Tempted by Cecily von Ziegesar Read Free Book Online

suspiciously like an orange cloth napkin.) But Brett couldn’t help grinning. “I like your costume,” she said breathlessly.
    “Yours is better,” he replied, standing back to take in the whole ensemble. As his familiar green-blue eyes took her in, Brett felt an equally familiar chill run down her spine. “Wow. You look even hotter in that costume than I imagined you would.”
    Brett felt her whole body flush, and inexplicably the memory of the weekend she’d spent with Jeremiah and his family at their Nantucket beach house washed over her. Jeremiah had spent practically the whole weekend in his navy and orange Abercrombie & Fitch swim trunks, and Brett could conjure up the image of his bronzed chest glistening with droplets of salt water, his long reddish hair wet from a recent plunge in the Atlantic. Just standing near him, she suddenly felt warm in the drafty ballroom.
    “How’d you know?” she asked, stepping out of the way of the Village People (a bunch of sophomores on the cross-country team) as they hooted across the ballroom to the opening beats of “ YMCA .” “I mean, what to wear?”
    Jeremiah placed a hand on Brett’s elbow and steered her off to side of the room, out of the way of any other dorky YMCA-ers. “I got this text from Heath telling me he saw you walking around in purple go-go boots, and so I guessed.”
    “Heath?” Brett glanced at the giant movie screen, where
Scream
II was playing. A guy in a black cloak and white mask jumped out at someone. Why was Heath trying to help her and Jeremiah? She felt a wave of affection for him. He was so happy with Kara—maybe he just wanted her to be happy too. Or maybe he was nervous that a single Brett was a threat to his own happiness. But it didn’t really matter.
    “Ah, he knew I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” Jeremiah answered. Brett stared at her toes, her heart beating loudly in her ears. “I mean, I tried not to think about you,” he went on. Another cloud of fog floated across the room, partially obscuring his face. “Because whenever I would think about you I’d wonder if you were with Kara, and then I’d start to wonder about all those times we were together and you said you were hanging out with your girlfriends, and if there could have been more going on… .” Jeremiah’s words were coming quickly, and Brett could hear his shallow breath through the vanilla-scented fog. “I mean, it sort of sent me into a tailspin.”
    Jeremiah pushed a thick lock of red hair out of his piercing blue-green eyes and took a deep breath, staring straight into Brett’s eyes. “But the overwhelming thing was that I just wanted to be with you, and just had to know if all that … Kara …” He coughed, saying her name. “The stuff I heard about you and Kara—was it true?”
    Brett suddenly felt thirsty for a glass of the sticky sweet punch floating around the room in plastic cups. She didn’t want to lie to Jeremiah outright, but it was such a little thing, something that seemed farther and farther in the rearview mirror every new day. Just a few kisses. She could probably count them on one hand—or two. It would never happen again.
    She could feel Jeremiah’s body tensing up for the answer, his muscles pulsing under his costume, and she wanted to feel his warm skin pressed against hers. She knew how she could make her wish come true.
    “No,” she said, shaking her head. “Nothing ever happened between us.”
    A wave of relief passed over Jeremiah’s face. He put his strong hands on her waist and pulled her to him, and suddenly Brett felt like they were back on the Nantucket beach again, barefoot, sunburned, and half-naked. His lips tasted like warm beer and it wasn’t long before Brett felt drunk too, her head spinning giddily like it hadn’t in a very, very long time.

7
WAVERLY OWL KNOWS THAT THE TRUTH HURTS , NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU’VE HAD TO DRINK WHEN YOU HEAR IT.
    Benny’s perfume bottle had emptied out long ago and