When Gracie is humiliated after following her best friend's brother to college and finds he's moved on without her, she grows closer to his rival--the captain of his basketball team--the infamous Kalen Rush, and suddenly Gracie wonders just what len...
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The library smelled of musty books and pages that hadn't been read in at least five years.
Staying until close and leaving the back door cracked so as to not trip the security override was an easy feat, and I set my things up in my usual corner facing the outward windows as I waited for Kalen to show up.
Five minutes to the dot and there was a message on my phone.
Two minutes later and my heart was hammering over the beat of a disastrous melody, something carved from the panic withering in my chest at seeing him again.
And then his footsteps echoed through the silent, hollowed out library.
Each step was like a death march, beckoning me closer and screaming at me to get as far away from him as possible.
But there was something that kept me rooted to the spot earlier, even when he got far too close than I should have let him.
I should have pushed him as far as the strength of my arms would've allowed me, but there was a weakness inside of me.
One look into his eyes, and the icy distance I'd tried to encapsulate my heart in began to thaw.
One moment in his presence and I instantly folded to what he wanted, nevermind the fact that I was the one who'd gone to speak with him first.
When he'd pushed me into that wall...
"Hey," his gruff whisper bounced off the walls, and I stopped those thoughts in their tracks.
There would be no time for those kinds of distractions when it came to what I had to show him.
"Hey."
Standing in front of him was another matter entirely, though, especially considering the fact that I had to crane my neck so dramatically to see him in the dim light of the library, the moon and stray beams of streetlights ricocheting off the glass panes shining through the windows.
His pale eyes glinted in the low lighting and his inky hair disappeared into the dark as it swept across his forehead, highlighting his icy irises as they assessed my body up and down, like he was checking to make sure I wasn't hurt in some way.
It made sense in a way—taking into account the fact that I was acting more than strange considering the last interaction we had prior to that day—and all the awful things he'd said and done.
"Follow me."
I turned on my heel and could finally breathe normally again once I was away from his lingering gaze.
Fuck, this was going to be harder than I thought.
"Not gonna explain why you're being so mysterious?"
"It'll just be easier to...show you."
"Well now I'm even more curious. I thought you were done with me."
