Ominous by Kate Brian Read Free Book Online Page B

asked. “Why would your father go to them instead of my dad?”
    Sawyer turned a little green, and I could tell that whatever he had to say next, he was afraid of saying it.
    “
They
came to
him
,” he said. “And when they did, my dad called your father to check … to make sure he didn’t want to try to outbid them or something. See, Dad didn’t want Billings back at all, but apparently the school needs the money so … I guess he figured whoever would donate the most could control the project.”
    “He told you this?” Tiffany asked.
    “No. I overheard him this morning.” He turned to Noelle. “On the phone with your dad.”
    “And?” Noelle and I said at the same time.
    Sawyer closed his eyes for a moment, as if gathering his strength. “He said no. He said he didn’t want to have anything more to do withBillings, and he didn’t want his girls anywhere near it either.”
    My face burned and my eyes met Noelle’s across the table.
    “His
girls
? WTF?” Portia said. “Have you got some secret sister we don’t know about, Noelle?”
    The other girls laughed halfheartedly, but I felt the orange juice traveling back up my throat. This—all of it—was very not good.
    “Obviously, Sawyer misheard,” Noelle said through her teeth, staring me down. “And don’t worry, ladies,” she added, lifting her hair over her shoulders. “I’ll get to the bottom of this. There’s no way I’m leaving Billings in the hands of a loser like Missy Thurber.”

“Sorry I couldn’t get us passes off campus,” Josh said. He dimmed the lights to a romantic glow and sat down across from me at the small pedestal table he’d placed in the center of the art cemetery. Arranged on its small wooden surface were boxes of steaming Thai food, everything from lemongrass chicken to coconut rice to salmon with mango sauce. “After everything that’s gone on in the last year, I guess Hathaway’s finally cracking down.”
    I smirked as I reached for the chopsticks. “Or he just hates both of us.”
    “That too,” Josh conceded. He lifted his wineglass full of sparkling champagne. “Still, I think I did pretty well.”
    I picked up my glass and clinked it with his. “I’ll second that.”
    We looked into each other’s eyes as we sipped our faux champagne, and I felt a twist of anticipation. When it came down to it, the art cemetery was the best place we could possibly be. Because all I couldthink about was kissing him, and kissing him in a way that probably couldn’t be done in a public forum.
    “You want to forget the food?” Josh asked suddenly.
    I dropped my glass on the table with a clang. “Good plan.”
    We both stood up and collided with each other, his lips on mine before I could even catch my breath. He cupped my face with both his hands and tripped us sideways into the old-fashioned love seat pressed up against the wall. My feet hit a set of gilt-framed paintings as I fell on top of Josh, knocking the whole stack over with a terrific clatter, but neither of us even paused. I fumbled my hand up under Josh’s sweater and was met with the rough fabric of his chambray shirt.
    I pulled away, my lips buzzing. “Can you?”
    “What? Oh yeah.”
    He sat up to tear his sweater off and I sat back to give him room. As he flung it on the floor, I went right to work on his buttons until I saw a hint of his bare chest, and then I kissed it. He leaned back again as I kissed my way over his collarbone, up his neck to his ear, and then found his mouth again. He let out a little moan as he kicked off his shoes. Then he shifted sideways, kind of tossing me aside so that we were lying facing each other, my back against the back of the couch.
    I felt like we hadn’t been alone together in weeks, even though it was only days, and from the frantic direction of Josh’s hands, I could tell he felt the same way. It was like he wanted to touch every inch of me as quickly as possible, all the while kissing my lips. He pulled back