Page 60 of Campus Heat

I hadn’t meant to just grab him and drag him around, but the second I saw the blood at the corner of his mouth, something inside me snapped.

“Come with me,” I whispered.

He barely resisted. All he did was blink at me, and it was very clear that he hadn’t expected anyone to take control of him. That alone was enough to tell me how shaken he really was. I tugged him down the stairwell. The air was cool, and the empty hall echoed with the sound of our footsteps. His hand stayed in mine, large, warm, and rough, and suddenly I was acutely aware of how easily he let me lead. Ethan wasn’t the type who followed anyone.

“What are you doing?” he asked in a strained voice.

“Even though you don’t want me to, I’m going to be fixing your face,” I shot back.

It wasn’t all I was doing. I was getting him away from the overly stressful classroom and the pressure-filled field. Away from the looks people had been giving him for days and whatever storm had been brewing behind his eyes ever since I saw him walk off the field.

We stepped into the hallway of the athletic wing, and I could finally breathe easily. It was empty at this hour because it was too late for most classes and too early for the evening practice sessions. It was exactly what we needed, but a thick tension laced the air between us, making the privacy even more intense.

I glanced over at Ethan, and he looked like a complete wreck. He wasn’t just bruised and bloodied. He had come undone, and that was a hard thing to see in a man as strong and determined as he was. The sight did something dangerous to my chest. It was as if I couldn’t breathe, but at the same time the air was drowning me.

I pulled Ethan into the cheerleaders’ locker room without hesitation, locked the door behind us, and only then did I realize how dangerous it really was for the two of us to be so alone. The fluorescent lights flashed annoyingly before stabilizing, and my heart slammed against the wall of my chest. My mind was racing and my body ached, but it was the space that affected me more than anything else. It felt a lot smaller than I was used to.

Ethan stood just inside the door, watching me as his chest rose and fell ever so slowly. I could see the calculations happening behind his eyes, and the thought of what they might be had a lump forming in my throat. Of all the men I had ever met, he was by far the strangest because he was the one who managed to make me go against my instincts.

“Elizabeth,” he said, and there was something raw in the way he said my name.

“Sit,” I told him as I grabbed the first aid kit from the cabinet near the sink.

Once again he obeyed, so I kneeled down between his legs. We were so close that I just needed to reach out and hold him. I could rub my fingers across his busted lip and there would be no consequences. Or maybe if I were lucky, he’d actually open up to me. The proximity allowed for so many possibilities, and yet it still felt like there was a physical barrier between us.

I leaned back, but Ethan closed his legs a little, allowing his thighs to act like a bracket for me. It was so good and so goddamn thrilling. I could feel his heat radiating from him and smell sweat, grass, and something that was uniquely him. It was intoxicating.

I swallowed hard and pressed the antiseptic against his split skin. He inhaled sharply, causing my heart to fracture.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “Unfortunately, this is going to hurt.”

“It’s okay. It isn’t as bad as it seems. You don’t need to go through all this.”

But even as he tried to convince me that nothing was wrong, his hands curled into the bench and his knuckles went white with the pressure he exerted.

“You don’t need to pretend that you’re fine,” I whispered. “Not with me.”

He let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh. “You really don’t let me get away with anything at all.”

“No, that’s not in my nature,” I said softly.

I tilted his chin upward so I could study his face, and once again he didn’t resist, but that was the least of my concerns. There was a lot of swelling, and the shadow beneath his eye was getting darker by the minute. His ego had all but vanished, and the pride he used to carry had been replaced with complete and utter exhaustion. Suddenly the anger I felt toward him turned, and things became far more complicated than I could ever have imagined. He looked vulnerable, and I had absolutely no defense against that.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad?” I asked.

“Because I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m… not enough.”

The words were so heavy that they just settled between us, an unseen weight that neither of us could overcome. My hand stilled as the severity of the situation actually set in. Ethan was broken.

“You’re more than enough,” I said immediately.

He shook his head slightly. “Not lately.”

That was when I could see it. All his fear and pressure felt welded to his spine, weighing him down. My heart clenched, and I leaned closer without thinking.