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He grimaces. “Did you just use the word ‘disclose’ in casual conversation?”
I grin. “So I guess it didn’t work out then, huh?”
“What?” Lincoln asks, his gray eyes intense. They’re a lighter gray today, like an overcast sky.
“Well, you’re no Picard,” I say. “You’re definitely a little too morally gray for a noble Starfleet captain.”
Lincoln stares at me like he’s trying to figure something out. I start to squirm under his gaze.
“A bit judgy, aren’t you? You don’t really know anything about me,” he says, a finger running back and forth over his bottom lip. Finally, he shrugs and puts my screenplay into his bag. “But you’re not wrong, I guess.” Then he stands abruptly, swinging his bag over his shoulder.
“Are you leaving?”
Whatever rapport we just had seems to dissolve with his cruel smirk. “Places to be. Women to fuck, you know,” he says with a wink.
“There it is,” I mutter.
He walks over to the counter, taking a to-go cup and pouring his tea into it. When he glances back at me, his usual broody expression is firmly in place again, but there’s something else there, too. Confusion? Regret? Then he walks out the door.
I realize then that he just shared something personal with me for the first time, and I ruined it with one insensitive comment. But I suppose it’s a dose of his own medicine, right? For some reason, shame tugs at my throat anyway, but I swallow it down and pull out my journal.
LINCOLN
I leave the coffee shop and head back toward the school, kicking through the leaves on the sidewalk.
I’m disgusted with myself.
Was I flirting with her?
The more separation I try to force between us, the more she crawls under my skin. I’m attracted to her, sure. I always havebeen, though it took years for me to figure that out. But that’s just me thinking with my dick. It’s Charlie’s personality that’s got me off my game. Unfortunately, her stubborn instinct to fight back and her fiery comebacks give me a hard-on just as much as her body. But she’s Ellen Conner’s daughter, and every time I look at her, I picture my family’s destruction.
The thought makes me see red as I push through the gate and storm across campus.
I still want to hurt her. I want Charlie to feel what I felt when my mother and I walked in on that whore half naked after fucking my father.
The rage. The betrayal. The humiliation.
Everyone seems to sense my dark mood, so I don’t attract my usual entourage of fan bros and girls along my way to the Wolf Building. Despite outward appearances to the contrary, I actually hate the attention my looks and money bring. No one is really interested in me as a person—they want wealth and power and connections. Except for Trey.
Speaking of Trey, he’s waiting for me when I enter our dorm room, lounging on the couch, surrounded by open, discarded textbooks. Instead of studying, he’s watching aFriendsrerun.
I take off my shoes and drop my backpack with a sigh.
“How was your date with Bennett?” he asks, without looking away from the TV screen.
“You know it wasn’t a date, asshole.”
“Right, right,” he says dismissively, taking a swig from a tall can of Rainier. I eye his beer and note that it’s eleven-thirty in the morning, and there’s an empty on the side table.
“Already two deep, huh?”
“Don’t judge—math stresses me out. I’m too dumb for this shit.”
I drop onto the couch beside him and glance over, meeting his brown eyes briefly. “You’re not dumb. You just need to askfor help, Trey.” I give him a gentle shove. “I bet there’s a lot of hot, smart girls—and guys for that matter—who would kill to tutor you.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
I decide to drop the issue for now. Well, multiple issues if you count the drinking, too.
