âHa! So the truth is finally out. I knew there was a reason I wanted to take this class.â Kyoko gave him a cheeky smile knowing she needed this class probably more than the others. Until last night, sheâd never been allowed in a kitchen and wondered if she would even be able to fake it enough not to become the class clown. Now that she was cooking for herself⦠it was either pass the class or learn to love Cheerios.
This class was set up completely different from all the others. There were tables and chairs like in a lunchroom instead of desks.
âNo assigned seating.â Tasuki wiggled his eyebrows and quickly led them to a table toward the back of the room. The whole right side of the room was made up of everything they needed to cook, including five stoves. Kyoko quickly looked around counting five tables and assumed each table would be cooking together.
Two other guys joined their table and Tasuki introduced her to Yohji, who looked like an all-around American jock. When he asked the name of the other guy, Kyoko realized he must be one of the new students. Again she felt like she was drawn to him by some invisible magnet that only worked on new students.
âHi,â she whispered as he smiled and nodded. He was just as striking as the two other new guys sheâd met this morning. His hair was awesome⦠it was dark and light at the same time, with amethyst highlights all over the place. It was shoulder-length but untamed, like heâd been in a windstorm and his eyes⦠they werenât a color⦠they were every color, and she could swear they sparkled with unnatural light.
He seemed to be looking at her just as hard as she was looking at him. When their gaze met, Kamui smiled a smile that would have won the devil himself over.
âWould you two please get a room?â Yohji complained, causing Tasuki to growl and Kamui to laugh.
âOnly if we can lock you in it,â Kamui smirked at Yohji when he stiffened. He tried not to laugh out loud when the thought struck him that the jock was claustrophobic. âI was just choosing the person I was cooking for. Whatâs wrong? Jealous? Do you want me to cook for you instead?â
Yohji shrugged deciding to go with it, âOnly if it makes you happy sweetheart.â
Tasuki sat back in his chair watching the new boy watch Kyoko. They were wrong. It wasnât Yohji that was feeling the needles of jealousy. Maybe it was time to get to know the competition. He glanced over at the happy smile on Kyokoâs face and decided heâd best come up with a plan.
âToday we will be making Halloween candy from scratch,â the teacher announced as she passed out the recipes.
âAnd now we get to eat the heads off of monsters!â Kamui added as if he had just won the lottery. When Kyoko started laughing with him, Kamui felt his blood heat up and he found himself fighting the need to reach for her. He silently wondered if his brothers were fighting that same craving.
Each one of them picked a different Halloween-shaped cookie cutter and made ten cookies each, placing them on an oversized pan. When they were done, it was Kamui who was there to take the pan out of the oven. Seeing Kyokoâs pumpkin shaped cookies were badly deformed, he whispered a quick word in some forgotten language as he drew the pan out of the oven.
âHow did that happen?â Kyoko asked in awe as he brought the pan to the table. Her cookies were perfection and the guys cookies looked like five-year-olds had done them.
âAnd this is why mostly guys take the class,â Kamui smiled as he took a bite out of Kyokoâs cookie then blinked when he heard a faint growl come from Tasuki. Taking a better look at the guy that had appointed himself Kyokoâs bodyguard for the day, Kamui tilted his head at the sense of foreboding.
Chapter 4 âBad Boys and Romeoâ
Lunch was next and when Tasuki got in the cafeteria line, Kyoko glanced out the large glass windows and started toward the outside eating area. Seeing tables scattered everywhere on the concrete, she looked past them and notice a of couple picnic tables under beautiful shade trees.
Needing a few minutes of solace to calm down from all the morning's excitement, she picked the biggest tree and sat down at the base of it, facing away from the school.
Hyakuhei leaned against the tree beside Kyoko, though he knew it was a moot point to do so. His eyes were dark, without any emotion at all and his lips held no hint of his mood. He was already tired of being invisible to her but he knew he had to bide his time. How could he comfort someone that didnât even know he was there?
Reaching into the backpack, Kyoko pulled out the small soft cooler that sheâd stuffed full of grapes and relaxed against the smooth bark of the tree. Hearing a motorcycle close by, she glanced up. A guy wearing dark shades, dressed in black, with long layered hair slowly road by the curb. She couldnât see his eyes, but she could tell he was looking directly at her.
She couldnât decide if it was because she hadnât been around the opposite sex, or if it was simply the fact that this school was full of guys that would graduate only to become super models. She could just picture the guy on the motorcycle on the cover of some movie about sexy bad boys. She ate a couple of her grapes and closed her eyes trying to block out the yummy site. Her hormones had already taken a licking today and she was starting to feel bent.
It wasnât like any of this really shocked her because at the boarding school she had gotten away with one thing⦠reading. When the other girls would go to the public library, she would always give the one infatuated with rock stars a list of books to get for her. She would then take the cover of a Shakespeare book and wrap it around the book she was reading so no one would know her guilty pleasure⦠Romance books of all kinds.
Sheâd started out with historical romances where the Indian would kidnap the white girl and take her to his teepee, keeping her there until she fell in love with him. Then she had branched out to paranormal romance⦠vampires were also known to kidnap the girl and keep her until she fell in love with him. Those books leaned closer to erotica and she blamed them for her hormones being out of control now.
For the last year, sheâd been reading every kind of paranormal romance she could get her hands on and the darker the better. Kyoko blew her bangs out of her eyes knowing her innocence was gone⦠if only mentally.
Hearing the school bell, she cringed, realizing she hadnât even eaten more than three grapes. Stuffing the container back into her book bag, she was startled to find a hand reaching down to help her up.
Tasuki knelt down in front of her as he took her hand. âAre you ready?â he slowly smiled when he noticed she got the same look on her face for him as she did with the new guys. Maybe he hadnât lost after all.
Kyoko returned his smile, âLead me to Shakespeare.â
âHow did you know?â Tasuki looked confused.
âBecause I couldnât get lucky enough to think the world literature class would allow us to read a vampire series.â She laughed when he cocked a dark eyebrow. When they entered the class, Tasuki pointed at the empty desk in the back, then went to see if the teacher had an extra copy of Romeo and Juliet.
Kyoko was already seated and getting out her notebook when the chair beside her scraped across the floor. She glanced up and her breath caught in her throat. The guy sheâd seen watching her from the back of the motorcycle during lunch was throwing his leather coat across the back of the chair.
Tasuki turned from the teacher with the copy of Romeo and Juliet in his hand when he noticed Kyoko was no longer alone. âI just canât win, can I?â he asked the air in front of him as his grip tightened on the defenseless book.
âExcuse me?â the teacher asked thinking Tasuki was talking to him.
Tasuki glanced over his shoulder, âI donât guess