Paradise Lost (Private 9)

"Oops." She snorted a laugh at my expense.

When I turned around again, Upton was settling into Taylor's vacated chair, right next to mine. My cheeks turned sunburned red. Had he overheard that?

"Graham! Come sit by me," Noelle ordered. "Let's chat."

I glanced at Kiran, who shrugged. Clearly she didn't know what that was about either. Since Upton had appropriated her chair, Taylor was forced to sit with Sawyer off to Upton's left. My heart was bouncing

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around like a ping-pong ball. Of all these girls, he wanted to sit next to me, a milky white troll.

"So, Reed, I hear you're quite the intriguing individual," he said, sitting sideways on his lounge and leaning his thick forearms on his knees. There was a thin, white scar across his left shin. So not entirely perfect.

"Really? How so?" I asked, hoping he wasn't about to bring up the fact that I had almost been murdered . . . twice.

"Well, rumor has it you come from somewhere outside the big five, so that in and of itself is intriguing," he said with a smile. His eyes were even bluer than the ocean crashing behind us.

"The big five?"

"New York, L.A., London, Paris, Sydney," Kiran clarified. "The big five."

"Ah. Too bad for the rest of the world," I replied. "Has Rome been informed?"

Everyone chuckled at my joke, including Upton. In spite of myself, I beamed. He placed one hand on his knee, and I found myself staring at his fingers. No guy I knew had hands that large. They were not teenager hands. They were man hands. The kind of hands you couldn't help imagining running through your hair and down your back and over your skin. . . .

I was definitely starting to understand the appeal of the Upton Game.

"So, Graham, how's your dad doing?" Noelle asked.

"He's fine," Graham replied, kicking back with his legs hanging down on either side of his chair. "Busy."

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"Talking to my dad, from what I overhear," Noelle said.

"What does your dad do, Graham?" I asked, mostly because it forced me to stop staring at Upton, which was starting to get embarrassing.

"He's the dean of students at Drew University," Graham replied.

"So . .. why's he talking to your dad?" Kiran asked Noelle.

"Let's just say Daddy's trying to save the Hathaway family from Jersey," Noelle replied cryptically.

"I happen to like Jersey," Sawyer said, slipping on a pair of black sunglasses.

"You would," Graham joked.

Sawyer ignored him. He pulled a tattered copy of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time from his back pocket and started to read, curling the front cover around the back of the book.

"Well, while I'd love to hear the rest of your opinions on Jersey, I need a drink," Upton said, rising. "Reed, would you like anything?"

Everyone basically froze. The fact that he had singled me out wasn't lost on any of us, least of all Taylor, who sunk down low in her seat.

"Noelle, pass the cake, please," Taylor said, reaching a hand out over Upton's now vacated chair. I swallowed hard as the tray was passed to Kiran, then to me. Before I could even get it to Taylor, she grabbed a nice big chocolate tart and shoved half of it into her mouth. This was not good. I was here to have fun, which meant spending time with my friends, and I couldn't exactly do that if Taylor was jealous and hating me. It was obvious that I was going to have to send Upton a clear signal.

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"Actually, we were just leaving," I said, getting up and dragging Kiran with me.