PART THREE: THE APPLE NEVER(?) FALLS FAR FROM THE TREE

My eyes squeezed tight, trying to resist the onslaught of sensations running through my body. The truth was that it was screaming at me that this was where I belonged, in Sawyer Logan's arms. Nothing else in my life had set me aflame like this. Not competing with Toni. Not getting academics awards.

This was why I always avoided contact with him, because the pull was always there and I didn't have room for him in my life.

So I went against the very nature of what my hormones dictated and tore away from his arms. I whirled around and even though he was giving me a certain look, the kind I couldn't mistake for anything else but interest in the way my dress hugged my body, I still managed to catch my breath enough to ask him, "What are you doing here?"

His eyebrows went up. That definitely had come out a lot sharper than I'd have liked. The little smirk on his stupidly beautiful face told me I'd screwed up by showing him I was affected. I folded my arms.

"It's a dance," Sawyer said, not even hiding that his eyes were traveling well below my neck and lower. "All the student body is invited, isn't it?"

Was that a pun? I felt like it was.

"No," I said as I gritted my teeth and pointed at the space between us. "I mean here."

He shrugged. "Saving you from a sure fall, apparently."

I squeezed my hands around my arms. Well, wasn't that a little too late? He should have stayed the heck away until graduation and I'd have avoided falling for his stupid pheromones.

"You shouldn't be here," I blurted out. It was a second too late to realize that he had as much right to be there as I did.

"Why not?"

And because I was in full automatic idiot mode, I didn't think the question through. I didn't see it for the opening it was to change tack and be reasonable about the fact that this wasn't my private party. That him coming or going didn't really have any semblance of importance for the grand scheme of events in my life. Instead, I reacted the way I usually did. By lashing out and in the process, revealing much more about the unstable nature of my thoughts than silence or diplomacy would have.

My stupid mouth opened and out came, "Because we have reputations to uphold. You as the philanderer who gets his name graffitied all over bathroom stalls and me as someone who really shouldn't be seen around someone like you."

Sawyer took this like a punch to the solar plexus that drove him one step back.

I wanted to take it back as soon as I said it. It happened sometimes with me. But I never took anything back, because even if everybody got offended I tended to say exactly what I felt. And it just so happened to be the case here. He was a womanizer and I was trying to remind myself more than I was trying to insult him.

"Wow, princess. This is a new low even for you," the ice in his voice washed over me and gave me a shiver. "I thought we'd reached an agreement."

"The agreement was that I'd tutor you and nothing else." My defensive mode was turned on and engaged for combat. I added, "Not you showing up everywhere I go and pretending we can be something."

I cringed at the hard glint in his eyes.

"Something?" He snorted and regained the one step he'd lost. And then he drew closer still and I squared myself. "What? Friends? You've made sure to let me know time and again that it's beneath you. I don't know why I even keep trying."

"Yeah," I said to his face. "Why do you?"

I desperately wanted to know. And yet from the way I asked, he'd think I was being sarcastic. Challenging. I couldn't think of a single time that would make him think we could be friends. I was just not nice to him. Not when we were kids and definitely not now. Why did he try? Why was he always there? Close enough that I could touch him if I wanted. Close enough that I could lean on him if I wanted.

"I don't know." Sawyer shook his head softly as he looked down at me. I felt the heat radiate off of him as he continued, "It's not like friends call their friends man whores for some random reason."

"It's not random when it's true." The disbelief in his face was annoying. I was maybe a bit on the rude side but I was not a liar. I poked him with my finger, hoping he'd back away so his heat and scent would leave me the heck alone, but he stayed rooted in place.

"Did you know that the walls of the girls' restrooms are a shrine to you and your..." As I trailed off I glanced down in the general direction of his crotch, without staying there to take in any details. "And who knows how many more mentions you have? If that's not peak hall of fame womanizer I wouldn't know."

"What?"

His shock didn't convince me one bit.

"What? You think just any regular guy gets that VIP treatment?" I snorted. "That's only reserved for someone who sleeps around."

"I don't sleep around." He rolled his eyes.

"Then what do you call what you did with Lexie Cooper?"

The question hung between us, heavy like a fog. I was aware that we were not alone. That kids came and went through the entrance and that even despite the dim lights, anybody who knew us could see that we were standing very close together. And even though I wanted to pull away, to run like I'd thought of doing earlier, I was rooted to the spot as though my body had taken that failed attempt as a surrender against him.

Did he just get closer?

He must have, I realized, because I heard his whisper loud like a scream as he said, "This is why we can't ever be friends. You see, friends don't get jealous of who their friends sleep with only the one time."

I spluttered. "I'm not your friend or jealous!"

"Oh yeah?" he asked, smiling as if he'd hit the jackpot.

My brains scrambled to see if I'd somehow fallen into a verbal trap, and just as I'd been about to have an epiphany, he stole my breath. And every brain function that could have resulted from oxygen.

In a motion I didn't see coming, he closed the remaining distance and tilted my head back so he could kiss me. I registered this with some shock. I'd been under the impression so far that I was doing a good job at pushing him away, but maybe that last accusation did make me sound jealous.

Because I was.

Because a bunch of unknown girls had got to kiss him and more, and all I'd ever got was that sudden taste last summer. The one that had caught me by surprise, as much as this one. The one that had given me a hint that maybe Sawyer Logan felt something for me, and it wasn't friendship. The one that also told me I definitely felt something back.

The one that scared me enough to pull away from him before I had a chance to explore.

It must have been a split second as I debated whether to do the same now. I had every right to. It wasn't like he asked if he could kiss me and I said yes. In fact, I didn't even know what I'd have replied if he'd ask. But my belly was doing flip flops, my heart was drumming to a beat I didn't recognize and my arms moved of their own accord and wrapped around his neck, which only served to pull him closer. Sawyer responded to that with renewed enthusiasm. Gone was every semblance of personal space. He molded me against him with one arm as his opposite hand tangled in my hair. There were so many sensations everywhere, so much heat, that I gasped.

I felt his lips take advantage of it and work against mine, his tongue sweeping a shocking caress that sneaked its way past my defenses. My legs turned liquid as I felt the heat of his mouth against my own and I was glad that he was keeping me up because the suction started a shutdown of my systems. All that seemed to work were my nerves everywhere he touched me. My hands grabbed onto his shoulder, onto his neck. This somehow made him kiss me with renewed fervor and I felt his chest rumble with a groan against mine. I didn't care about breathing anymore. All I wanted was for him to not let go. All I wanted for him was to let go. So that I could go back to being myself without him. So I wouldn't know what I was missing.

I pulled back, sucking in air like I'd been drowning. And in a way that was exactly what had happened. I'd drowned in him.

I managed to not look at his face as I turned around and left the gym. I squeezed my eyes against what felt like glaring brightness in the hallway. I was proud that my legs worked. I was not proud of the goosebumps all over my skin, or the way my heart felt like it was hiking up my throat.

I felt his hand on my bare shoulder and stopped. The hold was loose enough that I could have walked away from the touch. But I couldn't.

My throat worked for a couple of seconds until it was able to produce raspy, uneven sound. "What are you doing to me, Sawyer?"

"I'm trying not to be your friend," he said, deep voice just as broken as mine. His other hand joined and together they blazed a trail down my arms. I felt him step up against me and his breath fanned against my neck as he said, "You try to push me away, but I still flock to you like a moth to flame."

I couldn't stop the shiver as his lips pressed hot kisses against my neck.

"But if you say that your reputation is more important than this-" He made a pause where his tongue had a taste of the crook of my neck, leaving a wet patch before he applied tingling suction. And then he stepped back, leaving me cold and stunned even as I stared at the row of lockers in front of me.

"Then," he continued. "Just say so and I'll leave you alone. I won't try to coerce you into something if you don't want it."

My breath was coming up short. No matter how much my lungs tried, they just couldn't find oxygen. The tingling he'd caused all over my body was now concentrated behind my eyelids while they worked to hold back tears that suddenly wanted to spill. Part of me knew what he was doing. He was trying to use my body as his playground, and I was mad that I'd let him and enjoyed it, even. I was mad that I still wanted to turn around, grab his head and crash my lips against his once more.

But he was giving me an out, and even if it killed me I was going to take it. He may want to have fun with me now, get a repeat of that incendiary kiss or even more.

This wasn't going anywhere good, though. I had a plan. Get into business school, ace college, come back home with a fabulous diploma that would put the family business in the map. Sawyer Logan was the perfect ingredient to derail all that. I'd spent years resisting him and I knew that if I caved now, I would regret it. Because soon after I did, the thrill of the chase would be over for him and he'd realize that deep down I was too much for what he actually wanted. After all, I wasn't one of those girls who'd go make graffitis about what he could do with his appendages.

Still facing away from him, my fists squeezed at my sides, I whispered, "We can't ever be friends. Or anything else."

"Okay," he said softly, and I felt him lift up a strand of my hair. "I guess this is goodbye, then."

I turned, intending to laugh it off. It wasn't like we'd never see each other again. He was everywhere. At school, at the shop, even randomly appearing in family situations. But that caught in my throat as he kissed my hair and let it stream between his fingers, shoulders slumped and face down like...

Like he really cared.

"I'm still your tutor," I whispered, wishing I could take back the whole night. The whole week. So that we'd go back to mostly ignoring each other and pretending what simmered between us was hate.

His eyes lifted just enough to pin me.

"Aurora," he started, and by the fact that he used my name—not princess, not Rory—I knew I was in for some damage as he continued, "You may be practiced in holding yourself from who you really are and what you really feel. I can't. I've barely fooled everybody from realizing how much I like you."

My eyes widened.

He shrugged, grim. "God knows why, because you're no good to me."

"I-" but that was as far as I got, because I didn't know what to say.

Sawyer's throat worked a hard swallow and then he said, "So, you're right. Let's just forget this whole thing ever happened. Go back to your fairy land and I'll slink back to the dark and... let you go."

Yet, he was the one who left me standing in the hallway by myself. And even though we had made a new agreement, I knew that everything had changed.

also we're hitting the halfway mark omg, so many things yet to happen 😳

but also, how about this chapter's revelations?!