Chapter 4 #2
Noticing he isn’t following me, I turn around to ask him where to go, but his eyes are on my backside and his phone is in his hand.
He smirks as he slides his phone into his pocket and looks over my head at something.
Thinking someone’s walking up behind me, I glance over my shoulder but find no one in particular.
There’re students all over the place, and he could’ve been looking at any one of them.
Questions burn in everyone’s eyes when I take a second to glance at some of their faces, most of them looking at Kaiden and me. I turn back again to find his gaze has fallen back onto me. Clearing my throat, I smile and move from foot to foot a bit awkwardly. “Where to?”
He finally takes a step out of the shadow of the building, into the sun, and starts leading the way for me.
“Let’s start with academics,” he says, his voice thick like he needs to swallow through a lump.
I keep my lips pressed shut, unsure if I can trust myself to keep the inappropriate words swimming around my brain from popping out. My heels clip along the sidewalk as he guides me to the academics building, and when he pulls the door open, he finally speaks again.
“Where are you from?”
His question catches me off guard, but I walk through the door and answer him when he’s done the same. “California.”
“Why’d you move here?”
“I came to live with my grandmother,” I answer simply.
His gaze catches mine. “Why?”
Unsure of what I should say, I run a hand through my hair. I search his eyes for answers to questions I didn’t know I had, feeling scared but somewhat safe enough to open up a crack. “My parents died.”
The wound opens a little more, making heat wash over me.
He doesn’t respond, though, just continues to walk down the hallway before he points out some of the different departments.
His reaction gives me pause, because after so many people giving me sad eyes and the I’m so sorrys, it’s almost comforting that he just accepts the answer and moves on.
We cover everything from history, to science, to mathematics, and then we’re walking through another set of double doors into the arts building.
“How old are you?” he asks as we’re passing the music department.
“I’m twenty-one. This is my senior year.”
We come to a wall covered from floor to ceiling with different types of artwork: posters for the school play, auditions for music performances, paintings, and drawings.
A smile tugs at my lips and he notices.
“You into the arts, Sage?”
I nod, finding his gaze glued to me when I look at him. “Somewhat.”
Just like in the academics building, I walk next to him in silence, observing the way his muscular arms flex every time he points to something.
When he holds the door open for me again at the end of the hall to exit, I pass by him to go back outside, one thought swirling in my mind. He’s a gentleman, Kaiden Thorne.
I let myself speak first this time. “What’s next?”
A boyish grin quirks his lips. “Sports.”
I can tell he feels passionately about it with the way the word falls from his tongue, and I find myself smiling back at him.
“Do you play any sports, Sage?”
“I’ve been cheering my whole life, pretty much.” I match his prideful grin with one of my own.
“Think you’ll try out for the squad here? I’d love to see you on the sidelines of my games in a little skirt.” His eyebrows raise playfully.
I swallow down the nerves his comment gives me.
“You play football?” I ask, looking up and down his body. He’s definitely not bulky enough for a defensive position. Maybe a wide receiver?
“Basketball.” He winks. “We’re a small school, so the cheerleaders are passed between sports.”
I don’t know why the comment makes my cheeks heat, feeling dirty as hell as a spark of desire hits me between the legs.
He looks at my body appreciatively, a small smirk in place. “You look like you’re in great shape. I would hate for that to go to waste.”
Heat spreads down my spine at his compliment, so I don’t respond again, just let him lead me into the gym.
He shows me where the athletics courses are held, as well as the basketball games.
I let my mind wander to what he might look like in a pair of shorts and a basketball jersey, and my core clenches as I imagine the muscles in his arms and legs as he runs to dunk the ball.
My heart races, so I knot my fingers together in front of me to have something to squeeze onto. He shows me the locker rooms, then points out the coach’s office before we’ve made a full circle and walk back through the doors we just came through.
I realize we’ve made a small circle around the whole campus when I spot the office again, and he leads me in through one of the last doors before we reach it.
“Cafeteria.” He nods. “You have a meal plan?”
I realize I have no idea, so I make a mental note to ask my grandmother when I get home. “I don’t know.”
The cafeteria is simple, with plain white walls and tables scattered randomly around the room for students to enjoy their lunch breaks. I’m sure I won’t find the gourmet or organic options I had back in LA, but if that’s the worst thing about this school, then I can deal.
“Let me see your class schedule.” Kaiden lifts a hand toward me, wanting the piece of paper I still have clutched in my fist.
“Um, why?”
He chuckles. “I want to see if we have any classes together.”
His eyes pin me in place, making me feel silly for being jumpy. “Oh.”
I laugh, handing him the piece of paper, and he stares at it like he’s trying to burn it to memory, but after a moment, he hands it back to me wordlessly.
I clear my throat as I slip the piece of paper into the back pocket of my jeans. “Well?”
He stares at me for a moment. “Well?”
Taking a breath, I feel like he can see the skeleton under my skin with his piercing eyes. “Do we have classes together?”
He grins. “A few.”
He lets me drown in the sea of awkwardness for a full minute, the silence between us becoming electric and putting me on edge.
Then he leads me to the door, holding it open for me once more so we can go back out into the quad. When I pass by him, crossing over the doorframe, our gazes connect so magnetically that my stomach drops to my ass.
His eyes are more gold up close, the darker parts swirling and giving them a creepy look that has my heart beating faster. I find myself getting lost in them, waiting to see if he’ll disappear completely and become just a figment of my imagination.
Biting down onto his bottom lip, his gaze moves down my body. There’s something about him I just can’t pinpoint, like he’s walking around with shadows and darkness, but part of me wants to trust him, fall into his orbit and rotate around him, let him heal all my broken parts.
But men like Kaiden will never heal someone like me.
He’s delicious sin, his aura screaming for me to run for my life—to get far away—because he will definitely destroy me from the inside out, eat me alive, then spit me back out. All with a smile.