Seclusion (17 page)

Damen and I walked to Dr.
Travis’s class together. Damen was complaining in his head, and I could feel it
the whole way to class, although I couldn’t hear the words through his barrier.
When we entered the classroom, all the other students were already seated. Jay
waved us over to two empty seats next to him. We took the seats in the back of
the class.

“Thanks, Jay!” we said.

Carson
sent me a note in class.
Damen looked like he was restraining himself from choking the guy. I grabbed
Damen’s hand and squeezed. I could barely read the note; it was almost
illegible.

Raegan,

Do you have a date to
summer fling? I heard you and Chase broke up. Did you want to go with me?

Carson

I actually contemplated
going with him to make it look like Damen and I weren’t together, but I soon
realized that was a stupid idea, and I hoped Damen wasn’t offended by that
thought. I flipped the note over.

Carson
,

Thanks for the invite, but
I’m thinking about going stag.

Raegan

“Stag?”
I heard Damen say.

“Well, I figured we could
meet there and fall in love,”
I said.

“Please just promise to
stay away from that guy. I still don’t see what the pretense is for, though,”
Damen grunted.

“Who wants to volunteer and
show us your progress?” Professor Travis asked as she looked at each of us. Jay
and I immediately looked down, avoiding her eye contact. Then her eyes landed
on Damen.

“Mr. Carbonel? Class, we
have a gifted telepath in this class. How would you like to come up here and
give us some demonstrations?”

“Great,” I heard Damen say
to himself as he stood up, giving Professor Travis what could only be described
as his smolder.

“Yay!” She practically
clapped.

“I’m surprised she isn’t
jumping up and down
.”

I thought I heard a chuckle
in my head and smiled.

“Dr. Travis, what would you
like me to demonstrate?” Damen asked as he leaned against the side of the
podium using more swagger than was needed.

“What are you most
comfortable with?” she asked.

“I can do auras,
telekinesis, or I can just tell everyone what you are thinking…if you’d let
me,” he said with a smirk.

Professor Travis turned a
deep shade of pink. Jay started coughing, trying to hold in his laughter.

“How about…you just tell us
our auras.”

“Dr. Travis…you currently
have a mixture of lavender, white, and purple spiraling around you. White is
purity, so I can only assume from knowing you that you have a very genuine
heart, but the purple is passion.”

I heard her inhale. The
dumbstruck expression on her face made me giggle and Jay snort.

“I assume the passion is
for your love of teaching,” Damen said, grinning wildly.

Dr. Travis exhaled before
speaking. “Damen, that is really…something. Why don’t we stick to telekinesis
now.”

“Okay,” he said, and looked
straight at me. My heart started fluttering.

We all heard a click and
looked toward Professor Travis’s office. Her door unlocked and opened, and a
single pink orchid flew from her vase over to my desk and hovered there,
waiting for me to grab it. I wanted to hide from the attention, but I took the
flower and quietly thanked Damen. The girls in the class were gaping, and I
thought I heard an overly dramatic “Awwww” from Jay.

To my dismay, Dr. Travis
did actually clap. “Damen, that was wonderful! You may take a seat now.”

Professor Travis discussed
what we should be practicing and ended class. I said good-bye to Jay, and Damen
made plans to play some console game with him.

As Damen and I walked to Taylor’s office, I held the orchid in my hand.

“Hey guys, welcome! Come on
in,” Taylor said.

After we gave her our
reports on what had happened while we were gone, she smiled.

“Great job, guys! In fact,
you did such a great job that the police department asked if you could do
another favor. According to the hotel where you stayed, Caleb left a message
asking to be notified if Zoey ever returns to the hotel.”

Damen laughed to himself,
while I blushed.

“What do you mean another
favor?” I asked.

“Well, this time we are
increasing your team in order to help more of you on your finals. Let them in,”
she said over the speaker to her secretary.

Elsie, Connor, and Chase
walked in.

“You all know each other,
right?” Taylor asked.

I smiled up at everyone.
Chase squeezed my shoulder. Damen watched him and stiffened.

“I don’t know about this,
Raegan,”
he said to me through our link.

“I know,”
is all I replied.

Taylor
passed out files to each
of us. “Now, we want Damen and Raegan to continue with their covers, and the
rest of you will just be friends of theirs. Caleb is having a lake house party
for the next few days. We think a delivery may be taking place. The police just
need your eyes and ears open for them,” Taylor said. “If you all agree,” she continued,
“you will be flying out tonight. There is a private airport near the lake
house. You’ll be going straight there. I went ahead and had clothing sent to
the lake house for you all. But bring anything you need.”

Taylor
turned to Damen and me.
“You two still have your credit cards, right? You can keep them. The rest of
you have credit cards in your files.”

The others looked extremely
excited.

“Damen, is it okay if you
all meet this afternoon at your place to prep?” Taylor asked as everyone signed
their confidentiality papers.

“That’s fine Taylor, but is it really necessary for Raegan to go? She has sort of a…difficult
relationship with Caleb at the moment,” he said.

“She’s the reason you all
have been invited back to the house, but you are welcome to change it up as
long as he continues to invite you all out in the future,” Taylor said.

We walked out of the
office, somewhat in shock.

“Why don’t you all go back
to your rooms, pack, go over your files, and meet back at my place in an hour.
And bring your own food,” Damen told everyone.

Chase gave him a look. “Um,
who chose you as leader?” he asked.

“Chase, it was just a
suggestion,” I said.

 Chase looked shocked to
hear my voice. “Raegan,” he said, “do you want to go over our files together?”

“Actually, I need to take
care of some things beforehand.” I felt a little sad that our friendship was
off track.

We all took the elevator
together, and thankfully Connor and Chase were on the fifth floor.

“Elsie, will you grab these
items from my room?” I asked as I gave her a list I had jotted down earlier.

“Of course. When are you
going to tell Chase you guys are together?” she asked.

I looked at Damen. He
looked at Elsie. “Rae wants to make it public at the summer fling,” he said.

“What about on this trip?”
she asked.

“It will be hard,” I said.

We entered Damen’s suite,
and he started slamming doors and stalking around his suite. “Caleb thinks we
dated in the past. Why don’t we say we are back together when we get there?” he
said.

“I thought about that, but
why would we all go if I’m not interested in him at all?”

“Fine, I’ll just have to
win you back there.”

“Don’t you think the others
will think that’s weird?”

“I don’t know, but I’m done
sharing you,” he said.

When we started packing our
things, Damen grabbed his board shorts. Then he reached into the shower and
grabbed my bikini. “You don’t need this,” he said with a wink. “I won’t allow
you to wear it.”

I was pretty sure he half
meant it. He pulled me into his strong arms, and I couldn’t help but melt.

“We won’t be doing this for
a while, so let’s get busy,” he said. “Plus, I don’t want you to forget what
you’re missing.” He smiled, picked me up, and flopped backward on the bed.

“If I can’t wear that
bathing suit, then I need to run upstairs and get another one.” He laughed.
“I’ve seen your other bathing suit, and no socialite would wear that hideous
thing.”

I laughed. “Hey, you
shouldn’t be talking. Your previous clothing consisted of jeans and a hoodie
every day,” I said, smiling up at him.

“At least we’ll still have
our dreams,” he said.

“True.”

He kissed a trail up to my
ear. “Did you like the flower?”

“What do you... think?” I
asked as I covered his mouth with another kiss.

*
* *

Chase was the first to show
up, and he came early, too. I answered the door.

“Raegan, you’re here
already.”

I just said, “Yep.”

“Did you bring your food?”
he asked.

“Oh, Damen ordered me a
sandwich a while ago.”

“Oh,” he said curiously.

Connor and Elsie walked in
next with a pizza. We all sat around eating.

“I think we should go
around and give a brief background on each of our characters since we are all
friends and should know this already,” Damen said.

“That’s a good idea,” Chase
said. Damen looked surprised.

As we went over our new
identities, I realized that everyone was pretty much the same as they were in
real life, but richer and with better toys. Everyone, that is, except me. Zoey
was supposed to be popular, slutty, and snobbish. I had a feeling I would not
be playing her accordingly.

I knew that remembering the
new names and not slipping would be difficult, but since Elsie’s new name was
Emma, I decided I’d just call her E. like usual. Connor’s name was Craig, and
Chase’s name was Steve. I was still Zoey, and Damen’s name was Ethan.

Damen gave everyone a brief
update on our previous experience with Caleb and his family. Chase couldn’t
believe what I had done and was clearly upset that I had been put in that
situation to begin with. I knew he blamed Damen.

“Can we just all agree that
we should not leave Raegan alone with Caleb if we can help it?” Damen said.
“Just so you all know, he’ll probably try to get her wasted all week, so if you
notice he’s not watching, we should drink her drinks or dump them. Last time
she got pretty tipsy off two tequila shots.”

Everyone nodded.

“We should be going,” I
said.

Damen grabbed my luggage
and sweater. Chase asked where my bags were.

“Damen got them already.
Thanks though,” I said.

“Sure,” he replied.

A few minutes later, we
boarded the jet. We took our seats around the flat screen and decided on some
sci-fi end-of-the-world movie. When the flight attendant came to take drink
orders, Chase and Damen both ordered for me, which was annoying, except for the
fact that Damen actually knew what I wanted.

Chase said, “Two Dr.
Peppers.”

Damen said, “One Dr. Pepper
and one skinny vanilla latte.”

Then they both looked at
me.

“Ugh, this is going to be a
long couple of days,”
I thought to Damen.

He smiled. “She wants the
latte.” He winked at the attendant, but she just giggled.

I somehow got stuck on the
couch between Damen and Chase. I really wanted to sleep, but I couldn’t really
relax. Damen saved me by handing me a pillow and pushing me to rest my head on
Chase’s shoulder while Damen laid his head in my lap. They both seemed to be
content with that.

Next thing I knew, Chase
was waking me up. “We’re here.”

There were a few other
people staying at the lake house with us – it was huge, and one side of the
house had windows facing the lake. We all had our own rooms.

Damen had my luggage and
was just handing it to the staff when I heard, “Ethan, you’re here finally! We
didn’t think you were going to show.”

Chase just smiled as two
girls pulled Damen into the house. Caleb approached Chase with his hand held out.

“Caleb,” Chase said,
extending his hand. “I’m Steve. You’re a smart guy,” he said with a nod toward
the girls.

Caleb chuckled in response.
We all walked into the house, and I saw that Damen already had a beer in one
hand and a slut in the other.