Page 2 of Cross My Heart

It opens.

Yes.

I exhale, stepping inside, and closing it almost all the way behind me as I look quickly around. It’s a cluttered, L-shaped room under the eaves, with a desk and computer, and long wall of filing cabinets.

I go straight to them and try a handle. Locked.

Where would I keep the keys? It would be close, for convenience, so I rifle through the desk and—there. A set of keys are sitting in the top drawer. I grab them and go straight to the first cabinet. Geraldine looks like the kind of woman to keep things organized, and she does: The student records are all filed by year, then alphabetical. I find the files from two years ago, and flip through them until I reach the drawer I’m looking for.

“O’Hara, Patrick… Peterson.”

I pause, snatching it out of the cabinet.Wren Peterson. Her name is labelled in neat letters on the top, and my pulse kicks with recognition.

My sister.

I open it, heart pounding, but the file is frustratingly slim. Just a copy of her lecture schedule and application packet. A printed sheet with her internet log-in details and rooming assignment…

Nothing with any real information.

Nothing I can use.

I let out a sigh of disappointment, but I quickly snap photos of the contents on my phone, before putting the file back, and locking the cabinet. I’m just slipping the keys back into the desk drawer when a creak from the doorway makes me whirl around with a yelp.

“What the hell—?” I blurt, panicking. Then I blink. There’s a dark-haired man leaning in the doorway, assessing me with a piercing stare. He’s not just handsome, but devilishly hot: in his early thirties, maybe, dressed in dark pants and a white button-down, his jacket sleeves rolled up casually over his forearms; a perfect scruff of two-day stubble on his strong jaw.

“Looking for something?” he asks, one eyebrow raised.

I gulp. His dusk-blue eyes are focused directly on me. Stripping me naked.

Exposed.

I back away from the desk. “My welcome packet,” I blurt. “It wasn’t in my mailbox, and Geraldine said I could just pick it up here.”

“Did she now?” his gaze sweeps over me, blatantly sensual. Appreciative, too. I can feel my skin prickle and my nipples tighten in response, but I force myself to stay calm.

He doesn’t know anything. You’re just a ditzy new student.

“My log-in won’t work, you see,” I say, giving a helpless smile. “And, like, I can’t go a single day without being online. I mean, I know this is a historic place and all, but there’s no way I can function without email or social media this long. It’s like the thing with the tree falling in the forest, right?” I add, mimicking Lacey’s breathless tone. “How will anyone know what an amazing time I’m having here, if I can’t post to show them?”

It’s causing me physical pain to pretend I’m a shallow idiot to this marble god of a man, but I don’t have any choice. “So do you know where it would be?” I ask, with a dopey look. “My, you know, info sheet?”

“I’m afraid not.” He glances around the office, a small smirk on his lips, like he’s not buying my story for a moment.Fuck. But just as I’m wondering if I’ve blown my own cover before I’ve even begun, he stands aside, and gestures to the stairs. “You’ll want to be getting back to the party, I’m sure. So you can,like, meet everyone.”

He mimics me, and I would roll my eyes at his condescending tone if I wasn’t so relieved to have an escape.

“Right. Yes. Thanks!”

I bolt past him, and down the stairs, not pausing for a second until I arrive back at the garden party, my heart pounding in my chest.

How could I have been so careless? One wrong move, and all my plans would have been blown for good.

I grab an iced lemonade and gulp it down, wishing for something stronger to settle my nerves. It’s not just panic making my heart pound in my chest, but the memory of the way that guy looked at me.

And how my body responded.Wanting him.

Hell, they say fear is an aphrodisiac. Clearly, I’ve got a secret kink for danger and discovery fantasies…

“Where have you been?” Lacey grabs me. “You missed all the speeches.”

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