Unexpected

Chapter Fifteen

Mostly a sweetheart.

She was also obsessed with love stories. To be fair, all of their interactions should have made that obvious, but he hadn't realized exactly to what extent. Those little pins in her backpack hadn't even told half the story. It took him only a week to realize that if Cress was ever going to let him kiss her again, he was going to have to pull out all the stops. He started trying to think of dumb over-the-top romantic gestures that might make her happy. He was normally good at romancing women, but Cress was sometimes a bit too hearts-and-flowers for his usual moves. He even considered asking Kai what he would do, but Kai would never let him live that down, and besides, Kai had no idea that he was hanging out with Cress. Thorne had made sure of that.

But one night, to his great surprise, Cress lingered in the doorway just a bit longer than normal as he was leaving. She looked down at her feet, then up at his eyes, and then at his lips. Thorne, caught off guard but naturally still quite attuned to this particular cue, whipped out the smile he'd been saving for precisely this moment. The one that was knowing and sexy and slightly cocky. The one that made all the ladies swoon.

Cress blushed, and bit her lip. Thorne drew out the moment a little longer, basking in the tension that was boiling between them. When she looked up at him again, he decided to give her a sweet kiss—one still full of passion and a touch of hunger, but a sweet one nonetheless. It would be better to leave her wanting for more this time, rather than the other way around. He leaned down and watched as she closed her eyes, and then it was as though their lips recognized each other from their time together at the Masquerade. As though they'd been waiting to reconnect. And though he'd meant for it to be a sweet kiss, Cress lingered longer than he'd expected and it became very clear that his resolve was crumbling. Fast.

He forced himself to break away from her and bid her goodnight. Thorne walked breathlessly back to his car. He groaned in weakness and frustration as he started the Rampion.

Cress was a goddess. He didn't need Rapunzel.

That Saturday, though they hadn't planned on hanging out for once—Thorne did have to pretend that he was doing other things besides seeing her, after all—Cress called him crying. Apparently she'd had a terrible session with her therapist, and the jerk had made her feel completely worthless. She apologized profusely for calling him in this state, but said that she couldn't think of anyone else to talk to. While the idea of girls crying usually made him feel uncomfortable, something about Cress being sad made him feel a little sad too. And that was no good.

So he surprised her by bringing over some take-out. The look on her face when he showed up was enough for him to know that he'd done the right thing—even if it had blown his "I'm busy" cover just a bit. He supposed he could always make up an excuse later so that she didn't get too attached. She'd stopped crying by the time he showed up, which was great, and she'd also decided that she didn't really want to talk about it anymore, which was even better. While he loved talking to Cress, he made sure they avoided heavy topics laced with too many feelings. They were too messy. Too personal.

Cress wasn't exactly herself though, and it was easy to see that whatever had happened today had clearly made her feel terrible. He wanted to cheer her up, but he certainly didn't want to watch another Disney movie with her. He'd set a rule about how many of those he could handle, anyway. It was important not to set a precedent by breaking that rule now. She warmed up a bit when he asked her about some projects she was working on at Rikan Corp. The girl liked to hack, or prevent hackers, or whatever it was she did. It cheered her up some. But not enough.

He thought back to their conversation in the elevator. Sometimes she just needed to get out of her head, she'd said, to forget about everything. He certainly wasn't going to get her drunk, because he'd seen first-hand how that turned out, and yet, he wanted to do something. What was something she loved to do, that he liked as well? Something they could do together?