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He pulls away so he can look me in the eyes and all I see is lust. He wants me. Maybe as badly as I want him, and I don’t think I ever believed I’d see someone like Arch Lancaster looking at me like this.
Wanting me like this.
“Ready to go?” he asks, his brows shooting up.
“Right now?”
“Yeah.” His smile is faint.
“Should we change?” I’m always eager to get out of this uniform by the end of the day and put on something more comfortable.
“No.” He tugs on my hand, leading me toward the door. “The skirt will give me better access.”
TWENTY-TWO
DAISY
He takesme deep onto the school’s property, far from campus until we’re close to the woods that divides the property from the beach. We’re so far out, I can hear the ocean roaring in the near distance. The breeze is cooler out here, directly off the water, and I shiver despite the warm sun shining down upon us.
When the old ruins appear, I know where he’s taking me. To the building that used to house staff on campus before it burned in a fire years ago. The annual Halloween party is held out here for students. It’s all student-run, the school doesn’t sanction it, and I know for a fact they hate that this party happens, but since it’s normally a Lancaster organizing it—or a friend of—they look the other way and pretend they don’t know about it.
I haven’t gone to the party, so I don’t know what it’s like. I’ve never been to this burned-out building at all. Not even my dad has taken me out here, but from what I can see, it’s kind of beautiful.
A little sad but still beautiful. You can tell the building was stately before it burned. There are crumbling old bricks still covering part of the front, and what was once white clapboard is now withered wood with peeling paint. The building is nothing but a shell. There’s no roof, and only some of the walls still remain standing, though enough was left behind for it to protect us from spying eyes.
Somewhat.
Would anyone even think to follow us out here? I doubt it.
Arch is holding my hand—I really love it when he does that—and he squeezes my fingers as we both come to a stop in front of the rickety staircase that leads to the front door, which is really just a frame. An outline of a door.
“Have you ever been out here before?”
I shake my head. He has to already know that answer.
“You’ll have to come to the Halloween party this year. It’ll be a rager.”
“I don’t really go to parties.” I try to hide my disappointment that he didn’t say he wanted me to come with him to the party. That’s still so far away. Who knows where we’ll be by the end of October?
“You’ll go with me.” He says this like a statement, as if I don’t have a choice, and my worry from only a few seconds ago evaporates. Just like that.
He tugs on my hand and I follow him up the front stairs, careful where I step. We walk through the open doorway and my gaze is everywhere, touching on everything. I can’t make out what anything is supposed to be anymore. The wood is weathered with a silvery gray hue to it and I go to where a window used to be to look out. The glass is mostly gone but the frame is still there and I peer through it, watching the sun shine upon the water in the distance.
“It’s pretty out here,” I murmur, sucking in a breath when Arch stops behind me, slipping his arms around my waist. “The view.”
“It’s a great view,” he says, his voice muffled against the side of my neck. “I mean, look at you.”
I rest my arms over his, my hands on top of his. I’m shivering. Cold despite the sun and Arch’s big body wrapped around me. And so, so nervous. “I wasn’t talking about myself.”
“I know, Daze.” His hand slips from beneath mine, reaching for the hem of my skirt and I wait, breathless as his fingers slide up the outside of my thigh. “You’re trembling.”
I close my eyes, fighting my nerves. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Never been kissed?” He presses his mouth against my neck. “Never done anything? Ever?”
“Only been kissed by you,” I whisper, a dull ache starting between my thighs at his touch.
“Gonna be the one who takes every single one of your firsts, Daze, but not all of them today.” His hot breath fans across my neck, my ear, and I close my eyes when he bites it. Nibbles on the lobe, his fingers drifting up and down the outside of my thigh.
