Page 130 of Spearcrest Knight

“I’m on a run because I’ve got an exam tomorrow and I’m too stressed to sleep.”

“Oh.”

Then the silence from upstairs, the soft, velvety silence of late night and old wood and dim lights, settles between us. It coils around us, shutting us away from the real world and locking us into each other’s presence. I realise this is the first time we’ve been alone together since that night at his house, and my heart stops beating as if it’s just been turned to marble.

Evan swallows, his throat shuddering. His cheeks are flushed, his lips wet. His gaze is dark and glittering, fixed on me. There is an unspeakable expression on his face: something hungry and reckless and a little wild. He steps forward with a sharp intake of breath.

“Evan—” I start.

But he’s already crossing the space between us, sweeping me into his arms. Mine curl around his neck of their own volition before I even realise what I’m doing, and then I’m pinned against a wall, pressing him closer. He kisses me hard, hungrily, urgently and I open my mouth to him like a blossoming flower starved for sunlight.

I kiss him back just as hungrily, surprised by my desire, my fingers curled into fists in his hair. He hitches me higher against him, my thighs around his hips, so that my head is tilted down towards him, and for a second I pause to stare down at him, stunned by the naked desire on his face. I take his face in my hands and kiss his open mouth so deep and slow my entire body aches.

His hands reach under my shirt, the glide of his skin on mine so sensual it sends shudders rippling through me. His fingers find the curve of my breasts, the tightening bud of my nipples. He pinches his fingers closed over it with a cruel grin, shocking a small, hoarse cry out of me.

“Is somebody still here?”

The distant voice brings me back to reality as surely as if I’d been tossed into ice-cold water. I shove Evan away from me, almost strangling him with the collar of his own shirt as we spring apart.

A door opens somewhere on the lower floor and footsteps approach. I hastily straighten my jumper and lean over the balustrade to see Mr Eckles, the campus security guard. I look back up, still breathless from Evan’s kisses, but Evan hasn’t looked away from me for a second. His chest is rising and falling rapidly, his cheeks flushed, his gaze dangerous.

“Just putting my books away, Mr Eckles!” I call out, a hint of desperation sharpening my voice.

Evan’s eyes darken and he steps towards me once more. I push him away and make my escape. I run all the way from the library to the girls' dormitories like the final girl in a horror movie and immediately head for the showers.

When I finally climb into bed, my phone lights up.

“I want you so fucking much. Just so you know, it’s your fault if I fail my exam tomorrow.”

I bury my burning face into my pillow and take several deep breaths before picking up my phone.

“I think it’s best if we stay away from each other until exams are over. Wouldn’t want you to fail every exam. Goodnight x”

Then I slip my phone under my pillow and go to sleep, even though I know full well I’ll wake up feeling much more tired than I do now.

Oncethefirstexamis over and done with, I enter into a sort of high-functioning panic mode where everything is sharpened and heightened and intense. Each following exam is a shock to the system. Sleep becomes little more than just an extended period of closing my eyes.

The second English Literature paper is my final exam. By that point, I’m running on pure adrenaline, so when Evan appears from behind a bookshelf and strides towards my desk on the top floor of the library the night before the exam, I look up at him with my most belligerent frown.

“Go away.”

He raises a shiny copy of Jane Austen’sPersuasion, holding it up like a shield as he approaches me with cautious steps.

“Are you revising for Lit?”

“What else would I be doing?”

He lays his book down on the desk and pulls up a chair facing me. “Let me revise with you.”

“Absolutely not.”

He freezes halfway through sitting down, giving me the worst attempt at puppy eyes. “Oh. Really?”

I let out a deep, pointed sigh. “Fine. Sit down. If you mention even a single thing that’s not related toPersuasion, I will get you kicked out of the library permanently. Don’t think I won’t.”

“I know better than to not take your threats seriously,” he says, hurriedly sitting down and pulling out his battered notebook from his bag.

I avert my eyes, disgusted by the clear mistreatment his book and notes have endured. After a while, we begin swapping questions and revision notes, and tentatively quizzing one another, making notes of areas we both need to revise. We’re working quietly when Evan breaks the silence

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