AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Anytime, Miss Izabella. Anytime.”
Neither of us speaks again, and a few minutes later, the car slows to a stop outside the house. When he opens my door, I let him help me out, then place my hand on his arm and squeeze.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
The next morning, I wake up with a sense of trepidation that I don’t understand. After my shower, I don my Penelope hair and makeup and head downstairs for breakfast, hoping to have a chance to actually finish my food before Penelope announces that it’s time to leave. The granola and yogurt Mrs. Humphries places in front of me tastes delicious but seems to turn into a stone the moment I swallow it.
For a moment last night, when Gulliver wasn’t waiting for me, I was a little disappointed, but then it almost felt like a relief to think he’d lost interest in my existence. Perhaps the dread that is slowly filling me is more about Mom’s insistence that I attend more and more of my sister’s classes for her. The subterfuge is exhausting, and even though it’s only a few months until graduation, the prospect of spending so much time pretending to be her is daunting.
“Hurry up,” Penelope snaps, not even bothering to look at me as she grabs her juice from Mrs. Humphries and leaves. The scent of her disgusting green smoothie permeates the air in the back of the car, but I don’t say anything because being ignored by my sister is better than being the target of her ire.
Just like every other day, Mark slows to a stop beside the school steps, then climbs out to open Penelope’s door. Glancing to my left, I watch as my sister exits the car with her usual flourish, like she’s performing for an audience. When my door opens, I almost fall out of the car, my shocked shriek dissolving into a pathetic squeak when Gulliver appears in the open space.
“Hello, Izabella,” he says brightly, leaning into the car and grabbing my backpack from the floor by my feet.
“Hey,” I protest as he passes it off to someone behind him.
Ignoring me, he pushes his hands beneath me, scoops me into his arms, and boldly lifts me from the car.
“What are you doing?” I cry. “Put me down.”
“Now, Izzy, darling, why would I want to do that?” He laughs, tightening his grip on me as he carries me away from the car and up the school steps, gently lowering me to my feet when we reach the top.
Not releasing me, he keeps me in place with one arm banded around my back and the other cupping my cheek. My heart starts to race in my chest as I glance around us at the sea of curious onlookers.
“Gulliver,” I say quietly.
Smirking, he arches one mischievous eyebrow at me. “Izabella Rhodes,” he yells loud enough for everyone around us to hear.
“Gulliver,” I hiss.
Ignoring me, his arm around my back tightens, keeping me exactly where he wants me as he leans in and presses a soft kiss against my lips. When he pulls back, he winks at me, then releases me and drops to one knee at my feet. “I know we’re young, but you’re my everything,” he announces loudly, grabbing my hand and bringing it to his lips.
Still holding my fingers, he jumps back to his feet and points at my sister, who’s still standing at the bottom of the steps, her mouth agape, anger flashing in her icy eyes. “Penelope!” he yells. “I’m in love with your sister.”
With a triumphant grin, he spins back to me, reeling me in until my chest is pressed against his. Dipping his head, he kisses me again, only instead of a soft peck, he cups the back of my head and slams his lips against mine, forcing his tongue into my mouth and devouring me like we’re passionate lovers, not virtual strangers.
My brain protests the way he’s touching me, but my body doesn’t get the memo, and even though I know I shouldn’t, I kiss him back, closing my eyes and allowing myself to melt into the madness of the moment. Soon this will all be over and I’ll sink back into oblivion again, but for now I embrace the chaos and forget that the lips touching mine belong to a man who thinks my parents are awful and my sister is a whore.
Somewhere outside the bubble of the kiss Gulliver and I are sharing, I hear the sound of people cheering and clapping, but it feels like it’s miles away. Deepening the kiss, the world moves as Gulliver dips me, cradling my head with his palm and holding me bent backward with his hot touch on the base of my spine.
It’s the perfect kiss. My first real kiss. It’s such a shame that it’s all fake. Slowly pulling back, he drags his teeth over my bottom lip, pressing a kiss to my jaw, then another to the pulse point in my neck.
My eyelids flutter open, and I see a flash of heat in his eyes and a devious grin on his lips. Lifting me upright, he makes sure I’m steady on my feet before he drops to one knee again and then very loudly says, “Izabella Rhodes, will you marry me?”
What the hell is going on? I part my lips to ask, but before I can speak, Gulliver is leaping up from the floor and lifting me into the air.
“She said yes!” he announces jubilantly, twirling me around before kissing me again.
There’s an audible gasp from the crowd that’s amassed around us, then a burst of loud and enthusiastic whoops and congratulations. I’m sure in a normal high school, an engagement at eighteen would be unusual, but in the world of GAA and the uber-rich, it’s not uncommon for people to be committed at a young age.
“What the hell is going on?” Penelope demands, her heels clacking loudly as she storms up the steps to us.
She literally took the words right out of my mouth, because I have no idea either, but Gulliver’s smirk never falters as he calmly pulls me to his side, dropping his arm possessively over my shoulders. “Penny, should I start calling you sis now? Don’t act like this is a surprise. She said yes,” he announces loudly, heralding a fresh round of cheering and applause while he smiles smugly at my sister.
Suddenly, the group of people around us seems to multiply, and all eyes are on us. Both of us. As in me and my identical twin sister, in the same place, at the same time, and all because of Gulliver fucking Winslow.
“Gulliver, dude. She said yes?” a guy with almost white-blond hair asks as he rushes up the steps toward us.
