Reckless Secrets (13 page)

"I'm from Seattle. It hardly ever snows there. How good do you think I am?"

"Shit," he said again, but excitement shone in his eyes. "This could get ugly.
And
fun." He grinned. "We're going to have to make a run for it, El. I'll protect you with my life." He laughed like he was excited. "Grab your tray. I'll take you back to the dorm. We're going to have to run like hell to make it back. Are you game?"

"Do I have a choice?"

He grinned again. "Come on." He pulled me to my feet.
 

We were immediately bombarded with a round of snowballs.
 

"Early scout," Logan said, scanning the hill that was lit with streetlights, looking for the culprit. "We're going to have to shoot for a hole in their lines." Then he grinned as he spotted something.

I followed his line of sight. A guy leaned out from behind a tree lining the nearby sidewalk and wound up to throw. Logan fired his snowball and hit the guy in the shoulder. The thrower flinched as he was hit, dropped his snowball, and rubbed his shoulder as he ducked out of sight. Logan's prowess as a baseball player was evident.

"Impressive," I said. "You really got him."

"Yeah." He laughed as he leaned down and grabbed another handful of snow.
 

I followed his lead and made a snowball, too.
 

Then Logan grabbed my hand. "Run, El! And cover your head."
 

As we took off, snowballs rained down around us. The marauding mob got closer every minute and was between us and my dorm.

A snowball hit me in the thigh. "Ouch! That stung."

Logan didn't stop to let me brush it off. He fired back in the direction of the shot and hit another guy in the chest.
 

"You're accurate," I said, looking back. My breath came in clouds beneath the streetlight.

"Don't look back, El. And cover your head."

A snowball buzzed past my ear. I covered my head with my tray with one hand as Logan pulled me along with the other. He was fast, much faster than I was. I had a hard time keeping up as he charged us through enemy lines and the thick of the fighting.

The two fighting sides lobbed snowballs back and forth. Greeks fighting Geeds. People fighting whomever. Logan pulled me through the thick of it, shielding me with his body and tray, firing back at the worst offenders. His aim was deadly accurate, or would have been if he'd been throwing something with more punch, like a ball of ice.

He pulled me between the trees and up past the edge of Greek Row toward my dorm, which sat on the line between Greeks and Geeds.
 

As my door came into sight, Logan yelled, "Get your key out, El." He dropped my hand so I could reach into my pocket and still keep my head covered.

I managed to find my key just as we reached the slippery, icy front steps of my dorm. Logan took it from me, pulled me up the steps, slid the key into the door, and like a magician, whisked us into the safety of the foyer. A snowball flew in through the door just before it closed, smashing against the wall behind Logan and exploding to snow on us inside.

I was breathing hard.
 

Logan's eyes shone with excitement. "We did it!"

"My hero!" I laughed and put one hand over my heart.

Logan took the tray out of my other hand and dropped it and mine on the floor next to us. He bent at the knees to level our heights and pulled me into him so his crotch rubbed against mine until I could feel his excitement and an ache and a longing coursed through me. I wanted him, bad.

As I gulped for air, he kissed me. Deeply, holding the back of my head so there was no escaping his passion. I was so out of breath, I was lightheaded. And yet it was the most erotic thing, being kissed almost literally breathless. Every sensation was heightened. I moaned as I wrapped my arms around his neck. And then, just as I thought it was really possible I could faint, he pulled away, smiling, that look of exhilaration still lighting his eyes.

"Shit, El," he said, like a caress.

"Yeah." I stared into his eyes. He wanted to go out and join the fight. It was written on his face.
 

His phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket. "Collin and Zave are on their way. They got wind of the fight." He was asking my permission.

"This snowball fight is strictly against university policy?" I asked.

"Yeah." He looked so adorable, my outlaw.

"Go, Butch Cassidy," I said.

He grinned. "I thought I was the Sundance Kid." He texted Collin back, leaned down, picked up our trays, and handed them to me. "Hold my tray for me."

"You don't need battle armor?"

His grin grew. I didn't even think that was possible. "You're right on the battle line. Stay in your room and keep the lights off. Keep away from the windows. This could get ugly." He gave me a quick kiss on the lips and was out the door before I could respond.

"Logan!" I called after him, but he took off at a run into the heart of the snowstorm and battle.

What had I just given him permission to do? And how right was Jason about Logan?

Chapter Eight

I followed the snowball battle in real time on Twitter. I mostly huddled against the wall away from the window with Bre on her bed, jumping up from time to time to peek out the window and watch the battle lines. The crowd surged one direction toward the dorms. Then back again toward Greek Row as the other side gained strength. The campus police finally broke it up in the early hours of the morning. Twitter was how I knew about the fistfights that broke out, the four windows in my dorm that were broken, and a rough number of arrests that were made. There was much more damage than that, but I didn't care about it, only that Logan got home safely. An hour in, as Bre and I watched the fight, a snowball hit our window so hard I was sure the window would shatter. I texted Logan frantically for an update, like was he still in one piece?

Around two, I finally got a text from him.
Home. Best all-campus snowball fight ever.

I texted back.
No more black eyes?

He replied.
Ha ha. These snowballs weren't as hard as pool balls. And I remembered to duck. But you should have seen some of the awesome kill shots I made.

I texted him.
You can brag to me tomorrow.

Will do. 'Night, Snow Angel.

I went to bed with a smile on my face.

The next morning the snow had already begun to melt and I had a big-ass bruise on my right thigh. The world was slushy and dripping as I hurried to chem lecture, late because the coffee line had been so slow in the dining hall. The carnage from the night before was evident everywhere I looked. The window of the room the floor above ours was patched with a piece of cardboard and duct tape. Now, in the slush, it was hard to imagine the wonder and beauty of last night.

In the lecture hall, Dex had saved me my usual seat. Byron had already started his stuttering lecture. I felt him watching me as I made my way past a row of knees to my place.

Dex was wearing headphones and had his iPod in his pocket, listening to music even though the lecture had begun. He didn't even look up when I entered, just pulled one earbud out and spoke to me while looking straight ahead. "Thought for a minute you were going to chicken out and I was going to have to iClick you in."

"I thought about it. Believe me." I felt harried and jangled and I hadn't even had my morning jolt of caffeine.
 

"How'd it go?"

"Tell you about it later."

Was it my imagination or was Byron staring at me the whole time he was talking? It creeped me out. The class buzzed with a low hum. Byron didn't exactly command attention. Until he outlined the new grading policy, including extra credit opportunities, and told everyone he'd recalculated their grades and they'd be posted online after class. And, by the way, everyone's grades were significantly higher, more in line with a typical chem class distribution. I swear Byron stared straight into the mass of five hundred of us right into my eyes like he had laser vision.

Dex popped out of his seat and began clapping. The rest of the class followed suit and gave Byron a standing ovation. All we needed was for someone to start singing,
Ding dong, the witch of chemistry is dead.
Byron turned a deep, bright, irrefutable red, like he was embarrassed to his core. But he wore a magnificently pleased look.

Dex leaned over and whispered in my ear, "This is your doing or I miss my guess. Good job." Then he put his fingers in his mouth and whistled so loudly I jumped.

After the lecture ended, I raced out of the auditorium so fast, Dex had to run to keep up with me. "Hold on! Where's the fire?" He was grinning. "What went on in that meeting with Byron? Whatever it was, me and about five hundred others owe you a debt of gratitude."

"Just remember that when I come to collect." I stepped in a slushy puddle and splashed muddy water up the leg of my jeans. I cursed beneath my breath.

"Don't tell me you really
did
sleep with him?" Dex sounded almost like he believed I had.

I decided in that instant that Dex was secret-worthy. He'd proven so far that he didn't have loose lips. "No, worse."

"Worse?" He sounded totally disbelieving. "Worse! There's something worse than prostituting yourself for chemistry?"

I winced and Dex backed off. That came a little too close to what Dr. Rogers had done to Logan.

"Sorry," Dex said.

"I'll tell you, but only if you promise not to tell anyone else, ever. I can't even tell Logan." I was still racing along, trying to put as much distance as possible between me and that hideous chem building. I was beginning to think that place was a regular house of horrors.

"Come on. You know you can trust me." He made a look that was so innocent and puppy dog, I had to laugh.

"Cross your heart, hope to die?"

"Stick a needle in my eye. What are we? Five?"

I shot him a look that told him I was serious.

"Okay. Hit me with it. I promise on penalty of death not to tell."

We'd reached the mall that led to the SUB. I figured I had enough of a degree of separation from chem. I came to an abrupt stop and stared directly at Dex. "He told me he loves me and then he tried to kiss me."

"Yeah, horrible. Even prostitutes don't let the guys kiss them." He made a comical face. "What did you do? You said he tried. Did you duck out of the way? Obviously you didn't slap his face. Good move, by the way. He would have flunked us all for sure then."

I laughed. "Stop it! This is serious stuff, Dex. What am I going to do for the rest of the semester? He wants me to keep coming to our weekly session."

"Of course he does," Dex said. "Word of advice—don't close the door."

"Now you sound like Nic."

"You told Nic?"

"And Tay. They're sworn to secrecy, too. But for obvious reasons, Logan has no idea. And I don't want him to find out.

"I tried to tell Byron I have a boyfriend, but Dr. Homer interrupted and then I raced out of there."

Dex nodded like he understood. "You want me to prank Byron? I can get rid of him, too." He looked excited by the idea.

"No. No more pranks." I sighed. "Tay thinks I should carry on as usual with Byron. Bake him cookies and the like. Just maintain the open-door policy until he posts final grades and I get my A."

"And I get mine," Dex said.

"That's what I like about you, Dex. You're such a humanitarian, always thinking of others."

He laughed. "So true." He grinned. "I like Tay's plan."

"You would."

"Hey, come on, Ellie. I'm not going to leave you in a lurch. What you need is a plan and a wingman."

"And a new seat in lecture," I added. "Wingman?"

"Yep. And I have a plan—every week when you go in for your weekly help session, another student will show up within minutes—"

"Seconds," I said.

"Seconds, then, of when you arrive. That's your wingman. You'll never be alone with Byron. End of problem."