V is for Virgin (8 page)

“No!” He had me so flustered I felt my cheeks get pink. “I meant that I can’t be in denial about us, because there is no us! Stop twisting my words around! I’m not going out with you.”

Kyle’s eyes sparkled with amusement in the most infuriating way. “Then I’m not playing a show for you,” he said to Cara.

“Come on, V,” Cara pleaded.

“Yeah, Come on V,” Kyle echoed. He leaned down so that his lips were against my ear. “You afraid that I’d rock your world and make a liar out of you on the whole waiting for marriage issue?”

I ignored the shivers that ran down my spine and gave Cara a dry look, but she was dead-set on getting her way. “We need this,” she said.

“We’ll find someone else.”

“But they’re a
real
band. They’ll draw a huge crowd. Think of how much money we could earn off their ticket sales alone. Probably more than we made from the entire festival last year.”

Okay, I love Cara, and I felt for her with the whole not having a band thing, I did, but I was beginning to lose my temper. “I can’t believe you are trying to pimp me out right now.”

“And I can’t believe you won’t do this for me. It’s just a date!”

“You do realize that if I go out with him so that we can make more money at the festival, that makes me a whore. An actual prostitute.”

Kyle laughed at that, and since he still had his arm draped over my shoulder, it was really easy for me to elbow his ribs.

“It’s not happening,” I said to both of them, and then shrugged away from Kyle.

Cara clenched her hands into fists and stomped her foot on the ground. Then she turned all her fury on Kyle. “Can’t you just do it anyway?”

“Nnnnnnnnnope.” Kyle was enjoying this way too much.

“Please?”

“It’s give and take, babe. You want something. I want something.”

“But it’d be good publicity for you,” Cara said. “KTLA News always sends a crew to cover the festival. You doing a show for charity at your old high school? That story would make prime time.”

“Been there, done that,” Kyle said, and then leered at me again as if he’d like to come here and do me next.

I narrowed my eyes at him and said, “We’re done here. You can leave now.”

“So that’s a ‘no’ then?” Kyle asked, barely able to hold back his laughter.

“Get OUT!”

That’s the point where Olivia walked into the room going, “What is with all the noise in here?”

Olivia Lewis was the very last thing I needed right then, but she forgot all about getting in my face the minute she recognized who was standing there. “
Kyle Hamilton
?” she gasped in that shrill little Barbie voice of hers. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Apparently I’m done here.”

“You’re leaving so soon?” Olivia asked.

Oh she was just laying it on so thick. It was pathetic. Kyle looked her up and down, and since Olivia is nothing to scoff at looks wise, he gave her a slight nod and said, “Walk me out?”

“Oh, sure!” Olivia cried. “I was just about to leave myself.”

Kyle laughed at her and then glanced back at me. “Your loss, Legs.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ll get over it.”

Kyle slipped his arm around Olivia’s waist and asked her name as he walked past me toward the exit.

“I’m Olivia, and I am your
biggest
fan. I seriously love you so much! I know all the words to every single one of your songs!”

I swear I saw Kyle cringe. He got two more steps then stopped and let out a huff of frustration. He whirled back around and glared at Cara. “All right! You have yourself a band.”

I don’t know who was more stunned, but Cara managed to compose herself long before me. “Really?” she squeaked.

Kyle sounded disgusted with himself when he grumbled, “Yes, really.”

Cara squealed and threw herself at Kyle, who was forced to let go of Olivia in order to catch her. Cara jumped into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist and planted a big, wet kiss on his mouth. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Kyle appeared to have the same weakness for Cara as me, because he had to stop glaring and laugh at her. The look on his face when he lost his composure was absolutely adorable. “You’re welcome,” he said, laughing. He shifted his gaze over Cara’s shoulder to me. “Now will you go out with me? Please?”

I almost said yes. After what he just did for Cara I sort of wanted to, but something stopped me. “You’d really play an entire concert for
free
just to go on a date with me?”

“Looks that way, doesn’t it?”

“Why?” I asked.

Kyle’s eyes dropped briefly to the V hanging from my neck and his frown melted into a cocky smile. “I can’t resist a good challenge.”

That’s what I thought. “Well, I’m afraid you have a problem then, Kyle.”

“What’s that?”

“I never back down from a challenge either.” I pointed to the jeans I was wearing. “This is one pair of pants you’ll never get into.”

“Ah, but you still have a whole closet full of others, and at least one very sexy skirt, don’t you?”

“None of which you’ll ever get your hands on either.”

Kyle crossed his arms over his chest, studying me with a gleam in his eyes. “So that’s how this is going to go?”

I matched his posture and then threw his own words back at him. “Looks that way, doesn’t it?”

Kyle stared me down a minute longer and then stalked toward me with a predatory smile. Watching him slowly come at me was like being trapped in one of those nature shows on the Discovery Channel. My pulse pounded in my chest with every step he took, and I felt myself backing up until I hit the wall.

Suddenly we were standing toe to toe. His body took up so much space around me it was hard to breathe. I could feel his heat and we weren’t even touching. What had just happened?

Kyle saw the overwhelmed look in my eyes and smirked. He brought his mouth down to mine and brushed my lips with a touch so feather-light that I gasped.

My body reacted before my head could. I drifted into him as if he was somehow my new center of gravity. My eyes fluttered shut, and I waited for a kiss that never came. His lips were there, brushing back and forth over mine, teasing me cruelly until I ached with a desire so intense I started to shake.

Kyle chuckled darkly. “You’re in over your head with me, Virgin Val.”

He was so right. It was like he’d put me under a spell. It scared me how much he affected me, and I don’t even think he was trying all that hard.

I couldn’t lose this battle, though, no matter how much my body wanted to at the moment. Using every ounce of determination I had, I pushed him off me saying, “So you know how to get a girl flustered. That’s not surprising when you’re with a different one every weekend.” I tried to sound angry in order to cover up how much he’d rattled me. “But for all your experience, there is still one thing I can and will teach you.”

My threat amused him. “And that would be?”

“Rejection.”

Kyle laughed, so completely sure of himself. “In case you missed it, that, right there, was
not
you rejecting me.”

“Won’t happen again,” I promised. Possibly more for my own benefit than his. “You’ve tipped your hand, Kyle. Now that I know what I’m up against, you’ll never be able to catch me off guard again.”

“We’ll see.” Kyle puckered his lips into a kiss at me and strode to the door. Just before he disappeared he turned back and gave me one last crooked smile. “Wear something sexy to the festival for me.”

For a moment we all just stood there gaping at the empty door. Then Olivia glared at me and went scrambling away, hoping to catch Kyle before he left the building.

“For the love of all things sinful!” Cara yelled after they were both gone. “That was off-the-charts HOT!” She blew out a long breath. “Girl, you are in so much trouble.”

“I can handle him.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Yes,” I said, annoyed. “I can.”

Cara shook her head. “Tell her Robin.”

Robin, who hadn’t said a word since Kyle arrived, grimaced. “That was…um…” She fanned herself. “Yeah, good luck with him.”

“We have to come up with a game plan,” Cara said.

“I have a game plan. ‘Just Say No.’ It’s a classic.”

“That’s not going to be good enough. You’re going to have to beat him at his own game. We have work to do. We need to at least start shopping for your outfit for the festival.”

“Starting with a chastity belt,” Robin muttered.

“So I worked out all the details with Kyle’s manager,” I said, slipping down into the chair next to Cara’s at council meeting the next day. “Turns out he was serious. They’re going to do the show.”

“You know, Val, you should throw the guy a bone and go out with him after this. It was almost pathetic, him giving in like that even though he didn’t want to. It was like he couldn’t help it.”

“It
was
sweet,” I admitted. “Until afterward when he threw down the gauntlet for getting me into bed. You saw what happened! I
can’t
go out with him. But you guys looked adorable yesterday when you jumped him. Maybe
you
should go out with him.”

Cara waved me off like I was being ridiculous. “Please. You know how I am when I’m excited. I’ll kiss anyone.”

“And you think
I’m
the skank?” Olivia scoffed as she took the seat next to mine. I was kind of surprised when she greeted me with an enormous smile. I waited for some kind of backhanded insult but it turned out she was genuinely happy to see me. “How are you, Val?”

I didn’t know quite how to respond. “Um, I’m good. You?”

“Fantastic.” She sighed, a little lovesick, and then I understood.

“So you caught up with Kyle yesterday?”

I didn’t care for Olivia’s sake, but I was curious. Maybe if Kyle got distracted with Olivia, he wouldn’t be so intent on taking my virginity.

Olivia’s smile brightened. “We went for coffee and talked.”

“Talked?” Cara snorted. “Sure.”

“We just talked,” Olivia sneered. “You’re the one who will kiss anybody, remember?”

“Really?” I asked. I didn’t mean to insult Olivia with my disbelief, but I couldn’t swallow it. “You just talked? You and Kyle?”

“He wasn’t in the mood to go out yesterday. He was way annoyed with you Val.” Olivia pulled out a compact and re-applied her lip-gloss before telling us the rest of her news. With one final smack of her lips, she put down the mirror and said, “But he made plans with me for after the festival this weekend.”

“ I wouldn’t get your hopes up if I were you.” I couldn’t help but warn her. “I have a feeling Kyle Hamilton is in to pretty much anything with legs.”

“Jealous much?” Olivia said with the smugness back in her tone. I decided to ignore it. If Olivia wanted to be some Almost Famous’s booty call, so be it. Can’t say I didn’t warn her.

I shrugged and she moved on to telling everyone else on the council whom she’d had coffee with yesterday until Eric brought things to order.

This was the last council meeting before the festival so we spent it confirming everyone’s status and hashing out some unfinished details. When we got to the music committee Eric turned to me with a big smile. “So how are we looking for the music, Val?”

I grinned at Cara. “Tralse said they would play the show.”

“Tralse!” Eric repeated, surprised and impressed. “No way, that’s awesome! Nice work, Val.”

“It was all Cara’s doing. She used her brother’s connections to get us backstage at one of their shows.”

“Oh, please,” Cara said, winking at me. “They told me no, but Kyle is seriously hooked on our girl, V. He simply couldn’t deny her.”

Olivia huffed.

“It’s true,” I deadpanned. “He wants me bad.” I shrugged at Olivia with all the fake sympathy I could muster up. “Anything with legs, remember?” Then, because I couldn’t resist, I said, “He only went out with you because I’d already told him no.”