More Flirting Games (The Flirting Series - Young Adult) (3 page)

She
supposed her curiosity about Leo and Diana had grown because now that Sophie
and Grace had gone home for Christmas, she was stuck in the dorm room alone
with Diana. But Rose comforted herself that it was only to sleep, she would be
with Toby and the Parkhurst clan the rest of the time and Diana would stick
with Leo.

Christmas
Eve turned out to be great fun. There were about fifteen students of various
ages from all four school houses. The teachers were having a ‘staff meeting’ at
the pub in Oakworth, leaving only the head girl, Anne-Marie, who was in Year
Seven, in charge. There was only one table for dinner and they all got a bit
silly! They had some fruit punch that someone might have tampered with a little
and Toby set off some firecrackers at the table, which almost caused a nasty
accident. Leo and Alex had a mock fight with plastic swords and Marie-Anne got
into a tickle fight with Jack, before going very red and giggly. Jack produced
some mistletoe, which he hung from a streamer, and kissed her while she was
laughing and everyone else laughed when she tripped backwards over a chair in
surprise. They all piled presents under the big tree at one end of the room and
even Diana seemed cheerful and excited for a change.

Rose woke
early the next morning, thinking about Toby. Since both she and Toby had
stopped believing in Santa Claus, they didn’t get a stocking anymore. Instead,
their parents normally snuck in during the night on Christmas Eve and put a
special present on the end of their bed to have when they woke up.

She was
worried that Toby would wake up and feel upset that there wasn’t one and it
would make him miss their parents. So she decided to creep down early and find
his main present from their parents under the tree.

She wasn’t
allowed into the boy’s dormitories, so she would have to wake Alex and ask him
to put it on Toby’s bed.

She pulled
her green velvet dressing gown on over her pajamas, and crept out of the
dormitory so as not to disturb Diana. She waited until she was outside the door
before ringing Alex’s mobile. She didn’t think a text would wake him.

“Hello?”
Alex sounded both groggy and grumpy.

“Sorry, Al.
It’s me. Look could you do me a massive favor and meet me in the Common Room?”

“Aw hell,
Rosie, it’s seven o’clock in the morning on Christmas Day! I wanted a lie in.”

“I know,
I’m really sorry.” She explained about Toby not having a present on the end of
his bed and how it might upset him. Alex grumbled a while more, then grudgingly
agreed to meet her.

“But give
me twenty minutes to freshen up ok? I think I might even have a bit of a
hangover.”

She smiled
as she hung up. Then, taking the stairs two at a time, she ran down to the main
hall, collected Toby’s present and went back to the silent West Tower Common
Room to wait.

She jumped
as something moved at the far end of the room. It was Leo. He was reading, curled
deep in his favorite armchair, but he put the book down as she approached and
stretched like a cat before rising out of the chair.

“Well hello
there, Rose. You’re up particularly early.” His Irish lilt was soft.

It was a
perfectly normal thing to say but Rose felt like she had been caught naked.
They never spoke to each other ‘normally.’ They usually only spoke indirectly
or gave one word answers. She dragged her dressing gown tighter around herself
and began to babble about Toby and the present whilst fiddling with the cord at
her waist.

He said
nothing until she looked up. It seemed to her like it was the first time they
had ever made and held eye contact . His eyes were brighter blue than she
remembered, darker at the edges, wide in the dim light. They seemed full of
some emotion she couldn’t name. She couldn’t seem to drag her own eyes away and
still he said nothing and simply looked back at her. She could hear her own
heart beating, way too fast, as the moment stretched on and on. In five and a half
years at school together, she couldn’t ever remember them being alone before.

 
“I saw you got a present for me under the
tree, I have one for you too.” He said casually.

He began to
walk towards her. Covering the distance between them too quickly for her to
think, and suddenly standing far too close for her loudly beating heart.

“Ah, um,”
she squeaked “Gosh. It’s only chocolates.”

She backed
away coming up against a wall.

“That’s
sure disappointing,” he seemed to drawl the words with mischief in his eyes.
“Mine is worth more than chocolates. I think you will have to give me something
else as well.” He paused looking at her speculatively.

Her eyes
widened, her mouth open but no sound came out.

“Or maybe I
should just take it?” He suggested gently then stepped forward again, almost
right against her, his arms pinned hers against the wall and he kissed her.

The world
turned slowly upside down.

She could
feel his tongue testing against her bottom lip seeking a way in, her lips
parted without thought and he deepened the kiss. Her knees wobbled and he
pressed her harder into the wall to keep them both upright.

Rose
couldn’t think at all. She just needed more. She felt dizzy, high, hungry, oh
hell - she didn’t know what she felt, only that she hadn’t felt it before,
hadn’t experienced anything as exciting in her life.

Leo hadn’t
meant to kiss her more than briefly, but she tasted like heaven. He knew he was
attracted to her; his body certainly knew he had been for a while, but he
didn’t want to like her. He tried to hold himself back. He knew he had to break
the kiss. He didn’t want it to stop but he was getting in over his head.

“Shit!” Leo
stepped quickly away from her “Sorry, Rose.”

“Why… why
are you sorry?” Her voice came out a bit too high. She leant back against the
wall to regain her balance; she couldn’t quite trust her knees.

“Well, you
know, I mean… we don’t really like each other, I didn’t mean to kiss you quite
as much as that.” He could tell he was making no sense. His brain function was
not fully coherent.

“Blame the
mistletoe.” He pointed up.

She looked
up and sure enough, there was the mistletoe from last night hanging from the
wall above her. How had it gotten there? She looked back at Leo, her eyes full
of suspicion. Had he planned this? He looked innocently back at her, his own
eyes giving absolutely nothing away. Of course he hadn’t, she reasoned, why
would he even want to?

Leo went
into his pocket and drew out a small box tied with ribbon.

“Happy
Christmas.” he said with a slight smile. He thrust it into her hand before
walking to the entrance of the boy’s dormitory without even a backward glance.

Rose stood
stupidly holding the box, looking at the spot where he had vanished. She shook
her head to try to clear it, but she still felt completely spun out at being
kissed like that. She took a few deep breaths and looked down at the box.

What would
he buy her?

She heard
some footsteps coming down the stairs, and knew it would be Alex. Now wasn’t
the time to open the present. Putting it into her pocket she retied her
dressing gown a little tighter and tried to compose her features.

 
“Hi!” Alex jumped the last three steps and
pulled her into a bear hug. “Happy Christmas!”

She hugged
him back, burying her face in his jumper for a second to arrange her features.

“Happy
Christmas, Al.” Her voice was muffled but he instantly detected she was not
herself. He pulled back a little so he could look her in the eye.

“Are you
feeling sad about not being at home for Christmas?” He asked as he searched her
face with concern.

“Hmm?” She
seemed distracted, and she looked at him then quickly looked away “Oh, yes, yes
that’s what it is.”

Alex
frowned. Rose never lied, and he didn’t think she would ever lie to him, yet he
was convinced she just had.

“What’s
going on, Rose?”

She fought
the urge the scuttle away. It was difficult to act naturally in front of Alex
when she was feeling so unsettled; he knew her so well and was bound to notice.
But she couldn’t tell him; she didn’t even quite understand herself quite what
had happened.

“Nothing’s
going on. It’s Toby.” She tried to act normally. “I just wanted you to put a
present on his bed for me. Is that a problem?” She asked defensively.

“Of course
not.” Alex’s voice was full of surprise. “Why are you being weird? You just
snapped at me.”

Rose
sighed, “Sorry Al, just ignore me, it’s nothing, I promise. Will you sneak this
onto his bed? Thanks.” She smiled as he nodded.

Alex still
didn’t look convinced though. She faked a cheerful laugh and over compensated
by hugging him again. Then she kissed him on the cheek, gave a wave and said,
“See you at breakfast in half an hour?” over her shoulder before bolting for
the stairs to the girls’ dormitories.

Alex walked
slowly up the stairs holding Toby’s present. His instinct told him her behavior
was very odd. She had always been straight with him. Why wouldn’t she be now?
Did she feel differently towards him for some reason? And why had she kissed
him on the cheek? That was unusual. He stopped dead in his tracks. Did Rose
have new feelings for him? Is that why she was being weird? He hoped not. He
would have to watch her carefully today, he didn’t want to say anything to make
it awkward but he didn’t fancy her, that would be totally uncomfortable, she
was his best friend and they were cousins.

Rose poked
her head cautiously round the door to her room. Diana was still asleep, thank
goodness, her long dark hair streaming over the pillow. She looked serene,
almost nice when she was asleep, Rose thought.

She crept
back into her own bed, plumped up the pillows behind her back and took out the
gift Leo had given her. She pulled the ribbon off slowly. She was extremely
curious about it, but she couldn’t help wanting to make the moment last. What
would he buy her? She hadn’t put her gift to him under the tree until the
previous evening so how had he known to get her something? It was probably a
generic gift he had kept just in case he needed one for someone, and then he’d
probably wrapped it at the last minute when he saw she had bought something for
him.

The ribbon
off, she eased the lid of the box and gasped. This was no generic gift! It was
a silver necklace with a winged horse pendant. She glanced up at the massive
poster over her bed of Pegasus flying against a full moon.

Leo had
never been in her room but her love of winged horses was reasonably well known.
This gift had been bought especially for her. It was a perfect match with the
silver star studs she always wore at her ears and the silver bracelet her
parents had given her for her 16
^th
birthday.

I should put it in my trunk,
she thought; it was bound to draw
attention. Someone would ask where she got it. But she just couldn’t, she
already loved it and just
had
to wear it. She fastened it around her
neck and after pausing for just a moment to admire it again she slipped it
inside her top so it couldn’t be easily seen.

She lay
back on the bed to think about how she felt about the kiss and the gift.

She touched
her fingers to her lips. It had felt wonderful. But as handsome as Leo was, he
was still a Flanagan. His uncle was definitely dangerous, and his cousins had
been suspected of related criminal activities, even his own father had been
implicated, though later he had been cleared. But that didn’t make Leo a
criminal.

Rose sighed
loudly, it didn’t make any difference, she couldn’t go anywhere near him. All
her family had been warned to be cautious about his family and her parents
would be really concerned. It was fine for Jack and Alex to be friendly to him
when they were all thrown together, like this Christmas. It was in their nature
to be friendly to everyone. But they wouldn’t deliberately seek him out and
they would be horrified if Rose were to ever be
more than friends
with
him.

Across the
room, Diana began to wake up. Rose snatched up a book and pretended to be
reading it. Diana was another problem. Diana wouldn’t like the idea of Rose and
Leo kissing, she was sure of it, and she still had to share a room with Diana
for the next year and a half.

Why was she
even thinking about this? Ok, so they kissed. Big deal. It wasn’t likely to
happen again. So they were attracted to each other. She was attracted to lots
of boys, she reasoned. He had kissed several girls if the stories were true. In
fact he was probably just proving he could. Pushing boundaries. Nothing more.

But what a
kiss!

She had
acknowledged he was attractive a long time ago, but that hadn’t made her want
to do anything about it. Now she wondered how she could have been in the same
room as him for years without wanting to kiss him. It was like a spell had
lifted, or had been cast, she wasn’t sure which, but the kiss had changed
everything. Now she wanted him to kiss her again and then maybe kiss her some
more.