by Tate James
“I suppose so...” I hedged—not that I would have any clue, seeing as this was my first school.
“Tell us more about the people. That’s the part that changes between schools. What are the teachers like?” Caleb fell into step with me as I resumed my path toward the next building.
“For the most part, they all seem to have one foot in the grave. Except Mr. Gregoric, but he only started here a couple of days ago, so I don’t know anything about him.” Except that he gives me the creeps. “He seems pretty young, maybe only just out of college? He has a few admirers among the students already, too.”
The twins appeared to perk up with interest at the mention of our new teacher. Maybe they’re gay? For the first time since meeting them, Austin seemed to be showing an emotion other than bored and annoyed.
“Where did he come from, do you know?” He seemed really eager to hear my answer, and when I flicked a confused glance at Caleb he looked almost… excited? Why were the hot ones always a bit strange?
I shrugged. “He started with this term; he didn’t give me his resume.”
Austin snorted derisively, muttering something. I sucked in a deep breath and fought the urge to demand he speak up so that I could continue our little scrap. I had only just met him, so his dismissive attitude shouldn’t be ruffling my feathers as badly as it was.
“How about anyone else in this town?” Once again, Caleb smoothly steered the conversation. “Anyone stand out from the ordinary? Has anyone got any particularly impressive skills?”
I was beginning to see a pattern with these brothers. Austin caused friction, and then Caleb smoothed it out. I shook my head in reply. “Cascade Falls locals are so unexceptional it’s almost unbelievable. As for the school, it’s one of the most expensive schools in the country, so most of the student body is made up of spoiled rich kids. Again, no one particularly out of the ‘Cascade Falls ordinary’ unless you count Anna Greengate’s net worth.” And my own talents... I smiled. In a sea of the rich and beautiful, I didn’t stand out as being anything out of the ordinary, and I used my anonymity. I thrived being a walking contradiction.
Caleb cocked his head, as though he noticed my smile, and I briefly worried he might question me further until his brother interjected once more. “Cal, this is a waste of fucking time. Are we done here, Christina? If you don’t mind, we have been travelling a lot and still need to unpack if we are actually going to attend this ridiculous school tomorrow.”
“It’s Kit,” I gritted out, my temper bubbling. “And I can happily be done here. Which dorm are you in? I will point you in the right direction, and you can be off on your merry way.”
“Ah, we aren’t in the dorms,” Caleb supplied. “We moved here with our cousin River. He’s renting a house not far from town, so we decided to just stay with him rather than move into a drafty dorm.” I couldn’t argue with that choice; the dorms were pretty drafty.
“Great, so we’re done?” Not waiting for my answer, Austin stalked off in the direction of the student parking lot without a backward glance to check if his brother was following. “See you around, Christina.”
Surprisingly, Caleb didn’t immediately follow and still watched me like he couldn’t figure me out. Not that he would be able to, no matter how long he stared. I took pride in being an enigma.
“Can I borrow your phone to send a message?” he asked suddenly. “I left mine in one of the packing boxes a few days ago and still haven’t found it.”
It seemed like a pretty odd thing to do, but I would look like a bit of a bitch if I called him out for being a liar on such a trivial topic. So I reluctantly handed my phone over. He tapped at it for a minute before thanking me and handing it back.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kitty Kat!” He flashed me another blinding grin and winked before chasing after his crabby sibling.
I stared after them for a minute, more than a little off balance as though I’d been caught in a freak storm. Shaking it off, I headed back to my room. The headmaster had said to take the whole afternoon to show the King twins around, so I was going to make the most of my suddenly free time and take a nap.
On my way back to my room, I hunted through my phone to see what Caleb might have needed to use it for but found no unfamiliar messages in my outbox. Luckily, this phone held zero personal information on me, as Lucy ran routine data wipes and we used different phones for Fox business, so it didn’t really matter what he had wanted it for… right?
4
During Lucy’s planning for our next job, she identified the easiest access point as being from the roof. In preparation, I decided to brush up on my free climbing skills because the best way up to a roof from the outside of a building was to climb.
About a half hour drive outside of Cascade Falls was a rocky cliff that was perfect for climbing, so I headed out there, parked several miles further up the mountain from my intended climbing wall, and trekked down through the rocky terrain. I followed the small, winding track zigzagging back and forth down the shallower side of the cliff and dropped my bag at the bottom. Staring up at the rocky wall, I plotted the best route up.
I’d chosen this wall in particular as it was the closest in structure to what the side of a building would be: dead vertical with only very small hand and foot ledges. Fishing out a small bag of chalk, I powdered my hands, stretched my muscles, then strapped my bag back on and got moving.
It had been a while since I last climbed, but it came back naturally. The usual rush of adrenaline, which accompanied dangerous activities like climbing a cliff without ropes, surged through me. The feeling coursed through my body, and I shivered in pleasure, welcoming it back like an old friend. Lucy suspected I might be just the slightest bit addicted to the feeling, but it was a hazard of the job, and really, there were worse things to be addicted to, right?
When I was halfway up the wall, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Ignoring it for now, I kept climbing steadily. It buzzed again and then again, intruding on my concentration. Blowing out a breath, I paused, waiting for it to stop. When it stayed silent for a minute, I resumed my climb only to have it buzz again several times in quick succession as soon as I was within a few feet of the top. Gritting my teeth, I hauled myself up over the top then rolled to lay flat on my back. I yanked out my phone to see what was so important that Lucy would be blowing up my phone when she knew I was climbing, but instead, eight new messages from a number I didn’t recognize surprised me. The name declared it Man of my Dreams. Caleb must have sent himself a message when he borrowed my phone then stored his number in mine. Annoying? A little. It was also amusing.
Hey. Look. It’s the man of your dreams texting you!
Why have you been avoiding me? I thought you were supposed to be helping us acclimatize to CFA.
You’re not a very good student guide, you know...
Let’s hang out! What are you doing tonight?
I hear the common room at the dorms has a pretty great movie room set up. Shall we watch a movie?
Okay cool, I assume your lack of answer means YES CAL I WOULD LOVE TO so I’ll meet you there at 6pm.
...clothes optional
Kidding! (but not really)
The last message included a winky face emoji and I laughed. His messages had all arrived within a minute of each other, clearly not giving me a chance to respond at all even if I hadn’t been clinging to a cliff face like a barnacle.
He was right, though. I had been avoiding him for the past few days. Or rather, his brother, and as he and Austin seemed to be a package deal, I had, by association, been avoiding Caleb. Other than a few classes that Lucy and I both shared with them, I was doing pretty well with steering clear. Something about the two of them made me a little uneasy, and I wasn’t sure if it was just my exceptionally out of character lack of game when it came to them or if it was the way they seemed to be watching everything just a little more closely than others did.
Biting my lip, I composed a sarcastic response then hit se
nd. Can’t sorry. I’m washing my hair tonight.
My phone immediately pinged with his reply, Great! I’ll join you! and another winky face. I groaned—should have seen that one coming. Somehow I got the feeling he was not giving up easily.
Fine. Meet you in the media room at 6pm. Bring pizza. Also make sure you reserve it or someone else will get in first. I sent the reply then pushed to my feet. The earlier adrenaline still coursed through me—possibly why I gave in to Caleb so easily—but it needed to be burnt off, so I began the steep uphill hike back to my car.
I had worked out the hard way that if I tried to get by just ignoring the increased adrenaline, the effect didn’t subside naturally. I always ended up overloading and passing out.
When I say pass out, I don’t mean faint. I mean I’d be out cold for a good three days and wake up with a monster migraine. Luckily I’d only needed to experience that delightful effect twice before working out how to manage it. The overload was the primary reason why Ryan and I had worked for so long. Despite being a bit of an asshole, an entitled rich kid, he had been genuinely interested in me. His feelings worked well in helping me with my frequent need to burn energy. Sadly, with his absence I would have to make do with substitutes like the grueling trek back up to my car instead. At least I would be staying pretty fit. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and I picked up my pace.
I despised storms.
I made it to my room with enough time to shower off the sweat in my private en suite, thank you Jonathon, before the sharp knock at my door. Still wrapped in my towel, I answered and found all six-and-a-bit feet of the delicious-looking Caleb leaning in the doorframe.
“I’m roughly ninety-nine percent sure I said to meet me in the common room.” I maintained a stern expression and held back my amusement at his boldness. “How did you know which room was mine anyway?”
Caleb ignored my question and dragged his gaze from my toes to the top of the towel gathered at my breasts. When he finally reached my gaze, his eyes were hot. Breath catching in my throat, I clenched my thighs together and tried to keep my expression bland. At least he had the decency to look a bit guilty.
“I came to let you know the media room is all ours and see what sort of pizza you wanted. But now I see I really should have joined you for that hair washing idea. I thought we were joking, Kitty Kat!” Despite his broad smirk, the words were delivered with a purring, suggestive undertone that made my stomach flip.
Fighting the grin twitching at the corner of my lips, I shoved him out of my doorway. Once he was clear, I shut it and called, “Pepperoni! Extra cheese!”
Taking my time getting dressed and blow drying my hair, I ignored the little voice in my head questioning why I was putting so much effort into my appearance to simply watch a movie in the media room. But just in case, I texted Lucy and invited her along. Something about Caleb screamed trouble. Better to keep him at arm’s length... for now.
Aiming for the relaxed look, I chose soft gray sweatpants and a black long sleeve top with a V-neck. The cut of the top offered a generous view of my perfectly adequate cleavage, but it was purely a coincidence, I swear. I added a light layer of mascara before heading out to find Caleb in front of the movie screen where the pizzas must have just arrived.
The smell of cheesy pizza made my mouth water and my stomach growl, so I hurried over and dropped onto the floor beside him. He’d laid out cushions so we could access the food easier.
Caleb chuckled. “I guess I’m choosing the movie then?”
I waved my already claimed slice of pizza toward the bookshelf holding hundreds of DVDs beside the projector screen.
He took a minute browsing the options while I started chomping my way through some pizza. Finally, he held up three cases. The Notebook, Schindler’s List, and Blade. I made a face at him—what asylum did he escape from? My options were chick flick, sob story, and an action movie? Action movie, duh. Shaking my head, I pointed at Blade. He grinned and slid it into the player before rejoining me on the floor.
“Good choice.” He smirked.
“Like there was a choice,” I snorted. “The Notebook and Schindler’s List? Really?”
He gave me a wide-eyed innocent look. “I don’t know where your movie tastes run; that is the whole point of hanging out... to get to know you.”
“Mmm hmm,” I hummed, still questioning his sanity because he had looked more than a little reluctant to put The Notebook away. “You’re lucky you brought pizza.” I took another huge bite of said pizza and thanked the stars Caleb’s snarky brother wasn’t crashing our party. I doubted I would have been anywhere near as comfortable feeding my cheese addiction in front of him.
With a snort, he reached over to wipe the corner of my mouth. “You’ve got a little sauce...” Then, as though we were trapped in some corny chick flick, leaned in closer. His face mere inches from mine, our breath mingled. It was the most clichéd move in the world, but holy crap. My whole body seemed to quiver in anticipation.
Hell, even his body heat seemed to radiate against my lips. He moved a fraction closer, and I waited impatiently, begging him to just close the gap and kiss me for God’s sake! Perfect movie-like moments didn’t just present themselves every day.
“Hey guys! What are we watching? Ooooh, Blade! Good choice. Yay, pizza too!!” Lucy plonked down on Caleb’s other side and started talking a million miles an hour, shocking me into jerking backwards like I’d been burned. What the Hell, Kit? What happened to keeping him at arm’s length? Idiot.
Caleb sighed, still watching me like a predator, before slowly sitting back and turning his attention to Lucy. “Hey Luce, I didn’t know you were joining us tonight.”
Lucy shrugged and helped herself to my pizza, the bitch. “I know. Kit called me in as a chaperone ’cause she doesn’t think she can resist that sexy body of yours.” Yep, my best friend was a major bitch. I was going to kill her.
The sexy boy in question got a sly look on his face, like the cat who caught the canary, and drawled, “Really... how interesting...” Almost gloating, he glanced at me, and heat scalded my face. Damn them both, now I was blushing. “Isn’t that interesting, Kit?”
“Oh, shut it, you know you’re hot. As for you,”—I glared daggers at the blue haired imp beside Caleb—“you and I will be discussing this later!”
Lucy just giggled and hit play on the movie, then shushed us as it began.
The three of us watched Wesley Snipes kill vampires for a while in companionable silence and polished off the rest of the pizza. About a third of the way in, Caleb stretched like a giant cat. His shirt rose, revealing the edges of a tattoo curling down the side of his chiseled lower abdominal muscles. Curious about what it depicted, I tilted my head to try and snag a better look. At his amused hum, I snapped my gaze up to see he had caught me gawking. Done with being embarrassed, I met his gaze and asked, “What? I was appreciating the tattoo artist’s skill. What is it anyway?”
He smirked then lifted his long sleeve top to give me a better look, and I realized how drastically wrong my plan had gone. So very wrong. But so right.
Shit, did I just drool a little? I wiped my mouth while pretending to scratch my face. Nope, all clear. Just mental drool. Because fuck, the boy was ripped. The tattoo in question turned out to be an intricate sprawl of mandalas and lotus flowers that hugged his side and disappeared both higher and lower than I could see. After an inappropriate amount of time ogling at Caleb’s naked skin, I forced my gaze away and caught his smug look.
Clearing my throat, I said the only thing I could think of that wouldn’t make me sound like I wanted to lick him from head to toe. “Your tattoo artist is very talented. That’s a beautiful piece.”
His smirk broadened into a full grin. Laughing softly, he dropped his shirt back into place. No mistaking it. Caleb knew exactly what he was doing.
“Guys,” Lucy snapped, “Shut up and watch the movie.” She took her vampire flicks very seriously and frequently kicked me out if I f
idgeted or talked too much.
Even though we went back to watching the movie, I wasn’t seeing it. Then his hot breath tickled my neck as he whispered, “I can show you the rest of my ink later.” The invitation in his voice left no doubt that to see the rest, clothes would need removing.
I blushed and kept my face forward. Though I refused to answer, it didn’t stop the warm shiver racing through my blood.
For the rest of the movie I remained hyperaware of his warm shoulder pressed into mine and every shift of his body. It was maddening. The steadily increasing sound of rain pattering against the windows only amped my distraction. A flash of lightning flooded the room with bright light, followed swiftly by a deafening crack of thunder. Despite having expected it since the storm began, the sound still jarred loose an unpleasant memory. No matter how much I didn’t want to remember, I couldn’t stop the tension coiling in my muscles or the rapid race of my heart as the past pulled me back into that hellish room. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and clenched my fists, willing myself back to the present.
“You okay, Kit?” Lucy asked cautiously. She knew how much I hated storms and, even more so, the sound of thunder. I paused a moment before nodding tightly, trying to breathe normally. It’s just thunder. I repeated the mantra to myself over and over. It’s just thunder.
Caleb peered at me with a worried expression on his face. “What’s going on...?” Another loud crack sounded outside, and I jerked. Locking my jaw, I sucked my lips against my teeth. It was the only way to keep the scream inside. He pressed a gentle hand on my shoulder but glanced at Lucy, not me.
“Kit... doesn’t like storms...” she hedged. I needed to get it together. I checked her expression, and her eyes asked me if she could explain further, but I shook my head frantically.
“I’m fine,” I squeaked out eventually, forcing my jaw to relax long enough to let out the words. “It’s just the thunder.”
“You’re not fine,” Caleb admonished. “You’re trembling.” He wrapped one of his thick arms around me and tugged me closer into him. I’d have to have been dead to not experience some comfort while secure in his warm embrace. Then the thunder cracked overhead, and I tensed again. His arms tightened as the lights flickered, and then we were plunged into darkness. A pathetic squeak escaped, and I clenched my eyes closed.