After a brief moment of distraction, Jasmine Sinclair’s gaze fell on Aiden Hayes’s cold, sharp Cupid’s bow. She swallowed discreetly, silently savoring the soft sensation from when the tip of her nose had brushed against his lips. ’They looked so hard, but they were actually soft. Felt pretty good, too.’
Aiden Hayes pressed his lips together, his eyes on the slightly flushed tip of Jasmine Sinclair’s nose. It was small, round, and utterly adorable. His gaze slowly drifted down, finally settling on her cherry-pink lips. They were plump and dewy, like soft, tender peach jelly, sparking an impulse within him to take a bite and see how they tasted.
As the impulse intensified, Aiden Hayes felt his mouth and throat go dry, and his breathing grew heavy. An intense desire drove him to lower his head, closing in inch by inch on that alluring shade of pink.
Just as Aiden Hayes was about to touch that shade of pink, Jasmine Sinclair shoved him away.
Aiden Hayes stumbled back from the shove, his back slamming into a large tree. The sharp bark dug through his shirt. He winced, letting out a low grunt that was somewhere between pain and pleasure.
Seeing the look of satisfaction on Aiden Hayes’s face, Jasmine Sinclair was rendered speechless. ’He really is a pervert. How could he get off on something like this?’
’He got so close just now. He was definitely trying to kiss me, wasn’t he? Good thing I reacted quickly and pushed him away. This is a school, people are everywhere. If anyone saw us, what would happen to my "devoted fiancée" persona?’
In the novel, Jessica Adler had characterized Jasmine Sinclair as not only a schemer but also completely lovesick, deeply in love with her scumbag fiancé, Zachary Locke. It was precisely because Zachary had originally been betrothed to the true heiress, Clara Sinclair, that the original Jasmine feared Clara would steal him away. This was why she constantly competed with Clara, trying to drive her out of the Sinclair Family.
’Not that I give a damn about that scumbag, but I’m still engaged to him. I can’t be the one at fault. If this engagement is going to be broken, the blame had better fall on that bastard Zachary Locke, not on me for stringing other guys along.’
After being shoved, Aiden Hayes used the momentum to lean lazily against the rough tree trunk. A roguish smirk played on his lips as he watched Jasmine Sinclair, the vermilion mole at the corner of his eye looking all the more alluring as he squinted. But then, the smirk on his face froze, and his expression darkened ominously.
Aiden Hayes’s gaze fell on Jasmine Sinclair’s slender neck. A bruise bloomed against her porcelain-white skin, like a crushed rose in the snow. Though startling, it possessed a stark beauty.
He stared darkly at the bruise on her neck. "Your neck. Who did that?"
Jasmine Sinclair raised a hand to her neck, her tone casual. "My sister did it."
Hearing it was Clara Sinclair, Aiden Hayes seized Jasmine Sinclair’s wrist, yanking her in front of him. His thumb pressed down hard, dragging it over the red mark on her neck. His voice was dark. "How dare she?"
Jasmine Sinclair rose onto her toes and leaned in close to Aiden Hayes, blowing a soft breath against his clenched jaw. "Why are you getting so worked up?" she teased. "Don’t tell me you’re worried about me. Aiden Hayes, you don’t actually have a secret crush on me, do you?"
"You’re imagining things. I just think it’s a pity she didn’t choke you to death."
Aiden Hayes scoffed and released Jasmine Sinclair’s wrist. He stared at the stark red mark on her pale nape, an undercurrent swirling in the depths of his eyes.
’A dark impulse stirred in Aiden Hayes’s mind. ’I want to feel that neck tremble in my grasp. I want to hear her cry out my name in a tear-choked voice. I want to sear marks even deeper than this one into her snow-white skin. I want to do to her all the things I did in my dream last night, to see what she looks like when she cries in my arms. It would surely be heartbreakingly lovely.’
At these thoughts, Aiden Hayes’s eyes began to gleam with a growing excitement, and his gaze toward Jasmine Sinclair was tinged with a murky, unreadable emotion.
"Jasmine."
A sweet, feminine voice shattered the tense, ambiguous atmosphere between Jasmine Sinclair and Aiden Hayes.
Jasmine Sinclair looked toward the voice and saw an innocent-looking girl in a white dress jogging toward her.
She recognized her in a single glance. ’It’s the other schemer from the novel, Jasmine Sinclair’s "best friend," Rosalyn Sullivan.’
’On the surface, she’s Jasmine’s bestie, but behind her back, she’s sleeping with her fiancé. She helps Jasmine plot against Clara, only to turn around and sell Jasmine out to Clara. A two-faced, backstabbing schemer of the highest order.’
Seeing someone approach, Aiden Hayes suppressed his dark thoughts and turned to leave. ’Jasmine is even more dangerous now than when we were kids,’ he thought. ’She actually made me think things like that. Still, her neck is truly beautiful... perfect for leaving a few marks.’
At that thought, the malevolent urge he had just suppressed surged back with a vengeance, and a cruel smirk unconsciously formed on his lips.
Rosalyn Sullivan linked her arm affectionately through Jasmine’s. Her gaze followed Jasmine’s to Aiden Hayes’s retreating back. "Jasmine," she whispered, "you know Mr. Hayes?"
"Of course. He lives right next door. We’re childhood friends, you know."
Jasmine Sinclair deliberately drew out the words "childhood friends." ’Yeah, the kind of childhood friends where you frame him for killing your brother’s pet fish, and he shoves you into a lion’s den in return.’
Jasmine Sinclair discreetly pulled her arm from Rosalyn Sullivan’s grasp and turned to size her up.
She wore a long, pure-white dress, her straight black hair was impeccably maintained, and her face was done up in a "no-makeup" makeup style. The nude-pink manicure on her fingers was soft and neat, and she gave off the faint fragrance of a perfume designed to mimic a natural body scent.
’A true master of feigned innocence, just as Jessica Adler wrote her,’ Jasmine thought. ’She might not be the most beautiful, but her style is the most immaculate, with every detail perfectly calculated to appeal to the average guy’s fantasy of a "pure" girl.’
"Jasmine, did you do what I told you to yesterday? When your parents and brother found out that girl from the countryside pushed you over, were they furious?"
"Jasmine, listen to me. You have to drive that girl from the countryside out of the Sinclair Family. If you wait until she gets a firm foothold, there won’t be any place left for you. She might even steal Zachary from you. After all, she was the one he was originally betrothed to."
Hearing Rosalyn Sullivan’s words, Jasmine remembered. ’In the original novel, it was Rosalyn who instigated the original Jasmine to pull that fake fall stunt. She claimed she was worried there would be no place for me after the true heiress, Clara, returned, but in reality, she was just trying to sow discord between me and Clara.’
"Rosalyn, I don’t want to make Mom, Dad, and my brothers hate my sister like that. Her life has been hard enough, being lost and on her own since she was a child. How could I frame her? It’s just wrong. It doesn’t even matter if Mom and Dad eventually kick me out of the Sinclair Family because of her. It would break my heart to leave them and my brothers, but if my sister hates me, I’m willing to leave the family."
Jasmine hadn’t planned on paying any mind to Rosalyn’s meddling, but then the damn System informed her that Clara Sinclair was listening to their conversation from behind a nearby tree.
’This is a golden opportunity to earn some goodwill with the female lead. I’d be an idiot not to take it.’