Tangled (2 page)

She swept her annoyance under
a mask of polite interest. As much as she’d enjoyed these last few months of
academic reprieve, she couldn’t wait for this semester to start so she and Cam
could leave.

Against her mother’s wishes,
Tess opted to attend the same university as her best friend. Yes, it was
incredibly codependent, but after enduring sixteen painful years of
self-imposed solitude, she wasn’t quite ready to let him go. For all her
pragmatism, when it came to Cameron, she was sadly a fail.

That and the thought of
another girl occupying her slot in his heart made her ill.

Taking note of her empty cup,
Tess tugged free from Cameron’s grasp and gestured towards the bar. Shooting
her a brief, pleading look to ensure she didn’t leave him with these nitwits,
he reluctantly returned to the conversation. Tess waited until her back faced
him to adorn a goofy grin.

This semester would be
different. She could feel it.

Tess weaved through the horde
of partygoers and cut to the indoor bar. “Can I get another rum and coke?”

The bartender turned, his
practiced charm slipping as he did a double take. “Sure thing, sweetheart,” he
said with a sexually charged smile. “You need anything else, just let me know.”
He winked before setting off to complete the task.

Tess had never taken great
stock in her looks. A late bloomer, she spent the majority of childhood and
well into adolescence all elbows and knees and too-tall attitude. Struggling
with rebellious, auburn curls made the job even more difficult. If she ever
heard another soulless ginger or Shirley Temple joke it'd be a day too soon.

Over time, the corkscrew
curls loosened into manageable waves. It was also around the same time she
learned the importance of a good blow dryer and non-store brand hair products.

Tess froze as a familiar
voice registered.

Awareness drizzled down her
spine like freezing rain, evaporating the cloud of nostalgia.

She located the source of her
discomfort a moment later, leaning against the far end of the solarium’s entryway.
The blood in her veins slugged to a crawl, encumbered by ice.

Joint dangling from his
mouth, a pack of inebriated harpies encircled him, all vying for his attention.
He neither invited nor discouraged their actions, but merely observed their
antics with a derisive smile.

There was the reason behind
Cam’s absence for the last month and a half. Not for a fun-filled adventure,
but to supervise his drug abusing best buddy.

No. Abuse was putting it
lightly.

He was a full on addict.

A train wreck squealing
against the rails at full speed.

A complete
and utter waste of genetic material.

How these two had been
friends since
diaperhood
mystified her.
 

Half-French, half-Greek, one
hundred percent grade
A
asshole, he stood outfitted in
all black, resembling the devil in repose. His features exuded nothing but pure
ego: the carelessly mussed, ink-black hair, the wicked bow of his mouth, the
impetuous slant of his cheekbones, and the arrogant perch of his brows.

There probably wasn’t a girl
for a two hundred mile radius he hadn’t made misstep, just in passing.

Tess was the exception, for
she saw through the pretty packaging. He was as beautiful on the outside as he
was ugly on the inside. Conceited, cruel, and misogynistic, she endured for
years under the sharpened blade of his tongue. She likened his malevolence to a
cancer, swift and far-reaching in its ruination.

She inwardly sneered.

Adonis Benoit.

What were his parents smoking
when they named him? Talk about overly conceited. It was no wonder he had a
penchant for megalomania.

Narcissus would’ve been more
befitting for the self-absorbed, chauvinist pig. Hopefully he too would drown
in his own reflection.
      
During her introduction into polite society, Adonis had
immediately taken a disliking to her and made no secret of it. All bottled
anger and volatility, she spent the entirety of her prep school career as his
verbal punching bag. Every word had cut, aimed to maim. The force of his
animosity, of his presence in general, overwhelmed her. Asphyxiating and
alchemic hot, he wore his enmity like a cloak. A weaker person would’ve buckled
beneath the static cling of his toxic personality.

Tess learned early on that
there was no point in putting on airs for him. He had a maddening habit of
seeing through her. And so she dealt with him the only way she knew how.

Tess met him toe-to-toe,
refusing to take his shit. She didn’t know if he was unused to people calling
him out or if he simply liked to goad to the point of confrontation. Although
at times he got to her, she never presented weakness; she saved those moments
for the bathroom stall.

Thankfully his frequent truancies
relieved her of stomaching his presence. Sometimes he’d be absent for days,
other times weeks. He spent maybe a third of the time actually in class. So
while she worked her ass off to score high marks, he lived it up, boozing,
snorting, mainlining…whatever his vice of the week.

She remembered petitioning
Cam once to get him the help he needed.

His expression had been fatigued
in its resignation. “I can’t help him if he doesn’t want to help himself.”

She hadn’t been satisfied
with the answer. A monster lurked beneath the pretty façade. Once unchained,
God help those in his path.
      
As if
sensing her perusal, his eyes lifted above the glossy heads of the lollipop
guild and connected with hers.

Tess quickly looked away,
hoping he would pretend they hadn’t accidentally made eye contact.

No such luck.

Adrenaline fizzled through
her bloodstream as he maneuvered past his hangers-on. His saunter was slow and
deliberate, his heavy-lidded gaze assessing. Pupils stretched wide, they
reflected an unending maw, cavernous, empty of soul and life. Some of her
tension unwound, gauging his demeanor as symptomatic of a hallucinogen-high. At
least she wasn’t expected to bear the brunt of another coke-fueled rage.

“I see Cinderella has decided
to grace us with her presence.”

“Fuck off, Adonis.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t
you?” he replied, the indolent croon at odds with the distaste that shaped his
mouth. “Why the long face, wildcat? Did
stepdaddy
not
pay out for services rendered this month?”

His words rotted at the pit
of her stomach. Taking the high road, Tess bit her tongue and mentally willed
the bartender to mix her drink faster. A rum and coke should not be this
complicated.

The orange-red coal of his
joint glowed. “Mm, I’ll take that as a yes.” She wrinkled her nose as he
exhaled a plume of smoke in her face.

Despite the handful of inches
separating her five ten and his six three, he seemed to dwarf her. “But I know
what you’re really here for.” He caught an errant strand of her hair and rubbed
it between his thumb and forefinger as if testing the quality. “Cinderella is
still waiting for her Prince Charming, right?”

Patience thinning, she
smacked his hand away. “Better than waiting for my next overdose.”

Black fire engulfed his eyes
before it succumbed to the sultry cloud of his high. “I’ve missed that mouth of
yours.”

“I can’t say the same for
you,” she countered flatly.

“I’ll let you in on a little
secret. Do you want to know why he’s sidelined you?” His gaze meandered over
her head, sweeping the vicinity before bending down conspiratorially. His lips
ghosted her ear. “Your type is merely the intermission before the grand
finale,” he said in a low, smoke-rasped voice. “A dirty little secret.
A warm hole to bang out and blow his load before moving on to
something more refined.
Stop wasting your time.” And on that note, he
ambled off, leaving her adrift in a scrim of self-doubt and cannabis smoke.

She hated Adonis with every
fiber of her being.

Tess told herself that
Cameron cared nothing for labels or the fact that she didn’t hail from ‘good
stock’. Those things didn’t matter to him…did they?

As if in answer, Cameron
entered through the French double doors. She fixed her mouth into a smile as he
sidled next to her. “How long have you been waiting?”

“Long enough,” she said
lightly. “I see you brought Adonis.”

“What’d he say?” Cameron
asked warily, already prepping for damage control.

“Nothing that bears
repeating.” A century later, the bartender finally set her drink down. But who
was she to complain about free booze?

Cam ensnared her wrist before
she could toss it back at once. Keeping his gaze hooked on her, he maneuvered
her glass to his mouth and began drinking. Tess flushed, her pulse trilling, as
he pulled away and smacked his lips. “Rum and coke? I know you can be more
creative than that.”

“Only where it counts,” she
said saucily.

His laugh was full and
hearty. “I'll have what she's drinking,” he called to the bartender.

Tess bumped her hip into him.
“You have good taste.”

He nudged her back. “I
learned from the best.”

After securing his drink,
they rambled outside to mingle. It seemed that no one could get enough of
Cameron.

Always one step ahead, he
made sure they steered clear of Adonis’s beat and for that, she was immensely
grateful. They joined a semi-circle of their old crew laid out near the surf.
Cameron snagged the last thatched beach chair and pulled her down alongside
him. Her skin tingled as his calf rubbed against hers. She noted, somewhat
gleefully, that he didn’t make a move to put more space between them.

“Oh look, our diamond in the
rough has found her other half,” Katherine “Kitty” Larson said with a
sugarcoated smile. Unlike Lauren and Erin, Kitty had never quite warmed up to
her. As the self-established queen bee of their pecking order, she made it her
job to ensure all knew their place. “You should've seen her wandering around
here, Cam, like a puppy that lost her favorite chew toy.”

Her knuckles flexed at her
side. Sometimes Tess longed for the good old days when all it took was one jab
of her fist to solve a problem. No smoke and mirrors act or talking one another
in repetitive circles. Nothing cleared the air like a good scrap. “Better a
lost chew toy than a lost boyfriend. But don't worry. I'm sure he wasn't worth
it,” she said, infusing her words with a dollop of sincerity.

Cameron coughed to hide his
amusement. “I take it you had an eventful summer.”

“You could say that,” Kitty
said primly, any hint of provocation neatly stowed. “How was Dubai? Meet anyone
special?”

“Yeah, tell us man,” Tristan
said, having given up his burgeoning career as a professional volleyball
player. “How were the Indian women? I bet you had ass on tap.”

“They're ok. But they've got
nothing on American beauties.” Tess’s chest tightened as he shot her a boyish
smile.

“How adorable,” Kitty said,
her voice oozing saccharine semi-sweetness. “So does that mean after three plus
years you two are finally a couple? You've been waiting long enough, haven't
you Tess?”

Panic and humiliation clawed
up and clamped around her throat as an expectant hush fell over the group. Tess
thought quickly. “Why ruin a good friendship?” She made herself take a casual
sip of her drink. “And besides, there’s something…crass about hooking up with a
good friend just for the sake of doing it.”