiring Vadim’s composure, his self-assurance, his perfect mastery of the situation. But then I start to wonder if it isn’t the first time he’s been caught in the act.

He sits down at my desk as if he’d been there all along. I smooth my hair with my fingers and finally open the door. Basile is standing there, his face scarlet and contorted with rage.