Chapter 16 Oliver #2
“I won’t, Ollie. But please, not tonight.”
He takes me back through the heart of campus, and eventually we end up at Student Hall all over again.
There’s no one even checking for IDs at the front anymore, because the formal ended sometime in the last hour. Volunteers are helping on clean-up duty near the front of the ballroom, breaking down tables and starting to remove decorations from the front entryway.
A few people glance at us as we walk in.
Niko ignores them.
“I don’t think we’re supposed to be here,” I tell him.
“And? If we act like we can be here, then people will let us be here.”
I don’t know if he’s right about that, but I follow. I keep fucking following him like I’ve caught sight of a fascinating creature and I can’t look away.
A dragonfly.
With shimmering, iridescent wings.
And I can’t stop chasing him as he flies.
The scent of fresh pine fills the air as he takes me past one row of tall Christmas trees, heading toward the stage. The band is packing up, putting away electric guitars and disassembling the massive drum kit.
“Hey,” Niko says, nodding at one of the lead players. “Got anything acoustic?”
The guy looks up from the stage, glancing at us. “Show’s over. Was a good gig, though.”
“Right. But do you have any acoustic instruments?”
The musician glances around the stage, his eyes scanning the shiny black instrument cases. “Uh, Amelia’s got her violin that she plays on that one slow song.”
Niko fishes in his pocket, pulls out his wallet, and removes a crisp hundred-dollar bill, holding it up under the stage lights.
“Tell Amelia this is hers if she plays us a song on the violin.”
“Right now?” the guy asks.
Niko removes a second hundred-dollar bill. “And I’ll give you this one if you ask her, and make it happen.”
The musician shrugs, but he’s interested in the offer.
He reaches down, grabbing the money.
I can feel heat creeping up to my cheeks. My heart feels a little too big for my chest, realizing what Niko’s trying to do.
“You don’t have to do this for me,” I say to him under my breath.
“I want to.”
“Amelia,” the musician calls over to a girl breaking down a microphone stand on the corner of the stage. “Want a hundred bucks?”
As she’s walking over, one of the slowly rotating blue lights filling the ballroom cuts out. The tear-down crew is slowly starting to turn off the overhead party lights, one by one.
“I’ll play a song for a Benjamin. Any requests?” the girl asks.
“Something beautiful,” Niko says.
He pulls me over to the edge of the stage, near one of the tall trees.
Niko’s arms are already around me as she starts to play. The sound of the violin fills the space around us, and Niko starts to slow dance with me, resting his head on the side of mine.
He leans into me, his body heavy, like he needs somewhere to rest.
My pulse quickens.
I can’t get used to this.
I don’t know how it’s possible for him to still smell so good. I breathe in the scent of his hair along with the fresh pine tree beside us.
For the first moment all night, I feel myself relax.
Relax in a way I couldn’t when I was worried about the drug in his blood.
Any chance of that was stolen from us when Callum showed up, tossing everything into disarray. And I still have more questions than ever, and I know nothing is fixed.
But right now, we can have this.
We can rest on each other.
The warm front of his body pressed up against mine.
My heart squeezes in my chest like it’s too full. It wasn’t immediately obvious to me that I’m giving something to Niko, too.
He needs this. He pulled me back to the ballroom to give me this last slow dance, but he also needs this moment, probably more than me.
Everything you’ve been through.
The trauma of living with that horrible man, all coming up and spilling out onto the people around you.
And whatever broken parts of yourself you’re afraid to show me.
But all you want is peace.
I step in a little closer until there’s no distance between the front of my body and his.
Every so often, another party light above us turns off. Slowly, the ballroom gets a little dimmer as we sway back and forth.
And as the musician finishes her song, the only light near us is the steady glow of the Christmas tree, lit with strings of tiny, multicolored lights that glint from the shimmering tinsel and ornaments.
“You deserved better,” I say softly near Niko’s ear.
I stroke the back of his head.
How can someone have hair so soft? I still don’t know how it’s possible, and I know Niko’s the only person I’ve been with, but I’m convinced there’s no one in the world with hair as soft as his.
“I don’t deserve much. But thank you.”
“You do.”
I feel him exhale as one of his hands grips my hip, like he’s afraid of the moment he’s going to need to let go.
“Sometimes I just want to disappear,” he says so softly that I almost don’t hear it.
“Don’t disappear. I need you here with me.”
My chest tightens a little as the words escape my mouth.
That’s far more than I should be saying to him. Tonight or ever.
“Oliver,” he says.
Is his tone a warning or a plea? I can’t tell.
But I’m tired of skirting around the truth.
“Going to miss your touch while we’re on Christmas break,” I tell him.
Letting the words spill out.
Like that same irresistible current, pouring out of me.
“No,” he murmurs.
The violinist has been done for a while now, but Niko won’t pull away from me.
And more words come tumbling out of my mouth, urgently now, like I can tell some spell around us is about to break.
“I’ve been wishing you were in my bed each night,” I admit to him. “I pull up your videos and I watch them, and even when I’m not thinking about your cock I’m thinking about your body, your skin, just imagining how good it would feel to have you fucking near me—”
“Oliver,” he whispers, but his hold on my waist is only getting tighter.
“Come home with me for the break,” I tell him, pulling back and looking him in the eye.
His face is lit only by the ambient glow of the Christmas lights, but the desperation in his gaze is palpable.
I’ve never seen him look desperate quite like that.
“I didn’t mean to make you pity me or something, Ollie.”
“Do you have big traditions with your mom on Christmas?” I ask him. “Obligations back home?”
He shakes his head. “We don’t do anything. My mom isn’t really the cozy, touchy-feely, motherly Christmas type, to put it lightly.”
“Then you’re coming home with me. You won’t worry about me, and… and I won’t worry about you.”
“You never should feel worried about me.”
“Well, I won’t. If you’re with me.”
All at once, bright floodlights come on above us.
The main bright lights of the ballroom are back on, so much brighter than the party lights were.
And I wait for the magic to fade.
Wait for the spell that should break, shattering through the snowglobe we’ve been in, with our own little private slow dance.
But it doesn’t.
Because Niko looks at me and nods, acceptance landing on his expression.
“This is a bad idea,” he says softly.
Something urgent sparks in my chest. “Niko, I don’t care if it is.”
“And unnecessary, because whether we’re together or apart for the break, you’re still mine.”
Adrenaline courses through me as he says it.
And whatever spell he had on me is obviously still fully there, without question.
Yours.
Yours until the end of our deal.
Yours until the New Year’s party, and afterward, the spell really will break.
“I know I am,” I tell him, my words coming out a little raspy.
He sighs heavily, closing his eyelids as he tilts his head back for a moment, like he’s trying to summon the will to say what he’s about to say.
“It’s a terrible fucking idea.”
“Please.”
“…and I’m going to come home with you anyway.”