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Stupid Kylian. I might have a low tolerance for the heat but not everyone is like me.
Pressing on the button to close the roof of my convertible, I lean between our seats to reach for my jacket. Being closer to her has only exacerbated the smelling her problem. Against my better judgment, I take such a deep breath, feeling her scent permeate my cells, I’m almost dizzy. Intoxicated.
"Here. Put this on," I say, dropping my jacket in her lap, as the light turns green.
She frowns and just stares at it, pulling her arms even more tightly around her body. "I said I'm fine," she says, her mouth set in a straight line.
Checking for traffic in the rearview mirror, with one hand on the steering wheel, I swerve hard to the side of the road, tires screeching on the asphalt.
"Kylian! Are you fucking mad?" she yells, bracing one hand on the glove compartment, one hand on the door.
"Not in the slightest," I say, ignoring her look of utter ‘you total ballwallop, you almost got us killed.’ “Now, I’m going to ask you again, and if you lie to me, I’m going to make you regret it. Don’t you dare fucking lie to me. Ever. Got it?"
She gives me the smallest nod I’ve ever seen, her eyes wide.
"Good. Now, are you cold? I can see the goosebumps all over your arms and your… um, your neck." I gesture awkwardly to her bare neck.
She nods a little, the movement even more minute than before, and her eyes wider.
"I’m sorry. The car will warm a little now that the car roof is closed." I turn up the heat with a push of a button.
She doesn’t move this time because there’s no question to answer so I busy myself with draping my jacket over her, pulling the collar up to cover her front and tucking the sides around her arms. As I lean over to reach over to her far side with my torso grazing her lap, her breath is shallow and hot against my face as she sits rigidly, teeth digging into her bottom lip.
Once I'm satisfied that she's sufficiently covered, I reluctantly sit back up.
"Better?" I ask after a few seconds.
A third nod.
"Good." I swerve back onto the road. "Sorry about that, I forget that not everyone has a permanent body temperature of 100 degrees."
She doesn't say anything but out of the corner of my eye I see her pull the collar of my jacket up higher so that it's flush against her chin. The ridiculous thought of being jealous of a jacket almost makes me laugh out loud so, instead, I ask what I’ve been dying to ask since I saw her shouting at the road, "So... what were you doing out there tonight, anyway?"
A scowl flashes across her forehead and she snaps, "You said no questions."
"Actually, I said you didn't have to answer any questions. I didn't say that I wouldn't ask any." I take my eyes off the road for one moment to give her a wink.
"I forget that you went to law school," she grumbles.
"Then you probably also forget that I was asked to leave law school. Multiple times."
She turns completely in her chair to look at me, mouth agape. "I didn't know that! I thought you just left because you got bored."
I nod. "I did. Get bored, that is. That's why I caused so much trouble that I was asked to leave. Either way, going to Wharton turned out to be a much better fit for me. I didn’t want to study law and have the joy taken out of arguing." I unashamedly laugh at my own joke.
She still looks shocked. "I always just thought you and my brother couldn't handle being away from each other so you both chose Wharton for your post grad to continue your bromance. Who was Valedictorian of your year anyway. I know it wasn’t either of you because I wouldn’t have heard the end of it."
I guffaw at the bromance comment. It’s not the first time I've heard my friendship with Nathan described that way. Even my brother Damien had shown a little jealousy when he'd seen how close I was with someone who wasn't one of my brothers.
Unlike my brothers, Eton had not been the school for me. Without telling anyone, I'd applied and was accepted into St. Paul’s School the year I turned 12 and basically informed my grandfather that I was changing schools. He'd just laughed and held out his hand for the admission forms and warned me that one day my intelligence was going to get me in trouble.
He had no idea.
I miss him. It's been a hard few years without him. And sometimes I don’t know if I’ll ever really get used to him being gone.
The sigh that I think was just in my head must've come out louder than I'd thought because Kiara finally speaks without prompting from me. "You didn’t answer, who was Valedictorian?"
I just smile and say, "Someone who deserved it way more than your brother or I did."
