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.”
“Does that mean your answer is a yes for bringing me here with you?” I asked.
He nodded curtly. “Yes.”
Adam lifted his shirt up from the ground and pulled it up over his head, only letting go of my hand for the split second that it took to shove his arm through the sleeve. And the whole of me regretted that we had been caught. Yes, Julian had looked out for me ever since I was a kid, but with Adam?
There was something different about him. Something that was more unhinged or primal. And it resonated with me in a way I’d never felt before.
Not even with Julian.
“You know there has to be an overwhelming reason to transfer.” Marta shook her head at Adam as she spoke. Her voice was harsh and condescending, and the way she looked at me made me feel like I was standing there naked, which, of course, I was not. “And of all the Goldshire girls that you could have chosen to break the rules with, you picked this one? You know who she is.”
“Yes,” Adam said. “I do. But there isn’t anything in your rules that excludes specific people. I love her, and I want her with me here.”
The single word sounded much louder in my head and made me dizzy. Adam couldn’t have loved me. It was just a game of pretend to get Marta to allow my entry into the school. Even Julian and I, throughout all the years we’d known each other and all of the things we’d been through together, never once said we loved each other. You can’t count the “love ya too” phrases that we would throw back and forth, but that didn’t mean the same thing.
I watched as Marta rubbed her temple and sighed while she paced the perimeter of her office. It was unbelievable that she was even considering Adam’s request in all honesty. He was definitely laying it on thick, but she must have had some strange soft spot for him.
“Marta, please,” he said. “Remember what you first told me when Michael brought me to your office and asked for my acceptance into Lineage? You said that we were all a family here and that family protects each other. I can’t stop my feelings for Lisette. I am in love with her, and if I can’t bring her here to be with me, then I won’t have any happiness. I know who she is and who her mother was. But the only thing that should matter now is who she is to me.”
Marta stopped her pacing and looked at him. It seemed like she was being swayed, and I wanted to close the deal, even if I couldn’t exactly reciprocate the same sentiment. I stepped forward and opened my mouth to talk, hoping that I wouldn’t end up regretting it.
“I have been devastated by my father’s reputation, which has lingered over me ever since I was a small child. With my mother gone as well, nothing is tying me to Goldshire.”
“And you would betray your parent’s legacy there in order to come to Lineage and be with Adam?” Marta asked.
I felt as though it was the final tipping-point in what seemed like an interrogation. So, I dug my heels in and prayed to any God listening that my parents forgave me.
“Yes. There is no legacy there for me anymore,” I answered.
She looked behind me toward Adam as if I were no longer in the room.
“Michael will not be pleased about this,” she said to him.
“I’ll handle Michael,” Adam said.
“And she’ll have to go through the entire vetting process…without any help or interference from you.”
