Page 30

After a moment of hesitation, he called Ari over. “Hey!

How’d it go?”

Ari had a split second to decide whether to give him the cold shoulder to avoid Sloane or bite the bullet. Her elation

evaporated, but she resisted dragging her feet as she moved toward them.

“Not as bad as I expected,” Ari admitted, her attention trained on Javon. “It all went by so fast.”

“I know right.” He chuckled. “It’s like . . . I know I opened my mouth and some shit had to come out, but I don’t know what it was.”

Sloane laughed. It was a dry, cynical thing that turned Ari’s skin cold immediately. “I imagine the judge felt much the same way.”

Javon’s smile wavered. “Yeah,” he said after a beat. The laugh he attempted to add sounded like a gasp.

I told you she was diabolical. No one ever believes me.

Clearing his throat, Javon turned his body away from Sloane. “You want a soda or something, A? The ones they set out are warm. I can grab you one from the kitchen.”

“Sure, thanks, J.” Ari hoped her smile made up for Sloane’s Venus flytrap attack. Judging by the fact that he bolted for the door without asking her what kind of soda she wanted made her doubt it.

Without Javon, there was no need for Ari to su er in Sloane’s presence. She started toward the table on the hunt for a cookie. Much to her dismay, Sloane followed.

“Why do you look so proud of yourself?” Sloane asked, sounding bored despite being the one to initiate the conversation.

Ari ignored her and reached for a napkin and a sugar cookie.

“Damn, you think you did that well, huh?”

It was her stupid laugh that made Ari’s lip twitch. Why couldn’t she just leave her the hell alone? “Why do you sound so worried?” Ari asked, facing her only to find she was standing much closer than she realized.

Sloane’s body inches away from hers was unnerving, but she stared up into her sparkly hazel eyes and claimed her space. Sloane had gotten too close. She was the one who should take a step back if she was uncomfortable.

Instead of yielding an inch, Sloane licked her dark pink lips before taking a bite of a chocolate chip cookie. She didn’t apologize for her elbow grazing Ari’s shoulder.

“It’s really too bad they don’t announce winners. I’d love to come out on top of you again,” Sloane said in a voice so low it was nearly a growl.

Ari’s pulse jumped in her neck. All she could do was hope the heat rushing through her body wasn’t reflected on her face.

Was that a double entendre? Ari banished the thought.

“Never going to happen.” Was that the best Ari’s exhausted, unfocused brain could come up with?

Sloane cocked her head to one side, her lips somehow fuller and more luscious as she smirked. “It never occurred to me before, but now it makes sense.”

Ari resisted taking the bait. Lost in a tangle of strange and conflicting emotions, she tried to remain stoic and unimpressed. In the rapidly shrinking room, she had no idea whether she was successful.

“What realization did I come to, you ask?” Sloane leaned in a fraction of an inch closer.

Ari wanted to turn and run, but she was frozen in place.

That’s what she told herself when Sloane’s perfume invaded her senses, making coherent thought impossible.

“It never occurred to me that you wanted to be right underneath me.”

Sloane’s words filled her like smoke, invading every crevasse. Ari pictured it immediately. Sloane’s tall, athletic body writhing on top of hers. Sloane’s lips parted as she moaned with her head thrown back. Sloane inside her. All over her.

It was too much. Ari stepped back, casting the thoughts out of her brain like a priest working overtime at an exorcism.