“I think I know enough.”
“Oh, really?” his expression darkened and he took a threatening step toward her. “Did you know I had sex with Yasmin to get back at Hugo?”
Silence, thick and horrible and ugly, fell between them. Ari pinched the bridge of her nose, stunned and upset over this revelation. “What?”
“I caught Nicki having sex with Hugo behind my dad’s back.” He shrugged, and Ari noted the tension around the corners of his mouth. She was relieved to realize it was shame. “It wasn’t honorable, it wasn’t gentlemanly, but Yasmin had been throwing herself at me for months so I did it, as payback. She treats me like crap, Ari. They all do. I thought they deserved it. If Hugo ever found out I had defiled his precious girl, he’d lose it. I guess that was reason enough for me to screw with her.”
Eyes blazing, Ari shoved him, and he stumbled back, taking it. “Are you deliberately being crass?”
“I’m trying to show you who I am!”
Chest heaving with unexploded rage and hurt, Ari shook her hands out to stop them from whacking him. “Did you care about her at all?”
“What would upset you more, Ari? That I did or I didn’t?”
“Just answer the question!”
“No!” he yelled. “I could give a rat’s ass about her. She thinks I’m scum and I think she’s soulless. Does that make you feel better? No. Don’t make me into someone I’m not,” he hissed. “I don’t do relationships, I don’t do love. I do my job and I do it well.”
Angry tears poked at the corners of her eyes and Ari fought to breathe, hating him and hating herself for feeling so much for him. She wanted to be numb! She’d promised herself she would be!
Seeing the tears, Jai cursed and dragged a hand roughly down his face. “Ari, you and I, we’re friends. Okay? I don’t want to hurt you. I’m just being honest.”
Not able to say another word for fear of what those words might be, Ari silently slipped into her room, locking the door behind her. As soon as she was inside, the duvet on her bed turned down invitingly.
“Thanks, Ms. Maggie,” she whispered gratefully, kicking off her shoes and diving into the comfort of the bed. Her insides were a mess now. She at once felt fury at Jai for treating anyone as callously as he’d treated Yasmin, but then she remembered how he said she was horrible to him. It didn’t make what he did right. Ari didn’t know what she was madder at: Jai denying there was anything between Ari and him because he was afraid of what his father would think or the fact that another girl knew what it was like to be with him. Or... relief that there was no other girl he was in love with.
“That’s it, Ms. Maggie. I’m giving up on boys completely and concentrating on staying alive.”
If only her heart would listen to such exquisite common sense.
Chapter
Fourteen
SOMETIMES I’M NOT MYSELF. I DON’T KNOW WHO I LIKE BETTER
Perhaps it was because of the restless sleep Ari had that night. She’d dreamed of the weird jinn people again and still couldn’t work out what that was all about. Was it just her imagination? Or was there something meaningful to these little dives she kept taking into another world where a beautiful brother and sister seemed to be constantly at war? The dreams came after she'd eventually drifted to sleep after lying in bed for hours, thinking about her dad, about Charlie and, of course, about Jai.
Perhaps it happened because she was sleep deprived, stressed and cranky.
Ari needed some explanation for her behavior that morning. Behavior that freaked her out.
It happened as she headed down toward the training room. She finally had a lay of the land within the large mansion and was striding casually from the breakfast room where she’d breakfasted alone (no surprise there considering Jai was probably avoiding her and Charlie was desperate to use his powers all the time and would already be in the training room — she’d bet money on it), her footsteps echoing off the cold floor and high ceilings. A quick skitter behind her joined her in soft footsteps. Ari’s heart sped up and she turned, bracing herself just as Jai taught her. She relaxed at the sight of a border collie trotting toward her, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as he panted over to her. He was gorgeous. Ari smiled down at him. “Hey boy.” She stroked a hand over his black head as he nudged his white muzzle into her side. Where had he come from? She hadn’t seen him around the mansion before. “Where did you come from, boy?” Ari used both hands to scrub his face affectionately.
Suddenly, flames burst around the dog, their licks of fire like wisps of smoke on Ari’s skin as she stumbled back, heart racing in shock. Out of the flames, a figure appeared.