Page 6 of Ink & Stardust

“You have to be fucking kidding me,” the girl sneers, but I’m so enraptured by the man in front of me I barely register the shift of the couch as she and her friend get up to leave.

“Actually,” Maisie suddenly appears, her hair still damp from the shower, wetting the shoulders of her fitted top that she paired with short, torn jean shorts. “She’s with me.” She plops down in the vacant spot next to me, smiling up at him in a way that says she knowsexactlywho he is.

“Maisie.” Her name is like velvet on his lips.

“Kai.” She nods, the two exchanging a long glance.

“You might want to keep that one close or she’s going to get eaten alive.” He tips his chin toward me.

Was that a compliment or an insult? I wonder to myself, deciding it is most certainly an insult. How could someone say I’m going to be eaten alive be anything but, as if he’s insinuating I’m out of my depth here... Then again, he’s not completely wrong there, I guess.

“She’ll be just fine, don’t you worry. She has me. Isn’t that right, Lyric?”

I nod, a thick knot clogging my throat at the way he’s currently staring at me. Or is he glaring? His expression is impossible to read.

“Anything else you need, Kai?” Maisie asks, smiling up at him.

“You offering?” His attention swings from me to her and he raises his eyebrows suggestively.

I swear my heart just about drops out of my ass. Did he seriously just ask her that?

I look from him to Maisie and from Maisie back to him, secretly praying to the gods that she doesn’t accept his invitation. Why, I have no idea. It’s irrational and makes very little sense, but if she says yes, I’m pretty certain I might die right here.

“Tempting.” She grins. “But alas, I have this one to take care of.” She drops an arm around my shoulders, making me feel like a small child. Embarrassment kisses my cheeks a second time.

“Probably for the best. Pretty sure your brother would have my balls.” He chuckles, looking at her in a way that tells me he likely knows her a lot better than I originally thought. “Don’t drink too much.”

“Yes, dad.” Laughter vibrates her dramatic groan.

He glances at me one last time. “For the record, I like your shoes.” He smirks, but before I have time to even process whether he’s serious or being condescending, he’s gone, exiting the room so quickly I don’t even have a chance to turn around and watch him walk away, which is totallynotsomething I would ever do... Right?

“Who the hell was that?” I sit up straighter, setting my beer on the end table next to the couch as I turn toward Maisie.

Like Char, Maisie is stunning, only in a very different way. She has light brown skin, long brown hair with big, beautiful curls, and the most incredible blue eyes I’ve ever seen. So blue sometimes they almost look white. She’s about the same height as me, but unlike me, she’s very fit. Then again, I guess you have to be to play D1 soccer.

Personality-wise, she’s definitely more on the outgoing side, like Char, but she’s not quite as brazen. Where Char is sexy and unapologetic, Maisie is a little more reserved.

They both grew up locally, like many of the other students I’ve met during my first few days on campus, though I don’t know Virginia well enough to know where exactly. All I know is that Char’s family lives about an hour from here and Maisie’s about thirty minutes, but in the opposite direction.

“Kai Elliot. And if you’re as smart as I think you are, you’ll steer clear of that one.”

“Bad news?” I take a pretty obvious guess.

“He’s not a bad guy. But he does tend to go through women like it’s an Olympic sport and he’ll take nothing less than gold.”

“That bad?” Disappointment settles in my gut.

Not that I ever thought I’d have a chance with a man like that—he’s so far out of my league, it’s laughable—but that doesn’t lessen the sting.

“Worse.” She chuckles.

“How do you know him anyway?”

“He lived on the same street as me growing up and was pretty good friends with my older brother, Jackson, in high school, though he was a year younger than him. My brother actually graduated from here last year.”

She doesn’t have to spell it out. I’ve already worked out the math in my head. If her brother graduated last year and Kai is a year younger, then that means Kai is a senior.

“Why did you never tell me that? That your brother went here too?”

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