Chapter 1

Kai was annoyed. It was, she decided, the way people stared. You would think that they'd never seen a new student before. Lifting her head proudly, she walked regally to the Provost's office, only her tight grip on her welcome notice betraying her irritated nervousness. Slipping inside in answer to the muted summons from within, she closed the door softly behind her and turned to face the pleasantly smiling man sitting on the edge of his desk, legs crossed casually at the ankle, back ramrod straight. Everything about him, from his neat but not extravagant suit and his patterned but dark-coloured tie to his warm, practiced smile spoke of a man who had spent countless hours in front of a mirror trying to achieve the perfect mixture of stern teacher and accessible adult he thought becoming to a man in his position.

Provost Higgins eyed his new student with a friendly, receptive smile, though inwardly his calculating mind was weighing up the likelihood of her causing trouble. Kailani Unswick was the first transfer student to come to Spenser Academy in the new school year. Although she had spent the most recent two years of her education at a school in California, her first – and most significant – experience of formal education had been in a tiny school in Africa. When her stepfather, a researcher for a medical company, had fallen in love with her mother, he had spirited her back home to the Golden State in true romantic novel fashion.

It was only there, in some little-known school, that it had been discovered that Kailani was a child prodigy. Mathematics, languages, science – everything came as easily to her as breathing. It was a rare concept that baffled her, and then she found a way to help herself out of the difficulty. It was this that had encouraged Spenser Academy to offer her a place and one of the much-desired scholarships, despite her lack of financial backing; her mother had died in a tragic accident only a month after moving to California. Her stepfather, though he retained custody of the girl, had fallen into a perpetual drunken daze shortly after losing his job.

Kai lifted her chin, her eyes fiercely daring the Provost to form an unfavourable opinion of her. Indeed, it would be a difficult thing to do. She was a relatively tall girl, only a few millimetres short of his five feet nine inches, built along sleek, narrow lines. Her skin was the colour of dark chocolate, her eyes perfect almonds of mahogany brown picked out with caramel flecks, the lids seemingly made heavy by their burden of lush, curled eyelashes. Smooth ringlets of crow's-wing-black hair foamed to her shoulder-blades, framing a face with haughty, elegant features. All in all, she was a striking young lady; exactly the type of person, thought the Provost in satisfaction, that we want at Spenser.

It was during the part of the interview in which he made casual conversation, after dealing with all of the required details, that Sarah Wenham slipped into the room. "Ahh, Miss Wenham, how kind of you to join us. May I introduce Miss Unswick? You will be helping her to find her way around the Academy, and to show her what a wonderful place it is."

As Sarah went across to the taller girl with her hand extended, the difference between them was a startling contrast. One was dark and lithe, the other fair and curved. "Hi! I'm Sarah. It's nice to meet you!"

Kai regarded the outthrust hand warily before taking it with her own, wrapping her fingers around the girl's before withdrawing it slowly. "Kai. Thank you for showing me around."

Sarah smiled pleasantly, disguising her curiosity. Kai's voice proclaimed her as a foreigner; it was rich and slightly husky, with a hint of a purring accent that made her sound exotic and mysterious. "Come on, I think we have English Lit together now, right?"

Looking down at her schedule, Kai nodded and followed the blonde out of the door and down a hallway still heaving with a pack of chattering teenagers. As they walked, Sarah pointed out to her teachers, classrooms and particular students. One boy, with a redhead seemingly growing from his armpit, turned his head to follow the pair, reaching out with the arm not already engaged to stop Kai in her place. She turned to him with a blank face, her perfectly arched eyebrows rising. Ignoring the glare Sarah was fastening onto him, the boy gave a smile, his bold eyes appreciatively roaming the contours of the new girl's body.

"Hey, baby. How do you feel about a guided tour of this?" He leered at her, hooking his fingers into the belt loops at his hips suggestively.

Kai dispassionately followed the movement of his hand with her indifferent stare, unblinkingly tracing his arms back up to his face. Then she gave a cool, polite smile. "I would be delighted, if you have a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers I can borrow."

Turning on her heel, she looked expectantly at a smirking Sarah. The students around them, who had stopped to watch the confrontation, sniggered and went to move on. Behind them, the boy's face turned ugly with anger at these muffled sounds of amusement at his expense, and he grabbed Kai by the shoulder, spinning her around to face him and force her against his body, sending the redhead crashing into the lockers beside them as he yanked his arm from about her shoulders. Pushing his face so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her skin, he lowered his voice to a hoarse whisper.

"No chick makes Aaron Abbott look stupid!"

Kai's eyes narrowed, her nostrils flaring as she bared her teeth in a cold, feral smile. "Forgive me. I didn't know." Then, contorting her body almost impossibly in his grip, she bent and slammed an elbow between his legs, driving upwards with smooth grace to send him arching over her back and landing with a painful thud on the ground.

Aaron whimpered, clutching his bruised groin as he curled up on the cold floor. Looking up with hot fury in his eyes, he encountered the back of Kai's head as she stalked away from him, moving with a peculiar, rolling gait that seemed almost feline. Returning to Sarah, the girl seemed to shake herself, smiling pleasantly, her white teeth gleaming against her dark skin. Sarah idly noted that she had very sharp incisors, before she clasped her newfound friend by one long, graceful arm and guided her away from the cursing Aaron. Looking up into the dark, closed face, she gave a beautiful smile. "I think that you and I are going to be very, very good friends."

Kai smiled again, this time with warmth and satisfaction. The strange purr in her voice was even more pronounced when she spoke again in her oddly formal English. "I would like that."

Turning to go through the door into her first lesson, although it wouldn't start for another ten minutes, she walked into a very hard, oddly warm surface. Jumping backwards in alarm, her lips peeled back around a low hiss that, fortunately, was too low for anyone nearby to overhead, she looked up into very bright, very blue eyes. Slowly, her focus expanded to take in the fair skin around them, the long, blonde hair in exquisite disorder, the nose that flared slightly at the tip and the full, pink lips currently stretched into a smirk. Feeling his arms on her shoulders, steadying her as their heat seared her, there came a sudden growl in the back of her mind as her senses rocketed to full alert.

Breathing in the intoxicatingly dry smell of smoked oak that overlaid his natural, earthy scent, Kai felt as though she was drowning in his liquid-blue eyes. She could hear the blood rushing through his veins to the slow, sensual rhythm of his heart, and goosebumps broke out all over her skin. Feeling the familiar stirring in her mind, the sensation that always felt like a three-hundred-pound panther stretching languidly after a long rest – which was quite accurate, she thought dimly – she promptly did the only thing she could think of to save revealing her best-kept secret in the face of this stranger's animal magnetism.

She fainted.