Slow Dancing

06 | poco a poco

0 6

poco a poco

[It.] : Little by little.

THERE WAS A sinking feeling in my heart when I spotted an actual Lamborghini parked right outside the Arts building several afternoons later. It was a deep, royal shade of crimson; the kind that glinted under the sun and shamelessly demanded everyone's attention.

A small crowd had gathered around to stand and gape at the car, and I had no doubt the owner of the car inside was positively aglow with pride. None of us had ever seen these sort of car parked in the university before. Even I had to slow in my steps to admire the sheer magnificence of the car, albeit from a safe distance away.

But my amused smile immediately faded when the window of the car rolled down and a familiar blonde head leaned out to scan the surroundings. Nolan had his sunglasses over his eyes, but his smile was still bright and dazzling, just like his damned car.

"Hello, loves," he said to the nearby group of girls, who all seemed to simultaneously swoon. His voice was clear and loud enough for me to catch every word. "Do you know where Isla Moore is? She was supposed to meet me here at three-thirty."

I didn't wait to hear their reply. Clutching my books tightly to my chest, I ducked my head and immediately walked away.

I was supposed to meet Kaden today and pass the signed contract back to Adelaide, and I knew that Nolan had offered to drive me to the Brettons' beach-house. But I didn't realise he'd come with such fanfare, and now I had to leave before –

"Isla!"

Too late.

I hastened my steps, heading for the side gate as quickly as I could. To my horror, Nolan had put the car in drive and was pulling up by the pavement moments later. "Well, hello, Isla," he greeted cheerfully, "lovely afternoon, isn't it?"

"Go away," I hissed, as surreptitiously as I could. It wasn't very surreptitious, if I was being completely honest, judging by the fair amount of curious glances thrown our way. I blamed the Lamborghini, mostly. "You're embarrassing me!"

He simply threw back his head and let out a hearty laugh. "I'm embarrassing you?" He dropped his voice to a lower register and continued, "my family owns a chain of hotels all around the world and I'm a millionaire at twenty-four and I'm embarrassing you?"

"Don't go bragging about it," I returned peevishly, shooting him a disgusted look. "That's just undignified. Not to mention stupid, because if someone scratches your car and ruins it now – which I'm highly tempted to do – you'd be a millionaire without a Lamborghini."

He laughed even harder at that and I heartily wished the ground would swallow me up. Parker once told me how Nolan loved annoying the hell out of him and Kaden. I now fully understood and sympathised with them.

Although, truth be told, Nolan was bloody entertaining – just not when he was stalking me with a bright red car.

"Get in the car, sweetheart," He told me, before blasting the horn and making me jump in fright. "Or you'll live to regret it."

"I will meet you outside the campus," I returned firmly and began to speed up my pace.

But I didn't get far, because he suddenly began a series of horns that made everyone within earshot turn to glare. And since not everyone could see Nolan inside the car, they turned to glare at me instead.