4. Quinn

4

QUINN

A ria and I froze, staring at each other, before she tilted her head towards the shadowed part of the room next to the stairs. As quietly as we could, we melted into the shadows, and I was glad that both of us had worn thick socks and no shoes. There was nothing to hide behind in this room, so our only hope of remaining undetected was if whoever was coming up the stairs only took a cursory glance around.

A tousled blond head of hair came into view, silvery in the bright moonlight that bathed the bell tower. My body relaxed incrementally, and Aria made a sound that was something between a huff and a laugh, then stepped out of the shadows. "Head boy," she drawled, somehow managing to look down her nose disdainfully despite her small stature.

"I should've known you'd be here." Tristan matched her disdain with an imperious look of his own, and I clapped my hand over my mouth to hold in my laughter.

When Aria stalked over to the wall opposite my hiding place and leaned against it, folding her arms across her chest and darting a pointed look at me before staring up at Tristan, I figured out her plan. Distraction . Allowing me enough time to get away.

Tristan moved farther into the room, so close to me. I held my breath, not daring to move.

"Come closer, head boy. Or are you scared I'll bite?"

"You fucking wish." He stepped up to her, and I caught a glimpse of his curled lip and arched brow before he turned to fully face her.

"Mmm, maybe I do." She gave him a blatant once-over, exaggeratedly licking her lips, but even in this dim lighting, I could see her eyes sparkling with mischief. After one last sweeping glance, she returned her gaze to his face and bit down on her lip, clearly trying to hide her amusement.

"Sorry, I don't associate with drug users who?—"

Aria's hand flew up, and from the muffled sound Tristan made, I guessed she'd placed it over his mouth. "I'm going to stop you right there. Someone as…uptight as you could use a little relaxation. Ever smoked a joint? Or are you as perfect as your reputation suggests?"

Fuck, I really needed to get out of here before I laughed out loud.

Tristan gripped her wrist, lifting it away from his face and pressing it into the wall behind Aria. "I know plenty of ways to relax that don't involve weed. Do you? Have you ever…" He lowered his head to her ear, and I could no longer hear what he was saying, but I watched as Aria's mouth dropped open and her eyes flashed with something I couldn't name before her leg came up and kicked him in the shin.

"Fuck's sake, what was that for?" he growled out, collapsing against the wall and rubbing at his leg. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that his head turned, and he saw me. Shock registered in his expression, and then his eyes turned hard. "Quinn."

"Why didn't you leave? I was creating a distraction," Aria hissed, and then I had both of them glaring at me.

Tristan shot Aria an annoyed look before returning his attention to me. "What are you two doing here?"

"We could ask you the same question." Aria stepped forwards, drawing his attention to her again.

He sighed, pinching his brow. "Whatever. Look, it's late. Why don't we just get back to our rooms and forget we ever saw each other here, okay?"

Silence fell, and I tried to signal Aria with my eyes. We'd accomplished what we'd come here to do—to talk—and it wasn't like Tristan was going to let us stay up here now he'd found us. He'd probably go running to our head of house or something, and I couldn't risk anything getting back to my parents. I shouldn't have even come here in the first place, but I'd thought the risk was minimal until Tristan had shown up.

"Fine," Aria muttered eventually, pushing past Tristan and stalking over to the stairs. I went to follow her, but I was stopped by a hand on my arm. Tristan leaned down and spoke low in my ear.

"You'd better stay away from Roman. He told me what you said to him, and that shit isn't okay."

"I didn't—it's not like that." I shook my head furiously, yanking my arm away from his grip. "Is…is he okay?"

Tristan studied me for a long moment before he turned away. "You need to stay away from him." Then he was gone, following Aria down the stairs.

I'd really thought that I'd done the right thing by coming back here, by pushing Roman away, but I had a horrible feeling that my problems were only just beginning.

The sky was beginning to lighten when I gave up on sleep. No one else was awake, so I made my way down to the showers at the end of our corridor and spent way too long under the water, turning everything over in my head. When I was back in my dorm room, it was still early, so I dressed in running leggings and a sports bra and threw on a zip-up hoodie. All regulation, of course—the school had uniforms for just about every kind of sport imaginable. I pulled my damp hair into a ponytail, grabbed my phone and headphones, clipped my running belt around my hips, and then made my way down to the ground floor.

There were a few students milling around—other early risers, most dressed in some variation of sports clothes, taking advantage of the time before breakfast for exercise or extra training in their favourite sports discipline. Since I'd only just showered, I wasn't planning on exercising, but the clothes were comfortable and meant I didn't stand out among the other students.

Once I was outside, I hit a random playlist and turned up the volume, leaving the path and walking across the soft grass that was damp with the morning dew. Without any conscious thought, my feet carried me towards the line of trees that marked the boundary. When I realised where I was, I came to a stop, staring at the wooded area in front of me. Stopping my music, I tugged my headphones off and shoved them into my pocket as I lost myself in the wave of memories that crashed over me. Roman leading me through the trees, my hand clasped in his. The small smiles and sideways glances he gave me. The way he held back the branches for me so that I had a clear path.

I took a step forward. Then another, and another, until I was moving with purpose through the trees, until I reached the other side. The lake was there, exactly as I'd remembered. That still water, now a soft grey as it reflected the cloudy dawn, the reeds at the far side, the jetty, the ripples?—

The ripples. There shouldn't be ripples. Not like that. I watched as they spread, a dark shape beneath them, and before I could make sense of what I was seeing, Roman burst from the water.

Fucking hell.

His eyes were closed, his lashes spiky and wet, and his jet-black hair was plastered to his head, rivulets of water running over the ridges of his muscles as he lifted himself effortlessly above the surface like some kind of water god. As he drew closer to the surface and more and more of his godlike body was exposed, his eyes opened.

Something dark and hot flared in his gaze as our eyes connected. His mouth curved into a slow, predatory smile, and he stepped upright as he reached the shallows.

He was completely naked.

Heat raced through my body. My mouth went dry, and my heart sped up so fast that I had to press back against the tree behind me, gulping air into my lungs.

When he stepped onto the shore, the water sluicing off his hard body, I closed my eyes. It was too much. Way, way too much. No one could be confronted with Roman Cavendish looking like that and not be affected.

The silence surrounded us, only broken by the birds in the trees. Then I felt a whisper of breath across my cheek, and fingers curled around my jaw, holding me in place.

"Did you follow me here?" Roman's soft rasp hit my ear, and I dared to open my eyes. He'd wrapped a towel around his waist, which should've made me less flustered in his presence, but it didn't. Droplets of water glittered all over his bare torso, and as he stepped right up to me, I felt the unmistakable press of his hardening length against my body.

"I didn't know you'd be here," I managed once I remembered how to form words.

He clearly didn't believe me, even though it was true, but he didn't comment. Instead, he released his tight grip on my jaw, skimming his hand down my throat, stopping at the zip of my hoodie.

"You're overdressed." He gripped the zip and lowered it all the way until my hoodie was hanging open, then slid it off my shoulders, leaving me in my running leggings and sports bra. I told myself that my shiver was from the cool morning air hitting my exposed areas, but in reality, I knew it was the feel of his hands sliding over my bare skin. Our interactions in the past had been more or less innocent, never going further than kissing, but there was nothing innocent about this.

"Better," he murmured once he'd thrown my hoodie and running belt somewhere. I couldn't bring myself to care where they'd fallen. His hands went to my waist, pulling me closer. When his lips trailed along the side of my face, up to my ear, a soft noise escaped me before I could stop it. I felt his mouth curve against the shell of my ear as he dipped his fingers beneath the waistband of my leggings. "What would you do if I pulled down these leggings? Would you let me fuck you?"

" Roman ." I gave in to the desire to touch him, winding my arms around his shoulders and gripping the back of his neck, attempting to angle his head so I could kiss him.

He scooped me up, pressing me back against the tree. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he held me effortlessly, palming my ass and brushing his lips over mine with the barest touch, nothing that would satisfy the craving I had for his mouth on mine. When I tried to deepen the kiss, he turned his head, stepping backwards, away from the tree.

"Why won't you kiss me?" I whispered.

In the back of my mind, I knew the answer to the question, but right now, surrounded by him, just the two of us in the place that had always been ours, it was easy to forget everything else. To forget how I'd hurt him with my words, how I wasn't supposed to allow myself near him. How I'd told him one thing, but I was now doing the opposite.

I dimly became aware of the sound of wooden boards creaking under his feet, but I barely paid attention. His mouth returned to my ear. "I'm not good enough for you, but I'm good enough to kiss? Good enough for a quick and dirty fuck out here where no one else ever has to find out?" He clamped down on my ear with his teeth. "I don't fucking think so."

Then he ripped me away from him, and I found myself falling, a scream tearing from my throat as I hit the water of the lake and went under.