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After a moment, she reached for the button on her own jeans. Noel grabbed her hand, his eyes wide. “Are you sure?”<br />
Aria gazed around the small room, from the flat-screen TV to the champagne bucket in the corner to the generic-looking chair and ottoman by the large<br />
windows. Now that they were in an unfamiliar setting, she felt less inhibited than normal. Or maybe she just felt compelled to prove to Noel exactly what he<br />
meant to her. It might just be the only way to ensure he would remain hers.<br />
“I’m sure,” she whispered.<br />
Noel pulled off Aria’s jeans the rest of the way. They clung to each other for a while, almost totally unclothed, their lips locked in an embrace. Aria’s heart<br />
pounded. She was really going to do this. It was time. As Noel rolled on top of her, she kissed him hard.<br />
Knock knock knock.<br />
They both froze, staring at each other with wide eyes. There was silence, and then another knock. “Hello?” Klaudia chirped. “Aria? Noel? You there?”<br />
Aria winced. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”<br />
“Noel?” Klaudia’s voice was muffled. “Come on! Time for hiihto!”<br />
“Maybe if we be quiet she’ll go away,” Noel whispered, tracing his finger along Aria’s bare collarbone.<br />
But the knocking persisted. “Noel!” Klaudia teased. “I know you in there! We must hiihto!”<br />
Finally, Noel groaned, grabbed his jeans from the floor, and slid them back on. “Okay,” he called back. “We’re coming.”<br />
“Oh, goody!” Klaudia said from the other side.<br />
Aria stared at Noel, slack-jawed. “What?” Noel asked, pausing with one pant leg halfway past his knee.<br />
For a moment, Aria was so angry she couldn’t speak. “We were sort of in the middle of something. Are you seriously going to drop everything for her?”<br />
Noel’s face softened. “We’ll have plenty of time alone tonight, when no one will disturb us. And Klaudia’s right—the lifts close in a couple hours. We’ve got<br />
to get our hiihto on. Aren’t you ready for your first ski lesson with her?”<br />
“Actually, no.” Aria turned away and hugged a pillow to her chest. Fury pulsed inside her like a second heart. “I don’t want Klaudia to teach me anything.”<br />
The bed springs squeaked as Noel sat back down. “I thought you guys were friends. Klaudia adores you!”<br />
A bitter chuckle escaped from Aria’s lips. “I highly doubt that.”<br />
“What do you mean?”<br />
Noel was staring at her with such a puzzled look on his face. Aria thought about the texts Klaudia had written about both of them. Should she tell Noel . . .<br />
or would that make her look like a psycho?<br />
“I just don’t trust her around you,” Aria said. “I see the way she looks at you.”<br />
Noel’s face fell. “Don’t be like that, Aria. I’ve told you a million times you have no reason to be jealous.”<br />
“It’s not jealousy,” Aria argued. “It’s the truth.”<br />
Noel pulled his sweatshirt over his head and stuffed his feet into his Timberland boots. “Come on.” He extended his hand for her, his tone of voice more<br />
distant than it had been just a few minutes before.<br />
Reluctantly, Aria got dressed and followed him out—what other choice did she have? Klaudia was waiting for them in a chair across the hall, already<br />
dressed in skin-tight ski pants, a shapely white ski jacket with pink lining, and matching pink hat and gloves. She jumped up when she saw Noel and<br />
grabbed his hand. “Ready for hiihto?”<br />
“Totally,” Noel said jovially. He nudged Aria. “We’re both ready.”<br />
Klaudia’s gaze flickered briefly to Aria. Her irises morphed from dark blue to an inky, venomous black. “Good,” she said in a chilling voice. An expression<br />
crossed her face that Aria couldn’t immediately decipher.<br />
But as Klaudia turned, walked out of the lobby, and promptly hopped on a chair lift without inviting Aria along, Aria got the message loud and clear.<br />
Klaudia had heard everything Aria said to Noel in the hotel room. The expression on her face meant This is war.<br />
Chapter 21<br />
Some stripping and some teasing<br />
“Okay, kids,” Mr. Pennythistle said. “The porters will take your things to your rooms. We’ll meet at Smith and Wollensky at eight for dinner.”<br />
It was Friday afternoon, and Spencer, her mother, Zach, Amelia, and Mr. Pennythistle had just arrived in the lobby of the Hudson Hotel on Fifty-eighth<br />
Street in New York, which had the moody lighting of a nightclub. The air smelled like expensive leather valises. Skinny model-types writhed and sipped<br />
cocktails in the various bar areas. A bumbling tourist squinted at a guidebook in the low light. Various languages floated through the cavernous space.<br />
The only reason they were staying at the Hudson and not somewhere genteel like the Waldorf or the Four Seasons was because Mr. Pennythistle did