Sworn Secret by Amanda Jennings Page A

up, maybe lose the dickie bow, not sure it does much for the ladies, if you know what I mean.’ He winked again. ‘And now, my little Kiki, let’s see if we can’t take this party up a gear.’
    Kate smiled at Dan, all long lashes and moist lips, and then she and Jon watched him sashay away, kissing everyone warmly, men and women, as he passed, then lifting his arms and pumping the air in time with the beat. Kate and Jon turned back to each other.
    ‘I don’t think you’re boring at all, by the way,’ she said. ‘And keep the tie. It’s funky.’ She smiled again. ‘See you later.’ And then she danced after Dan.
    Jon was born again. Evangelical. It was love. His brother’s girlfriend; wholly inappropriate.
    Jon hung in a corner with a bottle of beer the whole evening, his eyes bolted to Kate, moving her back into his line of vision when she skipped out of it, or became obscured by others. The music raged around him, people jostled him, he became hotter and stickier, but he never let his eyes leave her.
    By the early hours of the morning the remaining partygoers were a gooey drugged-up mess, locked in amorous pairs or passed out in heaps. If the scene was a modern-day Hogarth, then Dan was the ultimate rake. Nude from the waist upwards, his chest glistened with sweat, his hair flopped over his face. He held Kate up against a wall, his hands either side of her shoulders, kissing her aggressively, her hands around his rear. Delicate fingers. Perfect nails. Those painterly marks.
    Jon drank from his bottle and seethed. He wanted that girl. She was too good for Dan, too good to be just another in his line of conquests. He watched as she drew her face away from his brother and ducked beneath his arm. She disappeared in the direction of the loos, and he walked over to Dan.
    ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Good party.’
    ‘You still here, bro?’ Dan’s mouth was shiny with saliva. Hers.
    Jon nodded. ‘Kate’s great,’ he said.
    ‘Kiki?’ Dan smiled a drunken leer. ‘Sure is. She’s special. I think she’s the one, mate. I really do.’ He batted Jon on the shoulder. ‘I’m in love.’
    Jon shook his head. ‘You’re not in love. Think of all those women you’d have to give up.’
    ‘She might be the one to change me. Anyway, she’s cool; she’ll let me sleep with other girls. Sex is one thing. Love is something else. They don’t relate, man. You should try it.’
    Jon stared at him. Dan winked again and Jon forced a smile.
    ‘Hey, boys!’ They both turned.
    ‘Gotta take a slash,’ Dan slurred.
    Kate smiled at Jon.
    Jon waited until Dan pushed out through the double doors. ‘Have dinner with me,’ he said quickly.
    ‘What?’ she laughed.
    ‘Dinner. With me.’
    ‘I’m going out with your brother!’
    ‘No. Have dinner with me. Just dinner.’
    ‘It’s his birthday and you’re trying to steal his girlfriend? How does that work?’
    ‘He won’t stay faithful. He can’t.’
    Her face fell and her eyebrows arched; the defiance in her, the sudden fire, the way it lit her eyes and set her mouth, magnified her beauty such that he found it difficult to speak.
    ‘Ask him,’ Jon managed. ‘Ask him if he’ll stay faithful.’ He looked up and saw Dan staggering back into the room. ‘If he says he won’t, call me.’ Jon passed her a piece of paper on which he’d already written his number. ‘Just dinner.’
    She called two days later. She needed a friendly shoulder. Was the offer of dinner still open? Jon held the phone away from his mouth and dropped to his knees, thanking the skies for the chance he’d been given. She’d found Dan in bed with a girl from their sculpture class. He wasn’t sorry. He said life was too short to say no to these things. But he wanted her, too. He begged her to stay with him. She couldn’t, and, as Jon pointed out that night over dinner, she was better off without him.
    Kate had reassured Jon time and time again that she’d never loved anybody the way she loved