The Challenge Page 4

  "What about this?" Henry suddenly spoke out. He was standing next to a mannequin that had a blood red corset on it with black and gold patterns. I almost laughed when he started petting the fabric.

  "Nice," Lena said. "The man has a good eye, Kris."

  "Yeah, I guess," I muttered.

  Henry gave the mannequin's boobs a big grin. Lena bought the corset.

  Next we went to a women's store called Envy, or something ridiculous like that, if I remember correctly. Here, we found a black, mid-thigh length skirt and knee high boots.

  "I'm gonna look like a vampire whore," I said from the dressing room.

  "Isn't that the point?" Lena asked.

  "You're just going to piss David off even more," Henry warned.

  "Oh...good point," I admitted.

  I bought the skirt and boots, as well as a temporary dark red hair coloring kit. We stopped at a novelty store to get the fangs, fake blood and makeup. I found a couple of cuff bracelets that looked like my corset, so I bought them, too. We also picked up some stuff for Lena's genie costume. Poor James would be the only one not in costume.

  After about $300 spent between all of us, Henry dropped Lena off at home and we went to my place where, yet again, no one was home. In the driveway I thought about the plans for tomorrow. Lena was going to distract James while we set everything up after school. Then she was going to change when they got to my place so he wouldn't get suspicious. Henry helped me carry the bags up to my room.

  "God, I want this coat!" I said, sliding the trench coat on, and looking in the full length mirror next to my dresser.

  "Well, at least let me wear it tomorrow, then you can keep it," Henry offered.

  "Nah...it's yours," I said.

  "You bought it."

  "Yeah..." I said. I took it off and put it over Henry's shoulders. "It's yours, though. Think of it as a souvenir from all this."

  Henry grinned and looked around my room. "I'm actually surprised. I thought it would be...well...different in here," Henry said.

  I looked around my room, too. The walls were pale blue, and I had red curtains over my window. Everything was bathed in a tint of red light, since the lampshades were red as well. My bed was a mess. The pillows were on the floor next to the bed and my blanket lay at the foot of the bed, having been kicked off during the night. The only thing that seemed to be in order was the dresser. At least...all the drawers were closed for once.

  "How different did you expect it?" I asked.

  "Well, I didn't think it would be like this," Henry admitted. His eyes wandered over to the corner, where I had five bean bag chairs and little bean-filled pillows. "Although I did think there would be a bathroom connected and look...I was right."

  "Yeah, so what?" I said, putting my hands on my hips and tilting my head slightly. Henry looked down at me. God, he had to be at least six inches taller than me.

  "We're kissing tomorrow night?" Henry asked.

  "Yeah," I said, slowly. I knew what was coming next.

  "Maybe you need to get over your gag reaction to it," Henry suggested.

  "Well, if you didn't smoke," I said.

  "Didn't today now, did I?" Henry gloated. "I was with you all bloody day.

  Dammit! He just had to be right. "Good," I shot back.

  "Good?" Henry asked. "I don't think you get it. I've been smoking for the last two years. One whole day without a smoke is killing me."

  "Oh, please. Like you didn't have one before picking me up," I said. Henry didn't say anything. "If you need one so bad, then go out back and smoke."

  "Fine...I'm going," Henry grunted.

  "Fine," I responded.

  Henry left the room and not five seconds later he was back. "How do you get out to the back?" he asked.

  I tried not to laugh. "Go to the living room, then through the kitchen from there, and out the door," I said as angrily as I could. Henry nodded and left again. I shook my head. "God..." I fell onto my bed.

  After a few minutes, I got up and went downstairs just as Henry came in from the backyard.

  "You have a pool and a hot tub?" he asked.

  "Yeah. My uncle owns a club that's really, really popular. That's why we have a house with six bedrooms. Two of them are guest rooms, one's mine, one's Megan's, and one's my uncle's. The other one is a music room. He even soundproofed it."

  "Also explains why there are about a hundred bathrooms?" Henry asked.

  "Three and a half," I said. "One connected to my room, one connected to my uncle's room, one in the hall upstairs, and the half one is over there." I waved at a closed door near the kitchen. "Do we actually have to do the kissing practice stuff?" I asked when I remembered why he was here.

  "Gotta make it convincing...I suppose," Henry muttered.

  "God this sucks," I complained. "Why did I agree to do this?"

  "Because you wanted to drive ol' Davy boy mental," Henry said.

  "I'm only doing this because you asked me to..." I started, "...and because you looked so pathetic," I confessed.

  "I looked pathetic ?" Henry said.

  "Yeah...standing there with them all..." I paused. "Lovey-dovey or some crap like that. And it was just so..."Before I could finish my thought he had grabbed me around the waist and pulled me against him. He forced his soft lips against mine and my eyes went wide before my arms went around his neck. He nipped at my lip and that brought me back to reality. I pulled away and stared at him, upset yet intrigued by his forcefulness.

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE LAST BELL rang and everyone ran to their lockers. The gang and I grabbed our stuff and met out to the parking lot. Seeing as how Lukas and James were the only ones in the group who had cars, a few of them came with Henry and me in his car. Sam laughed as Henry, whether on purpose or just to joke around, tried showing me how to drive. She had told me earlier that she loved his accent.

  "Now, this is called a manual car, or a 'stick' as you bloody Americans like to call it."

  When we arrived everyone got changed into their costumes and Darla helped me with the hair dye stuff. I took a while to figure out what I was going to do with my hair and decided to put it in a half ponytail, leaving a bit down on one side of my face. When I went out of the bathroom, I saw Henry lying on my bed, hands under his head, staring at the ceiling.

  "You take a ruddy long time," Henry said, looking at me. "Not complaining, though." I glared at him as he continued. "Amanda told me to come up here and...help. I think she was implying something else."

  "That's Amanda for you!" I walked over to my closet, one hand holding the towel to my body. My eyes never left Henry, and his never left me. I felt uncomfortable with him watching me that way, and I thought about last night. The first kiss came unexpectedly. The second and longest kiss was all my doing because after I stared at him for a few seconds, I just grabbed his head and kissed him. I had no clue what came over me, or why I did it, but I did.

  We could pass as a new couple, no problem. Every time Lauren saw us together, she would look away really quickly. Henry and I stuck to the basic stuff, hand holding, hugging, me sitting on his lap. That was about it, though.

  "Kris..." I spun around to see Henry standing right behind me.

  "Huh?" I asked. He had a grin on his face, and looked like he wanted to kiss me. "I need to get changed still," I reminded him.

  "Oh...right," Henry said.

  I went to my dresser and looked through my underwear drawer, choosing a black pair of panties that would match the skirt. After making sure the towel was still tied securely, I slid into the panties then turned to face into the closet. I took the towel off and pulled the corset on. This was when I began wishing one of the girls was here. I pulled the skirt on and turned around, one hand pressing into the middle of my chest. I sighed and tapped Henry on the shoulder. He turned around and looked at me.

  "I need you to help with the strings, please." I moved my hair over my shoulder. "Just tighten them a little so that it stays up."

&nb
sp; "Got it," Henry said. I looked at my now practically burgundy-colored hair, twirling a bit of it around my finger as Henry pulled on the strings. He was actually doing pretty well. Normally, when some others were doing this, they'd hit a spot where they tightened it too much. But Henry never hit that spot.

  I let my hair fall back over my shoulder before I looked at Henry. "Okay, makeup time."

  "I don't do makeup," Henry said flatly.

  "You have to. You don't look pale enough to pass as a vampire. L.A. has been good to you," I said with a smile. Henry glared at me and I pouted. "Please?" Henry glared even more, before sighing and sitting on my bed. I knew I had won. It was so easy to manipulate boys. I did his makeup quickly. Despite what I said, I didn't need to do much to make him pass off as a vampire.

  "What is this stuff?" Henry asked, taking the tube of fake blood from me.

  "Candy." I said, smiling. I took it back, and squeezed some onto my tongue.

  My makeup only took ten minutes to do. I had on black eye shadow, which made my eyes stand out more. My lips were a bit redder than my hair, and had a velvety look to them.

  Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I smiled, showing the fake fangs with the fake blood on them. I had put a bit of blood on my neck, making it look like fresh bite marks. Henry came up to me and smiled as well, showing off his fangs with blood. I had put a line of the blood from the corner of his mouth down to his chin.

  "This isn't right," Henry remarked, frowning. "If we're supposed to be vampires, we shouldn't be able to see ourselves." I laughed.

  Why on earth had Lauren dropped Henry for David? David was useless when it came to keeping people amused. Henry seemed to live for it.

  There was a knock on the door.

  "Will you guys stop doing....whatever you're doing...and come downstairs now? Practically everyone is here and Lena and James will be here soon!" Sam shouted.

  "We're coming," I called out.

  We went downstairs and said hello to a few people. Henry stayed close to me, his hand nearly always on my waist. I didn't complain though-I actually felt safe this way. David and Lauren were there too. As much as I didn't want him in my house, I knew there was no way he wasn't going to be there. Besides, it was another opportunity to rub it in.

  "Oh, Kris, may I borrow your boots after this?" Amanda asked.

  "I thought you already had boots like this," I responded.

  "Yeah, but my brother let his girlfriend borrow them and apparently she 'lost' them," Amanda said bitterly.

  I laughed, and told her she could borrow them whenever she wanted. That's when Darla yelled that James's car had just pulled in. Everyone went quiet. Henry wound his arms around me from behind. I instinctively leaned back against him. I was freaking myself out!

  "Well now, it's obvious there's a..." James said, as Lena opened the door and they walked in.

  "SURPRISE!" everyone shouted.

  "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES!" the group yelled. A few girls shouted, "I love you," and that made most people laugh.

  Lena, always the possessive one, kissed James repeatedly before someone turned on the music and everyone was dancing.

  "You lucky jerk!" I said, hitting James playfully. "First one to turn eighteen."

  "Well, technically, no." James countered. I raised an eyebrow. "You're dating the first one to be eighteen."

  "Oh, right." I spun around in Henry's arms to look at him. "Hey wait...if you're eighteen, why are you in the same grade as us?"

  "Flunked seventh grade, love." Henry replied, cheekily.

  "Oh...bad boy," I said. I laughed, and turned back around to face Lena coming down the stairs.

  James stared at her. "Holy..."

  "Your wish is my command," said Lena, crossing her arms genie-style and nodding.

  "Well then, right now my wish is for you to get your genie ass out here and dance with me," James replied. Lena nodded again, smiling, and they went into the living room, where Curtis, Mark, Lukas and Nick had managed to clear away furniture. It was a good thing Uncle Ethan was going to be away for a while.

  As the night progressed, more and more people were getting into the pool and hot tub in their underwear. It was funny watching them. One guy, who was obviously really drunk, attempted a running backflip into the pool while making Tarzan sounds-he only got half way through the backflip and wound up smacking his back on the water. Judging by the sound of it...it hurt.

  Henry stayed with me most of the night. We danced a lot and I found out that Henry was a great dancer. The only thing is...we didn't kiss. The party had been going on for a few hours, and we hadn't even come close to it. There was a time when Henry was off somewhere and I was talking with a now slightly drunk Lukas and Amanda.

  "You know what, Krissy," Amanda said. I was trying not to laugh. "You and Henry...you two should get married." She giggled as I raised an eyebrow.

  When Amanda is slightly drunk, she acts very drunk, because she cannot hold her liquor.

  "Because you two are...you two are just sooo.....cute!" she squealed.

  "Ignore her," Lukas said. "She just wants to have a reason to hire a male stripper."

  "I do not!" Amanda said, throwing her arms around Lukas, "Unless it's you...and only for me, because I love you sooo much."

  I laughed and shook my head. "I'm gonna find Henry!" I said. He wasn't anywhere in sight, so I went outside and found him with a few girls. For his part, he looked uncomfortable and I was glad for that; if he actually looked like he was enjoying himself, then our plan wouldn't work. Then I thought up an idea.

  "Kris!" Henry exclaimed when he saw me approach them. I had the whole sexy swagger thing going on, so I knew I had everyone's attention.

  "Hey, baby," I purred, pushing my way through the girls grouped around him. I put my arms lazily over his shoulders and swayed slightly. "You got something on your face."

  "What? Where?" Henry asked. It was kind of cute to see him look so worried. He touched different parts of his face, going nowhere near what I was talking about.

  "I'll get it," I offered.

  Henry dropped his hands to my waist as I leaned closer and licked up the fake blood. I got to the corner of his mouth and before I knew it, we were kissing. His tongue was in my mouth. I could tell that he had just been smoking, but that didn't disgust me like I thought it would. At that moment, it felt like the best taste in the world. Henry slid his hands onto my back and pulled me closer. I had no objections.

  "Keep up the act," Henry whispered, as he moved from kissing my mouth to kissing down to my neck, where the fake blood was. I found that I could keep on acting like his girlfriend very easily. God...it was like I couldn't get enough of him. My hands had gone from behind his head to over his shoulder, and the next thing I knew, I had his shirt unbuttoned and my hands were running over his body. Dear God...the man had nice abs! I didn't even notice he was kissing my mouth again until I felt his fangs on my lip. That brought me back to earth. Realizing what I was doing, I pulled away from him, breathing heavily. Henry stared at me.

  "It's my birthday and they're the ones having all the fun." I jumped at James' voice and looked over to see him and Lena standing not five feet from us. James was smirking and Lena was giving us a look that clearly said, 'Are you sure you're pretending?' I shrugged, not even sure what I was doing anymore.

  "I should say sorry," Henry apologized.

  "What for?" I asked.

  "For making you bleed," Henry admitted. I touched my lip gently, and pulled my hand back. Sure enough, I was bleeding. Henry leaned in close, and said, "They're watching." I gave him a slight nod, before he kissed me again. This time it was soft and caressing. He sucked on my lower lip slightly, and I moaned.

  I made a mental note to be careful in the future. I didn't want to become attached to Henry once all of this was over and he had Lauren back. But really, part of me felt sad at that thought. However, I turned my attention to what was going on now and decided not to worry about the future just yet.
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  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE PARTY ENDED around one in the morning. I found myself calling the cab company to send a few cabs, but made sure people could pay first. I was glad to find that David and Lauren were already gone.

  Half asleep, sitting between Henry's legs on the floor of my living room, I wasn't sure if he was in the same state as me, but I didn't care. A few people were staying the night, Henry being one of them. He had, of course, been drinking. I spent a while thinking of where he was going to sleep.

  "So where am I sleeping, love?" Henry whispered, making me jump slightly. I had thought he was asleep.

  "I guess...my room," I whispered back. "Let's keep people thinking we're together." I yawned and let my head fall back on his shoulder. His arms went around me as they usually do, and his fingers moved slightly over my stomach.

  After a few minutes, I gently urged him, "Come on...upstairs."

  "Must I get up?" Henry asked.

  "Yes." I reached down and took his hand, before pulling him up. "Night everyone."

  "Night," a few groggy people replied. Henry and I walked up the stairs and when we got to my room Henry collapsed almost immediately on my bed. I went the bathroom and took my hair down and the fake fangs out before washing off the makeup. I went back into my room with a wet cloth, and sat on the bed next to Henry. I put the cloth on his face, and started cleaning the makeup off. When I finished, I grabbed my pajamas, and went into the bathroom to change.

  "Oh for..." I muttered when I came back out. Henry had taken off the coat and shirt, but that's as far as he got, and he was now fast asleep on my bed. I walked over and shook him. "Henry...I don't mind you sleeping in here, but get off my bed. Henry!" He only muttered something unintelligible. "Henry, come on!" I gasped, as he pulled me down on top of him. One arm went around my waist...again...as he held onto my arm with his other hand. I tried to get away from him, but eventually I gave up, being too tired to fight. After a while, I fell asleep.

  I woke up to people yelling downstairs, and music playing. Frowning, my eyes opened, only to see Henry's sleeping face through a curtain of dark red hair. Impatiently, I pushed my hair out of my own face. Henry looked like he was talking in his sleep. I tried not to laugh, but it was impossible. The shaking of my body probably woke him up, but when he tried rolling over, he fell off the bed, bringing me down with him. I screamed as we both fell to the floor.