Page 39 of With This Mask

I ship them so hard!

But it isn't all praise. There's jealousy too.

She’s not even that pretty.

Or

This is who Vice picked?

Or my favorite:

You’re doing too much, honey.

And then there are the threats – the ones that make my stomach twist into knots.

Watch your back, bitch.

You better pray I never find you. Vice deserves better.

That one sends shivers down my spine.

“Holy shit, people are mean,” I say as my stomach goes a little sour.

“Though skin,” Alec says as he takes the phone from me. “It’s essential if you’re going to post online. Don’t listen to them.”

I swallow once, and nod, even if the nasty comments are ringing through my head still. "A million views... I can't believe it," I whisper, my voice barely audible over the pounding of my heart. It’s only been a few hours. What is that view count going to be after a week? "We really did go viral, didn't we?"

Alec grins, his eyes shining with pride. "We sure as hell did, Salem. And it's all because of you. You brought something fresh and real to the table, and people can't resist it."

I shake my head, still disbelieving. "But it was just us. And some pretty lighting."

"Exactly," he insists, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. "It's raw, unfiltered – something people crave but rarely experience themselves."

Just a few months ago the words raw and unfiltered never would have applied to me unless referring to the words that come out of my mouth sometimes. And now I’m sitting here, in a relationship with someone I would have most definitely called my enemy before. I’m wearing nothing but his t-shirt. And I just posted something very, very hot on the internet.

It’s shocking to me what Alec has done for my confidence. That he took someone as repressed and stiff as me, and helped me embrace the things I want. The things I crave. And it’s about so much more than sex now. I want Alec. Not just for his body. Not just for the things he does to my body. But for his brilliant mind. For the way he pushes me. For the way he makes me feel like there’s more to life than just crushing it at school.

“Let’s go on that hike,” I say as I swallow my last bite. I spring up from my seat, and race Alec back to the bedroom to get dressed.

chapter thirteen

There hasn’t been much “normalcy” in my life since school started back up. I kind of feel like I’ve been living someone else’s life, in someone else’s body.

But four days before Christmas, things feel a tiny bit normal again.

Alec said goodbye to me by coming to my dorm at seven in the morning. He’d brought me breakfast from my favorite bakery, as well as a wrapped gift that he’d left on my desk. As well as a little decorated Christmas tree which he set up in the corner of my room. “Wait till Christmas to open your present,” he’d said as he pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“Aww, you brought me a tree!” I exclaimed as I sat up in bed, taking in the little tree. It had lights and ornaments and everything.

Alec shrugged as if it wasn’t the most thoughtful thing ever. “I couldn’t stand the idea of you being here by yourself with no tree.”

“Thank you,” I said as I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. “Your present is right there,” I’d said with a blush, nodding to the other wrapped gift on the desk. “Wait till Christmas.”

Alec took it, kissed me once more, and disappeared out the door before anyone around me might wake and see him slipping out.

Alec Vanderholt might have grown up in this town, but his father lives in a mansion on the other side of town from campus. There is the university part of town, and there is the billionaire side. Alec is spending the holidays with his father and his extended family who is coming into town.

Me? I’ll be staying right here on campus. The town where mom is living is over eight hours away, and there’s no way I can afford to fly home. And now that I’m a twenty-two year old woman, I refuse to let my mother pay for my flight.