Bitter Sweet Heart (Lies, Hearts & Truths #2)(15)

She arches a brow. “For a rule follower, that’s pretty un-rule-followy.”

“I know. And I should have come home and used the hot tub, but I was the only person in there, or so I thought.”

Sophia is the only person I’ve told about Maverick. She advised me to ignore and avoid him as much as possible and to pass his assignments over to my TA, which is exactly what I’ve done. And while it’s been awkward having him in my class, it seemed to be working fine until tonight.

I explain what happened, starting with Maverick’s failing grade, him trying to smooth talk me after class, and me being less than accommodating. Then I add in Gabriel’s insistent messages this afternoon that we need to talk, and me needing to decompress with a swim. I end with stepping inside the sauna and finding Maverick there, naked and sprawled out on the bench seat.

Sophia asks all the same questions I did—did he think he could sleep his way to a better grade?—and then the one I’ve been fighting with ever since I left the gym.

“Did you report him to security?”

I shake my head. “I should have. But I was in there after hours when I shouldn’t have been.” Regardless, the smart thing would have been to go directly to security and tell them. “I’m sure there’s even video footage of him entering and leaving the women’s locker room.” I hadn’t thought about it at the time. I’d been so panicked, discombobulated by how cavalierly he lay there, as unaware of my presence as I was of his for a few seconds before I managed to hit the light.

“Did you feel threatened?” Sophia asks, her expression full of earnest concern.

I consider that. I was shocked, and I reasonably questioned what he was doing there and why, but he seemed as surprised to see me as I was him.

I’ve proven to myself already that I’m not always the best judge of character when it comes to men, though. It wasn’t until I was out from under Gabriel’s thumb that I could see exactly how bad things had been.

“I don’t trust my instincts,” I tell her. “But he seemed contrite—and genuinely horrified.”

She nods. “Maybe you need to have a conversation with him?”

I run my fingers over my lips. “Maybe.” But emailing him to request a meeting would be opening a whole different can of worms. And if I don’t go to campus security, what kind of message am I sending? “Probably.”

It would have been easy enough to tell security I’d lost track of time. It’s true. I did. But I willingly snuck into the sauna after hours, and now this is what I’m contending with. And if I say something to security, Maverick can turn around and out our past relationship to my superiors. I feel like I’m trapped.

I shake my head. “I don’t understand what he was thinking.”

“He’s a twenty-year-old student. He wasn’t thinking,” Sophia points out.

“Twenty-one,” I correct, scrubbing my hands over my face. It was the first thing I checked after he showed up in my second-year class. I’d been relieved that he was a fourth-year student who happened to end up there. “I just need to get through the rest of the semester. Then he’s out of my class, and I can close the door on that chapter of my life.”





Five





Sinking Ship





Maverick





I’m in full-on panic mode as I bust my ass out of the athletic facility and into the parking lot. I think I may have threatened to blackmail my professor, which is a total asshole move. But man, the idea of my entire future going up in flames because I was in the women’s sauna after hours seems like a pretty shit way to go down.

I’ve always checked to make sure it’s empty. Always. And this time it backfired on me spectacularly.

I pull into my driveway and pray like hell no one is in the living room so I can sneak upstairs and hide. Of course, that’s not what happens. BJ is passed out in the recliner, which is common. Half the time we leave him where he is. Sometimes he’s still there in the morning; sometimes he’s gone. He often has balls-early skate practice, like me and Kody when we want to get in extra ice time.

Kody is sitting in the middle of the living room floor, surrounded by very organized pieces of paper with what look like math equations written all over them while a hockey game plays on the TV.

“Where’s Lavender?” I ask.

He startles, and a few of the pieces of paper he’s shuffling slide out of the pile and onto the floor beside him. “She’s upstairs.”

Kody would probably surgically attach himself to my sister if he could. The only time they aren’t together is when we’re at hockey practice or she has class. “Why are you down here?”

His cheeks flush. “Uh, because she has an assignment due in the morning and said she needs to concentrate, and I’m too much of a distraction and I’m not to come back up until she messages me.” He thumbs over at BJ. “We were playing Xbox until he passed out half an hour ago, and I decided to organize my math notes. I figured you’d be at the pub tonight with some of the guys.”

“Nah, not tonight. I got a warning from Treble that Carly was there, and I didn’t want to risk running into her.”

“You guys haven’t been a thing for a while. What’s the deal there?” He starts putting the math sheets back into his binder, one stack at a time, adding those divider things.