Reckless Secrets (14 page)

"Yeah, but how am I going to do that?" I stared at Dex.

"Easy. Leave it to me. I'll take care of it. Kirk and Joe owe us. I'll take my turn. Don't worry. You'll have a bodyguard at all times."

I pursed my lips, thinking the plan through. Finally, I smiled. "Genius. That could actually work."

"Yeah, to both," Dex said. "Never doubt me. As for lecture, a little evasive seat action is necessary. We'll mix it up. Sit in a different spot every time." He nodded and grinned evilly. "We'll see how well Byron can spot you in a crowd. A variation of Where's Waldo—Where's Ellie. Should be fun." He paused, looking deep in thought for a minute, then a grin spread across his face again.
 

"Uh-oh. Wipe that evil-genius look off your face. No pranking!"

Dex went all innocent looking at me. "Damn, I do love my seat, though. You know I'm a creature of habit, Ellie. I hate to give up my creature comforts."

I rolled my eyes.
 

He held up his hands like,
I give up
. "Anything for a friend and fellow conspirator."

I relaxed. "Good. Now that that's settled, don't you have to get to class?"

Dex shrugged. "No one will notice if I'm late. I sit in the back." He paused. "I need to talk to you about a couple of other things, though. A reporter from the daily paper called me up yesterday wanting to know what I knew about the prank."

I gasped.

Dex grabbed my arm. "Hold it together, Ellie. I was afraid you'd react like that, which is why I'm warning you. She didn't have anything on us. She was just fishing, calling up everyone in class."

"All five hundred of us?"

"Okay, maybe those who were the most likely suspects, those with the skill to carry it off." He looked proud of himself. "I didn't give anything away. And if she calls you, neither should you. Not that you're high on the suspect list." He laughed. "You know how to bluff. I know you can do it. Now that you've been warned, you'll be prepared. She's looking to trip someone up and scare them into revealing something."

I nodded. "Okay. Consider me warned. Is that it?" I didn't need any more bad news.

He hesitated.
 

"There's more?"

He looked pained. "This one is really out of my area of friend expertise. I don't really know how to say this."

"What?" I frowned, wondering why he was acting so weird.

He took a deep breath. "Do you have a thing for your boss?"

"What!" I stared at him. "You know I'm with Logan."

"Okay, that's what I thought. It's nothing."

"What's nothing?" My heart was pounding.

Dex shrugged. "Kirk said he saw someone who looked a lot like you at The College Grind yesterday morning looking intimate and involved with Jason. Making eyes at him."

I took a deep breath, suddenly afraid to confess to even a partial truth. I forced myself into lying mood and laughed like the whole thing was simply absurd. "A lot like me? Making eyes? You're trusting Kirk on this? Kirk?" I shook my head dismissively. "He's mistaken. I haven't been to The College Grind in a week." I made a note to be more careful.

Dex shrugged again. "Yeah, probably. That's Kirk."

I slipped into diversionary tactics. "So, tell me, what did you think of the snowball fight? I suppose you had a rapid-fire snowball machine?"

He grinned. "Legendary! I used my potato gun."

I was keeping secrets from everyone. Telling half-truths and lies at every turn and desperately afraid I'd be found out. How did my mom do it? Tell all those lies to her husbands and lovers? Keep them straight. I was constantly afraid of making a mistake, of letting something slip. Just a little over a month, five weeks, and I would be out of the nightmare of chem forever. That many fewer lies to keep track of.

I was on my way to work from studying at the science library when I walked past the career center and ran into Logan coming out. As always when I saw him, my heart did a flip. He was so hot—what did he see in me?

"El!" He pulled me into a hug, lifting me off the ground as he kissed me.

Logan knew how to kiss like no guy I'd ever known. Breaking a kiss down into its technical elements is not sexy. A kiss, after all, is the sum of all its elements. Like any art form, thinking about it too hard ruined the magic. Better to enjoy and appreciate. Or, in this case, melt and long for more.

Some guys have a knack, and Logan was the king of them. The right amount of pressure—urgent and hard, but not bruising. A way of stroking my lips with his tongue and entering my mouth that was so thrilling I got tight all over. The way he wrapped his arms around me, holding me like he never wanted to let go and the rest of the world didn't matter. Like his focus was only on me. That was sexy.

I felt the loss when he pulled away and smiled. "On your way to work?"

I nodded. "Glad to see you're in one piece after last night. And not incarcerated."

He laughed. "That was an epic fight. Collin and Zave have some great war stories.
 

"And you?"

"Mine are top secret. My lips are sealed."

"I see—what happens at a snowball fight stays at the snowball fight." I brushed his lips with another kiss. "What are you doing here?" I hitched my thumb at the career center.

He looked almost sheepish. "I'm a senior, El. I have to find a job if I don't want to move back in with Mom and Dad." He snorted.

I went cold and simply stared at him. Of course I knew he was a senior, but I'd never thought about him leaving, of him not being here for as long as I needed him to be. For as long as I was. Yes, it was selfish of me. Or maybe it was simply self-preservation, and with all the all things I'd had on my mind it just never really struck me that he was graduating in May. "In November?" I swallowed hard.

"November is not to soon to start. All the best software and high-tech companies are already taking applications for spring graduates and looking to set up interviews after Christmas."

"You've been applying?" I asked. I didn't mean to sound so much like he was carrying on a conspiracy.

"I have a few applications out." He shrugged. "It's no big deal. Hey, we'd better get going or we'll be late and Jason will have our heads. Or worse—dock our pay. And then how will I squire you around town in the style you deserve?" He grinned and took my hand as we started walking toward work.
 

We walked in happy silence.

At the top of the mall, Logan said, "How is having Byron as your prof? How did your meeting with him go?" His tone was casual, but the look on his face was fiercely protective and suspicious.

It was my turn to be evasive. "Fine. He wanted to talk about my grades. In class today, he announced the new grading system and the class gave him a standing ovation."

"A standing O, huh?" Logan said. "Bet he enjoyed that."

"He blushed like a ripe peach."

Logan nuzzled my neck. "Speaking of ripe peaches, I know who I'd like to give a standing O—a
long
standing O."

"Stop it. You'll make me blush."

"That was the idea." He paused and stopped walking abruptly. "El, is there something you're not telling me?"

Had I acted guilty? I tried to act casual to cover as I stared guilelessly back at him. "No, why?"

"I don't know. I just get the feeling you had something to do with Byron's new grading policy." It was hard to tell with Logan whether he was jealous or not.
 

I had a difficult time picturing any guy of reasonable looks being jealous of Byron. A guy like Logan, absurd! Unless he suspected me of flirting with Byron for a grade. I knew how he felt about that and wasn't going to go there.

I laughed a little too brightly to be completely convincing. "Nope. Not a thing."

He didn't look like he believed me. "Good." Then he grinned. "I'm thinking ahead to Saturday night. Our anniversary."

"Yeah?"

"Wear something hot."

I smiled as seductively as I knew how. "That goes without saying. I have the perfect turtleneck wool sweater."

He spun me around to face him, eyes twinkling. "You are such a tease, El."

Chapter Nine

"Logan told me to wear something hot." I examined myself in the full-length mirror that hung over the door in my room. I had literally spent hours getting ready for this date. A pile of rejected outfits sat on my bed.

Bre was already out with Dan. Nic had just left on her own hot date. That left Tay to hold my hand and reassure me of my hotness before she headed out with a group of girls from the dorm.

It was winter, so I'd chosen to wear my super-tight low-rider skinny jeans, knee-high stiletto boots, and a fuzzy sweater that bared my navel and revealed my bellybutton ring. I'd gotten my bellybutton pierced at the first Up All Night of the year, when I met Logan. I was plain, really, especially in comparison to my mom. But at least she'd taught me to apply my makeup and how to do perfect smoky eyes and a sultry evening look. I didn't look half bad.

Tay was dancing to a tune playing on my iPod with a glass of vodka and OJ in her hand. She paused and looked me over. "You look great."

"What do you think he has planned?" I turned to look at my butt in the mirror and see my backside. The last thing I needed were baggy-butt jeans. This pair had just come out of the wash and were nice and snug.

Tay rolled her eyes. "He asked you to wear something hot, what do you think he's planning? I don't expect you to come home tonight."

"That's not what I meant."

"Sure it is." She laughed. "Are you taking a coat?"

"And cover this up?" I shook my head. "It's a short walk to the SUB."

She went to my desk, poured a shot of tequila, and handed it to me. "Then you'll need an alcohol blanket, honey."

"Thanks, Mom."
 

She took another drink of her vodka. "Slam it, baby."

As I downed my shot, my phone buzzed. I glanced at it. "Logan's here."

She raised her glass to me. "Have fun."

I grabbed my keys. As I turned around, I saw Logan in the door to my dorm room, looking hotter than any guy had a right to.
 

As his gaze slid down me and lingered on my bellybutton ring, every muscle I owned tightened with longing. "Wow, El." He was holding a single red rose.

"How do you get in here?" I said.

"Is that any kind of greeting?" His eyes danced. "I have powers of persuasion."

"Do you?"

"Yeah. I'll show you later."

Three steps and I was in his arms, wrapping my arms around his neck, pressing into him, his lips hot on mine.

"I guess I'll be going," Tay said, trying to squeeze past us with her drink in her hand.

Logan broke the kiss. "Taylor. Be careful with that in the hall." He nodded toward her drink. "No open containers."
 

"Logan. Look who's talking." Tay raised her glass to us. "Behave yourselves tonight."

"I thought you said to have fun?" I said.

She smiled, shrugged, and left.

I took the rose from Logan. "It's beautiful."

"Happy anniversary." He kissed me again.

I ran the backs of my fingers along his cheek. "Keep that up and we'll never leave my room."

"Would that be so bad?" His voice was sultry.

I smiled. "I'm looking forward to some magic."

"So am I." He took my hand. "I have a surprise for you. At my place." He took the flower and set it on my desk. "Let's go."

The SUB pulsed with music as we approached, hand in hand. Throngs of people were filing in. We joined the crowd, weaving our way inside.
 

"What do you want to do first?" he asked me.

"Dance."

"Dance?" His eyes sparkled. "I thought maybe another piercing."