A Scarlett Ruin

Chapter Six

                 

The moon had been caught behind grey clouds, making only the eeriest of light slip and slide along them, stretching features and shadowing smiles. It made him wonder if they were caught in the middle of some terrible b-movie.

That was until she'd pressed her mouth against his.

She was like fire that iced immediately afterwards beneath his hands that slipped beneath the coat, rucking up the shirt beneath without hesitation. The moan she let out was closer to a mewl – the girl was a cat through and through, even if it was a dangerous one. The sound sent a jolt right to the suddenly rushing blood with her straddling his lap. It had her mouth falling open prettily, and he found she tasted of something smokey, something sweet and something sad.

Julian thought he might tremble beneath the hands she'd slipped around to cradle his neck, soft and supple. It was such a ridiculous thought that he returned in the best way he knew how, sinking further into the kiss. There was something to be said about the willingness of two people on the same page. He wanted to be the one to have her making that sound again.

It was with that he reluctantly pulled away, but only far enough to press his nose against the hollow beneath her ear. She wasn't wearing perfume, only a sharp soap that brought rosehips faintly to mind. And her hair fell around him, a cloud of strongly smelling sweet conditioner. He kept his hands gripped at her hips as he asked, "Do you want to go back to mine?"

"Roommate?" she questioned. He was more than smug that she was short of breath.

So he pressed his lips to the delicate curve of her neck where the skin was as pale as the rest of her. It was a chaste kiss but she trembled slightly against him. More of a reaction than he could have hoped for, so he did it again. "Study hall, if we're to believe him, which we are." This time he added just a light tug of his teeth.

One of her hands slipped back into his hair, twisting it around her fingers as she pressed against him. Still she didn't reply.

"I mean, I'm happy to stay out here," he informed her, his warm breath fanning against her skin. His thumbs were rubbing patterns against the unforgiving juts of her hipbones. "I'm not the one that's gonna get cold."

That was enough to have her huffing out a laugh. Still it pushed her into motion; using his shoulders to balance her as she stepped delicately back onto the cobbled path. Right then, with those gold eyes glinting almost challengingly through the dark as she stood above him, Julian thought he knew exactly how Hermia was supposed to look as she was written onto parchment, something of the night, if a bit taller.

There was no hesitation when she held out her hand to him, tugging him away from the garden wall. Only seconds later he was the one pulling him behind her towards the boys' dormitory. Her hand dropped from his, but when he glanced over his shoulder, there was no hesitancy written across her face. Instead there was a sudden flush to her skin, the fluorescent lights flickering over them as they climbed the stone stairs. It was enough to inform him she wasn't bolting now that the moment had been suspended, even if only for seconds. As an extra reassurance, her shoulder nudged against him as they made their way up the stairwell.

Even when he texted Declan, informing him to keep fucked off for a while, her hand brushed against the side of his thigh, back and forth. It was an almost maddeningly gentle touch. Luckily enough, the hall was deserted – students having already boarded themselves in for their leftover homework on a Sunday night. And, considering who the head boy was – a twat, in particularly – it was a good thing the two of them went unseen.

The room he shared suddenly smelt atrociously of smoke and stale sweat to him when he pushed the door open. Yet Scarlett's eyes only skirted over the rather tidy room, with the exception of the overflowing laundry basket before they landed on their window that was cracked. When she turned her head to meet his eyes, he found that the flush had worked its way to a pretty pink across those elegantly heighted cheek bones.