by Eden Beck
That level of blackmail might have gone even further than her secret pregnancy.
“No idea,” Sterling answers. “Chase keeps insisting that he wants to share. I got the feeling that if Warren hadn’t said he would share with him, that Chase would have hit me up next.”
Weird. Warren is the last person I expected to be talked into something like sharing a room. He definitely seems like the brooding, lonely type. With a sister like his, who could blame him for looking for silence where he can?
The only reason that I share a room is because I can’t afford one on my own. In fact, Bridget is paying for all of our mutual school expenses right now—primarily because I’m forcing her to.
She eyes Sterling from across the table and smiles sweetly at him.
“You found me all the way over here,” she says coyly.
I guess she thinks that Sterling came over here to see her, because she’s wearing a huge smile and batting her eyes at him as if she was going to be proposed to right there on the spot. I almost feel a little bad for her because I know what’s coming. He’s going to brush her off, I can just feel it.
After all, it’s not like they’ve even been seen together in weeks.
“Gotta go,” he says, standing up from the table and quietly acknowledging Bridget with nothing more than a small, forced smile that looks way too fake and polite to be real.
“I have to say, Aubrey,” he says as he leans down toward me. Even though he’s trying to talk in my ear, it’s definitely loud enough for Bridget to hear what he’s saying. “I’m a bit disappointed that our little date stayed just that—one little date.”
I can’t control the look of shock on my face, nor the grin that starts to pull at corners of my mouth. When he finally turns and walks away, I’m left thinking about how close his face was to mine, and how much I liked it.
I tell myself it’s only because I know Bridget will be devastated, but part of me knows better. It’s the same part of me that’s currently cursing myself for the way my heart is pounding away in the top of my throat.
Tammy laughs and it breaks me out of my daydream.
“You never did learn how to take a hint, Bridget, did you?” she snorts. “Just because Sterling smiled at you that one time in middle school, you’ve never gotten over him.”
Yikes. I thought Tammy was one of Bridget’s closest friends up until recently, but this … this is a pretty tough dig to dish out.
“That’s not true,” Bridget says defensively, “Sterling and I have always dated off and on.”
“No, you haven’t,” Tammy says pointedly. “The two of you have talked about it off and on, but wasn’t your first date with him supposed to be like just a few weeks ago? For all your talk of him being your boyfriend finally, turns out you didn’t even go because you had to go out of town or something, and so what, Aubrey went instead? That’s really quite the story you’ve got going on, almost as good as the one about the smile in middle school.”
The rest of the girls resume their mindless chattering and I think that I’m the only one that hears Bridget mumble under her breath after that.
“It was high school,” Bridget mutters quietly, “and it was more than a ‘smile.’”
But no one cares.
No one is listening anymore.
No one but me, of course.
After lunch, I still have a few minutes before my next class starts, and as luck would have it apparently, so does Sterling. I see him sitting on a bench outside of the class building, so I walk over to join him.
Why not? It’s not like I have anything else to do right this second. Besides, there’s still a lot more that I want to find out about him.
Things I can use against him, of course. Not just because I feel an ache to get to know him better.
“Hey,” I say as he scoots over to make a spot for me on the bench.
“Are you stalking me now too?” I ask jokingly.
“Too?” he asks. “Who else is stalking you?”
“You mean besides Chase?”
He laughs at that.
“Yeah, I guess maybe I need to have a talk with him. Perhaps we need a new ‘no stalking girls that we’re trying to convince to help us out with things’ rule.”
This time, I’m the one who laughs. “Well, you have to give him credit for trying.”
“Does that mean you’re going to let Warren off the hook?” he asks.
The hope in his voice … it’s so unlike him, I almost consider it.
Almost.
“Unless you’re suddenly willing to tell me what I want to know … Not a chance,” I answer. “So, are you planning to go to the gala event?”
I’ve been wanting to ask him about it since I got my invitation, but as soon as the question leaves my mouth, Sterling starts acting weird—like really weird. His eyes turn downward, and he shifts uneasily on the bench as if he feels uncomfortable in his own skin.
“My father will be there,” he says. His face puckers as if he has just tasted something sour. “I like to avoid things with my father if at all humanly possible.”
I kind of already got the feeling that Sterling and his dad didn’t get along very well—I mean, he’s said as much himself—but this is the first time I’d ever seen him this uncomfortable.
I know what it’s like to have shitty parents that look at you more as a burden and a stain on their life than as a child to love and support, but even I don’t have quite as visible of a disdain for my father as Sterling seems to have toward his.
His dad must be really bad.
Worse than the kind who disowns you for getting kissed.
But then again, I guess I’m not that surprised that a high-ranking member of the Brown review board would have an arrogant chip on his shoulder. I’m sure he’s probably not a lovely man to deal with.
And I’m sure the fact his son has a drug problem isn’t helping their relationship.
I wonder which thing came first—the shitty relationship or the drug problem. Usually it’s the shitty relationship that’s the catalyst, but with Sterling there’s really no telling.
He’s easy enough to read in some things. But in others … in others, he makes no sense at all.
I almost kind of want to leave him alone about it. It’s obviously something that cuts him deep. But I need to keep my sights on my end goal, which means I can’t start growing feelings.
“Tell you what,” I say. “I’ll agree to go on another date with you, if you agree to take me to the gala.”
There’s a whisper of a warning in the back of my mind, but I shove it away before it can fully take form.
Sterling looks up at me with a chuckle. I can see his hesitation, but I can also see that he’s actually considering it.
“What makes you think that I even want to go on a second date with you?”
“Just a hunch,” I say casually as I shrug my shoulders, getting back to my feet.
He doesn’t give me an answer right then and there, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to. I can see that I’m going to have to work on him a bit.
This is a new thing. I’ve never been the chaser.
I’ve never exactly been chased either. Preyed on sure, but never chased.
It’s strangely liberating. And unless I’m completely reading Sterling’s face wrong over the next few days, I’m not the only one who’s enjoying the sensation.
That warning in the back of my mind tries to grow, but I keep stuffing it down. I tell myself I’m not actually asking Sterling on a date. It’s just a means to an end.
I’m using him, just like he would use me if I gave him the chance.
I think it would be perfect to have him as my date to the gala. Not only would it draw eyes and make Bridget green with envy, but it also might help me to look a bit more well-liked and less ‘slutty’ in the eyes of the review board.
I may have embraced that persona here, on campus, but it certainly isn’t the image I want to carry with me to the
gala. And I mean, having one of the review board member’s own sons on my arm can’t hurt.
Unlike Chase’s attempts to get me to let Warren out of volunteer duties, I don’t have to resort to literally throwing myself at Sterling before he finally caves.
“Okay,” he says just two days later as he walks up to where I’m standing in line for a coffee between classes. “I’ll take you to the gala.”
“You will?” I ask with an excitement that I’m trying—and epically failing—not to show.
“Yeah,” he nods, “but I get that second date tonight. Take it or leave it.”
I laugh and pay for my coffee with money from what’s become Bridget’s weekly allowance for me before walking out with him.
“I’ll take it,” I say. “You must be pretty eager for that second date, huh?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I just want to make sure that I don’t end up losing out on this deal.” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to go to that gala with my father there. This better be one hell of a second date.”
Chapter Ten
After classes, I go back to my dorm room to change and am surprised to find Bridget there. She barely spends any time in the room other than to sleep these days.
I tell her a casual hello and then start rooting through the clothes she gave me to find an outfit to wear on my date with Sterling.
Even if he’d probably prefer I wore my uniform.
“Big date tonight?” she sneers from her side of the room where it looks like she’s just sitting on her bed and pouting.
There’s no way that Sterling would have told her that we are going out together again, so her comment must just be coincidentally accurate.
“Not that big,” I say without actually answering her question. “How about you, what are your plans for tonight?”
“Not that it’s any of your business,” she says with snark. “But I think I’m going to hang out with the guys in a little while. My brother put together a study session for the four of us, and before you ask—no, you are not invited to join.”
I let her have that one.
Her study group is going to dwindle from four to three pretty quickly, considering that Sterling is going out with me instead of hanging with the rest of them tonight.
I imagine that seeing Sterling is probably the only reason that she’s even going to the study group. I have a hard time believing that there’s going to be any actual studying getting done. Those four are mostly into partying and trying to find ways not to work.
I should be looking forward to being able to torture Bridget tomorrow with the details of how Sterling ditched a chance to hang out with her so that he could go on another date with me … but instead, all I’m thinking about is Sterling.
Fuck me.
But it’s too late to back out. I’ll let myself enjoy this, just a little bit.
A real date.
My first date.
Not that I’d tell Sterling—let alone Bridget of all people—in a million years.
Sterling is already waiting for me on the first floor of the dorms, and much to my chagrin, he looks amazingly hot. I mean, he was already good-looking, but tonight as he stands there in his distressed black jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt that hugs all the definition of his ab muscles—he looks positively swoon-worthy.
I have a hard time hiding my reaction and Sterling catches my lingering eyes as I look over his body from head to toe. He chuckles and a sexy grin forms at the corners of his mouth.
“Ready?” he asks as he holds out a hand for me to take.
“Yeah, where are we going?”
“Someplace special,” he says. “Trust me, you’ll like it.”
I take his hand and let him lead me out of the dorm, just in time to see Bridget coming down the stairs and catching a glimpse of us as we leave. She’s going to be raving mad tomorrow.
At least I don’t have to break the news to her in private. She’s a little less likely to actually murder me this way.
We’re about halfway across the campus when Sterling pulls me around a corner and toward one of the other dorm buildings. I hesitate only for a second before following him inside.
“Is this where your dorm is?”
Sterling nods with a smile.
“Wait, so I got all dressed up for our date, and all we’re doing is going to hang out in your dorm room?”
He laughs as we get onto the elevator. When we get to the top floor, we step out and it looks like we are inside of a fancy hotel penthouse. I do a double-take as I look around.
“This is your dorm room?” I ask in a stupor.
The elevator has opened up right into a giant apartment-sized room that is furnished like an upscale department store.
“Yep,” he says, “and you should feel lucky because you’re the only other person besides Chase and Warren who’s ever seen it.”
“Really? You haven’t even brought Bridget up here before?”
“Why would I have brought Bridget up here?” he asks.
Their relationship is so confusing to me.
“I don’t know, I thought you guys were dating or starting to date, or something at one point,” I answer.
Sterling just shakes his head and walks toward his full-sized kitchen to crack open a bottle of wine. I always thought he was a little older than me … at least by a bit, but still probably not twenty-one. I guess when you’re rich you can get whatever you want, whether it’s legal or not. I walk further into the apartment and kick off my shoes while he pours us both a glass of wine.
It’s never occurred to me that Sterling’s family might be wealthier than Warren and Bridget’s, but now I find myself wondering. If Bridget’s family could afford this, she’d for sure have insisted on a dorm like this last year instead of just a private room at Mason House.
The idea of the kind of wealth Sterling’s family must have … it’s frankly overwhelming.
No wonder Sterling is so afraid of his father. I would be too if my father’s disapproval meant I had so much to lose.
“This place is really incredible,” I say, looking out the large window at the campus below. The campus looks kind of pretty at night when the buildings and streetlamps that line the walkways are all lit up, especially from all the way up here.
I don’t believe for a second that I’m the first girl he’s brought up here.
Sterling hands me the glass of wine and clinks the rounded edge of his glass against my own. I raise the glass to my lips and take a sip.
“Wow,” I say with a satisfied smile. “This wine is delicious.”
“I think you’ll like the rest of the date too,” he grins as he motions toward a table that is set in the adjoining room.
I look over to see a charcuterie spread on the table.
“Now are you more impressed about our date?” he asks teasingly.
“Yeah, definitely impressed,” I say. “I was expecting gym socks and Gatorade.”
“No, that’d be Chase’s room you’re talking about.”
Sterling smiles and then we fill our plates with as much of the delicious looking meats and cheeses as they can fit before going to sit down together in the living room. He’s even decorated the living room with strings of white lights that seem to add an alluring enchantment to the space.
Definitely not the first girl he’s brought up here.
I might be in a state of delusion, but I’m not a complete idiot to think he’d actually take the time to do all this just for me.
We sit on giant floor cushions and talk about everything that comes to our minds while we drink wine. This is really nice. And not at all what I had expected from a date with Sterling. There’s a much softer side to him, a more romantic side. But he also seems to be teetering on an edge a lot of the time.
I can’t really explain it, but there’s just something about him that seems like a bomb waiting to go off.
At least for now though, he’s soft and kind of sweet.
After another bottle of wine is uncorked, and our floor cushions end up resembling more of a makeshift bed, I find myself leaning up against him, a laugh shaking my shoulders when he tells me about a time that Warren mistakenly thought that his sister’s pet hamster was an attic rat.
The story pans out exactly as expected.
“What did you do while you were watching them?” I say between fits of laughter as I imagine Bridget as a middle schooler screaming at her brother while he tries to chase down a fluffy hamster. “Did you help Warren?”
“Of course not,” he laughs, “it was way too amusing for me to want to end it.” Suddenly something about his voice changes, and he tilts his head down to look at me. “Kind of like tonight.”
I feel his arm wrap around me as I let myself fall against his chest. But as soon as I feel his hand tighten around my waist, we both stop laughing and the mood in the air between us changes.
Sterling pulls me into him and before I even have a chance to catch my breath, he puts his mouth on mine. His lips are soft and warm, and when he slides his tongue into my mouth, it feels a bit like I’m falling. I instinctively wrap my own hands behind his neck and pull his face closer to me as I turn my hips toward him.
The moment between us is hot and heavy, and I like to think it’s unexpected for Sterling as well.
Unlike the rest of this night, this single moment feels unplanned.
His arms tighten around me and his hands grasp onto my body as if he is being fueled by something that he can’t control. It is raw, and real, and for a moment I even forget what I’m doing here to begin with.
All I can think about it how good his body feels against mine as he lays me back against the floor cushions and crawls over me. We kiss and I realize that I am not going to try to stop him when he reaches to pull my shirt off and over my head. My hands trail down his chest and into the top of his pants, where things abruptly go sideways.
Sterling suddenly pulls away and gets up off of me. For a minute, I feel as if I might have done something wrong that upset him.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I sit up, my head swimming.
“No,” he growls at me. He storms off to the kitchen to pour himself another drink, mumbling something about side effects making it impossible.