The Flirting Games (The Flirting Series - Young Adult) (4 page)

She paused as she reached the West
Tower Common Room. What was she doing? She had never been to the kitchens alone
at night. But Jack wasn’t here any more and she needed some adventure in her
life.

She smiled in the darkness as a
thought crossed her mind. She would bet good money that Nate would be daring
enough for a midnight kitchen raid. She even kind of wished he was with her.
She gave herself a mental slap. Why was she spending so much time thinking
about Nate? She had a plan to keep him away from Rose, but it didn’t explain
why she was wondering what he was doing right now.

She tried to rationalize it in her
mind. Nate was a skilled player and he could very possibly hurt Rose. Ellie had
a duty to get in the way of that.

But she knew she was kidding
herself. She knew she got a kick from sparring with him. He was quick-witted
and she enjoyed it more than was good for her.

She crept down to the first floor
and had one foot on the stairs when a door opened on the landing right next to
her and an arm shot out and pulled her through.

She screamed, but as there was a
hand over her mouth, very little sound came out. It was dark on the first floor
and all she could feel was a warm body behind her and the breathing of another
person.

“Stop wriggling you idiot, it’s me.”
A low voice sounded in her ear. She had no idea who ‘me’ was, but that wasn’t
the way a teacher would speak so she stopped struggling.

The tone of the voice and the hard
chest at her back told her the assailant was male. Nate?

“The Deputy Head went past just
before you and you know how much trouble we would be in if he spotted us.”

Yes, definitely Nate. Her heart
continued to hammer as he moved his hand from over her mouth and pulled her
deeper into the dark corner behind the door, his chest firm against her back.
He kept her from moving away with a strong grip on her arm as she turned to
look at him in the moonlight.

“Well well. Miss Eleanor Parkhurst
out of bed.
Bad
girl! Come to see if I’m hard enough yet?”

She suddenly regretted saying that.
Especially to a boy who was older than her and probably more than ready to take
her challenge much further than she was willing to go.

She pulled her dressing gown tighter
around herself, feeling very underdressed.

“I was on my way to the kitchens if
you must know,” she hissed. “And by the way, Rose is now going out with Ben, so
you can leave her alone because you won’t get anywhere.” It wasn’t true, but
she hoped he didn’t know that.

“Is that a retreat Parkhurst? I
thought you were made of more than that?” His white teeth flashed in the dim
light as she tried to move back away from him.

Her quick temper flared, but she
fought it. There was nothing for it but to keep being sassy and fight fire with
fire. If she backed down now she would definitely look like an idiot.

“Not at all,” she said sweetly,
though through a gritted smile. “But if you want to impress me you’re going to
have to try harder than this.” She looked pointedly downwards. She hoped the
dig at his manhood would make him back off a little.

Unfortunately, he seemed to rather
enjoy the interaction. His smile widened and he pulled her closer again.

“How would you know from over
there?” He said in a voice loaded with intent.

Ellie wondered again if she had got
in over her head.

She forced herself to not pull away
and instead allowed him to pull her back in against him. This time her breasts
were pressed against his chest. She heard him take a deep breath in and a
feeling of power swept through her. His hormones were definitely his greatest
weakness.

“I said you have to impress me.” She
deliberately blew softly in his ear and he swayed slightly.

She slid her knee between his legs.
“And what I meant,” she continued in that same sweet tone, “was
mentally
!”

With that she kneed him sharply in
the groin and stepped quickly away as he gasped and doubled over.

Pulling open the door behind her,
she legged it back out onto the staircase and ran all the way up to her
dormitory, so high on success that she didn’t even feel out of breath.

The following evening after his
unexpected meeting with Ellie, Nate sat in the North Tower Common Room and
stared unseeing at the Chemistry book in his lap.

The girl was like his father’s
brandy. Heady to smell. Noxious at the first taste. Brandy made him cough, but
always left him rolling his tongue round his mouth wanting to taste a bit more.
Being around her was like being a bit drunk.

How had he never noticed her before
this year?

He had been at a secret birthday
party in South Tower and was sneaking back to North Tower when he’d seen her
coming up the stairs. Her feet had been bare and she’d been wearing a dark
silky dressing gown over her pajamas.

She had looked innocent and sexy all
at the same time.

She smelled a bit like his mother’s
Lily of the Valley. Was it a perfume? Or her natural smell? He decided it came
off her hair, so it was probably her shampoo.

This was mad. Why was he even
thinking about her? It certainly wasn’t the plan. But if she was right about
Rose and Ben then maybe the plan was out the window anyway.

Mind you, he reminded himself, if
Rose had been with Ben before it wouldn’t have stopped him. He’d prised girls
he really wanted away from their darling boyfriends quite easily before. So why
had he lost the taste for it? He just couldn’t find the motivation to carry on
with his plan. Rose was nice; she didn’t deserve it.

He tried to find a rationale for
switching the seduction to Ellie. Could it still work? No. She wouldn’t be
sixteen for over a year and he didn’t sleep with underage girls.

The only reason he could think of to
date her was to suck that
too big for her boots brat
into his lair and
spit her out again. Teach her a lesson.

His balls still hurt where she had
kneed him the night before.

But he’d never felt anything like
the desire she caused when she blew in his ear. He’d never have thought that
would turn him on. But bloody hell it did. He would ‘impress’ her because he
wanted his own back. This was personal. She was playing with fire and she was
going to get burned, badly.

A smile curved his lips. He had a
plan again. Now he just needed to work out how to execute it.

He turned to Gabriel who was sitting
next to him swearing over his Math homework. For some reason Gabe usually knew
all the gossip.

“What do you know about Ellie
Parkhurst?”

Gabe looked suspicious. “Why? You
got a thing for her?”

“No.” Nate thought quickly and
decided the truth was better. “But I want her to have a thing for me.”

Gabe frowned at him, clearly
confused. “You know, I thought I saw you looking over there a lot at dinner
recently and what was with eating at their table the other day?”

“It’s a plan Gabe, one I don’t want
to share right now, but I
haven’t
got a
thing
for her.”

“Jack Parkhurst will knock you into
next week if you touch her.” Gabe chucked his calculator on to the table.

“In case you haven't noticed, Jack
Parkhurst isn’t here any more and do you think I’m scared of him?”

“You should be. I would be.” Gabe
smiled and held up his hand in mock apology. “Okay, okay, what do I know about
your latest? She has no shortage of boyfriends, but none serious and there’s no
gossip about her actually
doing
anything.”

“So what does that mean? She’s all
mouth but no action?” Nate looked thoughtful.

“Or maybe that she’s just clever
about who she’s doing it with?”

“Hmmm,” Nate pondered. “Will you see
if you can dig anything up on that? Who are her closest friends?”

“Good question. Everyone seems to be
good friends with her, but no one particularly close. Not unless you count her
big brother. She seems to be spending quite a bit of time with the new girl in
her year. But I don’t think her friends are the way to go. I think you’re going
to have to go straight in with this one. Got a bit of a mind of her own.” Gabe
leaned forward. “Why are you bothering?”

“She’s a challenge.” Nate admitted.

“Ah ha.” Gabe leaned back again,
comprehension dawning in his face. “Then I will find out what I can and wish
you luck mate. Not that I think you’ll need it, except maybe when Parkhurst
finds out you corrupted his sister.”

Gabe began to laugh until Nate threw
a book at him.

Gabriel was right, he decided. He
needed to go straight in, get her hooked and quickly before her attention was
diverted. He wanted to get even with her. He usually played a long game, the
softly softly approach, but that wouldn’t work with her.

He chuckled as another idea came to
him. Let the games continue!

***

That weekend, Ellie was sitting next
to Alex in the library arguing over whether she should spend her Saturday doing
homework or whether she should spend it doing whatever she liked.

The School had arranged it so that
the library was the only place in the building where any of the pupils could
get Internet access. There were several banks of computers as well as
connection points for laptops.

Ellie had gone to the library after
lunch to check her email, when Alex and Rose had joined her.

“I really don’t see that it’s any of
your business what…” Her voice trailed off as an email popped up on her screen
from Nate. How on earth did he know her email address?

Opening the email, she found a
scanned copy of Nate’s last report card.

Nearly all his results were A’s, bar
one, and his House Master had written
“Very impressive”
in the comment
card at the top. At the bottom of the page Nate had put:

Ellie laughed, her eyes instantly
lifting to scan the room. Nate was looking at her from the far corner with one
eyebrow raised.

She quickly pulled the keyboard
towards her and typed:

Let’s see just how clever he was; it
was unlikely he would work out that it was Mr Darcy’s first snooty comment on
Elizabeth in
Pride and Prejudice
.

Alex turned back to her. “Who was
that from?” He leaned over to look at her screen and frowned.

“Why is Nate sending you messages
Ellie? What’s going on?”

“None of your business.” She said
without even looking at him. She was too busy watching Nate who had clearly
opened her email and was looking like he was thinking.

“Ellie, I get that he’s good-looking
to girls, but he’s bad news!” Alex persisted.

Ellie gave him a look that clearly
said, “So what.”

Nate was typing something again,
something that was taking a while.

“Seriously Ellie, it’s not just that
he’s a sixth year and too old for you, but he’s not boyfriend material. I like
Nate, we’re friends, but I would never date him!”

“I’d be surprised if you did Al.”
Ellie grinned. “Especially as I’m pretty sure you’re not into boys.” She turned
away from him as her computer binged to indicate another email.

Clicking it open, she read his reply.
A different quote from the same book:

It is happy for
you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether
these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are the
result of previous study?

She couldn’t help it; she laughed
out loud again, getting funny looks from up and down the library. She
definitely was impressed.

Now what? She couldn’t think of
anything to top that. Maybe it was better not to say anything at all; leave him
wanting more.

Ellie desperately wanted to look
over at Nate, but restrained herself and instead began talking to Bryn who was
sitting on the other side of her.

***

What a cool customer! Nate thought,
looking at her with admiration. How many girls would have been able to resist
keeping it going? None he was aware of. Now he wanted to break her even more
than ever.

That guy Bryn, sat beside her. He
clearly fancied her. Did she have to be so tactile with him? She was brushing
crumbs off his chest, and he was looking all goofy and loved up. She wouldn’t
want an idiot like that surely?

His attention was brought back to
his friends at the table. They knew he was trying to get Ellie’s attention; he
hadn’t made a secret of it, especially now he’d obviously sent her emails. But
they were all laughing at him. Something had just been said and he hadn’t even
heard it; he’d been too distracted. It would be bad for his reputation if he
spent too long staring at Ellie Parkhurst.