by Minard, Tori
“He probably told you to stay away from me,” Max said in a low voice.
My face heated and I knew I was turning pink. “Yeah, he did.”
“I’m surprised you’re talking to me.”
I glanced sidelong at him. “I like to make up my own mind about a person.” Also, I was too polite for my own good.
He aimed one of those lazy smiles at me. “I’m glad to hear it.” His smile broadened into a grin, which brought out dimples in his cheeks. Damn it. He had to have dimples, too? “Everything he told you about me is probably true.”
I stared at him openly. “Huh? Why would you say that?”
He shrugged. “I’m a terrible person. You should stay away from me. Far away.”
“I expected you to tell me how wrong he is about you.”
“What would be the fun in that?”
I shook my head. “You’re very strange.”
“That’s what they tell me.”
We reached the cafe. It had little bistro tables at the edge of the long, wide second-floor hall with its rows of international flags. Ever since I’d started at Central Willamette, I’d wondered why we had a hall filled with those flags.
I stood at one of the tables and scanned for Paige, but couldn’t see her. “I guess my friend isn’t here yet,” I said.
“Get a table and I’ll pick up your drink for you. What do you want?”
“I’ll have a sixteen ounce mocha.” I opened my bag and started digging around for my wallet.
“Don’t worry about the money. I’ve got it.”
He walked off before I could protest. I really didn’t want him buying me anything, even a coffee. However, I also didn’t want to run after him and argue about it in front of all the other patrons. I sat down at the table to wait. When he came back, we’d discuss the money.
Paige still hadn’t arrived when Max returned with the drinks. He set mine in front of me and took the other chair. I had the money ready and I pushed a five dollar bill across the table at him.
He jerked his head back slightly, as if affronted. “I told you I’ve got it.”
“I can’t let you buy me a drink.”
He slid the bill back toward me. “I’m not buying you a drink. It’s just coffee.”
“You know what I mean. I need to pay my way.”
“I’m not taking your money, Caro. Put it away.”
“No. I need to pay for my drink.”
“If you won’t put it away, it’s going to stay on the table. I’m serious.” He narrowed his eyes at me.
Was he really offended that I wouldn’t let him pay? I sighed and took back the fiver.
“Okay, fine. You can pay.”
“Thank you.” He leaned back in his chair. “Now, what would you like to know about me?”
Why does your dad hate you? But I couldn’t ask him that. “Did you really run away when you were sixteen?”
“Yep.”
“Where’d you go?” Trent’s family was from Billings, Montana.
“I hitchhiked to Seattle.”
“That’s dangerous.”
“No shit.” He gave a careless shrug. “I came through okay, though.”
“I’m glad.”
“Are you?” His gaze sharpened.
“Yeah. I hate thinking of kids living on the streets. Runaways...it’s scary, that’s all.”
He held my gaze a lot longer than was comfortable. I flushed, but for some reason I couldn’t understand, I didn’t look away. His eyes were blue. Dark, deep-ocean blue. There was pain in them...but then it disappeared, so quickly I wasn’t sure it had ever been there.
“It’s nice of you to care,” he said dryly.
“Well, I do.”
Awkward silence. I took a sip of my mocha. He drank whatever it was he’d gotten. I glanced around, looking for Paige. Rescue me, best friend. But she wasn’t in sight. I was on my own with this strange, intense man I wasn’t supposed to like.
“So, what’s your major?” he said.
Ah, the quintessential college ice-breaker. “French.”
“Really, French? That’s different.”
“Yeah. Not too practical.” My parents and Trent were always bugging me to change it to something “normal,” like education. But I didn’t want to be a teacher like my mom. I didn’t know what I wanted to be.
“What’s yours?” I said.
“Business.”
My brows rose. “Business, huh? I never would have tagged you as a business major.”
“I own a business. I thought it might help my career to spend a few years in college.”
“Wow.” My brows rose even higher. “You have your own business?”
So not what I’d expected from him.
“Yeah. I’m a graphic designer.”
Again with the surprises. I’m not sure what I thought he’d major in or do for a living, just that owning his own graphic design business was not it. Did Trent know about this?
“That sounds really interesting,” I said.
“Don’t get me started, or I’ll talk your ear off.” He gave me a self-deprecating smile.
“You’d have to start from the beginning, because I don’t know anything about either graphic design or business.”
“What do you plan to do with that French degree?”
“I have no idea.”
He grinned at me. “Good plan.”
“I like to think so.”
I shouldn’t be sitting here with him. My stomach was full of hysterically panicking butterflies, and the rest of me ached in weird places. Intimate places. He made me feel things that, honestly, I’d never felt for any guy before. Not even Trent. I’d never had such a powerful reaction to anyone else.
His hand moved a few inches toward mine where it rested on the table. Was he going to touch me? I wanted him to, and I felt bad for wanting it. This was not me. I’d never cheated on any of the guys I’d dated. I was a committed serial monogamist.
Max’s hand stopped, then retreated back into his own space. I lifted my coffee to my lips, pretending I hadn’t seen. Maybe I’d imagined him reaching out to me. Part of me hoped I had and the rest of me wished he’d kept going so I could feel his skin against mine again.
I glanced up, trying to ease the sudden tension, and saw Paige coming toward us, looking like an Asian-American fashion model, as always, with her long, slender legs and ultra-chic dress. She had a big smile on her face and I wasn’t sure what that meant. She wasn’t the most discreet person in the world, and now that she’d seen me with Max, the news would probably be all over our sorority house by this evening.
“Paige, this is Max, Trent’s stepbrother,” I said by way of greeting.
Her dark, almond eyes widened. “Trent’s stepbrother? Wow. I didn’t know he had any brothers at all.”
“Max, this is my best friend, Paige Lin.”
He offered her a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“And you.” She shook hands with him.
I watched her closely, to see if she had any kind of unusual reaction I could detect. As far as I could tell, he didn’t affect her at all. Not the way he did me, at any rate.
Paige dragged an extra chair to the table. “Did Trent introduce you two?”
“Not exactly,” I said.
Max just smiled blandly.
“Well.” Paige looked from me to him and back again. “I’m just...really surprised.”
This was going to get icky fast unless I changed the subject. Paige could be obnoxiously inquisitive and she didn’t care who knew. She wouldn’t hesitate trying to pry Max’s family history out of him.
“Max is a business major,” I said in my perkiest tone. “He owns his own graphic design business.”
Her eyes widened even more. “Do you? I’m a design major myself.”
Oh, boy, here we go. I’d made a bad choice of subject change. They’d be off in design land now, talking in their special language no-one else could understand. I got this from
Paige all the time.
But Max only said, “do you two share an apartment?” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one looking for another topic.
“I live in the sorority house,” Paige said. “And Caroline, for reasons no-one understands, still lives in the dorms.”
I rolled my eyes. “I like the dorms.”
“No-one actually likes the dorms, Caroline,” she said. “You’ve been brainwashed or something.”
“Whatever.”
“Hey, dorms can have some advantages,” Max said.
“Oh, yeah?” Paige turned to him skeptically. “Like what?”
“Uh...hmmm...she’s very close to all her classes,” he said. “That’s convenient. And the library, also convenient.”
Paige just looked at him, her face blank, as if he were speaking in a foreign language. “She’s away from all the action.”
“I never miss a party at the library,” I said.
She snickered and after a second’s pause, I joined her. Max was looking at me and smiling, and the warmth in his eyes startled me. It made me hot all over.
Why was he looking at me like that? Why was he even here? Maybe Trent was right about him and he was trying to get close to me just to mess with his stepbrother. That seemed so unlikely, though. I mean, who did that?
***
Explosions were going off right in the hallway of my dorm. I groaned and pried my eyes open. In the thin light of early morning, a girl stood by the side of my bed, staring down at me. She had long, perfectly straight blond hair and wore a white tunic-like top with blue embroidery around the neckline. Her face, bare of make-up, seemed contemplative, as if she was studying me.
The explosions resolved into the sound of someone banging on my door. I blinked and the girl in white vanished. For an instant, I lay there frowning at the place where she’d been, while the pounding continued even more loudly than before.
I must have been dreaming. I glanced at the clock to see it was only five-thirty. Whoever was on the other side of my door had some explaining to do, and the explanation had better be that the building was on fire.
With another groan, I crawled out of bed and hobbled to the door. Opening it, I found Paige in the hallway, looking offensively bright and chipper. She had full make-up on her face, for pity’s sake. And she carried one of those enormous flat doughnut boxes from a supermarket, with a tray of coffee cups balanced on top.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I croaked. “Where’s the fire?”
She brandished the treats at me. “I brought buttermilk old-fashioned. Your favorite. And coffee.”
“Do you know what time it is?”
“Five-thirty.” She had the nerve to smile at me.
I opened the door to let her enter. “I’m in pain right now, Paige.”
She pranced into my room like she’d done something wonderful. “I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I thought I might as well get up and get us some breakfast.”
Why? Rubbing my eyes, I fought down the urge to glare at her. She meant well, after all. “My first class isn’t until nine. Which I scheduled on purpose, just so I wouldn’t have to get up at five-freaking-thirty.”
“Oops.” She sent me an apologetic glance. “Sorry. I thought you had a seven o’clock like usual.”
“Just get me some of that coffee, quick. But what’s with all the cups?”
“They were running a special. I figured we couldn’t have too much coffee this early in the morning.”
“You got that right.”
Paige set the doughnuts and coffee on the tiny built-in desk that would have belonged to my roommate, if I’d had one. I’d lucked out this year and gotten a room to myself. I opened the doughnut box and grabbed one, sniffing its sugary aroma before taking a bite.
“How come Trent never mentioned Max?” she said.
I shrugged, trying to seem casual. “They don’t get along.”
“That’s some pretty serious not-getting-along, if he won’t even talk about him.”
“Tell me about it.”
“And he’s so freaking hot. I thought I was seeing things when I walked up to you two at the cafe.”
“Yeah, he is good-looking.” No way was I going to admit how much I lusted after him. I took another bite of doughnut. Nope, no inappropriate hankering going on here.
“You like him, don’t you?” Paige said.
“No, I don’t. He’s weird. He kind of gives me the creeps.”
“Really?” Her delicate dark brows climbed. “Why? He seemed nice to me.”
“I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the way he looks at me.” I set down my doughnut. “You can’t tell anyone you saw us together. Have you told anyone yet?”
“No.” Her eyes were wide and serious. I hoped she was telling me the truth, because I really didn’t want any gossip about this.
“I can’t have it getting back to Trent. He’ll have a fit.”
“You guys were in public. Other people besides me probably saw you.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t know who Max is.”
“You don’t know that,” she said. “One of Trent’s frat brothers might have been hanging around and we didn’t see him.”
“That’s true.” I rubbed my eyes again. “What if he wanted to be seen with me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Trent claims he’s a major manipulator and that he has it in for him. What if he’s getting all cozy with me just to irritate Trent?”
“That’s twisted.” She bit thoughtfully into a maple bar. “Do you suppose he’s really that bad? Maybe Trent is exaggerating.”
“I don’t know. What really bugs me is he wouldn’t say why he hates Max so much. He just said he was a wild kid and ran away when he was sixteen.”
“Sounds like you need to do some detective work.”
“Do I? Maybe I just need to mind my own business.” Besides, I hadn’t got a single clue how to be a detective.
Chapter 4
Max
The next time I saw Caroline, it was several days after our cafe meeting. She was walking along the sidewalk next to the chem hall, wearing a huge backpack slung over one shoulder. She had on shorts that exposed the bottom half of her legs and a hoodie to keep her warm in the morning chill.
Those were some incredible legs. Tight with muscle, a sexy curve in her calves, tiny ankles. I swallowed hard as I watched her stroll down the street ahead of me, unaware of my presence. She didn’t have Selene’s overt sexuality, yet I couldn’t stop looking at her.
Our prior conversation had revealed a different person than the one I’d expected. She wasn’t quite the empty-headed party girl I’d thought she’d be, but she still looked like Miss Sweet Girl Next Door with her long shorts...you know, the kind that go all the way down to the knee. Prissy. And she was still Trent’s girlfriend, so although she might be friendly on the surface, she had to be like him underneath. Where it counted.
I quickened my pace to catch up with her. My heart started its usual frantic pounding whenever I saw her, which was totally due to the fact I was ruthlessly using her to get back at Trent. Treating women badly wasn’t normal behavior for me and I didn’t much like it. But I wouldn’t really hurt her; I’d only go far enough to drive my stepbrother crazy and then I’d back off.
“Hey, Caroline,” I said as I came shoulder to shoulder with her.
She jerked her head around and stared at me like I’d really scared her. “Um...hi.”
Was she afraid of me? Maybe Trent had already told her what I’d done. My pounding heart seemed to shrivel up inside my chest at the thought that Caroline saw me as a murderer.
I forced a smile. “How are you?”
“I’m good. You?”
“I’m fine.” Yeah. A scintillating conversationalist, too. “So...are you headed to class?”
“Um...” She glanced around as if looking for someone to bail her out of a bad situation. “No. I have an hour until my next one.”
�
��What a coincidence. So do I.”
“Oh.” She smiled weakly. Trent had definitely scared her.
A good guy would back off at this point and let her go her way. But I wasn’t a particularly good guy, and I wanted to shake up my stepbrother badly enough that it didn’t matter to me if I made Caroline nervous.
Okay, yeah, it bothered me. A lot. But I wasn’t going to let that get in my way.
“I was just on my way to get some coffee. Come with me, keep me company.”
She ducked her head. “Oh, no. I couldn’t.”
“Aw, come on. I promise I won’t bite.”
Her lips pressed together like she was trying not to smile. “How do I know you’ll keep your promise?”
“I always keep my promises.”
Caroline glanced furtively around at the other people going to and from classes. “No. Really. Trent might find out.”
“You’re that worried about him?” Good.
“Yes. He told me to stay away from you.”
“Hmm.” I tilted my head, watching her as we continued down the sidewalk. “I thought you liked to make up your own mind.”
“I do. But I don’t want to make him jealous, either.”
“Jealous?” I laughed a little. “Over coffee? I think he’s way too controlling if you can’t even go out for coffee with a friend.”
That must have been the right button to push, because she lifted her head with a determined frown. “You’re right. Okay, let’s go.”
“Great. You want to hit the same place as last time?”
“No. I know a place downtown.”
“Won’t that make you late for your next class?”
She glanced at me with a sheepish-looking smile. “I sort of lied. I don’t have another class until this afternoon.”
I’d hit the jackpot. I could have her to myself for a couple of hours, maybe. That would give me plenty of time to work on getting her defenses down.
Another point: maybe she hadn’t heard about my crimes from Trent, because if she had she probably wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me. In my experience, people who kill their little brothers have a hard time making friends. Especially with Miss Sweet Girl Next Door.