"I found him sneaking into the camp. Better me, I suppose, than one of the others." Del a stared at Kylie. "Do you want to see him?" She gave Trey the up and down look. "He's kind of cute. If you like his type."
Kylie opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. So she just sat there with her mouth hanging open like an idiot, staring at Trey.
"Hey." He pushed Del a aside and moved into her bedroom.
"Not so fast!" Del a yanked him back a good three feet and looked at Kylie. "You wanna keep him, or should I toss him to the wolves? I heard they're hungry."
Trey, looking stunned that Del a-only an inch or so over five feet-could move him so easily, rubbed his arm where she'd latched on to him and stared down at her.
"It's okay," Kylie managed to say.
"Thanks," Trey said, cutting Del a an odd look, and Kylie wasn't sure who he was thanking. Her for agreeing to see him, or Del a for bringing him here.
"Okie dokie. Later." Del a leaned in. "By the way, no one knows he's here but me. So you're gonna have to sneak him out." Del a waved and then stepped out and shut the door.
Trey rubbed his arm one more time and stared at the door before he turned back to her. "That is one weird and strong bitch."
Kylie's shot her gaze to the door, afraid Del a would storm back in and defend herself. "She's not a bitch. She's my friend. What are you ... doing here?"
"What do you think I'm doing? I came to see you."
Kylie shook her head. "You said it would be next week."
"Yeah, but I have a cousin who lives a couple of miles from here. I talked Mom into letting me come up early so I could see you." His gaze shot to the phone in her hands. "I cal ed you at least twice and left messages. Didn't you get them?"
Realizing what he'd done to see her, Kylie felt guilty for not taking his cal s or even checking his messages. "I ... it's been crazy." A few lingering tears slipped from her lashes. She blinked them away and just stared at him. His sandy brown hair hung just a little longer than before and his bangs brushed against his eyebrows. He wore a dark green T-shirt and jeans. Her gaze lowered to his chest. The place she always loved to rest against. Oddly, she remembered him as being buffer. Or was she remembering Derek?
"You're crying." He moved in and concern, honest to goodness concern, fil ed his green eyes. "Are you okay?"
The compassion in his gaze sent a wave of emotion through her. She stopped caring about what he looked like and just wanted to feel loved. She nodded yes, but the truth slipped from her lips. "No. Everything in my life is fal ing apart."
Trey moved in and before Kylie could stop him, he was doing what Trey did best, holding her. He'd joined her on the twin bed. Her cheek rested against his chest, and she listened to the steady pounding of his heart. Inhaling his familiar scent, she closed her eyes. She'd give in for a moment. Just a moment. Then she'd push him away.
"Is this about your parents' divorce?" His hands moved tenderly against her back. His touch felt good. Familiar. Normal. Life the way it should be. Like the way it was less than a month ago.
"That and everything else," she said, accepting that she couldn't tel him about the camp and what was happening to her.
"You mean your grandma?" he asked. "I know you two were close."
"Yeah." She pul ed back, wiped her eyes, and stared at him stretched out beside her on the tiny twin bed. Silence and sudden physical awareness vibrated in the smal room. They were alone. They were in a bed.
It wasn't as if they hadn't been in bed together before. He'd visited her several times when her parents hadn't been home. And they had met at Sara's house a couple of times when her parents hadn't been there. It was just ... those were the times that things usual y went too far. When tel ing him to stop had made him mad.
"My camp is right next to yours," he said.
She nodded and then blurted out what she needed to say to him before she lost her nerve. "You shouldn't have come here, Trey. I have no idea what kind of trouble I'l get into if we're caught." She did know the number one rule posted: no normals al owed on camp property without permission. And here she was with one stretched out in her bed. It felt wrong. But it stil felt right.
"I miss you, Kylie," he said, ignoring what she'd said to him. "Real y miss you." He reached up and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She swal owed. "I miss you, too, but-"
He leaned in and placed a soft kiss beside her lips. Whatever she was about to say got lost in her head. She closed her eyes and even while a little voice inside her told her to stop him, she didn't want to stop this. She wanted him to kiss her, to make her forget. Oh, yes, she wanted to forget.
His mouth touched hers, slow at first, as if making sure she wanted it, and then he slipped his tongue into her mouth. She loved it when he kissed her like that.
The next thing Kylie knew, Trey had his hand up the back of her shirt and if she didn't stop him, she knew what came next. He would undo her bra. He would touch her breasts, and it always felt so good when he touched her. There was even that one time that she'd let him take her shirt off. She felt his hands on her bra hook. He deepened the kiss, as if to distract her. She decided to let him do it, too. But then what? The question bounced around her head. She would stop him, right? She always stopped him. That was the reason he'd dumped her, the reason he'd hooked up with that other girl.
That was when he'd broken her heart.
Opening her eyes, Kylie broke the kiss.
His eyelids fluttered open and she stared at his eyes, searching for a reason not to stop him this time. She wanted to lose herself in his eyes ...
to see the gold flecks sparkle.
Oh crap! Trey didn't have gold flecks in his green eyes. Derek had the eyes that pul ed her in. Shocked, she put a hand on Trey's chest and recal ed how good it had felt to lean against Derek's chest just this morning-how she had felt safe and accepted. "I ... maybe we shouldn't-"
"Shh. Please don't say it." He put his finger over her lips. "This feels so good, Kylie. And I want to hold you like this, I want to touch you." His hand shifted around to her front and softly passed over her bra, making her breast feel tight. "What's wrong with us being together if we love each other?
And you know that's how I feel, don't you? I love you."
I love you. Those three little words played like a slow song in her head. He moved in again for another kiss. She wanted to be loved so badly. And it did feel good, Kylie admitted to herself. It helped her forget.
She let herself become lost in his kisses again. Lost in how his hands moved over her naked skin over her back up to the bra latch. Unlike before, he had her bra unclasped in seconds.
Probably because he'd had practice. Okay, that thought put an end to the warm emotions swirling inside her. Or was it the cold that suddenly invaded the room? Oh, gawd, Soldier Dude was back.
Here.
Now.
Watching her make out with Trey.
"Okay, sorry. I can't do this." She pul ed away and stood beside the bed, not looking anywhere but at Trey. Go away, she told the coldness, and squeezed her eyes closed.
When she opened her eyes, she felt the chil fade. She focused again on Trey, stretched out on the bed frowning at the ceiling.
"Not again," Trey muttered, and he sounded angry. He always got a little mad when she first stopped him. One time, he even dropped her off at her house without speaking to her.
Without wanting to, she found herself comparing him to Derek. Not just his body, in that Derek won hands down, but his attitude. For some reason, she didn't think Derek would pressure her so hard to give it up.
And then pout like a spoiled brat when she refused.
A tiny ribbon of anger swirled around her other emotions, overpowering passion and hunger and even her fear. "Who do you think you are, Trey?
You can't just come into camp and expect me to have sex with you, especial y after everything that's happened."
He sat up and brushed a hand over his face. "I didn't come here expecting to have sex." He let go of a deep gush of air. "I came to talk. Fine ...
yeah, I want sex, too. And I don't understand why you keep-"
"You want it enough that you'd break up with me and find someone who would give it to you?" Why she'd asked that she didn't know, because it had already happened.
He frowned.
"Did you sleep with her?" Kylie asked. In her heart she already knew the answer, but for some reason she needed it confirmed. He didn't say a word. He didn't have to. The confirmation was al over his face.
"Did you tel her you loved her, too?" The thought stung like a paper cut right across the heart. Even more guilt fil ed his eyes, and then he shook his head and fel face-first into denial. "No, I didn't sleep with her. And why would I tel her I love her, when I love you?"
Kylie didn't have Del a's super lie-detecting skil , but she knew he'd just lied to her. Knew it with certainty and she wanted to throw something at him. "Don't lie, Derek."
"Derek?" He sat up in bed. "Who the hel is Derek?"
"Trey," she snapped.
"Who's Derek?" Trey asked again.
She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. We ... you and I aren't together anymore."
"So you're together with him?"
She shook her head. Then, realizing what a mistake this had been, she faced the fact that this was partly her fault. "I'm sorry. I should have just told you no when you asked if I would see you. I can't see you now or next week."
He looked so hurt. Just as she'd known he'd been lying about sleeping with that girl, Kylie knew the hurt on his face was real. Trey did care about her. He'd just cared about having sex more.
"Are you seeing someone else? Is that who Derek is?" He jumped off the bed and stopped right in front of her. "I know I screwed up, Kylie. But ...
please, give me another chance. I real y miss you." He reached out to touch her.
She pushed his hand back. "I believe you miss me, Trey. I do. But I can't do this now."
"We don't have to have sex. We can just talk, okay? I'l wait until you're ready, I swear. Let me take you out for a pizza or something. I drove my dad's truck and-"
"I already ate dinner. Where did you park the truck?"
"At the front gate, but please..."
"I can't," she said.
"Don't tel me you don't care about me anymore. We dated for almost a year."
"I don't know what I feel." She reached back under her shirt and rehooked her bra. "I'm confused about everything right now ... except that I know you hurt me, Trey. When school starts up, maybe we can ... talk. But right now I have to get you out of this camp before something bad happens."
"Like what?" he asked. Something close to disgust crossed his face. "Is it true what they say about this place?"
"What who says?" she asked.
"My cousin and the other campers from last year. They say that al the kids who attend here are juvenile delinquents who were into real y weird crap. Real freaks."
Only a few days ago, she would have total y agreed with him, but now ... "Don't believe everything you hear." She reached down and found her phone on the bed. "Just trust me on this, okay? You've got to go." She gave him a nudge toward the door. She took him through the woods, staying a few feet from the trail back to the dining hal . Once there, she peered around a tree to make sure the coast was clear. The muscles in her gut relaxed a little when no one was hanging outside. She hurried Trey past the entrance and breathed a sigh of relief when they moved behind the gate to his truck.
He looked down at her. "I do love you," he said.
She only nodded and motioned for him to go.
He reached out and she let him hug her. She even returned the embrace. Her emotions started zipping al over the place again. Deep down, she admitted that while she didn't think she'd ever forgive Trey for dumping her, a smal part of her stil cared about him. And who knew, maybe by the time school started up again, she'd feel differently. But as for now ...
As he drove away, Kylie stayed in the parking lot until his tail ights faded into the darkness. Standing there, she hated how alone she felt. When she turned around, she realized she'd been wrong. She wasn't alone. Just friggin' great. Someone stood by the gate, watching her. Kylie couldn't make out who it was, but she prayed it wasn't Holiday or Sky. As she got closer, she recognized her lone watcher. It wasn't Sky or Holiday.
It was worse.
Fredericka.
Determined not to show any fear, Kylie walked right past her. She got almost to the dining hal when the girl whizzed by and came to a sudden stop in front of Kylie.
She managed to stop right before slamming into the she-wolf.
"So, Ghost Girl had company, huh?" Fredericka said in a condescending voice. "What have you been doing? Screwing in your cabin?"
Kylie wondered if being turned into a werewolf explained the girl being such a bitch, or if she had always been this mean.
"If I was, at least I did it in a bed and not in the woods like some people I could mention."
Fredericka's eyes went from black to a deep burgundy in a nanosecond. Kylie wasn't up on werewolf color trivia, but she could guess that meant anger. That's when she realized that pissing the werewolf off probably hadn't been the best thing to do. Then again, Kylie also knew people like Fredericka preyed on the weak. She couldn't let the girl know how much she real y frightened her. The she-wolf growled. "Do Holiday and Sky know you've been entertaining guests? Maybe I should I fil them in?" Her voice seemed to vibrate from her solar plexus.
Right then, Kylie saw Holiday step outside the dining hal . As badly as she hated the idea of Holiday knowing Trey had been here, Kylie refused to let this B with an itch have something to hang over her head.
Kylie hot-footed it past the she-wolf and stopped in front of Holiday. "Hi. I just had a friend stop by uninvited. I realize it's against camp policy. I wasn't aware he was coming, so I escorted him out and it won't happen again."
Holiday frowned and it looked as if she was about to read Kylie the riot act. Then her gaze shifted over Kylie's shoulder. When her focus returned to Kylie, the look of anger faded. "Thank you for tel ing me. Make sure it doesn't happen again. We only al ow visitors on parents day. We can't have normals poking their noses around here uninvited."
Kylie nodded. "I understand." And then she took off to her cabin, praying Fredericka didn't fol ow.
By nine o'clock that night, Kylie had kept her promise to her mom and cal ed her dad. It had been short, to the point, and hurt like a toothache. She didn't mention he hadn't come to see her before she'd been shipped off to the camp. She didn't mention that he hadn't come to get her at the police station, either.
And neither did he.
Basical y, he told Kylie he loved her, he missed her, and he would see her Sunday on parents day at ten o'clock sharp. Oh, and he had to go, because he was out with a client.
Hanging up from the sixty-second cal , Kylie remembered her mom always accusing her dad of putting his job before family. Kylie thought hel would be announcing a snow day before she agreed with anything her mom said. But right now, Kylie wondered how many inches they were predicting. Going into her bedroom, she dropped on the bed and hugged her musty-smel ing pil ow, but she didn't cry this time. Maybe she was cried out, or just too angry at Fredericka. Maybe she was stil in some kind of aftershock from her little make-out session with Trey-who she'd accidental y cal ed Derek. Dang it, here she was afraid to like Derek, in case she only liked him because he looked like Trey. Now she was with Trey, and Derek came popping in her head. And don't forget the attraction/fear she held for a certain blue-eyed werewolf. Just how messed up could she possibly get?
Kylie heard the door to the cabin open and slam shut. She had her feet on the floor to go greet Del a and Miranda when she heard the tone of the words being slung back and forth between her roommates.
"I cal ed the computer first," Miranda yel ed.
"I beat your little witch butt fair and square," Del a responded.
"Listen here, you good-for-nothing vamp!"
Kylie stormed into the room. Del a sat at the computer, her canines showing and growling. Miranda stood, chin held high, with her pinky finger held out in the air wiggling while her voice spewed something about zits.
"Stop it! I'm sick of this," Kylie yel ed. "Can't you two fight like normal people?"
Miranda shot her gaze to Kylie. "Why would we fight like normals?"
"We're not normals," Del a retorted. "Neither are you, and the sooner you accept that, the better off you'l be."
"You don't know that," Kylie snapped. "Fine, you two go ahead and kil each other. Just don't leave a mess, because I don't want to get stuck cleaning up any body parts." She swung around to go back to the bedroom when she recal ed the reason she'd come out in the first place. She did another about-face. "By the way, if you hear me screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night, don't worry, I'm just having a night terror." She started back to her room.
Del a cal ed out. "Stop right there, Miss Smarty Pants! Don't you think for one minute that you're going to go into that bedroom without explaining first?"
Kylie swung back around. "I did explain it. They are just bad dreams."
"Not that. I mean the hot guy sneaking into the camp looking for you. Or did you forget about the little present I delivered earlier?"
Kylie wished she could forget. Seeing the questions in both her roommates' eyes, and knowing that Del a could have gotten in a lot of trouble for delivering Trey, Kylie figured they both deserved something. She went to the kitchen table and dropped in a chair. "His name is Trey and he's old news."
"How hot was he?" Miranda asked, and sat beside Kylie.
"On a scale of one to ten, he was an eight," Del a answered Miranda, and then looked back at Kylie. "Why is he old news?" She moved away from the computer and dropped in a chair across from them.
"Because he left me for some slut who would put out, that's why."
"Jerk," Miranda said.
"That piece of human shit," Del a piped in. "You should have told me, I'd have roughed him up a bit."
Silence fel and the three of them sat there looking at each other. Miranda stretched her hands out on the table. "So if he left you for someone who would ... put out, does that mean that you've never ... you know?"
"You know what?" Del a snapped. "What are you asking her?"
"I want to know if she's done it," Miranda said. "Are you a virgin, Kylie?"