Page 25 of All Saints: Pledge

She still looks between us in a calculating way, and I channel all the Zen calm I can muster. “Dominic, Li, and I are neighbors. Li is still sleeping,” I say as I hear Dom’s name called from the counter. When he jumps up to grab our order, Clara shoots forward.

“You are not supposed to be dating! You signed…” She trails off, and widens her eyes with meaning. She’s not allowed to talk about it in public either.

“We’renotdating.”

“Does he know that? Helena, he can’t stop staring at you. You were holding hishand.”

“Friends hold hands,” I defend. “We were trying to get through the crowd. That’s it.”

Her look is level, and not-bullshitted.

“Okay, fine. He almost-kissed mebeforeI signed the thing, but I swear. We’re just out as friends.”

Dominic returns and hands me my sandwich. I unwrap the white butcher paper and shove my mouth so full of food, no one will dare ask me questions.

Under the guise of pulling his chair up to the table, Dominic leans in so that his lips brush my ear. “Have I ever told you how sexy it is when Americans girls eat food?”

Clara lets out a breath and mutters something unintelligible.

My insides liquify…just before they freeze totally solid. From heat to ice in a millisecond. The person who just stepped up next to Dominic at our table? I swear I’m seeing him in my dreams, my nightmares, and now every moment of my waking life. My eyes lift slowly until I meet the cold, stony stare of Kendall Saint James.

“I’ve been looking for you.” His quiet, intense words send a shiver through me that isn’t all dread, and I hate him for it. Hate how for a moment I hope he’s coming to talk about what happened. To repeat it. But I know how absolutely insane that is, even for me.

“Well, you found me,” I mutter around a mouthful of sandwich.

Sitting back, Dominic’s eyes bounce between me and Kendall.

“Clara,” Kendall acknowledges, though I note his eyes don’t really stray from where they’re currently burning a path through my soul.

“I thought maybe you’d need a copy of this.” Kendall shoves a sheaf of papers into my face, causing me to jerk back. “You left them with me when we were together last night.”

The sheaf of papers are familiar…it’s a copy of what I signed last night. I choke a little on my food, unable to offer a defense. Kendall’s insinuation makes it seem like we weretogethertogether last night.

“Oy, mate. Who are you again?” Dominic’s gaze moves back to Kendall, and I know that he’s clocking his broad shoulders and deceptively good looks. Too bad he’s not wearing his “I’m pure evil” T-shirt.

Kendall’s eyes stay on mine when he answers. “Kendall. You are?”

This is not going well. “Kendall, calm down. He’s my neighbor. Clara is here.”It’s all cool, I tell him with my eyes.No rules broken, you psychotic stalker. I turn to Dominic to explain. “Kendall, Clara, and I went to high school together.”

“Ah.” Dominic looks relieved. Then puzzled. “That’s a lot of people from one school.”

Clara clears her throat and leans in to catch Kendall’s eye. “Would you like to sit and have lunch with us?”

Kendall clearly doesn’t like the direction of this conversation. He glowers at me, reaches into his jacket and produces another sheaf of papers. He tosses those onto the table in front of Clara. “Just making sure everyone gets their paperwork.” He rifles through his messenger bag and produces a second set of papers to hand to Clara.

Dominic eyes Kendall. “Are you all in a class together?”

“No,” I answer at the same time Clara and Kendall say, “Yes.”

“Okay,” I say, shoving back from the table, and turning a glacial glare on Kendall. “You. You’ve delivered your papers. All good here, captain.” I rattle the stack at him the way I would at a wayward raccoon. Shoo.

I hazard a look at Clara. The hurt, betrayed expression in her eyes say it all. She thinks that Kendall and Dominic are fighting overme.She's wrong. She hasn’t dealt with heartless Kendall like I have. It’s a power move by Kendall. It's the same twisted motive he’s had—he wants every day to let me know he's better than me. Even if he apparently enjoys “slumming it” sometimes.

“You know what? Iamhungry.” Kendall's gaze slides to Clara, who nods enthusiastically.

"No."

Kendall cuts me a glare. “I was invited to have lunch.”

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