Chapter 37
Conrad
The smell of old books filled the air as Malena led me through the shelves in the Amherst building’s library. We got all the way to the back, to the office we snuck into on the night of the mausoleum party. The night—and the kiss—that changed everything.
“Abby had to run out. She found me in the rare book room and told me to leave the key on her desk and lock the door on my way out.” Malena led me into the librarian’s office and shut the door behind us. “I figured there was no harm in looking…”
The office hadn’t changed. A few book carts filled to the top, some paper folders scattered on the wide mahogany desk, towering shelves that spanned the walls.
“That’s why I’m in the library first thing on a Monday morning?” I asked dejectedly. After the Crimson Day races this past weekend, I was thinking that maybe she wanted another semi-public tryst.
The apples of her cheeks rolled up.
“I found something.” She walked over to the door we knew opened to a staircase. “I snuck downstairs to the cellar to see if anything had changed.”
“Next time, invite me before you commit a crime.” I held the door open and checked the back handle to make sure it would still open from the inside like it had before. And just like last time, no alarm. “It’s our thing.”
“What do you think I’m doing now?” she whispered, pointing with her chin toward where the original painting had once stood. I moved ahead of her as we both dropped down a few more steps into the dark and damp stone cellar. “It’s gone. The one whose paint transferred onto my clothes.”
I smiled against the pleasing sparks her warm breath sent down my spine. “I remember.”
In its place was another painting, already framed. A landscape of a cottage next to a deep blue riverbank. Rich purples and bright pinks depicted a sunset.
I recognized it from the art studio. Someone had completed it, framed it, and moved it down here. Were they planning on transporting it through the catacombs?
“I’m guessing this is the next one to be sold.” I squinted in the low light, glancing over to the door we’d stumbled through all those weeks ago. It was closed, but I couldn’t tell if anyone had altered the locks.
Malena’s fingers settled around my shoulders and tapped frantically. “Someone paints them in the studios on the other side of the building, moves them through the catacombs, then sells them.”
“So it would seem.”
She pulled on my shoulder and motioned for us to head back, and I followed her up the steps and through the doorway. I shut it behind me. “Do you think we could catch them in the act?”
I chuckled at her unfiltered elation, but I was just as excited about this new development. “Are we staking it out? Will you wear a catsuit?”
She stopped, halfway across the office now, and gave me an unamused look.
“Sorry. I like seeing you like this. That’s all. I’ll see if Isha can get us a heads-up from the gallery about whether they list this one. At the very least, they’ll probably invite her to an auction.”
She smiled and turned around. “Thank you.”
“That’s really the only reason you brought me here?” I asked as we left the office and weaved between the rows of shelves.
I took hold of her wrist and pulled her back to me. We stopped in the narrow aisle.
“Yes.” A spark lit in her eyes. “Get your head out of the gutter.”
“Only if I can put it between your legs.” I stepped her backward until there was nowhere left to go. I wondered if she realized this was the same spot I kissed her when we’d needed a quick out with the campus guard.
I pulled her into a kiss, slow and teasing, until her body melted against mine.
I groaned and ran my hands up her buttery-smooth leggings.
“Con…” She broke away. Leaning her forehead against mine, she smiled. “I have to get to class.”
“Fine. But tonight…” I told her as I pulled away. “We have a date.”
“A date?”
“Yeah… No article work. No studying,” I explained.
The day that I saw her outside Bardam Books, after she’d been out with her ex, was stuck in my head.
She mentioned that he wasn’t specifically the reason she chose not to date.
But someone had to be. And I was going to prove to her that whoever fucked it up before was just that: a fuckup from her past. I wasn’t going to lie or treat her poorly or do whatever the fuck he did to lose her.
“You’re my girlfriend, and I’m taking you on a date. ”
“Okay.” Her cheeks, crimson at the top, rose with a wide smile. “Cora and I are checking in on Sabrina this afternoon since the election is tomorrow. I’ll be free after four.”
“Perfect.” I leaned in to kiss her, but she reared back and narrowed her eyes.
“Did you vote—”
“Mailed my ballot in a week ago,” I cut in. One thing most people could agree on was that Fitzgerald Alders would be a great president. One we needed. “From what you’ve told me, Sabrina’s feelings may be mixed, but her dad has my vote.”
She smiled. “Mine too. Pick me up later?”
I nodded.
“I thought we weren’t doing anything article-related,” Malena pointed out as we passed through the entrance of Scroll she could navigate herself out of the Andes mountains using the stars and wind patterns.
And Lucy, she could MacGyver just about anything.
This was an easy favor, one they’d taken on with so much poorly withheld glee I knew I’d be hearing about it for years.
“Is this safe?” she asked, and my fingers weaved between hers as I led her to the couch. She gestured at the candles. “Open flames around all these books?”
“Probably not. And your limbs do have a tendency to flail.” I arched a teasing brow. “Don’t knock one over.”
She leaned forward on the couch, a hair’s distance from my face. “Don’t give my limbs a reason.”
She leaned back and took in the ambience around us, and as I began opening the cartons of pad Thai and green curry, I watched her relax. Malena was endlessly fascinating when she was willing to open up.
Not about school or her grades or her future. Just herself.
I spent so much time with her but hardly got to those parts. And when I did, I hoarded them like a dragon with treasure.
“Ishani told me about why the mausoleum is always empty.” Malena looked up from her container. “You were the reason nobody’s been in here all semester?
My face heated a little, and I shrugged. “Nobody but you studies here anyway.”
“You do.”
“Because the pretty girl I like studies here,” I admitted, and her lips twitched. She busied herself with grabbing a dumpling with her chopsticks. “And, I like being around her.”
A blush painted her face. My chest filled with pride.
“Did you spend a lot of time at the library growing up?” I asked.
She loved this place, and even though I was going to save the Morgan library for another date, maybe in the spring, I knew she’d love it there too.
She shook her head. “No, I mostly read in my room.”
“Right.” I snapped my fingers. “In the closet.”
She grinned.
“It was peaceful, and I had a book light.” Her eyes spanned along the shelves filled with first editions, classics, obscure works.
“I like being around books.” She took a deep inhale.
“It’s like peeking through a keyhole. I can’t be in that world, but I can see it.
Right here, I’m in the middle of a million different places. With a million different people.”
Her eyes dropped a bit at the corners and her expression changed. It became almost gloomy.
“Holing up in your closet must have been lonely.”
She seemed to relish being around people, while at the same time, she had that desk cave thing.
“Unbearably.” A melancholic smile arched up her cheeks. “My parents were strict growing up and I didn’t go to friends’ houses very often. I like the quiet, but I don’t like being on my own. If that makes sense.”
“It does.” I pushed a few stray hairs behind her ear.
She had her best friends who, from a cursory understanding, were as close as James and Isha were to me. She had her places to bask in the quiet and all the opportunities she wanted to live raucously when the quiet was too still.
We weren’t all that different. Aside from GPAs, probably.
The moment broke away into pieces at the sound of my phone buzzing against the table.
“Sorry.” I went to swipe away whatever it was when I got a glimpse of the headline.
My heart sank. Hastings Mistress Enjoys Another Lavish Vacation with Philandering CEO.