DRAWN (38 page)

          Gesturing to his getup, I demand, “What the bloody hell is it with that…that hair and that getup?”

          “It’s part of Jace’s plan,” he says simply, like he and Jace are best buds.

          I can’t believe I heard what he just said. “So he’s
Jace
now?”

          Yuki grimaces. “You were right. He’s not into you.”

          Now is probably
not
the right time to tell him Jace and I have kissed.

          “Anyway, he helped me plan all this. Because we weren’t sure you’d talk to me if I just asked.” He grimaces. “But he did hit me first as payback for hurting you.” Yuki rubs his jaw as he speaks.

          I am not going to ask if he’s fine. I am not. So I say gruffly, “I hope you weren’t too hurt.” I almost cringe when the words come out of my mouth. Well, at least I didn’t really
ask
him.

          Yuki’s lips twitch.“Err…yes. Thank you for caring,
senpai
.” He speaks in a solemn voice, but I just know he’s secretly laughing at me.

          Shite. I think he’s on to me.

          We continue staring at each other. Am I supposed to say something now? I’m just so lost. This is not a typical scene in
manga.

         
“So,” he says.

          Again, just like before, I try to imitate his I’m-so-cool-I’m not-bothered-by-anything drawl. “So…”

          Yuki smirks.

          It makes me want to headbutt the window. Blast it. I knew it. I just knew it. I should have read
Twilight.
They have it in graphic novel anyway. If I did, maybe I won’t be so clueless about the right thing to do right now.

          “I missed you,
senpai
.”

          “Missed me so much you didn’t even try to contact me the whole break?” My voice shakes at the end. Blast it. I wasn’t supposed to let him know I cared! Gangsters don’t care about being missed. I need to be in character more.

          Yuki closes the distance between us with a slow, steady, and deliberate place. It’s in complete contrast with the accelerated, irrational, and wild rhythm of my heartbeat. In his
Vampire Knights
uniform, he really looks like
Zero Kiryuu
come to life, and I’m Yuki, the girl he loves, and the vampire he’s sworn to hunt down.

          But as he reaches to snap my neck and kill me, he stops. He remembers the times he’s dreamt of me, the times he’s lain awake, body burning because he can still remember the taste and feel of me in his arms, and now I’m so close---

          Yuki flicks me on the head. “No more fantasies right now,
senpai
.”

          I blink, and then I blink some more because how is it that I haven’t noticed he’s suddenly in front of me? I try to hide behind the curtains, but Yuki’s too fast. He pins my arms up, pressing them against the windows.

          I immediately twist my head away, but it’s no use. I still see Yuki in all his Vampire Knight glory, reflected by the window, reminding me of a lesson I forgot in his absence.

          You can’t escape a god.

          Yuki closes the distance between us completely, and all at once I’m dizzy with lust. I’ve kissed Jace and it doesn’t even come
this
close to making me want to tear off my clothes and just do it. But Yuki – just one look from his baby blues, just one touch, and it’s killing me – it’s really killing me not to see if shagging him is as mind-boggling hot as I’ve imagined it to be.

          “I wanted so much to call and hear your voice, to see your face and see you smile.” His whisper is still a godly force of seduction, and the hairs on my neck and back spring up in response.

          Still keeping my gaze carefully averted from his, I remember to use my Mafia don voice when I ask, “Then why didn’t you?”

          “Because I wanted to give you time to understand how you really felt about me.” Unbelievably, Yuki presses his body against me harder, closer, his personal heat igniting a slow-burning fire inside my own.

          “You needed time to realize a few important things,
senpai
.” He pauses.

          It doesn’t feel like a bad pause, but I hold my breath anyway.

          “I wanted you to realize that you’re happier with me than without me.”

          Am I?

          I am.

          “And that you love me.”

          Do I?

          Yuki smiles at me, a real smile – not a god’s smile, not an angel’s smile, but a smile that’s just pure cheesy happiness. He’s smiling because he’s
that
happy to be with me.

          And finally, I remember.

          The way Yuki tenderly stopped my nose from bleeding after punching me.

          The way Yuki massaged my shoulders when I was acting like an old scrooge with arthritis.

          The way Yuki fell asleep before he could torture me because he spent over 24 hours shopping to plan a surprise for me.

          The way Yuki saved me in Squeeze like a knight in Nike.

          The way Yuki bowed down in front the whole school – and another school, come to think of it – just to ask me to be his girlfriend.

          The way…

          Honestly, there are a lot of
that
kind of way. It must be all those weeks without Yuki in my life that have messed with my brain.

I mean,
duh.

Of course I love this guy.

What we have is
special.
I’m totally okay with that word now. 

          “I wish I hadn’t turned you down the last time,” I confess.

          “It’s okay,” he says softly, his intense gaze a caress in itself as I feel it roaming all over my body. When he shifts, I bite back a moan, because it moves my short skirt up, and now I feel like I’m just down to my top and panties.

          “I’ll make you regret it soon enough.”

          That gets me looking at him in alarm. “Umm, Yuki…”

          He smiles.

          Like always, I can’t help smiling back even though I totally have no idea what’s making him smile. I just know it’s probably evil, probably meant to embarrass me, but it’s probably going to make me feel real good, too.

          “I missed you,
senpai
.”

          Okay, I have to look away again at that.

          “I missed holding you, touching you, kissing you, feeling your skin---”

          I can’t stop my body from shaking at the sheer ache of wanting him.

          “Most of all, I miss hearing you sigh so sexily when you have an orga---”

          My head snaps back to him at that. “
Yuki
!”

          We kiss.

          Yuki’s lips immediately force mine to open, tongue slipping in as if he’s desperate to reacquaint himself with the taste of my mouth. Even though his kiss totally sweeps me away, a part of me still waits in dread for my skin to crawl in disgust or for my body to feel so dirty that I want to scrub myself with a liquid cleaner. But all my body does is beg me to get closer to Yuki.

          Crying a little because I’m so relieved things are still as great – no, wait it’s better than before between us, I twirl my arms around his neck and kiss him back, completely letting go of all inhibitions.

          Yuki groans against my lips just before he deepens the kiss, his fingers treading through my hair from scalp to tips before shaping the sides of my body.

          His hands settle on my waist just before he grinds his lower half against me.

          It’s nothing – it’s absolutely nothing like what Golf Guy made me feel, for a while, when we were grinding.

          There’s just no word powerful enough to describe how all my senses go haywire, and every bit of me is centered at the point everything that’s unbelievably hard about him and everything that’s ridiculously soft about me
touch.

          Yuki lifts his body away. I start to protest but I end up moaning again when his body slams right back, with just the right amount of force, at just the right angle, and it’s so perfect my body starts to sing.

          He unsnaps the first button of my shirt, lips trailing down to follow where his hands are.

          I forget to breathe.

          He unsnaps the second button and nuzzles the V of skin between the cups of my bra.

          Oh, shite.

          Breathe, KC. Breathe.

          His mouth moves to the side, so tantalizingly close to the tip poking against the silky cup but not quite going over it.

          Oxygen in, CO2 out.

          One hand curls around my waist while the other sneaks into the small of my back.

          Oxygen in, CO2 out.

          Then Yuki lifts me up toward me and bites.

          Oxygen in, in, in, in, in---

          Yuki keeps biting, tiny nips from all angles, while his other hand snakes under my blouse to squeeze the other cup.

          Oxygen in, in, in, in, in---

          Then Yuki does something new. He releases my waist, his fingers trailing downward then it’s inside my skirt. He stops at where it’s throbbing the most, and flicks.

          “Aaaah.” A kaleidoscope of tars that are achingly, beautifully familiar burst under my eyelids.

          I slump against him, my head finding its usual nestling spot on Yuki’s chest with incredible ease.

          Yuki’s smug grin is a tangible force, just like before.

          “Piss off,” I manage to say.

          He pulls away, tipping my chin up. He combs the wet locks of hair away from my face. “I love you abso-freakin-lutely
senpai
,” he says, with a perfect British accent.

          I’m totally going to have a nosebleed every time I remember him saying those words, remember the sound of his voice when he says them, and the way his baby blues gleam so brightly the whole time he tells me he loves me for the first time.

          “You’re so sweet,” I sniff.

          The tenderness in his gaze turns into a glare.

          Oh, shite.

          Before his demon god mind thinks of a way to punish me, I quickly pull Yuki’s head back down so I can whisper to his ear, “
Anata ga daisuki.”
I like you so much.

          Yuki groans like I’ve killed him. “Unfair.”

          The irony makes me grin.

          Yuki catches sight of it.

          Oh, shite. I have to distract him again. I pull him back down to me and say, “
Aishiteiru.”
It means ‘I love you’ in Japanese. Then I bite his ear.

          Yuki shudders. After that, he can’t take off my clothes fast enough.

          I think I’ve hit upon Yuki’s own secret fantasy.

“
You’re still a virgin?”
Lace blurts out in a loud whisper as I walk her to the door. The two of us just got home from Miami, but she has to leave right away for practice. Yuki and Jace had also left earlier. Yuki had given me a goodbye kiss that makes my cheeks heat just thinking about it. I gave Jace a goodbye punch on the guts because I’m still a little mad at his prank, but not too hard since in the end it’s what got Yuki and me back together.

          “No fucking way!” Cheena exclaims as she dances into the hallway from nowhere, the floral skirt of her dress swirling around her. She grins, and unbelievably Samantha gurgles in laughter with her.

          Well, bloody hell. If I had known Lace would shout it to the whole world, I should have just tweeted about it. Or maybe send an announcement to the
Immaculate Heart Tattler.
I can just imagine the headlines.

          YH does NOT score---

          Well, on second thought, I don’t think I’m going to imagine it after all. Some things are better left unknown.

          “Oops?” Lace says weakly. She hasn’t changed from her
Sakuragi
jersey. She’s still over the moon about winning Ms. Popularity in the convention and has been texting all her boys about it since she got her crystal award. Lace thinks it’s because she embodies what the ideal
anime
basketball star should be, and Jace and I didn’t have the heart to tell her it’s probably because she was the most beautiful girl on stage. Some things are really better left unknown.

          I sigh. “It’s okay. Never mind. I’d like it better if they know, umm, about it, anyway.”

          She mouths
I’m sorry
one last time before hopping into her car.

          When I get back to the living room, I see Scott, who’s also back for the holidays, slamming a couple of ten-dollar bills on Drew’s palm. “Your boyfriend is such a wuss,” he grumbles at me. “He’s Japanese, for God’s sake. Doesn’t he have any pride?”