The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance (181 page)

“You got it. Anything else?”

“You can try on your present,” she said playfully.

She grabbed the fleece hat off the table and tugged it over his head.
Daniel pulled that hat down over his eyes, then pushed it up again so that it was just above his brow. He smiled adorably at Ariana.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“Very sexy,” she replied with a laugh.

Noelle rolled her eyes and took a sip of her coffee.

Daniel tugged the hat off and stuffed it in his backpack. “I love it. Thanks. Really.”

“You’re—” The sound of Ariana’s cell vibrating on the table cut her off. It buzzed loudly, vibrating slowly across the table. Isobel and Paige watched as Ariana reached out and picked it up. The blue screen flashed the words
1 NEW TXT MSG.
She flipped the phone open, curious. Everyone who would text her was sitting right here.

Old chapel, 7 p.m. Don’t be late, naughty girl.

Her heart stopped and she glanced up. Thomas was still sitting with Gage just a few tables away. But this time, he was looking directly at her. She blushed and immediately snapped the phone shut.

“Who’s that?” Daniel was looking at her curiously. She forced herself to look back.

“Hmmm?” she asked, still gripping the phone in her hand.

“On the phone,” Daniel said impatiently. He reached for her cell, but Ariana stuffed it into her Kate Spade bag, hoping Daniel couldn’t see her clenched jaw, the nervous energy that was now racing through her.

“Nobody,” she said quickly.

“What’s the matter with you?” Daniel demanded, his shoulders rigid and angry. “Why won’t you let me see it?”

“Why won’t you let me have any privacy?” Ariana shot back. Her face burned. Isobel, Dash, Noelle, and Paige had all abandoned their breakfasts to watch their argument.

Daniel’s eyes flashed. “Because. You’re my girlfriend.”

“Wow. Medieval much, Daniel?” Noelle joked.

Ariana could have hugged her friend for standing up for her.

“He’s right,” Paige said in a tone that dared any of them to contradict her. “He does have a right to know. Especially when she’s acting so cagey.”

Noelle looked down at her food, rolling her eyes only slightly.

“I’m not being cagey,” Ariana said steadily, willing herself to not sound defensive.

“So who was it, Ariana?” Paige challenged.

“Fine! It was my mother, okay? She texts me these sappy messages and they’re too embarrassing to show to anyone,” Ariana improvised, hoping they couldn’t see through her. Couldn’t see the red
LIAR
sign that had to be flashing over her head. “Can the inquisition end now?”

“Your mom knows how to text?” Paige asked, looking skeptical. The clasp on her citrine-and-diamond necklace had fallen to the front, and she quickly adjusted the chain.

“She’s on Instant Messenger, too. It’s bizarre.” Ariana shrugged, trying to appear blithe. But as desperate as she was for everyone to believe her, she started to feel anger burn at her core. She had
never
done anything wrong before. Never given Daniel reason to worry. And
maybe she had made one small—teeny, really—misstep with Thomas, but she was always so
good
.

Noelle yawned. “That’s it,” she announced. “I’m officially bored.” She got up and pulled on her camel-colored suede coat over her cardigan. “I’ve got to finish packing.”

“Same.” Dash nodded.

“And I need to finish my paper.” Ariana stood up and grabbed her bag, swinging it over her left shoulder, away from Paige. Just in case the girl made a swipe for her phone. Glancing across the room, she saw that Thomas was looking at her again, watching intently. “See you later?” she said to Daniel.

“I’ll come by to get your stuff,” he said, rising to give her a quick kiss.

Keeping her eyes on Thomas, Ariana pulled Daniel closer and turned his peck into a long, deep kiss. By the time she was done, Daniel was blushing and Thomas looked stunned. As Ariana turned and walked with Noelle toward the exit, she couldn’t help smiling.

Maybe Thomas was right. Maybe she was a little naughty after all.

A razor-thin sliver of dusk glowed outside Ariana’s window, the last remnant of day before darkness enveloped the campus. She checked her watch. It was exactly 6 p.m. on Tuesday. She had one hour to put her paper in Mr. Holmes’s mailbox and catch a cab to the train station.

As she leaned over her desk and clicked the print command on her laptop, her eyes fell on the framed photo perched on her desk, the one next to the picture of her and her mom. It was the black-and-white shot Daniel had taken of her. Ariana was wrapped in a fluffy, oversize beach towel and stretched out on a lounge chair, blowing a kiss to the camera. The girl in that picture looked happy. In love with her boyfriend. Normal.

She could be that girl again. She wanted to be. Thomas might be sexy and exciting, but Daniel was familiar. She knew everything about him. No surprises. For better or worse, he was the guy for her. The
guy who could give her everything she wanted. Everything her mother wanted. Thomas was just a blip.

She pulled her cell phone from her Kate Spade tote, scrolled through her text messages, and read Thomas’s one last time. Then she deleted it. As soon as the text was gone, she felt better. Lighter, somehow. She’d made her decision.

She snatched her paper from the printer tray, stapled it hastily together, and stuffed it in her bag. Winding a soft aqua scarf around her neck, she glanced one last time at the photographs on her desk. She’d made the right decision. The decision her mom would approve of. She slung her bag over her shoulder and slipped out of the room without looking back.

A lacy curtain of snow draped over her the moment she stepped outside Billings House. As she cut across the deserted grounds, the snow seemed to be falling heavier, thicker around her than it had earlier in the day. Hell Hall loomed just ahead, dark and imposing against the snowy sky. She took the stairs two at a time, and pushed through the doorway.

The lights had already been turned off. The sound of her footsteps echoed down the hall as she hurried in the dark to the faculty mailroom. She slid her hands along the wall and paused when she reached the last door. She strained to hear the sound of a professor’s laugh, or a muffled conversation. Nothing but thick silence buzzing loudly in her ears.

She leaned against the heavy, stubborn door, nudging it with her hip to force it open. A dusty Tiffany lamp glowed on a table in the far
corner of the room. Rows of small wooden cubbies stretched along one wall, and she scanned the names below each mailbox until she found Mr. Holmes’s slot. She pulled her paper from her bag and stood on tiptoe, sliding it into his already overstuffed cubby.

A loud clatter in the hallway shattered the silence, and Ariana instinctively ducked behind the wall of mailboxes. She had thought she was alone. Immediately she felt silly. Easton was the safest place in the world. She just wasn’t used to the place being empty. Shaking her head, she was about to come out when she heard footsteps, and something told her to stay where she was. She heard a door opening—or was it was the wind rattling the ancient windows? She couldn’t tell. She held her breath and closed her eyes. Silence.

What was going on? The campus was practically deserted. Who else would be coming to Hell Hall at this hour? Slowly, Ariana pulled open the door and stepped cautiously into the hallway. It was empty. She quickly headed for the door but felt the overwhelming sensation that someone was watching her. Her steps turned into a jog, and the only sound she could hear was her heart pounding loudly in her ears.

This is stupid,
she chided herself even as she ran.
There’s no one here. No one. No one. No—

Just a few feet from the double doors, she slammed into something. Someone. Ariana screamed. A hand clamped over her mouth and her back slammed into the wall. A hooded figure. Strong and tall, but thin. Ariana opened her mouth to bite down when she caught the familiar, spicy scent of Thomas Pearson.

“Calm down! It’s just me.”

He let her go and she gulped in a huge breath.

“Jesus, Thomas. Do you have a death wish or something?” Ariana sank back against the wall, adrenaline draining from her body. She wiped her clammy hands on her coat and tried to slow her breathing. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Just in the neighborhood.” He lowered his hood and laughed. She felt her body begin to relax. Even in the dimly lit hall, his eyes were stunningly blue.

“Try again.” She felt the heat radiating from his body. She knew it was ridiculous, but suddenly she felt warmer.

“Okay. I knew you would need a little help getting to the chapel.”

Ariana’s heart skipped a beat, but she remembered her decision. She had to stick to her plan. “I can’t. I have to catch a cab. I’m meeting Daniel in Vermont tonight.”

“So go in the morning,” he said simply, moving closer.

She took a step back, bumping in to the hallway wall. He was mere inches from her now, and Ariana felt the resistance melting from her body. It was as if he had some sort of power over her. The power to make her forget what she had with Daniel. To forget what could happen if anyone saw her with him. What she could lose. Billings. Easton. Her mother.

But when he was that close, all that existed was Thomas. All that she wanted was Thomas.

“You know you want to stay.” He took another step closer. The tips of his shoes bumping against hers.

I do,
Ariana thought, her longing taking over.
I do, I do, do.

She had to touch him. Had to kiss him. Now. Right now or she was going to lose her mind.

“Aria—”

She silenced him with her touch. She grabbed him around the back of his neck and pulled his mouth down on hers. Power surged through her body as she took control, kissing him until he finally woke up from his shock and kissed her back. He yanked her scarf from around her neck, and his lips moved down from just below her ear, down, down to her collarbone. He groped for the buttons on her coat as she struggled with the belt. The moment she was free of it, his hand slipped inside and under her sweater. Her skin seared everywhere he touched her. She let the coat drop to the floor and slid her hands up under his clothes, running her fingers over his chest. Every inch of her body trembled with excitement, with a kind of energy she’d never felt before. Want flooded through her and she gave in to it, feeling completely, wonderfully out of control. She needed more. More. More
now.

But when he starting pulling her sweater over her head, she pushed him away. “Wait. Not here,” she whispered. “The professors . . . they’re still around. . . .”

Wordlessly, he grabbed her hand. Ariana had just enough time to grab her coat and bag off the marble floor as he tugged her toward the double doors. Once outside, the snowflakes swirled thick around them, and Ariana felt as if her heart were swirling too. Wildly spinning with no chance of stopping. She didn’t think about how she was
supposed to be in love with Daniel. How she was supposed to be on her way to the train station. She just let Thomas lead her through campus to the edge of the woods. She had no idea what was going to happen. How far she would let things go.

And for the first time in her life, she didn’t care.

“After you.” Thomas held back several thick, snow-covered pine branches. Behind them were a series of cracked stone steps leading to the old chapel’s doorway. The building had been marked for demolition at the beginning of the year and was supposed to be torn down by the end of December. The student body had been warned by Dean Marcus to stay away from the woods until the area was cleared, but a select few, Thomas included, had ignored the dean’s warning. It was the perfect place to drink and get high.

“I haven’t been back here in a while.” Ariana tilted her head back, taking in the circular stained-glass window above the door and the crumbling steeple that stretched into the cloud of snow above. She felt a sudden, unexpected surge of sadness. The old building had withstood so much over the years and had become strangely more beautiful, stronger with age. But it was only a matter of time before it would be completely destroyed. Gone forever.

Thomas made his way up the steps and pushed the door opened with a creak, gesturing for Ariana to go inside. She took a deep breath and crossed the threshold.

“Shit, it’s freezing,” he whispered as he closed the door behind them. His breath hovered white and heavy in the stale air.

Ariana nodded silently, even though she knew he couldn’t see her in the dark. She braced herself against the bitter cold that permeated her clothes, seeping into her skin and chilling her insides. With any luck it would keep her brain frozen so she wouldn’t have to think about what she was doing. That she was in a condemned chapel. With Thomas. Alone.

“Here we go.” A flash of light exploded in front of Thomas, and he lowered his lighter to two candles in wall sconces on either side of the door. The dim light cast shadows over the rows of dusty pews and cracked stained-glass windows that ran the length of the small chapel. “Hey, can you light those?” Thomas handed her the lighter and nodded toward the altar.

Ariana took the lighter gingerly and held it in front of her, making her way slowly to the altar. The flame caught on a shard of blue glass at her feet. She knelt to pick it up, suddenly overwhelmed by the decaying beauty around her. This place was cracked and broken, just like she was. She felt the weight, the gravity of the space. Of all who had been there before. She could sense the ghosts all around her, spirits of students long dead and forgotten, clinging to the hallowed walls of their glory days.

One day, that would be her. And Thomas. And Noelle and
Daniel and Isobel and the rest. One day they would all be dead and gone. . . .

“Ariana?”

Thomas’s voice jolted her. The metal of the lighter burned her thumb and she winced, dropping it on the floor.

“I’ve got it,” she said, feeling stupid.