The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance (194 page)

“You remember what you’re going to tell them?” he asked gently.

“That I got caught in a motel on the border of Connecticut for two nights because of the snow,” she repeated robotically.

“Good.” He gave her a rare, sincere smile. “It’s only two weeks, naughty girl. We can do two weeks, right?”

He nudged her foot with his. The sound of that nickname, that stupid nickname, brought tears to her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. Two weeks in Vermont sounded like an eternity. But it was the only way she’d have an alibi. People to vouch for where she’d been over break. Even if those people had to be Daniel and Paige Ryan.

“Don’t call me naughty girl,” she joked lamely.

“Please. You love it.” Thomas grinned. But his eyes were blank.
Dead. And for the first time, she saw that he was just as miserable as she was. “I want you to have something.” He reached into his pocket. It was the old New York City subway token he’d been fiddling with at the Winter Ball. He pressed it into her hand. “I’ve carried this around forever. It’s lucky. It’ll be our thing, our symbol or whatever.”

The sound of sirens punctured the night air, and Ariana froze as two police cruisers sped down the street toward them in a blur. Red and blue light slipped across Thomas’s face, then disappeared.

“You don’t think—” Ariana began, her voice shaking.

“Hey. You have to keep it together, okay?” He pulled her closer, lowering his mouth to her ear. “They won’t find him,” he said softly. “And even if they do, they won’t think to ask either one of us about it. I was on my way to New York, and you were on your way to Vermont.”

“On my way to Vermont,” she echoed. As if repeating the words would make them true.

“To Daniel,” Thomas said somberly.

A fresh wave of tears sprang to her eyes. She knew what he meant. Daniel was going to expect her to have sex with him. Could she actually go to Vermont and do that? Could she sleep with Daniel, tell him she loved him, when all she wanted to do was be with Thomas? The thought of lying in bed next to Daniel made her stomach lurch.

Ariana pressed her cheek against Thomas’s warm wool jacket and leaned into him. In that moment all she wanted was to be with him. To leave Easton and Billings, Daniel and her mother, behind. Start over. Just her and Thomas. No one else.

“Hey,” she murmured into his chest, “want to come with me? I hear there’s this really
exclusive
resort there.”

“I wish.” Thomas kissed the top of her head and held her face in his hands. “Just remember that you’re not just some name on a list, Ariana. You’re better than that. You deserve better than that.”

A white taxi with a green-checkered border turned the corner and slowed at the curb and suddenly, Ariana couldn’t breathe. It was as if the air had been sucked out of her lungs, leaving her deflated.

Thomas kissed her. Hard. Frantic, she tried to memorize everything about him. The lines of his body under her fingertips, and the softness of his lips. The way that lock of hair fell into his face and brushed against her forehead. She didn’t want to lose any of it.

He pulled away and kissed her lightly on the nose. “You gonna be okay?”

She nodded slowly.

“See you in two weeks,” he said, pulling open the door of the cab.

“Two weeks.”

Somehow, Ariana made herself pull away from him, even though the pain in her heart was excruciating. She slipped into the backseat, and the slam of the cab door made her jump. Thomas stood on the sidewalk, gazing down at her through the foggy window. Ariana grasped at the memory of his kiss.

The cab lurched, forcing her to face forward. When she turned around again, Thomas was gone.

“Where you headed?” the cabbie asked gruffly from the front seat.

“Train station,” she replied flatly.

A Christmas tree–shaped air freshener swung from the rearview mirror, filling the cab with the thick stench of pine. Traces of cigarette smoke and sweat seemed to rise up from the torn leather seats. Breathing through her mouth to block the stench, Ariana pulled Mr. Holmes’s cell phone from her coat pocket. She blocked the number before dialing.

“Hello?” Daniel answered after the first ring.

“It’s me.” Ariana kept her voice low.

“Who is this? Wait a minute. You sound familiar. A little like my girlfriend.” Ariana couldn’t decide whether Daniel sounded relieved or angry. She decided she didn’t have the energy to care.

“It was the storm. I couldn’t get out,” she replied, her words clipped.

“My parents keep asking about you. Asking when you’re coming. Don’t really know what to tell them, Ariana.”

Annoyed. Definitely annoyed.

“I’ll be there tonight.” Already she felt tired.

“Tonight?” The edge in Daniel’s voice suddenly softened. “I’ll meet you at the station. What time does your train get in?”

She heard rustling papers over the familiar sound of ESPN in the background.

“I don’t know yet,” she said quickly. “Don’t bother coming to the station. It’ll be late. I’ll meet you at the lodge, okay?”

She screwed her eyes shut, praying that Daniel would agree. She needed time. Time to transform herself into the sweet, smiling
girlfriend she’d have to play for the next two weeks. The more time she had, the better.

“You sure?” Daniel sounded uncertain.

“Yeah. I’ll call you when I get to the lobby.”

“Okay. So I’ll see you when you get here,” Daniel paused, and silence buzzed over the line. “I love you, Ariana.”

She felt every muscle in her body tighten. “Me too,” she managed.

Without another word, she flipped the phone closed and shoved it in her pocket. Her fingers hit the subway token. She smiled and took off her necklace, placing the token next to the fleur-de-lis, and refastened the chain around her neck.

It was late Sunday afternoon when Daniel and Ariana’s cab pulled through Easton’s gates. Most of the snow had melted over the rest of break. Ariana’s heart jumped with excitement as the cabdriver navigated his way expertly around the front circle, avoiding pockets of students dragging designer suitcases in their wake.

She turned toward the window and shook her head at the sight of London Simmons and Vienna Clark, the sophomores whose copy-and-paste style had quickly earned them the nickname the Twin Cities. The girls struggled with hot pink Chanel suitcases, their faces scarlet with effort. Or second-degree burns, judging from their identical sunglass tans and the bottle of duty-free rum peeking out of Vienna’s Halston beach tote.

“What’s that smile for?” Daniel slipped his arm around her shoulders. It felt heavy, like it was filled with lead.

Ariana shrugged, itching to be away from his touch but forcing herself to grin at him. “Just glad to be back.”

Daniel groaned, reaching into his back pocket for his wallet as the cab slowed to a stop.

“Not me. Two weeks went by way too fast.”

He fished a fifty out of his wallet and handed it to the driver, then jumped out and hurried around to the other side to open Ariana’s door.

“Thank you,” Ariana said sweetly, stepping onto the curb.

The crisp winter air sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine. Every day for two weeks, she’d fantasized about this moment. Getting back to Easton. Getting back to Thomas. She glanced down at her watch, adjusting it against the glare of the late afternoon sun.

“Want to go into town for dinner?” Daniel was standing idly by as the cabdriver lugged each of their bags from the trunk and tossed them on the curb. “I’m starving.”

“No,” she said, too quickly. Realizing her mistake, she forced a yawn. “I’m just really exhausted.”

She tugged anxiously at the puke green cashmere scarf Daniel’s mom had given her for Christmas. She’d felt obligated to wear it during the entire trip, and now it felt like it was tightening around her throat.

Daniel frowned. “Okay. Then lunch tomorrow?” Effortlessly, he picked up a duffel bag bulging with ski equipment and slung it over one shoulder.

“Sure. Sounds fun,” Ariana conceded, her heart sinking. She picked up her bag, stealing another glance at her watch as they headed toward Billings.

“Got someplace to be?” Daniel smirked. She hated when he looked
at her like that. Like she was a child he kept around for his amusement.

“Almost past my bedtime,” she joked, forcing a laugh. An overwhelming sense of relief surfaced as she saw Billings looming ahead. Her escape. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?” she said hastily, her steps quickening.

Daniel nodded, and she watched him disappear in the crowds of students swarming around the dorms.

Ariana waited for a few agonizing minutes before running up the front steps of Billings. Throwing open the front door, she tossed her bag in the entryway, then sprinted back down the steps and through the maze of dorms, tuning out the idle holiday gossip that buzzed around her. As she passed Drake and neared Ketlar, she scanned the pockets of students around her, searching for any sign of Daniel. Good. He was nowhere to be found.

Gwendolyn Hall stretched just beyond the line of trees at the edge of campus. Easton’s oldest building had been deserted years ago, and Ariana had never had reason to venture inside. She stared up at the infamous façade. The frozen, overgrown weeds and brush beneath the boarded-up windows seemed to be reaching up like wiry fingers, threatening to strangle the old landmark. Two crumbling stone benches flanked the entrance, hidden by overgrown trees and shrubs. Cautiously, she lowered herself onto the closest bench, checking her watch again. The only sound she heard was that of her own foot tapping against the cracked cement walkway.

“Could’ve warned me you were planning on showing up fashionably late.”

Ariana heard his voice before she saw him. She leaped to her feet, looking around her.

Finally, Thomas emerged from the side of the building. His hair was shorter on the sides and he looked older, somehow. Broader. Even more perfect.

She almost tripped over a jagged piece of cement on the ground as she ran toward him. When she threw himself into his arms, he staggered under her momentum.

“Easy!” He laughed, kissing her face, her hair.

“You have no idea how much I missed you,” Ariana breathed.

“Come on. Only door that isn’t boarded up leads to the basement.”

He tugged her hand and led her around the side of the building, through the dead brush that lined the walls. Thomas gripped the door handle and yanked it open, ducking through the doorway. She followed him into the deserted basement. Musty, damp air hung thick around them. She unwound the ugly scarf from around her neck and slipped out of her new, light blue Dior coat. It took about two seconds for her to give up on finding a clean place to lay them, and she tossed them over a dusty chair in the corner. That was what dry cleaners were for.

“I felt like I was going crazy.” Ariana pulled the wooden door closed behind them. Slivers of dusty light from the setting sun filtered through its cracks, painting red slashes across their bodies.

“Me too.” Thomas pinned her to the stone wall, tugging her sweater over her head. He ran his fingers through her hair; kissed her
on the mouth, the neck, along her collarbone. She hadn’t felt like this the whole time she’d been in Vermont. She had missed feeling the way she did when she was with Thomas. Missed feeling alive, free. “At least you didn’t have to spend two weeks holed up in your parents’ co-op with your moron of a brother.”

“Awwww. Poor thing,” she said with a laugh. “Life on the Upper East Side must be
so
hard.”

He shrugged out of his coat and yanked his sweater off over his head. “Like you were roughing it in Vermont,” he said, his hands traveling over her skin.

Her body tensed under his touch. The last person she wanted to think about when she was with Thomas was Daniel. She wanted to forget about the last two weeks with the Ryans, let the memory of everything that had happened between Daniel and her evaporate, like her breath in the winter air.

“What’s wrong?” Thomas breathed into her ear. He pressed his hands against her hips, guiding her through the maze of student desks piled high around the basement. Her legs backed into an old oak desk shoved against the far wall, and he lifted her onto it. “You okay?”

“Of course,” she said quickly, slipping her arms around him and pulling him close. “I’m fine.”

Suddenly, a familiar buzzing sound escaped from her back pocket.

“My phone,” she gasped.

“Ignore it.”

“I can’t.” She yanked the phone out and her heart sank. Paige Ryan
was calling her. She pressed her palms against his chest and pushed him gently away. “I have to get back.”

“Oh.” Realization slipped over Thomas’s face. “Got a hot date?”

He backed off quickly, grabbing his sweater off the floor.

“No, it’s just Paige,” she said. “She’s going to start wondering where I am, and she already asked soooo many questions over break about what I did by myself in a motel for two days and—”

“It’s fine,” he said, leaning in to kiss her lightly on the lips.

“I know this sneaking around sucks, but it’s kind of exciting, too,” she said suggestively, looking up at him through her thick lashes.

“Sure,” Thomas said as he got dressed.

Adrenaline still pulsed through Ariana, and every cell in her body screamed for her to stay with Thomas. To forget about Daniel.

“It’s all going to be worth it,” she said, reaching for his belt loop and pulling him to her. “We just have to wait it out until the fall, and then we can be together, right?”

“Right,” Thomas replied with another quick kiss.

“And in the meantime, we can keep meeting up here,” she said coyly. “Like tomorrow? Around five? Maybe we can finish what we just started.”

She pulled him closer to her and bit his bottom lip playfully. Thomas grinned.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

She kissed him deeply, digging her nails into his hair and holding
him tightly until she finally broke away. Smiling, Ariana picked up her sweater and coat and quickly redressed.