29

Adam

Break The Rules

The running theory I'd been content with was that all Piper and I needed to do was give into the animal impulses, screw each other brains out, and I'd lose my interest and get back to normal. I knew it. It was an easy guess.

You know what doesn't make any fucking sense?

How long I waited for Piper to come back to our dorm.

I pretended like I was sleeping for half an hour, waiting for the door to creak open. I didn't know why she left, but it didn't dawn on me until an hour later that Piper wasn't going to come back.

Not that it helped me fall asleep.

I stared up at the ceiling. I did so many push-ups, my arms ached. I took another shower. And I might've jerked off two or three times, thinking about the way she'd cried out when she came on my fingers.

If anything, I didn't feel more myself. I felt…I was…I don't know. I was fucking tired.

Around five in the morning, I got forty-five minutes of a sleepless doze before I hauled myself out of the dorm and went to the breakfast room. I sat with a cup of orange juice and a breakfast box. Our football team wouldn't have tolerated this shit food, but I couldn't eat it anyway. I pushed it off to the side and tore up a napkin bit by bit, thinking again about Piper, naked in the shower, pressed against me, my hand around her throat.

An hour passed. Two hours passed.

Pinpricks started at my neck and I glanced up to see blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail, a breakfast box in her hands. Piper's gray eyes flickered towards me. She stumbled to a stop and someone bumped into her. I stopped shredding a napkin, and she started walking towards me again. Too slowly.

The moment she approached the table, I abruptly stood up.

Why? I don't know.

I sat down just as quickly.

"Hey," I said, stiff and disjointed, an ironed shirt, hung up, with nowhere to go. I didn't know what to say beyond that. I quickly brushed away the bits of napkin, trying to sit up a little straighter in my chair, trying to look like a human who got their eight hours of sleep.

Piper set down her food and bit her lip. "Hi."

Her lips were plump and perfect, and it took everything to stop staring at them. That wasn't part of the regular human routine. But none of this was my regular routine. I'd never been this…what…? Like this around a girl.

"So…" I cleared my throat. "You—uh—you walked before I—uh—"

Nice one, Adam. Very cool .

"Not that you—" I clasped my hands together. "You know."

Piper didn't look up from her breakfast. "Yeah."

I'd never been on the receiving end of someone hitting the road first. I'd never been the one walked out on. But Piper didn't even walk out, she scurried like a mouse. Like she was afraid of getting caught. Like we hooked up, and she didn't want to answer relationship questions over breakfast in the morning - same bullshit I did on the regular.

Fuck me. I'm losing my edge.

There was only one thing I could think to talk about. I reached over, picked up the cup of coffee, and set it in front of her. Piper raised her eyebrows, questions written in her gray eyes.

"Iced caramel nonfat latte, right?"

Cautiously, Piper wrapped her fingers around it. "Thank you?"

"That's your coffee order?"

"Um…yes." The ice had melted a long time ago but she didn't mention it. "Where did you get this from?"

I was so focused on ordering her the coffee, I forgot the excuse for why and how I had the coffee. I shrugged, leaning back in my chair. "Some people had a…group order going."

You fucking liar. You don't even know anybody at this conference .

"A group order?" Piper took a hesitant sip. "Did you…like your coffee?"

You didn't get any .

"It was great," I replied. "Good price, too."

You paid extra for an order under ten dollars. It was a fourteen-dollar fee .

She nodded slowly. "It's good."

"That it is," I said, in the most awkward way I could've. Why was I talking like that? I'd never talked like that in my life. "That they did . Made some damn, fine, good coffee. Great coffee. You know? Out of…coffee beans. As…they do."

Jesus fucking Christ. Get a fucking grip, Adam .

I had to find a way to salvage this. "Did you—?"

"Last night was a mistake," Piper blurted out.

I glanced up and we looked at each other for a long moment.

"Ah." I nodded, ignoring the way my stomach clenched. "Yeah. I was…definitely thinking the same thing. Yeah. Definitely. I was definitely thinking the same thing. Right on."

The morning couldn't have gotten more embarrassing if I actually tried.

"We can part ways amicably," Piper said like she was reading off a notecard, and I realized she must've been preparing for this conversation this morning while I was jacking off on my bed thinking about her. "We'll talk to your coach. They can find you a new babysitter, and you—um—we don't tell anyone about the—the…the pool…"

She means all of it.

Piper Fontaine didn't want anyone to know that she'd stooped low enough to get touched by the Marrs Manwhore. Great. It felt awesome.

Listlessly, I knocked back my cup of orange juice.

That was it then. We were saying goodbye. The only time I would get to see the ice princess was when she'd try to convince me to come around for a floor meeting on space heaters. It wouldn't be like this.

"I'm sorry."

Piper gazed over her coffee. "What?"

"I'm sorry," I said again, about as surprised at myself as she looked. "No lie, I was acting like a huge fuckhead yesterday, and I've never—" I stopped myself, running my hand through my hair. "I've never gone that far before. I'm sorry."

Slowly, she tried to match me. "I'm sorry too."

"Nothing for you to apologize for."

"But—"

"I was the asshole," I said, my voice firm. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged, a hint of a grin on her lips. "It was fun locking you out."

Sneakers squeaked against the tile and Zariah tossed her tray of food down next to me, her curls pulled back tight on her head. "Are we good?" she demanded, tossing her orange at me. "Did you apologize? We're not throwing each other in pools anymore!"

I started peeling the orange. "We're good."

"We made up," Piper murmured, toasting her coffee to me.

"Thank god," June groaned, taking the seat next to her. "I had an emergency meeting about you two. Seriously, don't say shit for the rest of the day. Nothing! If there's anything Cleo's taught me, it's if you just shut up, no one cares. And guess what? No security cameras out on the patio." She gave me a long look. "I wonder who could've pulled the fire alarm…"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "But their ass belongs in prison."

Piper snickered and had to stop her coffee from spilling on the table.

She laughed at one of my jokes.

My resident assistant did her damn hardest to never laugh at anything I said. I turned to her with a grin, but Piper was busy cleaning the coffee off the table.

"That's something Elijah should learn," Zariah muttered darkly and brought out her phone. "Did you know he started another fight at Gianna's? My parents made me swear I'd look after him and some days…it feels like I'm trying to house train a monkey."

I frowned. "I thought he was banned from Gianna's? "

"So did I!"

"Speaking of hockey players…" June said like an announcement and gave all of us a sheepish look. "Xavier is out of commission for the night. They're doing a big meeting for his group. But his stepbrother's back in town…and there is a party tonight…"

Piper smiled hopefully. "Like another formal?"

I knew exactly what my ice princess was thinking. She was hoping for a redo at last night's disaster, something to clean up the Marrs image to all the nerds around us. But I also recognized the short look between June and Zariah, all eyebrows raised and smirks between them. This wasn't an RA formal. I doubted anybody else in the dining hall knew about it.

"Let's just say it's not on campus." June grinned.

" Not on campus?" Piper blinked. "But…we can't leave campus."

June raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"It's against the rules," Piper replied, confused. "We're not supposed to leave campus. All the organizers told us, you told us."

"Oh, I just said that for everybody else. As long as nobody sees us, we can sneak out after nine."

Piper gaped at June, at the idea that anyone would dare to sneak out after hours. That her boss's boss's boss was suggesting that they go out and party.

The hockey party could be out of the question. Win-win situation. But as much as it set my teeth on edge for any of these girls to go to a hockey party…this was exactly the kind of experience Piper needed to have.

"Off-campus?" Piper drew in a breath. "But—but we have the crackers and cheese night tonight—"

June grimaced. "I'm proud of this conference. But they can't throw a good party."

"On a scale of one to ten, how proud of this conference do we have to be?" Zariah trudged her spoon around a bowl of lumpy oatmeal. "Can we be honest? Girl. I want to be honest, but I don't want to hurt feelings."

"I don't want anyone to get in trouble," Piper whispered.

Fuck me. We're going to a hockey party.

I sighed. "Guess the hockey party's on the schedule."

" What? " Piper raised her eyebrows. "You're okay with us going to a hockey party?"

"No, I'm okay with all of us going to a hockey party," I corrected her. "I'm going too."

Zariah guffawed. "You hate hockey players."

Not as much as I hate the idea of Piper surrounded by them, alone .

"You said you wanted a real college experience?" I reminded Piper. "This is it right here. Being reckless. Having fun."

And you'll have me to keep an eye on things.