Chapter 3 Harper #2
Dean laughed. “Castle Hill Lighthouse. Eight p.m. Give me your number and I’ll text you the details.”
Dean was handsome, sweet, funny. Perfect boyfriend material. As we exchanged numbers, I waited for a spark of attraction to ignite and drag my fixation away from Orion Mercer. But the energy between us remained stubbornly brother and sisterly.
But I did it, Dash. I made a friend.
***
“A volunteer?” Dr. Langford said, holding up a cardboard box in one hand and a list in the other. “Who would like to get acquainted with the chemistry storage room, just down the hall—code 353—and refill some of our classroom supplies?”
Several hands went up. Mine was not one of them. Storage rooms, in my experience, tended to be small, dark, cramped places with no moving air. Hard pass.
“Harper Bennett,” Langford said. “If you’d be so kind.”
Shit.
But the last thing I was going to do was show weakness, not so early in the game at a place like this. Get in, get out.
Not to mention, here was an opportunity to extract myself from Orion Mercer’s orbit. From the moment I’d arrived in class, I was inundated with all that was him, and I wondered just how in the hell I was supposed to survive an entire year like this.
I took the box from Langford and strode out of the classroom. The storage room was clearly marked, and I plugged in the keycode and propped open the aluminum door. It started to slide shut under the heavy weight, but the door stand held.
Get in, get out.
The room was small and cramped, lined floor to ceiling with non-chemical chemistry supplies, stored in neatly labeled shelves. A bulky, counter-like table stood in the center. My pulse quickened, and I took a deep breath.
“Nope. You’re fine. You can do this.”
I studied the shelves for a second and then realized…
“Forget something, Bennett.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin. Orion leaned in the doorframe, arms crossed, Langford’s list dangling from one hand.
“You ran out of there too fast, love.”
“You scared the crap out of me,” I said. “And stop calling me that.”
“Apologies…love.”
Orion pushed off the wall and hopped onto the table, long legs dangling. Today he wore black jeans, boots, and a cream-colored hoodie with a black zipper. I didn’t know designer labels, but my instincts told me the hoodie alone probably cost more than my entire closet.
He looks like a model…
I clenched my teeth, as if that could shut up my inner voice, and glared at him.
“Well? Are you going to help or not? I’d like to get this over with.”
“What’s the rush?” Orion said. “We have a break from class. Let’s enjoy the dim ambience of the storage room.”
“No, thanks. I don’t like it here.”
“What’s not to like? Just you, me…” He glanced around. “Graduated cylinders for days…”
Outside the door, footsteps, a man’s voice grumbling under his breath, and then the door shut with a thunk.
“What…?” I rushed at the door and pushed at the long bar handle, but the door wouldn’t budge.
You’ve got to be kidding.
I spun around. “Did you do that?” I demanded, glaring at Orion, who was in the middle of the room, nowhere near the door. Panic was already making me stupid.
He frowned. “Clearly…no. But I’m not mad about it. Trapped together. It’s fate.”
“Don’t start.” I gave the door handle another shake.
“I’m not starting anything.” Orion leaned back on the counter and shot me a knowing grin. “But I’m here if you change your mind.”
I ignored him and took a deep breath against the tightness in my chest. The room was small. The air thin…
“It’s fine,” I murmured. “We just have to wait for Langford to realize we’ve been gone too long. A few minutes, tops.”
“Or,” Orion said, “we could make the most of this time together.”
I rolled my eyes and snatched the list out of his hand. “It’s cute you’d think I’d call that an upside. Let’s get the required supplies, as instructed.”
He tilted his head, cocky smile dialed up to eleven. “You know, most girls at this school would be thrilled to be locked in a room with me.”
“Is that a fact?”
“That is a fact.”
“Good for them.”
I set about what I came to do, putting beakers, boxes of test tubes, and filaments into the box and trying to ignore Orion’s presence.
His charisma was so strong, it practically glowed around him like an aura.
Against my will, I could see exactly why most girls would want to be locked in a room with him.
Orion was also keeping the smallness of this room from feeling menacing, and so I was glad too.
Not that he needed to know that.
“Are you going to sit there, or are you going to help?” I jerked my chin at a shelf. “Clamps, stands, stoppers. Go.”
Orion turned to look at the labeled shelves, his brows coming together. “How about I hold the box and you fill it with aforementioned items.”
I sighed and set the box on the counter, then slid it toward him. “If it gets you to do actual work…”
“Careful, Bennett.” He grinned. “I could get used to you bossing me around.”
“Oh, really? You want to be treated like the vending machine?”
“Depends,” he said, eyes twinkling. “Will there be spanking? Then, yes.”
“Ugh. You’re impossible.”
Orion held the box, while I filled it with the supplies from Langford’s list. I was acutely conscious of his nearness again, his gaze on me. Worse, I didn’t mind.
“So, Harper Bennett. Tell me your life story.”
And then the lights went out.
A small tick plunged the room into black, and my chest seized. Instantly, I was ten years old, in the closet, on the floor. Dash—barely a toddler—was huddled against me, his face buried in my side, my arms wrapped around him tight while some drunken monster raged outside…
“Harper?” Orion’s voice was empty of its playful swagger. “Hey. Talk to me.”
I swallowed hard. “I—I’m fine.”
“Like hell.”
I heard the rustle of cardboard as he put the box somewhere, and then his hand was on my arm.
“Come here.”
I took a step closer, my pulse pounding between my ears. The dark was like a huge hand wrapping me in its grip and squeezing.
“I can’t see…I can’t breathe,” I whispered.