*Violet's POV*
I stand in the hallway, stunned. Did Kane just give me a compliment after ignoring me this entire day? His mood swings are giving me whiplash. It takes me a few seconds to regain my composure and open the door. Stepping into the room, I realize how much of a buzz I currently have going on from all the bourbon.
When I finally make it inside, I strip the dress off and put on pajama shorts and a hoodie and put my hair up into a bun. I grab my little bathroom bag and then head out.
When I open my door I see Kane closing his and stepping into the hallway.
“Oh, sorry, are you using the bathroom?” I ask. He nods.
“Okay, I’ll just go later.”
“It’s fine, there are two sinks,” he says with a shrug.
“Um, right, yeah. Okay.” He gestures for me to go first, so I do and head into the bathroom to the far sink, setting down my things. I wash my face first and when I finish dry
*Kane's POV*When I felt her hands creeping up my shirt to my back, it reminded me of the scars that sit there. Most of them from my father and some of them because of her. Because I took punishments for her. The hate and resentment that came along with that realization was enough to snap me out of whatever trance her lips had put me in.Leaning back on the door to my room after shutting it quickly, I try to calm my heart rate down. I sit on the edge of my bed and put my elbows on my knees, resting my head in my hands.Her touching my back triggered some nasty feelings to bubble over, but is it really her fault? No, I don’t think so. But at the same time, it’s safer for her to hate me. I realize that at some point since I first saw her at the frat house, my focus shifted and now, the thought that she hates me feels like a knife to the gut. Fuck. This is a problem.I try to think through my options and eventually I realize I need to apologize t
*Violet's POV"When I see the look of panic in Lana’s eyes as they flicker to Harper at my statement, I know instinctively that she’s scared of him. I don’t know what exactly she thinks he’ll do, but I quickly amend my statement. “Lana offered to take over and I declined,” I tell him.“I see,” he says before pulling out a chair. I look back over to her and see her silently thanking me with her eyes. I get the sudden urge to ask her why but it’ll have to wait.The food is done and Lana helps me bring it over to the table and we all have a seat and Lana disappears into the backyard.“So, we will be attending a luncheon at the Johnson’s house today,” My mom says. I’m hoping “we” means her and Harper. I have absolutely zero desire to spend my day with a bunch of stepford wives pretending to like each other. Apparently Kane has the same thought because he says, “We,
*Kane's POV*When she tells me the guy she’s spent the last two hours with is gay I feel a bit ridiculous for the white hot jealousy that’s been swirling inside me this whole time.As I watch her go to a table, I see a group of people walking towards her. I think I may have seen them around before but I can’t recall any of their names. I can, however, see that they’re all snakes from way over here. I especially don’t like the way the guy on the far right is looking at Violet.I’ve been trying to stay away from her with my dad around so that he doesn’t think I’m getting attached but she’s in a big group. I could be there for any one of those girls, right? My legs decide before my brain does and I begin walking towards their table, glaring at the guy looking at her the whole way there.He notices me and then quickly averts his gaze away from Violet. Fucking creep.As I get closer, and the girls no
*Violet's POV*I rush up to my room after dinner and text Stella.Me: Help, fashion emergency. Facetime?A couple minutes later, I’m receiving a facetime from her. I answer quickly and see that she’s sitting in our dorm room.“Stella! Help me!”“What’s the problem? You look super cute right now. Love that blazer.”“I know, you picked it! The problem is I’m going out to a night club apparently.”“What?! How? Why?” She asks. I briefly explain the whole situation at the garden party to her and she nods and then says, “I see. Alright well, obviously you cannot wear that blazer to a club. The skirt should be fine with the right top though. The white has to go. What do you have with you?”I empty out my duffle onto the bed and spread everything out.“OH! How about that black lacy top on the far left!” She says.“What ar
*Kane's POV*I don’t dance, but seeing the way Mitch eyes Violet when Cara suggests going to the dance floor, I have no choice but to follow. We squeeze through to the middle and Lucas pulls Violet into him, and it’s clear she hasn’t danced like this before but he shows her to just move her hips and by the end of the first song, she’s got a good enough handle on it that I find myself jealous of a gay guy.Cara and her friend Lauren or Leah or whatever it is are both dancing up on me but I keep my hands to myself and am obviously not paying attention to either of them. I can’t focus on anything other than the way Violet’s hips are swaying against Lucas.After a couple songs, she goes on her tiptoes and says something in his ear. He nods and they start walking away. I push the two girls away and grab her arm and she comes close because I wouldn’t be able to hear her otherwise and says, “I’m just going to coat c
*Violet's POV*When Lucas comes over and interrupts us, I can’t help but feel annoyed. I’m pretty sure I just experienced my first ever orgasm. In the middle of a crowded nightclub. On Kane’s fingers. My head is buzzing enough from the alcohol and the adrenaline that I can’t even bring myself to care how wrong the whole thing was.When we reach the rest of the group and Cara attaches herself to Kane I can’t help the knot that forms in my stomach and the only buzz that’s left is the one from the liquor. Lucas grabs onto my hips and starts dancing with me so I sway with him to the music, and when I look over at Kane I see that he’s not even dancing, just standing there letting her dance on him and his attention is fully on me.I meet his eyes as I dance with Lucas and the intensity of his gaze sends a shiver down my spine. Some guy walks in between us, breaking our eye contact and I see that it’s the guy Lucas
*Kane's POV*When I walk inside my room, I lean back against the door and rest my head on it, letting my eyes close. It takes every last shred of self-control not to open this door back up and finish what I started at the club. It seems like every cell in my body is urging me to do it, but I can’t put her in danger anymore. I need to just let her be with her nice, tame, football-playing golden boy. She’s better off that way.I wait until I hear her go to and then return to her room from the bathroom, wait another five minutes and then sneak over to brush my teeth before quickly returning to my bedroom.I lie on the bed and allow myself to briefly consider a world where Violet and I had met under different circumstances. One where it would be easy to be with her. I drift off to sleep, dreaming of this other, beautifully impossible world.When I awaken the next morning, my dream land comes crashing down around me and I’m thrust back into t
*Violet's POV*When Kane tells me it won’t happen again I can’t help but feel upset about it. He made me feel so amazing last night with just his fingers and the thought that I won’t ever feel that way again is so disappointing. I try and think about a time when Jace ever made me feel even half that amount of pleasure and I come up blank. I really shouldn’t be making these kinds of comparisons but I just can’t help it.It looks as though this drive is going to be another 3 hours of silent treatment from Kane so I pull out my ereader and continue the book I started on the drive up. At one point, my phone vibrates and I see a text from Lucas.I open it to find a couple of the pictures that we took last night with the message: I post one and you post one?I type back: Yes! I’ll take the 2nd one.Lucas: Deal!I post the picture and tag him in it and then get a notification at almost exactly the same time that