Now…
My chest twingeshard.
Apparently, I missed stitching aspot.
“Hi, Tyler,” I say atlast.
With a moment’s hesitation, he holds out a hand. “Annie.”
His voice. I haven’t heard his voice in over a year, and it rumbles through me like thunder at a distance, a soft promise of inevitable destruction that will leave no part of meuntouched.
I force myself to take hishand.
Beck and Elle have no idea we’ve met before, and nothing in our greeting would make themsuspect.
The heat of him is familiar, but the electricity traveling from my hand up my arm to my breasts, between my thighs, has me exhalinghard.
His gaze darkens as if he feels ittoo.
“What are you doing here?” he asksroughly.
“Weird question, bro,” Beck says, laughing, but I lift mychin.
“Pursuing the finest arts education money can buy in this beautiful free nation,” I say, dropping his hand. “You?”
His gaze narrows. “Same.”
“I’m Elle,” my new friend volunteers cheerfully. They shake hands, then she turns to my mentor. “You’re only second year. Do you really know thatmuch?”
Beck flashes an easy grin. “You know how to score practice rooms during midterms? Get bottomless soda from the vending machine in the library? Hack the staff and faculty meet-and-greet invite list so you can get free booze and mingle with famousalumni?”
She blinks. Even I’mimpressed.
“Unofficially, you can be my mentee too,” Beck offers generously, stopping to scratch his head. “Wait, isn’t that ananimal?”
“That’s a manatee,” Ellesays.
His eyes light up. “Right. You can be my manatees. You manatees need anything, you let meknow.”
“You live in the dorms?” I ask, avoiding Tyler’sgaze.
“Nah. They’re mostly for first years. We live about a dozen blocks from here, and only the last four are sketchy. Just a booty callaway.”
“Presumptuous, but I like your style,” Elle says. “She’s six-oh-six. I’m six-oh-four,” she volunteers before I can stopher.
“Six. Got it,” Beck continues, and my gut twists sharply as I remember what Tyler used to callme.
“We should get going,” I say. “But I’m sure we’ll see youaround.”
“Nodoubt.”
I meet Tyler’s gaze again, and reality slams intome.
Of all the issues I thought I’d have in a new city at a new school starting a new part of my life, he wasn’t one ofthem.
But the guy who destroyed me a year and a half ago… he’s here. Judging by the fact that he’s my mentor’s roommate, I’m going to be seeinghim.
And judging from the look on Tyler’s face, he’s as pissed about it as Iam.