“Look at him. He’s not enjoying it, babe.” His tone became lighter, amused, as he twisted us round, then spun me back to face them. “Look at Z.”
I became aware of Zayde with Portia, stunning in a deep blue ball gown. He, like Cade, was dressed all in black. Black suit, black shirt, black tie. His mouth was set in a grim line, his body stiff, holding Portia as far away from him as he could. To be fair, she didn’t look any happier to be with him. I smirked, before my eyes returned to Caiden.
I noticed the exact moment he saw me. He grimaced, and Jessa looked up at him, and then her head shot round towards me. She deliberately stepped closer to Cade, clinging onto him, running her hand up his arm, a satisfied smile on her lips as she watched me shoot daggers at her with my eyes. Caiden’s jaw tightened, but he let her touch him, playing his part, just as I was.
I hated it.
Cass spun me away, before I could do anything stupid like launch myself at her. What was it about Caiden Cavendish that made me so fucking jealous of any woman that was around him?
Like a magnet, my eyes kept going straight to his, catching glimpses of him across the dance floor, and every time, he was looking right back at me.
“James. To your left,” Cassius suddenly hissed in my ear. “Act like Caiden is invisible to you. I’m moving us closer.” He skilfully twisted us between dancing couples, until I lost sight of Caiden and we were next to James and his date. I steeled myself, wishing Kinslee was here as backup. Despite her assurances, she hadn’t been able to get a date at such short notice, and with the ball being so exclusive, we couldn’t work anything out.
Mentally shaking my head, I prepared myself.
“James.” I pasted a small, hesitant smile on my face, not too wide, in case he got suspicious. “Could I have a quick word with you?”
His eyes were shadowed behind his gold mask, so I couldn’t make out his expression, but I heard his sharp, surprised intake of breath. He glanced between me and his date, who was staring at me intently, before her eyes were drawn to Cassius.
“Hi, Cassius,” she murmured softly, and then her focus returned to me. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. I’m Bea.”
“Winter.” I smiled at her, not sensing any hostility, and she returned my smile.
“Bea, how have you been? Haven’t seen you for ages.” Cassius took control of the situation, nudging me as he moved in front of Bea, and I took the chance to lean into James.
“Please? Just a quick word?”
He looked back at his date, who gave a small nod before returning her attention to Cassius and followed me from the dance floor. I needed to go somewhere I could talk to him without being overheard, but at the same time, I needed to be within eyesight of Cassius. For lack of other options, I headed towards the back of the room, rounding one of the marble columns to give us a small amount of privacy.
“We need to talk, don’t you think?”
He glanced around us, then nodded slowly, moving deeper into the shadows and leaning against the wall. I could see Cassius and Bea out of the corner of my eye, not close enough to overhear our conversation, but close enough for Cass to watch out for me.
“Listen, I’ve actually been debating whether to get in contact with you, but I wasn’t sure how you’d react.” His shoulders slumped, and he sighed heavily. “I wanted to apologise to you for what happened in the library.”
“Why do it, though? I thought we were friends.”
Scuffing his foot against the floor, he hesitated for a moment, dropping his gaze to the floor. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” All thoughts of my plan to pretend to be grateful to him for driving a wedge between me and Caiden went out of the window at the undercurrent of fear in his tone. When he didn’t answer, I moved even closer, placing a hand lightly on his arm. “James?”
He spoke low and quickly. “When I kissed you, I was
feeling pissed off—I’d heard about Cavendish’s little display claiming you in the cafeteria, and it made me…I don’t know, jealous, in a way, I guess. He’s never been interested enough in any girl before to do anything like that, and it had to be the one that I had first, the one I’d been friends with. It didn’t take much persuading to kiss you, and when you reacted so angrily, it made me angry in turn, and at that point I was glad I’d done it.”
My head was spinning, as I tried to process what he was telling me. “Okay. I understand all that, I suppose, not that I agree with your reasons. At all. But why, James? Why didn’t you have a choice? Who’s behind all this?”
“I can’t tell you. I wish I could stay out of it, and I’m sorry you got caught up in everything.”
That told me nothing. I needed answers. “Joseph’s involved, though, right?”
He stiffened at the mention of his cousin. “You’re a nice girl, Winter. But you being here, being related to the Cavendish family…” He sighed. “Whether you wanted to or not, you’ve chosen your side. You wouldn’t be willing to go against your family, would you?”
“What do you mean by ‘side’?” I tried to keep the impatience from my voice, so fed up with all this secrecy. Why couldn’t anyone speak like normal people, instead of being all cryptic and shit?
“I’m telling you this because I like you, and you’ve been nothing but nice to me, and despite what you might think of me right now, I’m not the bad guy here.”
Beckoning me closer, he bent down to speak into my ear, and I held my breath. “Understand this. Alstone has rivalries dating back for generations, in some cases. When you first turned up, I honestly didn’t know who you were. If I had, I would’ve kept my distance. To begin with, it seemed okay—the Four clearly didn’t want you around, and I thought that you and I could be friends. When it became obvious that Cavendish had a thing for you, and especially after he threatened me, I backed right off.”