Manipulative Attraction

11. ⚛️ An Unexpected Occurrence

Theo nodded politely at Jeannie's approach. He was speaking to a lanky man with a mop of orange hair. The man's thick-rimmed glasses spanned his entire narrow face, and his tweed jacket hung loosely on his slender frame.

Sarah, standing to Theo's side, greeted her by linking their arms together and leading Jeannie to the refreshment room.

"I'm so glad you made it, Jeannie," Sarah said, patting her hand. "Theo and I arrived a few minutes ago."

Jeannie found Sarah's bubbly attitude arresting. The women had bonded back in Jeannie's kitchen as they gossiped about their classmates and Thorne.

Jeannie and Sarah were of the same opinion about each person. Robert was too full of himself. The girls in Shon's group were e-vile, and Thorne was just too handsome to look at directly.

After a few glasses of wine, Sarah asked Jeannie what she thought of Shon.

"He's adorable," Jeannie had said, wrapping her hands around her waist and twisting from side to side, a broad smile on her face.

"Well, you know he's my cousin," Sarah responded, tucking a curl behind her ear. "Not by blood or anything. My aunt and uncle adopted him when he was just a baby."

Jeannie found it strange Sarah and Shon never spoke during class, but she didn't remark on it then.

When the women entered the reception room, a simultaneous gasp of admiration escaped from their lips.

"Isn't this place beautiful?" Sarah gushed, switching to a tone used for a place of worship.

Jeannie agreed. The entrance was spectacular. Cream marble flooring, a double staircase with ornate wooden railings, and expensive art in gilded frames covered the walls. When they came to the refreshment area, they paused again in awe. This room was even more opulent.

Highly polished hardwood went well with the museum-like gallery walls of glossy walnut paneling. There was a fireplace, big enough to roast a wild boar, at one end and a cluster of comfortable looking couches and chairs at the other. Paintings from Monet to van Gogh bespoke of the sheer affluence of their surroundings.

Sarah, a legacy of the Uni, told Jeannie that all the Uni frats and sororities were like this. Instead of inebriated students on the lawn and beer-pong in the basement, people debated the fate of the nation, the world, and even the universe. Well-bred intellectuals, who would one day be the leaders of powerful conglomerates or high-ranking politicians, came to study here.

And red cups filled with liquor were for less sophisticated campuses. At the Uni, students drank punch from crystal glasses. The Uni spared no expense to have the fruits, whose juices made up the frothy drink in the punchbowl, flown in from the citrus growing states down south. It was the best or better and nothing less.

"I can't tell you how glad I was to come here, Sarah." Jeannie said after a sip of punch. "This place is fantastic!"

The women took a moment to look around the room.

"How was the drive with those two?" Sarah nodded her head at the men in question. Robert slouched at one end of the room, eyeing co-eds from over the rim of his glass while Thorne chatted up a pretty, buxom redhead on the other.

Jeannie dramatically rolled her eyes. Sarah laughed.

"Same as it was for most of the afternoon," Jeannie said, a hint of disdain in her voice.

Jeannie thought back to how she and Sarah had headed to the kitchen on the pretense of getting more coffee, leaving the men in the living room.

Sarah and Jeannie had clutched each other in mirth, erupting into silent giggles as Jeannie pantomimed the shady looks and remarks Robert, Theo, and Thorne had thrown at one another.

When Thorne received a phone call, he'd excused himself to take it in his apartment. Before he left, he firmly inserted himself in the plans for the evening by loudly thanking Robert for his phantom offer of a ride to the party. Thorne had then looked at Jeannie when he announced he'd be ready to go when she was.

Robert had taken it all in stride. He'd no choice but to smile politely at the plan of taking Thorne along.

"I made Hawthorne sit up front with Robert so they could get to know each other better," Jeannie said, an impish grin playing about her lips.

Sarah's blue eyes squinted as she let loose a string of giggles. "Jeannie, you're so devious! I want to be you when I grow up."

Jeannie let out a disgusted huff thinking of Thorne's and Robert's caveman behavior. "Well, it's what they deserved."

Laughing, Sarah refilled their glasses while Jeannie summed up the two men. Robert, on closer acquaintance, wasn't as sweet as she'd first thought. He was the opposite in fact. Robert had done nothing but brag about his well-to-do life, not bothering to ask Jeannie one question about herself.

The infuriating man had also tried to monopolize every single conversation within the study group. He'd even made a play for the leadership role until Theo started handing out the outline of responsibilities and duties. After that, Robert had grown quiet, duly put in his place.

Thorne, on the other hand, was an enigma. Jeannie wasn't quite sure what to make of him.

Jeannie sensed his reluctant attraction to her—almost as if he were fighting his feelings. Well, Jeannie wouldn't be making the first move. She sensed Thorne seemed to be too adept at knowing just what to do and when to do it. No way was she going to be a plaything for a man like that.

A man that spelled danger. Career-ending danger. Jeannie had worked too hard to let some man take her down. Despite the touches and lingering looks they'd shared; she and Thorne would be friends and nothing more. Besides, she needed a man like—

"Shon!" Sarah waved one hand towards the approaching figure, giving Jeannie her refilled glass of punch with the other.

Upon hearing Shon's name, Jeannie's heart skipped like stones on the smooth surface of a deep lake. She took a deep breath and slowly turned to face him, drinking him in from top to bottom.

Shon's thick hair curled into ocean waves, with a few locks falling on his forehead. Below them, crystal-clear blue eyes met Jeannie's caramel ones in a head-on game of chicken. When Shon's lips pulled apart in a skirt-lifting smile, Jeannie's mouth dried out enough to grow a cactus.

"Why, Jeannie Jones," Shon said, "What an unexpected pleasure."