Chapter 2 #3
“Book nerd, huh?”
I smiled despite myself. “Guilty.”
“What do you like to read?”
“Honestly, a bit of everything.” I started ticking genres off on my fingers.
“Thrillers. Mysteries. Horror. Fantasy. Romance.” I felt my face warm slightly when that last one came out, but I told myself it was just from the fire.
“Biographies of historical figures too,” I added hurriedly.
“Whatever I can get my hands on, really.”
“Cool.” He nodded slowly. “It’s too bad you won't be able to get much reading done while you're here.”
I smiled again. “So you keep telling me.”
“Just preparing you.” He took a slow pull of his beer, then looked at me sideways. “So anyway, I was just wondering… what exactly did you come to Blackpine for?”
My whole body went carefully still.
Shit.
Did he know the real reason I’d come here? Did he know who I really was? If so, how?
“Just the money?” he continued. “The experience? Or… something else?”
My shoulders instantly relaxed. He didn’t know anything.
He was just taking the conversational temperature.
Figuring out whether or not I was down for a little summer romance while I was here, if the low simmer currently sitting behind his eyes was any indication.
Although, given what I’d heard about these Legacy guys, I could only assume his idea of romance was fucking hard and fast up against the nearest tree.
Fling was probably the more accurate term for what he was not-so-subtly auditioning for.
“Just the money and experience,” I said. My voice came out a degree or two cooler than I'd intended, but that was fine. Cool seemed like the correct setting to be on around this guy. “Being a broke student sucks, and this seems like a really fun way to earn cash. Plus, it’ll help me stay fit.”
Something flickered in Rhys’s expression. Amusement, perhaps, or the recognition of a door being closed. But he didn't push it. Just nodded and looked down at the can in his hand, shaking it slightly.
“Fair enough. You’ll definitely have a lot of fun here.
” He stood, unfolding to his full height.
“I'm out of beer, so I'm going to grab another.” His eyes moved briefly to something behind me.
“Looks like your friends are on their way back, so I'll leave you to it.” He looked down at me one last time. “Have a good night, Alissa.”
“Thanks. You too.”
I watched him go, and I waited a full three seconds before my eyes dropped. God, his ass looked great in the jeans he was wearing…
Stop it and stick to the plan, I reminded myself firmly. No distractions.
I turned back to the fire and started loading up the marshmallow stick again before the others reached me.
Jasmine dropped down onto the log beside me a moment later. “Did we miss anything?”
“Not really,” I said, trying to ignore the way my pulse was still racing from the spicy scent of Rhys’s cologne along with the memory of his body pressed to my side.
The conversation picked back up easily, and Jesse was in the middle of a story about a ropes course incident from the previous summer when I caught something in my peripheral vision.
Sutton.
She was still on the Legacy side of the fire, but something about her posture had shifted. She wasn't looking at anyone in her own group anymore. Instead, she was looking across the fire with a cold glare etched on her pretty face. It was aimed right at me.
Her eyes moved over to Rhys, who had resettled into his spot with a fresh beer. Then her gaze skated back to me again, eyes still filled with cold anger.
Interesting.
Perhaps they'd dated or hooked up at some point, and she was jealous of him giving any other girl attention. Or maybe they were hooking up right now. Either way, it was none of my business. I had enough to keep track of without adding Legacy relationship dynamics to the list.
I turned back to listen to Jesse's story, and the conversation drifted the way late-night conversations do, following no particular logic, one thread picked up as another was dropped.
More beer was eventually retrieved from the cooler someone had dragged out from somewhere. I'd lost track of the logistics of the evening by this point, everything having taken on the slightly blurred quality of a night that was going well.
I pulled my jacket tighter against the drop in temperature and looked up through the gap in the canopy overhead.
There was no light pollution out here in this part of the Adirondacks, so the stars blazed brightly, entire constellations popping in the expanse.
I'd grown up under skies like this in Montana, and I’d missed it a lot while living in the big city over the last few years.
Another thirty minutes slipped by. I was in the middle of eating my fourth s'more when a scream cut through the night.
Sharp. Female. Coming from the path that led back to camp.
For a second, nobody moved as we all processed what we'd just heard.
The woods around us were silent and dark. And then, from somewhere in that darkness, was a second scream.