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A laugh burst from my lips before I could help it. “Actually, yeah. It kinda does.”
“Everybody wants something from us,” Mason said. They were all out of their school uniforms, and he wore a long-sleeved Henley with dark, carefully distressed jeans. They made his long legs look distractingly good. “We host this party every month to give them all something. But that doesn’t mean we want to hang out with them.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. He really could be a cock sometimes.
“Wow. How noble of you,” I drawled.
“Hey, wait until everyone here puts two and two together and realizes you’re the sole heir to the entire Hildebrand fortune. See how you like a bunch of random assholes coming up to you and offering to suck your fucking dick if you can just help them out with this one little thing. Have fun trying to figure out who your real friends are then.”
There was a bitterness to his voice that took me by surprise, and I flopped back lightly against the couch, taking another sip of my drink.
“Okay. I see your point. But I really hope nobody offers to suck my dick.”
“Yeah? What kind of offers are you taking?”
He smiled lazily at me, but the glint in his eyes made me blush, and I was suddenly very thankful for the low light.
Then he jerked his chin at Cole, and the raven-haired boy leaned over, grabbing a small box off the floor by his chair. He flipped it open and started rolling a joint as the conversation continued around us.
I studied his dexterous movements, fascinated in spite of myself. Kids had smoked behind the back entrance of Sand Valley High all the time, but I’d never joined them.
When he finished, he scooted his chair closer and passed the joint to me. He held it out, silent as always, and raised a brow when I didn’t take it right away. I licked my lips, hesitating for a split second longer before I accepted it, holding it gingerly between my thumb and forefinger. Cole pulled out an expensive looking silver lighter and held it up.
“Stop staring at me,” I grumbled. The other three had all leaned forward expectantly, making me feel like a zoo animal on display.
“Then stop dickin’ around,” Mason commented dryly, but when I glanced over at him, he was grinning.
“All right, all right. Give me a light.”
I stuck the joint between my lips, still holding onto it tightly, and Cole’s blue eyes flickered in the glow of the flame as he lit it for me.
When I sucked in a breath, acrid smoke hit the back of my throat in a rush, making nausea rise up in my stomach. My eyes watered before I quickly exhaled, choking and hacking. It tightened my throat and made my head buzz and spin. I groaned, and as someone plucked the joint from my fingers, I realized I was doubled over with my head between my knees.
“Oh, shit. Cole, I thought you said you got the good stuff!” Finn sounded like he was trying not to laugh, and I reached back and swatted at him, still working to breathe.
A hand ran soothingly down the length of my spine, and my nerve endings crackled with awareness. I peered up, brushing aside the curtain of my hair. Elijah smiled crookedly at me before leaning toward Cole, his hand still stroking up and down my back.
“Give it here.”
Cole passed the joint he’d reclaimed from me, and Elijah took a long drag, holding his breath for several seconds before releasing it in a cloud. He made it look so fucking easy. When he was done, he passed it over my head to Finn. Each of them took a drag, and I sat up slowly, watching them visibly relax as they passed it on. When it reached Elijah again, he turned to me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Wanna try again?”
I nodded wordlessly.
“Like this.”
He brought the joint to his lips and took a deep inhale, closing his lips as he handed it off to Finn. Then he moved closer to me, tilting my face toward his with one hand. Gazing into my eyes, he gripped the back of my neck, and I stared at him wide-eyed, heat flooding my body.
“Open your mouth,” I heard Mason say.
I slowly parted my lips as my heart did a strange little dance between my ribs. Elijah’s lips pushed lightly against mine, only touching in a few places, before he exhaled into my mouth. I felt the smoke fill it slowly before his lips moved against mine.
“You have to inhale, Talia.”
I sucked in a sharp breath at my name on his lips. The smoke rushed into my lungs, but this time, it didn’t burn the same way it had before. It still had an earthy, pungent taste, but it went down easier. And when it hit my lungs, it felt like I’d breathed in helium, like my whole body was filling with something light that might carry me away.
At the same time, electric heat sparked through my body, and I had the most insane urge to wrap my hand around Elijah’s neck in a mirror of what he was doing to me, to push the connection between us further, to slip my tongue into his mouth and—
