The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance (208 page)

“Fourteen serving twelve!” I shouted.

“Go Upton!” Paige cheered from her lounge chair.

I paused to glance over at Paige and the others, wondering if she’d purposely tried to mess me up. She was sitting between Amberly and Sienna, facing the game instead of the water. Noelle and West were lying a few feet away on a beach blanket, his arm around her back. Sawyer was sitting on his towel, T-shirt on, reading
Of Mice and Men
. I wondered why he even bothered to come along. And how many books he’d brought with him on the plane.

Luckily, Poppy was MIA, as was Daniel, so I didn’t have to worry about Poppy drooling all over Upton every time he made a point.
Refocusing on the game, I tossed the ball in the air. As it came back down, I envisioned Poppy’s face on it and slammed it over the net—right at Upton’s head.

“Whoa!” Upton shouted. He made a last-second play for the ball, but it glanced off the side of his hand and went flying toward the rocks that lined the beach.

“Yes! That’s game!” I shouted, throwing my arms in the air.

Graham hugged me and lifted me up. “Nice work!”

“Good job, loser. I’m impressed that you didn’t eff it up,” Gage said, reaching out to slap my hand.

“How very supportive of you,
teammate
,” I said pointedly.

“Supportive like that straightjacket bathing suit you’re sporting?” Gage replied. “Come on, Brennan, you gotta let the ladies
breathe
.”

He mimed the universal boy sign for breasts and made some wet kissy noises. Graham cracked up, but he blushed and looked away when he saw the mortification on my face. I adjusted the strap of my one-piece black bathing suit—which was, admittedly, the only one-piece on the beach, aside from Noelle’s much more sophisticated red strapless. These St. Barths girls were all about the teeny bikinis.

“Gage, you’re disgusting,” Tiffany said.

“Whatever, prude. You know you want me.” Gage laughed, his hands on his slim hips. He actually looked annoyingly hot in his brown plaid board shorts with no shirt on. He had a tattoo of a sun on the back of his right shoulder, which was unexpected and intriguing. But not intriguing enough to give him the satisfaction of asking about it.

I felt a hand close around my wrist and turned to find Upton smiling down at me. “A kiss for the winner?” he said.

Before I could answer, he’d slipped one hand behind my neck and had pulled me in for a knee-melting kiss. By the time Upton released me, Gage and Graham were hooting and cheering and all the girls were sneering in my direction. But for once I didn’t care. I’d have been jealous of me too. Because, wow, could that boy kiss.

“I say we hit the showers,” Tiffany said to me a few minutes later, fanning herself with her hands. Upton, Gage, and Dash were volleying the ball back and forth over the net, and everyone else had plopped down on towels. “I am way too sweaty for comfort.”

“Agreed,” I said, figuring I could use a cool off, considering my knees were still shaking from kissing Upton. Waving good-bye to the others, we grabbed our beach bags and made our way up the beach toward the Simon Hotel’s outer buildings. The hotel itself stood on the bluff and was accessible by a huge staircase cut into the rocks, if you were in the mood for a hike, or, if you were feeling lazy, you could get there by one of the many golf carts that zoomed between the lobby and the beach all day long. Down there were a casual breakfast and lunch restaurant and bar, a beachside pool, and a line of slim, canvas-topped huts, each of which contained a private shower.

“You really like him, don’t you?” Tiffany asked as she stepped
inside her own stall, closing the thick wooden door behind her. I heard her latch the lock as I walked into my own stall. “Upton, I mean. Not Dash,” she clarified.

“Yeah, I kind of do,” I said, raising my voice so she could hear me over the water. I stepped out of my bathing suit and slung it over the door, then added my towel and T-shirt dress cover-up so they’d be out of reach of the shower’s spray. “Is that pathetic?”

“Why would it be pathetic?” she asked.

I turned on the water and leapt back as the cold jets hit my bare skin. Huddling against the far wall, I waited until I felt the stream start to warm up on my feet, and then inched my way in.

“Because you
all
like him, and he’s such a major flirt,” I replied. I lathered up my hair with shampoo, and then left it piled atop my head as I started to wash my skin. “Besides, he clearly has something going with Poppy.”

“I wouldn’t take the Poppy thing too seriously. When it comes to guys, she has the attention span of a gnat. And as for everyone else, they’re just playing the game. Which, by the way, you are clearly winning,” Tiffany said.

I blushed happily. “You think?”

“It’s
so
obvious.” The pipes squealed as she turned off the water. “I say, if you really like him, go for it.”

“Are you done already?” I asked, surprised.

Tiffany laughed. “I am the queen of the thirty-second shower. Something I learned from traveling with my dad—you can never count on a foreign water heater,” she joked. I could hear her moving around,
getting dried off and dressed. “I’m gonna grab a snack. Want to meet at the restaurant?”

“Sure.”

Her door creaked open and slammed, and I dove under the still-warm water, quickly rinsing my hair. I finished cleaning up and rinsing off and felt as if I’d actually accomplished something. Beaten the hot-water clock. And learned my first lesson of international travel. Smiling, I turned around to grab my towel.

My hand caught air. I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the relative darkness. There was nothing hanging on the door. No towel. No clothes. No bathing suit. Nothing.

“What—”

I heard a giggle and my heart dropped.

“Who’s out there?” I asked.

More snickering. It had to be Paige, Amberly, and Sienna. Noelle, Kiran, and Taylor weren’t about to steal my clothes. In fact, the immaturity of the stunt had Amberly Carmichael written all over it.

“Very funny, you guys. You just won the award for cleverest fifth-grade prank. Can I have my stuff back now?” I asked as the last of my shower water gurgled down the drain.

“You wish,” Amberly replied, giggling.

“
You
are so going to wish you hadn’t done this,” I said through my teeth.

“Feeling kind of cocky for someone who’s standing there in her birthday suit, Reed,” Paige teased.

“And a piece of friendly advice,” Poppy added, her voice firm. “Back off Upton.”

“Poppy?” I said, surprised. “Where the hell did you come from?”

“I live here, remember?” she replied. “Wow. You blokes weren’t kidding. She really is a stupid cow.”

They all laughed and my face burned. I narrowed my eyes.

“We haven’t officially met,” I said loudly, talking over their giggles. “I’m Reed Brennan. Do you always treat the guests at your parents’ hotel this way?”

“Only the daft ones,” she replied. “Just because I’ve been playing nice up till now doesn’t mean I haven’t noticed what’s been going on.”

No. It just means that you’re totally two-faced, putting up a good carefree, sweetie-pie show for your friends, when you’re actually a complete bitch.

“Last time I checked, you and Upton were just friends,” I said. “Wanting him to be your boyfriend doesn’t make it true.”

Poppy was silent, and I knew I had her.

“He may not be mine yet, but he will be,” she finally sputtered. “Stay away from him from now on, if you know what’s good for you.”

My jaw dropped. I had barely even spoken two words to this girl and she was threatening me?

“Or what? You’ll steal my clothes again?” I asked sarcastically, hugging my dripping body. “What could possibly be worse?”

“We’ll see how you feel in about an hour,” Sienna said. “Come on, girls. I’m suddenly
starving
. Let’s go join the others at the restaurant.”

They giggled and started walking away. My heart skipped a beat.
Everyone else had already left the beach and gone inside? That meant no one was going to be walking by here anytime soon. I was already starting to shiver. Not good. I moved my feet back and forth and jumped around a bit, trying to keep warm.

I waited and listened, hoping someone would step into the next shower or walk by on their way to the beach, but I heard nothing.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is anyone there?”

Silence, save for the waves crashing into the shore.

“Anyone! Hello! I need some help in here!” I shouted louder.

Somewhere near the pool, a reggae band started playing some happy-go-lucky tunes over some seriously cranked-up speakers. Happy hour was starting. Great. No one was going to hear me now. My heart started to pound as my skin tightened and grew colder still. How long was I going to have to stand here? What if Noelle and the others never came back to the beach? I was sure that if anyone asked about me, Paige would make up some stupid story about how I went home on my own or something. I could be standing there naked for hours.

A stiff breeze rattled my little hut, and I stepped back against the wall for warmth, hugging myself as tightly as I could. I was really starting to hate the Upton Game.

Goose bumps covered my skin. My whole body shook uncontrollably. I gritted my teeth and held my breath and tried to control it, but nothing helped. I had tied up my hair off my neck with the hair band I had kept around my wrist since I’d gotten to St. Barths, so the soaking strands were no longer hitting my shoulders. That was something, at least. But how long had I been standing there? How much longer was I going to have to wait? Every moment seemed like an hour.

And then, voices. Angry voices. Adrenaline instantly warmed me. It was Upton. Upton was shouting at someone.

“. . . stupid, immature, ridiculous thing to—”

“We were just having a bit of fun,” Sienna’s voice replied.

My blood boiled with anger. I was going to scratch those girls’ eyes out the moment I saw them.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Upton scolded, his voice just outside now. “Reed! Where are you?”

“Right here!” I said meekly, lifting my arm so it could be seen in the space between the top of the door and the canvas roof.

“Are you all right?” Upton asked.

A towel appeared over the door and I whipped it down, wrapping it around my shoulders. My eyes closed in ecstasy as warmth radiated over my skin.

“I’ll live,” I replied.

“Here are your clothes,” Upton said, folding my dress and bathing suit over the door.

Oh, thank God.
I quickly stepped into my dry bathing suit and yanked the T-shirt dress on over my head. They felt so warm—like they had been tumbling in a dryer for an hour—but that was probably just in contrast to the frigid temperature of my skin. I took a deep breath to calm the trembling, and I opened the door.

“I’m so sorry,” Upton said immediately, pulling me into his arms. I closed my eyes and pressed my cheek against his chest. The warmth of his body chased away the last of the shivers. “They said you’d gone back to the Langes’. That you’d come down with a headache.”

“I figured,” I said, glancing over at Sienna, whose arms were crossed over her chest as she looked imperiously out at the ocean, as if she owned it. Amberly, Paige, and Poppy weren’t there. I wondered how Sienna had ended up taking the blame solo, but honestly, I didn’t care.

“I believe Sienna has something to say to you,” Upton said, loosening his grip on me.

Sienna glanced at my angry face and rolled her eyes. “We’re sorry,” she said, with no sincerity whatsoever. “We were just having some fun.” She offered me her hand and arched her perfectly waxed eyebrows. “Friends?”

Anger clenched my chest and I pulled away from Upton completely, stepping toward her. “You and I were never friends, and we’re never going to be friends,” I said, causing her face to fall. “In fact, you and your little posse can stay away from me for the rest of the trip. Far,
far
away. And I suggest, for your own sake, that you do.”

Sienna’s thin lips parted in indignation as I turned on my bare heel and stormed off toward the pool and the restaurant behind it. The sun was just dipping behind the hotel. I needed to find my friends and vent before I exploded.

“Reed! Wait!”

Upton caught up to me near the shallow end of the pool and grabbed my arm.

“Thanks for finding me and everything, but I really need to talk to Noelle right now,” I said, wresting myself from his grasp.

“Wait. I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” Upton told me, his eyes pleading. “Sienna’s just being a spoiled child. She doesn’t know how to handle jealousy, you see—”

“Jealousy? Wait a minute. I thought she was new here too. What’s she jealous of?” I asked, a niggling feeling of ignorance gnawing at the back of my neck.

Upton bit his lip and looked away. “Yes, well . . . we kind of had a thing last term when she and Poppy came to visit me at school. . . .”

An incredulous laugh escaped my throat and I backed away from him. “Oh my God! You are a total manwhore!”

“Reed—”

“Is there any female on this planet you
haven’t
had a thing with?” I asked, lifting my palms to the sky. “Maybe it would be simpler for you to list your non-hookups than your hookups.”

“Reed, none of that matters,” Upton said, reaching for my hands. He held them both in his and looked into my eyes. “You’re the one I want to be with now. Only you. I swear it. All of that is in the past. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

I was amazed at how sincere he made it sound. For a second I almost believed him. And maybe a year ago I would have. But I wasn’t that naive anymore. Reed Brennan had gone through some changes.

“It kind of
does
matter when I spend over an hour freezing my ass off in a dark shower stall,” I told him, yanking away my hands. “This was supposed to be a fun little vacation fling. And the fun just officially ended. I have to go.”

This time, when he called after me, I didn’t look back.