Page 25 of Strip Bare

"I'll see you later."

"Bye," he murmured, eyes hooded as I stepped away. Suddenly his arm flew out and caught my hand before I could get too far and his lips met mine in a fleeting crash of hunger that I knew I would be feeling on my skin for the rest of the day. He smirked as he let go and I tried to remember how to breathe. Could someone really be that good at pretending?

* * *

"Your essay looks good," I said, leaning in close to Harley as I pointed out a few paragraphs in particular, careful not to knock his coffee over. "But these could use tightening up a little. You're not citing enough precedents here to support the foundation of your argument."

Our upcoming exam was largely essay based. Some of it was application based, defending or creating arguments, but the majority of it was connected to case studies and how specific cases had helped effect or shape the law. I'd never had any trouble remembering names or dates, but it didn't come easily to everyone. Harley included.

"Right, got it. Thank you. Honestly, you're a lifesaver, Leo."

I looked up and found I was sitting a lot closer to him than I'd realized—close enough to see that the flecks in his eyes were almost gold and that his lashes were blonde at the tips.

I cleared my throat, leaning back and nodding as I avoided his eyes by looking around at the tables nearby. "Of course. I'm happy to help."

"I'm lucky it was you that Frey asked to help me. I've seen you in class, scribbling your notes almost as fast as the professor can speak."

I quirked my mouth. "And here I didn't even realize we shared a class." I took a sip of the latte I'd ordered and paused after I swallowed. "If you knew who I was, then why did you ask Kit about me the other night?"

Harley dimpled at me, his smile big and a little embarrassed even as it failed to warm his eyes. "I was hoping he'd introduce me."

"To me?" I asked, raising my eyebrows as I watched a girl with bright pink hair pack away her laptop. "Why?

"Is it so unbelievable that I'd want to get to know you?" He laughed and anyone else might have blushed, but I just looked over his face with interest.

"I guess I didn't realize anyone noticed me."

"How could anyone not?"

I dropped my eyes back to his laptop and swigged the last of my coffee. "I should get going."

"Sure. Look, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. That wasn't my intention."

"You didn't," I reassured him as I stood and gathered the textbooks I'd brought from the table. “I just have some stuff to do today.” Yeah, like avoiding Kit before the dinner I was being forced into having with him and my parents.

"Are you and Kit...?"

I froze, looking up at him and then away, out of the window. "It's complicated." That felt like the understatement of the year.

"I can work with that," Harley said slowly, a smile curving his mouth in a way I might have really appreciated if I hadn't already been caught up on someone else.

I opted to say nothing, just gave him a slight smile as I grabbed my to-go cup and dropped it in the trash as I headed for Cocoa & Rum's door.

Harley was nothing and everything like I'd expected. I was happy he seemed to like me, but for all the wrong reasons. If he was into me, then that meant he probably wasn't into Kit. I had no right to feel possessive, but logic didn't stop the feeling anyway.

I decided to stroll around the park before heading home so I could clear my head a little. It felt like there was a rubber band stretched taut between Kit and me right now and at any given moment it could snap. I didn't want to feel the sting, I didn't want the burn. If I could have gone back in time and not told that white lie to my mother, maybe I would have done it.

But then you'd never have known what it was like to have him be yours, an insidious little voice insisted in my head and I glowered at the sky from the bench I had stopped to sit on.

"Leo?"

I nearly jumped, so lost in my thoughts I hadn't noticed anyone approaching. It was Ryan, now our sole captain of the football team after we'd had Aaron kicked out for doing drugs. Not that it mattered much really, the season was over now, but it was the principle of the thing I supposed.

He was by himself, which felt like a rarity these days. I'd become used to seeing Jamie at his side, like a dark-haired devil attached to his hip.

"Hey man." I stood as he closed the distance and smiled. The deepness of the blue sky made Ryan's eyes pop even more than usual, the Clark Kent resemblance he bore out in full force. "Where's your worse-half today?"

Ry grinned, knowing I was teasing. "Recording studio with Max. Kit back at your place?"

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