Julian would understand. He would be mad at me for a little while, but then he would understand.

He had to.

When we left my room, Julian went in one direction toward his masterclass while I went in the other, toward the lecture hall. As soon as he was out of sight, I turned around and walked in the direction of Lineage. When I got to the edge of the campus, I retraced the same route along the edge of the tree line that led to Adam’s apartment. Then I knocked quietly on his bedroom window until he opened it and let me inside.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “I thought I told you not to come back here again.”

I grinned. “What can I say, I don’t take direction well.”

“Apparently,” he said as he rolled his eyes at me.

I peeked around his shoulders. “Is Michael here?”

“No, he’s in some meeting or something in the Dean’s office. Why?”

I nodded. “Because you and I need to talk.”

8

There’s a place on Lineage grounds that Adam said he goes to when he needs time away from all the people around him. It was too dangerous for me to stay in his apartment to talk with him; Michael could have come back at a moment’s notice, so Adam took me to his special place. I had no idea the campus was so vast and even less of an idea how beautiful certain parts of it were.

The cemetery seemed like an odd place to go sit and have a conversation, but I was surprised by how incredible it was once we got there. It seemed even more strange that a school campus would have a cemetery on its grounds, but I guess that shouldn’t have surprised me…it was Lineage after all. And in my mind, that word rang with the stench of death. I couldn’t believe how many tombstones there were. We walked between the old and crumbling tombstones until we found a small clearing of grass to sit down on.

“No one will find us here,” Adam said as he crossed his legs to sit down next to me. “I’ve been coming here for months, and I’ve yet to see a single person ever visit this cemetery. So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?”

“I want to come to Lineage,” I said. I wasn’t going to pussyfoot around it. There wasn’t time.

“You’re already here,” he said, looking confused.

“No, I mean, I want to attend this school.”

Adam made a noise that sounded like an amused snort of some sort. “That’s impossible. And why would you ever want to attend Lineage? You hate it here.”

“I don’t know,” I said as I scooted closer to him. “The cemetery isn’t so bad.”

“Well, I’ll remind you that beneath this lovely, gothic-looking graveyard, there are a whole lot of decaying bodies. Most of which were probably killed by people here, if we’re being honest.”

“What is it that’s going on here?” I said in a solemn tone. “What is this school covering up?”

Adam didn’t answer me. This wasn’t working, and I only had one shot at it. I needed to convince him to bring me here with him.

I scooted myself to sit close enough to him for our thighs to touch and then set my hand onto his lap. I looked into his dark eyes with as much urgency and longing as I could muster, and it surprised me when it didn’t feel quite as pretend as I had expected it to.

“Adam, you came back to the halfway house to see me. You broke into my bedroom window to come and warn me because you said you were trying to keep me safe. It’s no secret that you have feelings for me.”

His body seemed to lean forward slightly as if he were trying to breathe in each word that I said.

“I never forgot about you either. On the night my mother was killed, I forgot about everyone else there besides her…except for you. When I’m with you, I feel safe, and as much as I try to stay mad at you for keeping secrets, I can’t. You told me you weren’t responsible for my mother’s death, and I believed you. I also think that out of anyone here, you’re the best chance I have of not ending up meeting the same fate that my mother did.”

He scooted closer to me. “I would never let anyone hurt you, Lisette,” he said.

He was so close to me now that his slightly-open mouth gently touched mine, and his lips slid against mine in such a seductive way that I had to keep myself from losing my focus.

“I know you wouldn’t,” I whispered.

I was struggling not to lose my words as the tip of his tongue lightly traced across the underside of my lip.

Oh my god, if this is just pretend, then why do I want to kiss him so badly. What am I doing?

I put my hand against his chest and felt his taut muscles tense in response to my touch. “I want to be here with you,” I said as I pulled the words out to say to him before I completely lost it. “Please,” I uttered. “I don’t want to go back to Goldshire, I want to stay here with you.”

That was the end of the conversation. I had planned to wait for his answer, for an agreement that he would help me get Marta to approve a transfer so that I could begin to uncover the truth about my mother. But he didn’t wait, and neither did I. Adam’s lips came over mine, and I felt his tongue push into my mouth.

And while I’m not sure what happened, I suddenly went from pretending… to not.

I didn’t even think about Julian as Adam got up onto his knees and then came down over me. I felt the soft grass against my back, and Adam’s hard ache pressing against my pelvis. There, between the grave markers, we were a tangle of grasping limbs and gnashing teeth as we gave in to the undeniable chemistry that had brewed between us regardless of all the reasons it shouldn’t have. I wrapped my legs around his waist and urged his body into mine. Adam breathed audibly in response to my movement and reached his hand up under my shirt. I didn’t want to stop, not this time. I pulled at the bottom of his T-shirt until he arched his back, and I was able to pull it off and over his head. When I saw his chest, I paused. Adam’s lower body pushed against mine as if he couldn’t bear the thought of stopping. He lifted his torso up anyway, though, and waited as I ran my fingers along the top of his chest and looked in awe at what I saw there.

Across the entirety of his chest was a darkly-inked, elaborate tattoo that looked like tree roots growing out from his sternum and up into the bottom of his shoulders. The roots curled around each other in great detail, some of them had thorns that seemed to create the visible illusion of cutting into his flesh. The rest were soft, however, and rendered with such detail that I thought I could almost feel the smooth texture of their tips.

“This is incredible,” I whispered as I looked wide-eyed at the way the lines curved against his muscles and felt as if I was touching a piece of art. “What does it mean?”

“I’ll tell you sometime,” he said as he lowered his body over mine again.

I stared with new eyes at him as he brought his face to me again, and instead of seeing an enemy, this time, I saw a lover.

“What is going on here?” a harsh voice shouted.

Adam lifted his head quickly but kept his body against mine. It felt as if he was using his body as a shield to cover me. It was one of the Lineage security guards. I had no idea how or why they would have found us inside the graveyard, and from Adam’s expression, neither did he.

“Is that you, Adam?” the guy asked, obviously recognizing Michael’s roommate and Marta’s adopted pet student.

“Yeah,” Adam answered. “Now, leave me alone.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the guard said once he saw who it was that Adam was with. “That’s a Goldshire girl you’ve got there, and you know that’s not allowed. Not even for you. She’ll need to come with me.”

“No.” Adam snarled as he stood up next to me. “We’ll both go with you. And Marta won’t be happy when she finds out you’ve harassed my girlfriend and me.”

Girlfriend? Holy shit, he’s going along with it.

I got to my feet and stood slightly behind Adam with my shoulder pressed up against his back. And when he reached around to touch me, I could’ve sworn he was using himself as a human shield.

Why did he feel the need to do that with a simple old security guard?

“Well, how about we let Marta decide that for herself? Follow me,” the guard commanded as he waved his hand to summon us along with him.

Adam reached for my hand and held it tightly in his. “Don’t worry,” he said. “This won’t be a problem.”