The Hidden (The Hidden Trilogy) (17 page)

I frowned. “What’s happening tomorrow night?”

Her eyes grew wide. “You don’t know?”

We started to cut across the courtyard as I said, “Know what? What’s going on?”

“Kappa Psi Beta’s having a party. It’s the first frat party of the school year. There’ll be frat boys, alcohol, dancing, and frat boys. Em, you
have
to come with me.”

I sidestepped some guys tossing around a football. “I take it a lot of people are going?”

Beth nodded, following suit and steering clear of the flying pigskin. “It’s gonna be huge.”

I shrugged. “Okay, I’m in.” Maybe Thomas would go to the Kappa Psi Beta party, too…or maybe he wouldn’t. I didn’t really care one way or the other. 

At least that’s what I kept telling myself.

“That’s it for today,” Professor Rosso announced at the end of class. “Read over chapters seven and eight, quiz will be next week. Have a good weekend.”

People immediately started filing out, and I gave Thomas an awkward smile. I didn’t like this part of the day, where we had to go our separate ways.

Thomas slung the strap of his messenger bag over his head, settling it across his chest, and stood. “Do you have any plans this afternoon?” He stretched his arms up to the sky, just as he did at the end of every class.

Here was the one good thing about this part of the morning–seeing his sliver of defined stomach peek out from under his t-shirt when he raised his arms. That little trail of blond hair beckoned me, urging me to reach out and touch it, to find out exactly where it trailed off to–

“Emily?”

My head snapped up. “What?”

He looked down at me, amused, as that faint smile tugged on the corners of his lips. “See anything you like?”

My face burned as I stuck my notebook in my bag and stood. I scowled and brushed past him as I exited the row of desks. “It was right in front of my face, where else was I supposed to look?”

He caught up to me quickly and blocked the aisle to the door. I glanced around, noticing we were the only two people left in the giant classroom.

“I was just teasing you,” he said. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Hell, you can look all you want. I won’t mind, I promise.” He smiled, as if to show his sincerity.

I didn’t know what to make of that, so I just said, “Whatever,” and tried to walk around him.

He took my hand in his and pulled me back to him. His fingers intertwined with mine and I looked down at our joined hands. His was almost twice the size of mine, and his skin was incredibly soft and impossibly warm. My heart skipped a beat as his thumb slowly rubbed the back of my hand.

“Hey,” he said quietly, using his free hand to tilt my chin up. His eyes were such a pale blue that I didn’t know how they could be real. Jesus, I didn’t know how
any
of this could be real. “I’m sorry, okay? But don’t do this. Don’t push me away again. Not when we’ve come so far.”

His eyes moved down to my mouth, and I instinctively licked my lips as my eyes wandered down to his. They were full and shiny, the bottom one just a little more pouty than the top. God, I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to take his bottom lip into my mouth and suck it between my teeth. I’d give
anything
at that moment for just a taste.

He leaned down, his eyes intent on my mouth as his pale irises slowly darkened, becoming a deep shade of navy blue. I had to remind myself to breathe as he–

“
Ahem
.” A rather loud throat clearing to our right effectively ruined the moment. We looked over to see a balding professor with a tweed jacket and gray hair cast us a disapproving stare over the top of his glasses.

“We should go,” Thomas whispered, dropping my hand as he stepped back.

“Yep.” I turned around and headed down the aisle, to the door, as Thomas followed close behind.

*          *          *

Bzzzz–Bzzzz.

The unfamiliar sound woke me, and I lifted my head from my pillow to see my phone spasm on my nightstand, skittering around as it received a text message. I rubbed my eyes as the sun filtered through my open window, then glanced at the clock, seeing that my nap only lasted half an hour before it was unceremoniously interrupted.

I threw my arm out, fumbling with the phone as I grabbed it and rolled over onto my back. The message was from Thomas:

Wanna do something?

If it’d been anybody else that woke me after a measly thirty minute nap, they would’ve gotten a pencil to the eye the next time I saw them. Luckily for Thomas, he was the exception to that rule. I texted him back:

Sure, what do u have in mind?

I stretched, still super groggy, when my phone vibrated in my palm. He wrote:

Movie @ my place?

And with those four little words, I was more awake than I’d ever been in my entire life. A chance to see where he lived? Yes, please!

Chapter Twenty-Six

Thomas’s house was about fifteen minutes away from school. We drove down countless country roads–most without any discernible street signs–before finally pulling into a clearing in the woods where a small two-story house sat. It didn’t look like there were any other houses around for miles. A brand new dark gray Audi sat in front of the house.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and nodded towards the car. “Whose car is that?”

“
That
would be either Matt or Mel’s car,” Thomas said. He didn’t look too happy to see it. “Mel’s my sister, and Matt’s her…boyfriend.”

“Oh,” I said, stepping out of the car.

I followed him inside, into the foyer of his house. It was immaculate and very well-decorated–not at all what you’d expect from a college-aged bachelor. And it smelled like someone baked cupcakes not that long ago, as the sweet scent hung in the air. It was also quite chilly, I noticed, as goose bumps pricked my arms.

“Do you want me to turn the thermostat up?” Thomas asked. “I keep it kind of cold in here…”

I shook my head and hung my purse on the coat rack by the front door. “It’s not that bad.”

He led me into the living room, where a guy and girl were watching TV on the loveseat next to the couch. They looked up as soon we walked into the room.

I recognized the girl from the courtyard the other day. Turned out she was Thomas’s sister, and not someone he’d banged. I was pretty relieved.

“Glad to see you’ve made yourselves comfortable,” Thomas mumbled to them.

They ignored his comment. Matt, I guess, continued to watch TV while Mel stood up, looking me over. “You must be Emily,” she said. “Thomas has told us so much about you.” Her tone wasn’t quite friendly, but it also wasn’t outright hostile.

I let out a bit of nervous laughter. “I hope he said good things.”

She didn’t smile or laugh at my attempt at humor. Instead, she remained impassive. “Mostly.”

“Unfortunately, Matt and Mel have somewhere they need to be,” Thomas said, glancing at them. “Isn’t that right?”

“Actually, no,” she said, a hint of a smile tugging on her lips, just like Thomas sometimes did. “Not anymore.”

“Are you sure?” Thomas asked. “Because if you need to go, Emily and I will understand. We can all get together some other time.”

“Sometime soon?” Mel asked.

Thomas’s jaw clenched. “Yes.”

Mel smiled, slow and wide. It was kind of creepy. “In that case, I suppose we should get going,” she said, glancing at Matt. He stood from the loveseat, gave a quick wave goodbye, and headed for the foyer. Mel looked me over again, nodding slightly as she said, “Emily.”

Apparently that was the only goodbye I was going to get from her. I copied Matt’s goodbye, simply waving once to her as I sat on the sofa.

“I’ll be in touch,” she said to Thomas, the cruel smile still on her face.

The muscles in his jaw twitched, and he smiled tightly. “Looking forward to it,” he said, gesturing to the hallway leading to the foyer.

Mel took the cue and started to leave, but paused and glanced back at me before she disappeared into the hallway. Her dark blue eyes were cold and disinterested, absolutely no warmth in her beautiful face.

I shuddered when she was out of sight, Thomas having followed her to the front door. The door opened, then closed, and I exhaled as I sank down into the couch a little more.

Thomas rounded the corner into the living room. “Sorry about that,” he said. “My family’s a little…”

“No, it’s fine.”

He went around the loveseat and sat on the couch, next to me. With his legs sprawled out in front of him and his arms resting on the back, he took up practically half the couch. He nodded to a giant bookcase filled with movies. “What do you wanna watch?”

Halfway through the movie, Emily leaned into me. I looked down, seeing her head on my shoulder. She was asleep
.

Very slowly, I leaned back against the armrest of the sofa so Emily leaned into me even more. I lifted my arm and shifted her, so that her head lay on my chest instead of my shoulder. I lowered my arm and wrapped it around her. 

She mumbled in her sleep, nuzzling her face into my chest. I was perfectly content to watch her sleeping in my arms. I listened to every heartbeat, every breath, watching her chest rise and fall with each one.

I burned her face into my memory, studying it as I counted her lashes and followed the curve of her lips. She was so close to me, pressed up against me in my arms. I had never smelled her this closely before–it was greatly intensified. 

God, this hurts.

An unfamiliar pain ripped through my chest as I gazed down at her, constricting my throat. I couldn’t explain it, but it was…nice. I wouldn’t have traded the pain for anything in the world.

Stroking her hair, I kissed the top of her head. She nuzzled closer, mumbling incoherently. I wasn’t ready for this to end, but the clock on the wall said it was almost midnight. She’d been asleep in my arms for almost three hours.

It was the best three hours of my life.

My eyes opened slowly in the dark. The left side of my face rested against something that was clearly not a pillow. It was too warm, too hard. And it moved. My head rose and fell with its minute movement, and a faint thumping sounded in my ear.

I looked up to see that I lay on Thomas’s chest, his arms wrapped around me under a blanket. I must’ve fallen asleep sometime during the movie. My cheeks burned as I sat up, wiping my mouth as I felt around for crusty patches of drool.

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you…sorry.” I really hoped he didn’t mind. Hell, he was asleep too, he probably didn’t even notice.

He smiled and stretched. “Don’t be. It was a great nap.”

My brows arched. It
was
a great nap–I just couldn’t believe he thought so too.

The drive back to school was pretty quiet. Thomas didn’t really seem to be in a talkative mood. It was just as well, since I don’t know what I would’ve said. I looked out my window, lost in thought.

I
still
couldn’t believe I fell asleep on him. I mean, God, how embarrassing was that?

But, if I was being totally honest with myself, part of me liked it. Being that close to him felt amazing. Just un-fucking-believable. He was so soft and warm, and he was such a nice guy, and–

I’m totally falling for him.

The realization caught me off-guard. I knew I was attracted to him–that was a given–but I liked him. Like,
really
liked him.

Crap, when did this happen? I couldn’t even stand him a week ago.

So much for my carefully constructed wall…

“What are you thinking about?” Thomas asked.

I blinked as he brought me out of my reverie.

I’d fought tooth and nail to keep myself out of this very spot, but in the end, all my effort had been in vain. The feelings were there, and there was no going back, no denying it.

I gnawed on my bottom lip and glanced up at him. “I was just thinking that…today was a good day.”

He looked over at me and smiled, his perfect face lit from the glow of his headlights on the dark road. “The best.”