Authors: J. Lynn
“As great as that sounds, I’m going to have to pass.”
“Maybe later then?”
“Maybe.” Not likely. I stepped back, reaching for the door. “Well, it’s good seeing you again, Cameron.”
“Cam,” he corrected. “And hey, we didn’t almost run each other over. Look at us, changing up the pattern.”
“That’s a good thing.” I was back in my apartment and he was still in front of my door. “You should get back before Raphael pees on your hand.”
“Would be worth it,” he replied.
My brows knitted. “Why?”
He didn’t answer that, but he did start backing up. “If you change your mind, I’ll be up for a while.”
“I’m not going to. Goodnight, Cam.”
His eyes widened only a fraction of inch, but his grin slipped into a full smile, and my stomach sort of flopped, because his smile was wow. “See you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Astronomy class? Or are you skipping again?”
My cheeks heated all over again. God, I had
almost
forgotten about running away in front of him like a total idiot. “No,” I sighed. “I’ll be there.”
“Great.” He started backing up again. “Goodnight, Avery.”
Ducking behind the door, I closed it and then locked it. I swore I heard him chuckle, but I had to be crazy.
I stood there a few moments and then I whipped around and raced back to my bedroom. Diving under the covers, I rolled onto my stomach and shoved my face into a pillow.
S
leep. Just go to sleep.
Cam lived across the hall?
You need to get up early. Go to sleep.
How in the world was that possible? He was everywhere I went.
Go to sleep.
And why did he have a pet turtle and did he seriously name it after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because that was kind of funny.
Morning’s going to come soon
.
Did he only wear a shirt during class? Oh my God, he seriously lived across the hall. Jacob was going to flip… and probably move in. That would be fun. I really liked Jacob, but I had a feeling he’d borrow my clothes.
Go the fuck to sleep.
I can’t believe the hot dude I ran into and then ran away from lived across the hall. I don’t even know why I cared. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t interested in guys or girls, but he was extraordinarily hot… and kind of funny… and kind of charming.
No. No. No. Stop thinking about him, because it was pointless and hopeless, so go to sleep.
Did I eat all that salad? Man, those cookies sound good right about now.
“Ugh!” I groaned into the pillow.
This crap went on for about an hour before I gave up and threw myself out of bed. Out in the living room, I didn’t hear any music or noise coming from Cam’s apartment. He was probably sleeping soundly while I was up obsessing over cookies and chicken tenders and ripped stomachs.
Stomping into the extra bedroom that had become more of a library/office, I powered on the laptop and brought up my email. There was one unread email in my inbox from my cousin. I deleted that without even opening it. On the left toolbar, I saw I had a couple of unread emails in my junk folder. Bored out of my mind, I clicked on the link and scanned the prescription drug offers, the “I have money in a foreign account” emails, and the notice that Bath and Bodyworks was having a sale. My eyes narrowed on the subject line of the one email that came in at around eleven last night.
It read AVERY MORGANSTEN and was from an email address I didn’t recognize.
Well, that was strange, because my email wasn’t set up under my real name, so it would be unlikely that it was a phishing scam. Only my parents and cousin had my email because, even though they had my telephone number, I’d rather have them contact me that way instead of calling, but no one else had it.
My finger hovered over the mouse pad. Unease rose as knots formed in my stomach. Tucking my legs against my chest, I told myself not to open it. To just delete it, but I clicked because I had to. It was like looking at a bad car accident alongside the road. You knew you shouldn’t, but you did.
I immediately wished I hadn’t. The knots in my stomach tightened and a lump formed in the back of my throat. Sick to my stomach, I pushed away from the desk and slammed the laptop shut. Standing in the middle of the room, I sucked in a deep breath and curled my hands into fists.
It was just three lines.
That was all.
Three lines erased thousands of miles.
Three lines ruined my entire night.
Three lines found me all the way in a little college town in West Virginia.
You’re nothing but a liar, Avery Morgansten. You’ll get yours in the end. And it won’t be in the form of money.
Chapter 4
I dragged myself into astronomy class ten minutes early and picked what I believed to be an inconspicuous seat in the middle of the amphitheater style classroom. A few other students were already there, sitting up front. Yawning, I scooted down in my seat and rubbed my eyes. The gallon of coffee I drank this morning hadn’t done a thing for me given that I only had an hour of sleep.
Three little sentences.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I rested my head on my forearm. I didn’t want to think about the email or the fact that I had reopened my laptop and went into my trash folder to see what my cousin had said. His email had just been one giant bitchfest on how I was letting my parents down and how his were worried sick and afraid I was going to put Mom and Dad through another episode.
You need to come home
, he had written.
It is the right thing to do
. It was the right thing for them, and while my cousin sided with my parents and oh, about ninety-nine percent of the town, I doubted he had been behind the email.
The email address was unrecognizable to me, and while there were a lot of people that it could’ve come from, I really didn’t know who it was. It couldn’t be
him
because even he wasn’t that stupid to try to contact me.
Or was he?
A shudder rolled down my spine. What if it had been Blaine? What if he found out where I moved to? My family wouldn’t have told him. Then again, they could’ve told his parents because they were, after all, country club pals. I was going to murder them if they did. Seriously. Catch the next flight to Texas and murder them, because the whole point of coming here was to get away from—
“Morning, sweetheart,” came a deep voice.
I jerked my head up and twisted in my seat. Surprised into speechlessness, I watched Cam slide into the empty seat next to me. I was a little slow on the uptake because I knew I should’ve said the seat was taken or tell him to move, but all I could do was stare.
He settled back, looking at me sideways. “You look a little rough this morning.”
And he looked remarkably refreshed for someone who had been partying last night. Hair damp and all over the place, eyes bright. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Glad to see you make it to class this time.” He paused, tilting his head back against the seat and kicking his feet up on the seat in front of us, his eyes on me. “Though, I kind of missed the whole running into each other thing. Provided a lot of excitement.”
“I don’t miss that,” I admitted, bending over and rummaging through my bag for my notebook. “That was really embarrassing.”
“It shouldn’t have been.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re the one who got plowed. I was doing the plowing.”
Cam’s mouth opened. Oh my God, did I really just say that? I had. Flushing to the roots of my hair, I flipped open my notebook.
“Raphael is doing great, by the way.”
A relieved grin snuck out. “That’s good to hear. Did he pee on your hand?”
“No, but it was a close call. Brought you something.”
“Turtle pee?”
Cam laughed and shook his head as he reached into his backpack. “Sorry to let you down, but no.” He pulled out papers stapled together. “It’s a syllabus. I know. Thrilling shit right here, but figured since you didn’t come to class on Monday, you’d need one, so I got it from the Professor.”
“Thank you.” I took the paper from him, somewhat shocked by the act. “That was really thoughtful.”
“Well, prepare yourself. I am all kinds of thoughtful this week. I brought you something else.”
I bit down on the edge of my pen as he rooted around and took the moment to openly gawk at him without him knowing. It really had been a long time since I held a conversation with the opposite sex that wasn’t related to me, but from all the people watching I’d done over the years, I thought I was handling this well. Besides the plowing comment, I was sort of proud of myself.
Cam pulled out a napkin and unfolded it with long fingers. “Cookie for you. Cookie for me.”
Removing the pen from my mouth, I shook my head. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“It’s just a cookie, sweetheart.”
I shook my head again, because it just didn’t make sense to me. Cam didn’t make sense to me. Hell, most people didn’t make sense to me.
He looked up through those impossibly long lashes and sighed. Tearing the napkin in half, he folded up one of the cookies and then dropped it in my lap. “I know they say you shouldn’t take candy from strangers, but it’s a cookie and not candy and technically, I’m not a stranger.”
I swallowed.
Cam took a bite of his cookie and closed his eyes. A deep sound emanated from his throat—a growl of pleasure. My heart jumped and my cheeks heated even more as I stared at him. He made the sound again, and my mouth dropped open. A row down, a girl turned in her seat, her eyes clouded over.
“Is it really that good?” I asked, glancing down at the cookie in my lap.
“Oh, yeah, this is the shit. I told you that last night. Be better if I had some milk.” He took another bite. “Mmm, milk.”
I dared another peek at him and he looked like he was on the verge of having an orgasm or something.
One eye opened. “It’s the combination of walnut and chocolate. You mix that together and it’s like an explosion of sex in your mouth, but not as messy. The only thing better would be those teeny tiny Reese’s Cups. When the dough is warm, you plop those suckers in…. Anyway, you just need to try it. Take a small bite.”
Oh, what the hell? It was just a cookie, not a crack pipe. I was being stupid. I unfolded the napkin and took a bite. The cookie practically melted in my mouth.
“Good?” Cam said. “Right?”
I took another bite and nodded.
“Well, I have a whole ton of them at home.” He stretched as he rolled up his napkin. “Just saying.”
Finishing off the cookie, I had to admit that it was a pretty damn good cookie. Wiping off my fingers, I started to roll up the napkin, but Cam reached over and took it from me. He twisted a bit in his seat, causing his knee to brush my leg.
“Crumb,” he said.
“What?”
A slight grin appeared on his face and then he reached out, without the napkin, and before I knew what he was doing, he smoothed his thumb over my bottom lip. Every single muscle in my body locked up and became painfully tense. My eyes widened and the air caught in my throat.
The touch was slight, barely anything, but I felt it in several parts of my body.
“Got it.” His grin spread.
My lip still tingled. That was all I could think about. I didn’t move, not until the door at the front of the classroom opened and the strangest man I’d ever seen rolled in. Dressed head to toe in olive green polyester, the man had thick, curly hair that went in every which direction, peppered black and gray. His glasses were huge, resting on the tip of his nose. As he crossed the main stage, I noticed he was wearing a pair of checkered Vans… that matched his bow tie.
Cam chuckled softly. “Professor Drage is a very… unique man.”
“I can see,” I murmured.
Professor Drage had an accent I couldn’t quite place, but based on his olive skin tone, I was going with Mediterranean or Middle Eastern. He launched right into the topic—no roll call or warning. I scrambled to catch up to his introduction to the field of astronomy and units and measurement while Cam scooted even further down in his seat and opened his notebook. His pen was making quick, short strokes over the paper, but he wasn’t taking notes.
He was drawing.
Cocking my head to the side, I tried to focus on what the hell an astronomical unit meant, which was some crazy number I couldn’t even begin to remember. Turned out to be the average distance the Earth orbits the sun. That was important because astronomical units were used to determine most distances in our solar system, but I found myself glancing at Cam’s notebook.