Foreplay: The Ivy Chronicles (15 page)

“No. Don’t get up.” I hurried into the kitchen, poured him a small glass of Gatorade, and shook out two caplets of Tylenol.

When I returned he took the pills from me and set them on his tongue, chasing them with a cautious sip. “Thanks.” He set the glass down on the nightstand. “You really don’t have to miss work for me.”

“Too late. Besides”—I motioned to his kitchen table where my books were spread out—“I got some studying done.” I had retrieved my backpack from my car after he fell asleep.

Nodding, he eased up onto his feet, instantly towering over me.

I held out a hand as though to steady him, even though all that bare inked skin made my pulse jump a little, made me remember the other night. Both nights. Here and in my dorm. They seemed more like a dream now than real. My body tangled up with his—all lean lines, hard angles, and curving muscles. His hands touching me in places no one had before. My gaze skimmed over his body. And there was that dangerous edge to him with half his torso inked up. Like he belonged in a prison yard lifting weights with other convicts. Not with me.

I lowered my hand from where it hovered over his bicep and moistened my dry lips. “What are you doing? You should stay in bed.” On your back. Weak and sick and far less intimidating.

His mouth lifted into a half-grin. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be okay, Mom.”

I blushed. I did tend to be motherly. Emerson and Georgia always said so. Ironic considering I never had that kind of mother. But when you grew up in a community where people, including your own guardian, were often sick, it went with the territory.

I watched as he moved toward the bathroom, the light play of muscles beneath the golden skin of his back mesmerizing me. His strides were much less swift and sure than normal. At the bathroom door, he paused and looked back over his shoulder. “You can stay. If you want to.” He glanced back at the table where all my books were spread out. “Study here.”

I nodded, my heart doing a crazy little flip. He turned back around and closed himself in the bathroom. The sound of the shower soon hummed through the door.

My heart still felt foolishly light as I found fresh sheets in a chest near the bed. Stripping off his old sheets and replacing them with his new ones, I was plumping his pillows when he emerged from the shower ten minutes later. He paused, scrubbing a towel over his head. “You changed my sheets?”

I rose to face him and had to fight a smile. He looked almost confused.

“You were sick . . . thought you might like fresh sheets.”

He stared at me solemnly. Like he was trying to figure me out. My smile faded. Because that would never happen. I could never let it happen. God, first I’d have to figure myself out, and that was a constant struggle.

Just when I thought I knew what I wanted in life and who I was, I’d get a call from Gram depressed about Daddy. She’d talk about how everything went to hell when he married my mother. How he should have married Frankie Mazzerelli, his high school sweetheart, who was now married to a pharmacist and had four kids. And if it wasn’t Gram, I’d have one of my nightmares, and it would be like I was ten all over again, hiding in the shadows and praying for an invisibility cloak. That had been my fantasy. Other little girls dream of castles. I dreamed for invisibility.

I didn’t know anything then, and I was still trying to figure myself out. So far I’d changed my major three times, finally settling on psychology. Like becoming a therapist and helping others with their problems might somehow help me work my way through mine.

There was only one irrefutable truth in my life. Only one thing I knew. Hunter was good. Hunter was normal. And I wanted that. Correction:
Him
. I wanted him. That I knew. That was the plan.

“Thanks,” he said. “For doing this. Being here.”

“Want to try and eat something?” I moved into the kitchen. “I got chicken noodle soup. Jell-O. Crackers.”

“I might be ready for a little Jell-O.”

I removed one of the small cups from the fridge and handed it to him. He opened a drawer and selected a spoon. Leaning against the counter, he studied me. “Did you eat already?”

“I grabbed a late lunch and snacked on some crackers while you slept. I’m fine.”

He peeled the foil lid off the cup. “They could make you something downstairs. It’s wing night.”

“That’s okay.”

He spooned a small bite of strawberry Jell-O into his mouth. The muscles in his jaw feathered as he moved it around, savoring it slowly.

“I didn’t think I’d see you again. Why’d you come?” he asked as he focused on spooning another bite.

I couldn’t see his face to properly judge his thoughts, but I thought he sounded almost relieved that I had proved him wrong. Was he glad I was here?

“After what you said that night, I’m not surprised you thought that.”

He looked up then, his gaze cutting deep. “So why are you here?”

At least he didn’t pretend not to understand my reference. “What did you mean, you put your father in a wheelchair?”

“Just what I said.”

“So you . . . hurt him? Deliberately?”

His lips twisted into a harsh smile. “You want me to make it sound less
wrong
. You want me to tell you I’m something else. Something that isn’t broken. Is that it, Pepper?” He shook his head and tossed the empty plastic cup into the garbage can. “I’m not going to lie to you and convince you that I’m someone good and shiny like your guy that’s going to be a doctor.”

He pushed off from the counter and moved toward the bed again.

“That’s not what I’m doing.”

“Yes, you are. I can see it in the way you’re looking at me with those big green eyes.”

My hands knotted into fists at my sides. “I just want to know the truth.”

“What does it matter?” he said over his shoulder as he pulled back the covers on the bed. “We don’t need to be sharing each other’s life stories. We don’t need to know any truths about each other. What we’re doing together doesn’t need to be complicated.”

I blinked as his words washed over me. He was right, of course. I didn’t need to know who he was.

“Would you kill the light?” he asked, sighing as he crawled back into bed.

“You’re going to sleep.”

“I’m still wiped. So. Yeah.” He lifted his head. “Are you staying?”

I glanced from him to the table with my stuff spread out. “I think I’ll go.”

He held my gaze for a long moment before nodding once and dropping his head back down on the pillow. I started to gather my stuff up when his voice stopped me.

“Or you can stay. Whatever you want to do.”

Did he want me to stay? It almost sounded like he did. I hovered, unsure. Gradually, I set my books back down on the table and moved toward the bed. Kicking off my shoes, I climbed in beside him.

I eased toward him. His body radiated heat in the bed. I relaxed, inching closer, burrowing the tip of my nose against his back, savoring the clean smell of his skin, fresh from the shower.

His voice rumbled through his back toward me. “Hey, your nose is cold.”

I grinned against his skin. “How about my feet?” I wedged them between his calves.

He hissed. “Get some socks on, woman.”

I laughed lightly. “You’re feverish. Maybe it helps.”

Rolling over onto his side, he faced me. His bright eyes seared me, probably sending my temperature soaring, too. His hand found my arm, fingers stroking up and down leisurely. Seductively. Even sick, he was seducing me. He probably didn’t even realize it. It’s just what he did. Who he was. How he affected me.

His eyes drifted shut. Without opening them, he murmured, “I like the sound of your laugh. It’s real and genuine. A lot of girls have this fake laugh. Not you.”

“I like your laugh, too,” I whispered, feeling pulled in, cozy in the cocoon of his bed.

“Yeah?”

I flattened my palm over his chest, enjoying the sensation of the firm flesh, even warm as it was. He sighed, like my cool hand offered him some relief.

“I laugh more since you came around,” he said quietly, his lips barely forming the words.

He did? I frowned. He must not have laughed at all before, then, because I didn’t think he was particularly jovial.

I held him through the night. And he held me back, tucking my head beneath his chin.. His arms surrounded me and kept me close to his overly warm body. Almost like I was some kind of lifeline. I felt the moment his fever broke around one in the morning. Confident that he was on the mend, I finally relaxed and fell asleep.

Chapter 17

T
he remnants of Halloween were in full evidence as I carefully maneuvered down the hall toward my room, stepping around orange and black Silly String. I could already imagine the look on Heather’s face when she woke up. Our RA would probably call a special floor meeting over this. I sighed, not looking forward to it.

Speaking of Heather
. I was four doors from my room when a guy suddenly slipped out of her room. Holding his shoes in one hand, he closed the door carefully, like he didn’t want to make a sound. As he turned, we came face-to-face. I blinked up at him. “Er, Logan?”

“Hey, Pepper,” he whispered, running a hand through his artfully disheveled hair. The action only made the dark blond hair stick out more wildly. Just like his brother, he was probably hot on his worst day. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Yeah. I live here.” My gaze flicked from him to Heather’s door—RA, grad student, and twenty-four. “Does she know you’re in high school?”

He grinned crookedly, bending to tug on his shoes. “I don’t think she cares.”

I snorted. “I bet.”

“Hey, you have a car, right?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Well, Heather drove last night. I was going to call someone for a lift back to Mulvaney’s . . .”

I smirked. “Why don’t you ask Heather?”

“Oh, I don’t want to wake her.”

“Right.” Readjusting my laundry basket on my hip, I started for my room. “Let me just drop this off and grab my keys.”

“Thanks.” He followed behind. When I glanced back it was to catch him looking nervously over his shoulder—as if he was worried that Heather was going to come after him.

I dropped off my basket and grabbed my keys, a smile twitching my mouth. “C’mon, Romeo.”

He grinned unrepentantly as we walked to the elevator. “I’m no Romeo. There’s no one girl I’m pining for.”

I nodded. “This is true.”

“Now my brother on the other hand . . .” His voice trailed off as he eyed me knowingly.

I shook my head, warmth crawling over my face and reaching all the way to my ears. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You two have been seeing a lot of each other.”

I shrugged one shoulder uneasily. “I wouldn’t say a
lot
.” Sure, I had seen more of him than any guy before, but Logan didn’t know that.

We stepped into the empty elevator. Two girls were already there, talking. Their gazes slid over Logan appreciatively before they continued with their conversation. A conversation I couldn’t help listening to—especially when I heard the words
kink club.
Em would want me to tell her everything I overheard. She’d been on a mission to learn more about it ever since we first heard of its existence. She thought it an insult that she somehow hadn’t landed an invitation yet.

“Yeah . . . Hannah got an invite,” one said. “Apparently she knows someone who’s already a member. And you know Hannah, she’s always been into the freaky stuff . . .”

I couldn’t help sliding a look to Logan. Clearly, he was listening, too, if the interested expression on his face signified anything. He was probably wishing he could meet this Hannah.

Stepping off the elevator, I teased, “You want to ask them for Hannah’s number?”

He chuckled as we stepped outside into the brisk morning. The wind cut sharply at my face and I wished I had taken the time to throw a jacket and scarf over my sweater. “She does sound interesting, but no thanks. I’m more of a traditionalist.”

I didn’t bother pointing out that sleeping with a different girl every week didn’t exactly qualify as traditional. We slid into the car and I turned on the heat as soon as I started it.

“So,” I began as I pulled from the parking lot. “Your brother know where you are?”

His smile shifted into something smug and catlike. His stare turned knowing, and I had to fight the urge to fidget.

“Why don’t you just ask me what you really want to know?”

“W-what do you mean?” I stammered.

“You want to know everything about my brother. Admit it.”

“I don’t want to know everything.”
Just the key parts
.

“Well, I can tell you that he’s seriously into you.”

“How can you tell that?” I demanded before realizing that I should maybe try to act like I didn’t care either way.

“There haven’t been a lot of girls. I mean, clearly he’s no me.” I snorted and rolled my eyes. He flattened a palm to his chest and winked. “But there have been a few. Nothing like you though.”

“And what am I like?”

“You, Pepper, are the kind of girl a guy brings home. Which is why I guess Reece never got involved with your type before. We don’t have much of a home to bring girls home to. Our old man is a piece of work. Even before his accident, he was bitter and foul-mouthed. Hell, I don’t know what flew faster—his fists or the empty beer bottles he threw at us.”

My hands clenched around the steering wheel. A familiar sour feeling rolled through me. It sounded like his childhood was no better than mine. A different poison, yes, but poison was poison. “He sounds great.”

“Yeah. A real prince.”

“You mentioned an accident.” Reece hadn’t called what happened to his father an accident. He blamed himself. “What happened?”

“He wrapped his truck around a tree. Broke his spine.”

A car crash? How was that Reece’s fault? I moistened my lips. “Reece said something. It sounded like he thinks he’s responsible.”

Logan looked at me sharply. “He said that to you?”

I nodded.

Logan swore. “It wasn’t his fault. The old man blames him, but it’s bullshit. Reece didn’t come home for spring break to work, and Dad wrecked his truck driving home after closing up. In his mind, if Reece had been there he wouldn’t have been driving that night.”

My mind reeled as I pulled into Mulvaney’s parking lot. I guessed we all had our crosses to bear. Except Hunter. He only ever knew a loving family. Parents that stood by their children and protected and supported them. “That’s not right.”

“Nope,” Logan announced, a tightness in his voice hinting that he had a lot more to say on the subject of his brother dropping out of school and sacrificing his future. “I wouldn’t have done it. I’m more selfish, I guess. Once I graduate, I’m out of here. Gonna live my own life. Hopefully, Reece will, too. He won’t have me to worry about anymore at least.”

“You think he’ll go back to school?”

He shook his head. “No, he enjoys running the bar. He didn’t at first, but it’s in his blood. Our grandfather opened it and made it what it is. The business had been in decline with Dad. Things have picked up since Reece took over. He’s been talking with different banks about opening a second location. My dad will flip his shit. He doesn’t like change. But I doubt that will stop Reece. He’s determined.”

I pulled up to the back door, wishing I had driven slower. Everything Logan said revealed a new side to Reece, confirming that he was more than I first assumed.

Opening the door, Logan hesitated. “Thanks for the ride.”

“You’re welcome.”

His eyes, so like Reece’s, fastened on me. “My brother is a good guy, you know.”

I nodded, unsure what to say to that.

“I heard you came over and took care of him when he was sick.” I nodded once, warmth flushing my face. “He deserves someone like you.”

Embarrassed, I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and looked out the windshield. “That’s nice of you to say, but you don’t know me at all, Logan.” I wasn’t someone who was going to save his brother. Even if I wanted to, it wasn’t in me to save anyone. I could barely save myself.

“Maybe I can see you better than you think.”

“I don’t think so.”

“All right then. Fine. Maybe
I
don’t.” Something in his voice pulled my attention back to his face. His pale eyes cut into me. “But Reece does. He sees you. He wouldn’t be wasting his time with you otherwise.”

My fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “You’re making a lot of assumptions here. It isn’t like that between us. Reece and I are barely friends.”

He laughed a little then, shaking his head like I’d said something incredibly funny. “Keep telling yourself that.” Climbing out of the car, he ducked his head to look back inside. “See you around, Pepper.”

He slammed the door shut, and the sound reverberated on the air for a moment as I watched him disappear into the bar. Muttering to myself, I put the car into drive, deciding I probably needed to take a little break from hanging out so much at Mulvaney’s.