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Ruby is standing a couple of dozen feet away from the door, with Mr. Cohen. I walk over to her. “Hey, love bug,” I say to her. “So glad we got all of that straightened out.”
I bend down and kiss her cheek, in full view of Detective Ahearn.
Ruby whispers in my ear, “Careful. I bite.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I whisper back, and am rewarded with her hiss of exasperation.
I walk out of the building with a huge grin on my face.
When I’m standing on the front steps, I tap out a text message and send it to her. By the way, Ms. James, I own you now.
10
RUBY
He owns me. He owns me?
I’ve been turning that over in my head since yesterday.
What exactly does he mean? What does Paxton Saul think is going to happen between us?
I’m heading towards the dining hall with Clair and Kennedy. The campus is still pretty crowded, with all of the students and teachers who are here for the summer sessions.
What does Paxton mean when he says that he owns me?
He can’t possibly be talking about any kind of sexual blackmail, can he?
For some reason, that thought summons up a weird flash of heat that flushes over my entire body. I’ve seen Paxton shirtless. Once when I went over to his apartment, he emerged from the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, his wet hair tousled, and a few rivulets of water running down his broad chest.
I’ve got to admit, he’s got the most perfect body I’ve ever seen. He puts Professor Nass-hole to shame. I mean, Alex was in decent shape; he works out at the gym five days a week. But he could work out six hours a day, and he would never look like Paxton.
Kennedy and Clair have been talking this whole time, and I’ve been mumbling agreement to whatever they say because I’m still kind of in shock from yesterday.
I nearly went to jail.
I nearly missed the chance to hang out with Summer, which would have been a terrible shame, because we had our first crime-free day yesterday. That’s only because I took her to a painting class and there wasn’t really anything worth stealing there, but still, I count it as a win.
Kennedy pokes me in the shoulder.
I glance her way. “What? Sorry?”
“So do you agree?” Kennedy asks me.
“What? Oh, sure, definitely.” We enter the dining hall, escaping the heat and walking into a wall of cool air and coffee scents and the buzz of conversation.
“I mean, would you sign your name to it?” Clair asks me.
I have been completely ignoring my friends this entire time. I shrug and raise my eyebrows and try to look interested. “Uh, sure, yeah, definitely. Of course.”
“You just agreed that vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate, and also you want to marry Nick Ruckman.”
I gasp in outrage, clapping my hand to my chest. “How dare you. Sacrilege. Especially about the ice cream.”
“You are off in your own world,” Clair says, giving me a critical look.
“She’s weirder than usual,” Kennedy agrees, looking me up and down with a frown wrinkling her forehead.
Clair puts her hand on my forehead. “No fever,” she says.
