All I needed now was someone to zip up my dress in the back. I examined myself vainly from every angle in the floor-length mirror hooked onto the back of my closet door. It used to be on the other side of my door, but the more Will hung out over here while I was getting ready, the more I had needed to switch it so I could change in private. I had to make sure I looked good before leaving the closet. “Why do you care anyway?”

“You go to these parties a lot.”

“Do not. This is my first party in practically a month.”

“Didn’t Kate have a party two weeks ago?”

I glowered. “That was in January. It’s February now. What are you going to do when I’m at college and go to parties three nights a week? You’re going to go crazy.”

“I hope you can fit patrolling in between all these future parties.”

“I live like five different lives. I’m the goddess of multitasking. You know this.”

I opened the closet door and stepped out. Heat flushed through me when Will’s eyes went wide and he gaped at me from my desk chair.

I strode across the room toward him, my hand pinning the front of my dress to my chest. “I need your help.”

“What?” His eyebrows lifted almost imperceptibly, but there was no way I could have missed that look.

I chomped on the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning like an idiot and turned my back to him. “Zip me?”

“Uh, yeah.”

The heat of his gaze on my back was scorching as he stood up. His fingers brushed my bare skin as he zipped up the remaining inches of my open dress.

“You look … beautiful,” he said softly, the breath of his words on my neck.

I inhaled deeply and swallowed hard as I imagined him drawing the zipper in the opposite direction and his lips touching the place his breath had warmed. Things fluttered in my chest, and I shivered. “Thank you.”

He didn’t step away and I didn’t move for the longest, most excruciating moment. At last I turned to my dresser to touch up my makeup in the mirror. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and grinned, my confidence returning.

“You’ve got a little drool,” I teased, tapping the corner of my mouth. “Right here.”

His cheeks actually grew rosy and he gave a nervous laugh as he sat back down on the chair. “You’re funny. Really.”

I looked back into the mirror and applied another coat of mascara. My heart pounded as I tried to be fearless. “Not as funny as your face right now.”

“How can you walk in those heels?” he asked, changing the subject.

“You have entirely too little faith in me.” I turned around to look at his outfit. I grimaced. “Is that what you’re wearing? Really?”

He frowned and looked down at his jeans and long-sleeved tee. “What’s wrong with it?”

I tilted my head to examine him. “You look normal. You don’t look afire at all. At least your shirt is black. Dress code said red or black only. Anything else will get you thrown out, just warning you.”

“Ellie,” he said, sucking in his top lip, “I know you love these parties and I don’t mind going with you. I prefer being with you. But I hate it when you make me dress up for them. That’s just not me.”

I stepped toward him and ran my hand through his hair, something that I knew calmed him—and me. He closed his eyes, and butterflies danced through my belly. “I’m sorry. I just really like to torture you.”

He opened his green eyes to meet mine, but he didn’t respond. This was the first time I’d really looked into his face since the night he told me he’d slept with Ava. I tried so hard not to think about her, and about Will’s hands on her the way I wanted them on me, but the longer my gaze lingered on his, the more the vise around my heart tightened. I felt my lip quiver once and I tightened my jaw immediately, but it was too late. He caught the break in my expression and a look of worry passed across his face.

“Are you ready?” I asked, wheeling away from him before I let a tear come.

He let out a tired breath. “Yeah.”

Josie Newport’s parents had an obscene amount of money, and their house was gorgeous. Since they were always out of town and the housekeepers let her do just about whatever she wanted, her parties were amazing. Josie and I had been close when we were little because our moms were friends, but as the years went by, Josie’s mom became more interested in pricey vacations and making sure her husband’s wandering eye didn’t turn into wandering hands and other wandering whatnots. Josie was a sweetheart, though, and my friends and I got invited to her parties.

I strolled up the plowed drive in my four-inch heels with Will trailing behind me. The line of parked cars stretched all the way down the drive to the gatehouse by the main road. Before I even entered the mansion, I could hear the music thumping. I glanced back at Will, who met my gaze after he finished surveying the snow-covered lawn. I gave him a reassuring smile.

I raised my hand to knock, but the butler opened the door at just that moment. The walls of Josie’s grand foyer were draped with textured red cloth, and bright red light streamed up from the floor. We followed the red drapes through a vast corridor where they were blown by a wind machine. They looked gorgeous clouding in the wind with the red floor lights dancing against the cloth.

The corridor opened up to the banquet hall—which was a lot more like a ballroom—and I smiled wide when I saw practically the entire senior class dancing, all wearing red or black as required. More drapes hung from a chandelier in the center of the room and extended to the walls. White lights hung from the ceiling like stars, and the DJ booth at the front of the long room glittered with white and red lights.