Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (20 page)

Molly threw her hands up in mock surrender.
“I know, I know
.
It’s not for me to judge.
I
grew up from last year
--
a lot.
” She grinned as she stood.

“I didn’t say anything
.”
But you have grown up
.
Molly
was still the same quirky,
complaining,
and thousand
-
question
s
girl
.
H
owever
,
after Rae’s kidnapping and Lanford’s death,
she had
lost
a lot of the self-centered attitude
she had sported.

It seemed a
ll of them had changed
after that.

“Just be sure you make time to talk to Reece
.
I
really
like him and I want you to like him as well.
Not in the same way, but you know, like him as a friend.
Like him as your best friend’s boyfriend.
Like
–
”

“I get your point.
” Rae
laugh
ed
.
“
Does
this mean
you’ve already picked out what I’m
wearing
to
the dance?”

“
Ohhh yeah
!
I’ll go get it right now.
” Molly jumped
up
and ran
down the hall
.
As
her
footsteps faded, Desiree popped her head through the open door.

“Hi, Rae.”

“Hiya, Des.
How’re you doing?”

“Good.
Is that Molly scurrying down the hall?” De
siree glided into the room,
looking very curvy in her tight jeans and white tee shirt.
Rae didn’t mean to stare, but
she couldn’t help it
.
Desiree’s
Chanel
perfume
waft
ed sweetly
from
the other side of the room.

“Ye-yes. Molly’s gone to get a dress she
picked out for
me for
the dance
.”
She broke her stare,
looking
down to hide the burn starting on her cheeks.
Thank goodness she wor
e
her hair loose so it fell forward as she leaned down.

“Hey, Rae?” Desiree’s throaty voice beckoned her.

“Yes?” Rae didn’t want to look up but felt compelled.
To ma
ke it worse,
her eyes
began drifting
from Desiree’s slender ankles towards her knees and up.
Rae swallowed several times, wishing she could disappear.
This is weird.
She blinked forcing her head to clear the fog
.
It’s as if
—

“Julian bet me ten quid I couldn’t get you flustered if I used my
power
on you.
I’m sorry.”
Desiree
flipped her long, black hair over her shoulder.

The sensations disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared
.
Desiree
leaned against the doorframe,
trying not to laugh.

Alecia peered in behind her. “Desiree and Julian made me be their proof
.
I’m the one who has to say it actually happened.”

“You bugger
s
!
” Rae stood, relieved to be back in control of her feelings. “I’ll give yo
u
both twenty
quid if you keep your
mouth shut.
Don’t you dare tell Julian
.
Either way he wins
—
he’ll tease me
if he
know
s
it work
ed
,
or he gets your money
.
” She
giggled.
This is
payback for spying on him and
Devon
the other night
.
He must have figured it out.

“You’re not mad, right?”
Alecia
began chewing on her
thumbnail
.

“I’d rather be friends with you than Julian
…though he is cute
,
”
Desiree said.

“No,
I’m not mad.” Rae
smiled
. “Julian’s cool
. H
e’s like a brother to me. You don’t have to choose sides
. T
here are none.
R
emember,
though,
payback’s a bitch.
And
I now have your tatù’s talent added to my collection.
I’d be watching my back
,
if I were you.”
Rae pointed a finger at
Desiree
in playful warning.

“Fair enough
. J
ust make sure if you use it on Julian, I’m around.”

“Use what on Julian?” Molly pranced back into the room, carrying two grey vinyl dress bags.

“Desiree’s
tatù
.”

“Oh…that might be fun to watch.
Is he going to the dance?
Use it there on a bunch of girls
--
that’ll make Julian think he’s very popular with the ladies.
Then tell him the next day you fixed it.”

Rae
laughed and
shook her head.
Julian
seemed to have gained confidence
over the summer
.
He will
have no problem having the girls of Roe Hampton swooning over him
.
She might not think of him romantically, but she wasn
’t blind
.

“Desiree, how
did you do that
?” Rae felt for it inside of her,
searching for
the hum and determining
its tune.
“I thought you could only make it work with people who have feelings for each other.
How’d you get it to
—
uh
—
work on me.”

“
It’s hard to explain.” Desiree shrugged
.
“It’s like a drug flows into the veins. Then
I feel the emotions start inside me and all of my senses
go into overdrive
. It’s like a dam bursts and everything carries over to
the target
.
I’m not sure if
it
makes
any sense
.
”

“Is that why I started staring at your body? I mean, you’re very pretty but
--
”

“
Exactly!
I could tell you were fighting it
. Hormones tapped in but then ran dry
.
You might look but I can’t force what isn’t there
, so it’s hard to do to a girl.
It’s
much
easier to send the physical sensations over to a guy and have them react.
”
Desiree laughed her husky, throaty
chuckle
.

“
Sounds good
enough
to me
.
” Molly
cut in
, “Here’s your dress. W
hat do you think?”

She pulled the hanger out and let the vinyl cover fall to the floor.
The gown was exotic.
The dark grey-silver dre
ss tied up behind the neck, giving
the bodice a V
-
front, meeting an empire waist
that lightly billowed out
at
the knees.
Molly turned the dress around to show an open back.
Rae’s jaw dropped.

“That’s gorgeous, Molly
!
” Desiree
ran
her manicured
hands
over the material. “It’s so soft, like a feather.”

Alecia let out a quiet ahhh from where she stood close by the door. “I wasn’t planning on going but now I want to go dress shopping.”

“I’ll take you. I’d love to pick something out for you!” Molly flipped the dress around again.
“Rae’s going to
look like a proper girl in
it.
What
d’you
think
?” Molly
smiled confidently, knowing she had hit the mark and stunned them all with her shopping prowess
.

Rae felt otherwise.
She loved the front of the dress
,
but the open back
wasn’t her style
.
Everyone would see her tatù
,
and the glistening of the material would only enhance the sparkles on her back.

“Um…” she coughed, unable to take her eyes away from the
sizzling outfit
.

“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” Molly walked over and held the dress up against Rae.

“I can’t wear
this
.
I’ll get into trouble.”

“No
,
you won’t.
You’re simply making a statement.
Plus, everyone at
Roe Hampton
knows about your
tatù
already
.
Last year you made a memorable entrance
.
Remember how ever
yone
stopped and stared?
How crazy all the guys went? It was so awesome
!
T
his year
,
it has to be
even
bigger.”
Molly pushed Rae in front of the mirror.
“Come on. Let’s go to the bathrooms. You can try it on and get the full view with those wall to wall mirrors.”

“I can’t. I’m supposed to meet Nic and Kraigan downstairs for our Tatù paper.”

“
Please t
ry it on,” Desiree pleaded.
“It’ll take like five minutes.”

It
was
very pretty.
It wouldn’t hurt to try it on
--
just to see.
“Okay. Why not.” She followed Molly into the large dressing and make-up area of the bathrooms.
She pulled off her shirt and slipped the dress over her head.
She pulled her pants down and stood up.
Molly adjusted the back of the dress so it rested just
below her tatù
.
Rae turned sideways to glance at the back.
Holy…that’s a lot of skin…but look how pretty
the tatù is
!

“It’s perfect,” Alecia said.

“Ahhh
—
it’s
gorgeous
!
You
come across as
sophisticated and
very
sexy at the same time.
It makes you look
—
older,” Desiree said.

“My goal exactly
.”
Molly
reached
in
to the dress cover on the floor. “
F
or your discomfort, I purchased this lovely see-through black shawl to wear around your shoulders.
Once you get warm, you can drop it and show off
.”
Molly draped the shawl on Rae’s shoulders.

“It’s
perfect
.”
It’d take
Dev
on
’s breath away and maybe, after the dance, they’d
finally
do more than just make out
.

“Just make sure you don’t forget to take your bra off with the dress
--
that won’t be so perfect
.”
Molly grinned.
She grabbed the other dress bag and pulled out her dress
--
a tight, black strapless number with a very short skirt
that was designed to show a helluva lot more than it concealed.

“I take it back, Molls
.
I won’t be the one getting into
trouble
!
” Rae whistled.

“You won’t need
my
tatù
if you’re wearing that
!
”
Desiree laugh
ed
.