“Still…” she said, drawing the word out with tantalizing slowness. “I’m thinking I could do all that. If you’re serious about it, that is.”
“Oh, I’m deadly serious.”
She giggled musically, as her face drew inexorably closer to mine. “Good.”
I couldn’t take another second. I grabbed her ass with both hands and lifted her into the air, kissing her long and hard as her legs slid eagerly around my waist. Brooke locked her ankles behind my back. She threw her arms over my shoulders, and slipped her sweet, wonderful tongue into my mouth.
Damn…
I was a total fool. A complete and utter asshole really, to even consider letting something this good get away. Kissing her in the cold, feeling the warmth of her body against mine, I vowed silently to never let such a thing happen again.
It had to be five or ten minutes before I set her down again. Before our lips finally parted, and her feet touched the ground.
“You know, I’ve had the urge to throw you in that snowbank and fuck you senseless,” I admitted.
Brooke looked down a little fearfully at the cold mound of ice and snow.
“Uhhh…. raincheck on that?” she laughed.
“Alright,” I conceded. “How about I take you back to my place and I screw you until you can’t remember either of your names?”
“Offer accepted,” she said, kissing me again.
We had to pry ourselves from each other, just long enough to walk the dozen or so remaining steps to my car. When we got there my smile disappeared in an instant. Brooke’s laugher trailed off at the same time, dying against the wind.
All four of my tires were flat.
“Fuck,” I swore, circling slowly around my vehicle. I bent to inspect them. Even in the semi-darkness I could see the tires weren’t just flat, they were slashed through.
“I— I’m so sorry, Trey,” Brooke apologized. She looked genuinely upset. “I— I just… don’t know what to say.”
“Well,” I grumbled, heaving an angry sigh. “Looks like you might not be the only student failing one of my classes.”
Thirty-Eight
BROOKE
It only took a minute to call one of Trey’s good friends, who also happened to manage a garage. It was already late, dark, and cold, but “Jeff” assured Trey he’d be sending a tow truck, ‘sometime’ during the night.
“What now?” I asked, shivering.
Trey tucked his keys into the front passenger wheel well. Then he smiled, and interlaced his fingers with mine. “My place.”
We began the arduous journey back across the frozen campus, hand in hand. I thought maybe four flat tires might spoil the evening, but Trey still seemed in a fine mood despite his misfortune.
Not exactly a misfortune, is it?
I felt guilty. Shitty as hell. And that’s because I was fairly sure Trey’s tires hadn’t been cut by any of his students, from any one of his classes.
In other words, it had to be Chris.
It was the second strange thing that had happened in twenty-four hours. Because as I’d left Adam and Dante’s place this morning, I noticed someone had used their finger to draw a big heart on the windshield of my car.
Normally I’d chalk it up to someone who happened to walk by, tracing something cute in the condensation, on a whim. But no, last night had been an ice storm. Every vehicle on every street was covered in a thick layer of frost. Someone had actually climbed onto my hood and created the big, symmetrical heart by chipping away at the ice. Such a thing took dedication. Time.
And psychosis. Don’t forget psychosis.
Luckily, the guys hadn’t seen it. They’d walked me to the curb and kissed me goodbye without ever noticing what happened. But now… this.