However little that is.
It really is nice though, lying here in Warren’s arms, feeling his fingers drag against my skin and his tongue in my mouth.
I’ve noticed that kissing each of the guys feels different. Kissing all of them feels heavenly, but each one is different in their own way—like different planets in a galaxy. All of them are incredible and heavenly, but each one feels like it touches a different part of me in some way.
When we lie next to each other, I often find myself disappearing into a kind of dream-like state. I lose myself in them completely.
I forget everything else.
“Do you have a date to the gala yet?” I ask, my voice wistful as I curl up against his body with my hand pressed to his chest.
“Why?” he chuckles. “Want to ditch Sterling now and have me take you instead? You should. I’d make a much better date.”
“No,” I laugh. “I don’t think he’d forgive me if I did.”
I don’t add that I have other reasons for wanting to go with Sterling. He might not be looking forward to seeing his father, but I am. At least as much as someone can be excited about seeing a stranger who could be whole handedly responsible for the direction of their future.
“Is that so?” he asks. I can see the lines in his brow scrunch up. “I thought that it was Sterling who had committed to going with you.”
“Semantics,” I say, off-the-cuff.
He’s right though. Honestly, Sterling would probably love to be let off the hook and not be my date to the event. I know that he really doesn’t want to attend the gala at all since his father will be there, but that is exactly why I want to go with him. Walking in on Sterling’s arm, with his father on the review board at the event, is sure to go over well with not only Sterling’s father but also the other members of the board too.
And I can definitely use all the help that I can get to gloss over my past image with the review board and all the high-ranking members. I need to get back into Brown, and as much as I now hate the idea of making Sterling go to something he doesn’t want to and put him in an uncomfortable position with his father—I need him to.
Besides, it’s not like I’m asking him to chop off an arm.
It’s just one night and one event. At most we will be there for a few hours, and I can’t imagine that anything too off-the-wall will happen between Sterling and his dad there in a public space filled with students, faculty, and board members.
“You really should get a date for the event,” I say. “It would help throw Bridget off our scent. I feel like she’s starting to get a little too suspicious of me hanging around the three of you so much. And I can tell that she’s getting suspicious of you and I.”
“Oh, how can you tell? I haven’t noticed anything.”
“Well, it doesn’t help that every time we’re near each other, you stop what you’re doing to stare at me.”
“Yeah,” Warren laughs. “I guess that does make it look a little obvious. I think she noticed that we were both late to class the other day too. And she did ask me yesterday why you had changed your mind and decided to let me slide on my volunteering shifts.”
“See? That’s what I mean. You should ask another girl to the gala.”
“Actually,” he says slowly as if he knows I’m not going to agree with what he’s about to say. “I was thinking about taking Bridget instead.”
“What? No, that’s a really bad idea,” I say.
I can’t believe he’s even thinking of doing that.
“Bringing your sister to an event where all of us will be? That idea just oozes drama. This gala is really important to me. I don’t want anything to blow it.”
“Having Bridget there isn’t going to blow it,” he says. “Besides, she’s already going whether or not I take her. She didn’t directly ask me to take her, but I could tell that’s what she was implying. If I don’t take her, she’ll be mad. Maybe it will get her to back off a bit if she gets to pretend to be special again, if just for a night.”
From the way he’s talking, he doesn’t sound like he’s expecting much to come of the gala.
This time when I pull back a bit and look at him more closely, my expression is more serious.
“You really don’t think either of you is getting out of here early, do you?” I ask.
Warren lets out a choked guffaw. “Not in a million years,” he says, shaking his head. “We’re in here because our parents want us in here. Even if we were given the very unlikely offer of leaving early, we wouldn’t be able to take it.”
I swallow, hard. “So, some people really are offered an early ticket out of here then?”
I’d started to wonder if it was just another baseless rumor. Almost begun to hope it was another baseless rumor.
Warren just lets out a sigh. “Does it really matter? Is being here at Ridgecrest still so bad that all you do is think of getting out?”
I don’t give him an answer. I just settle back down against his chest and wrinkle up my nose at the thought of having to spend the evening with Bridget at Warren’s side the whole time.
“Your sister is going to smell something fishy, you know.”
“It’ll be fine, you’ll see,” he says. He’s definitely not listening to me, even though I just know that this isn’t going to end well. Nothing with her ever does.
Speaking of things not ending well—Bridget’s voice suddenly comes from
