Page 14 of Illicit Education
Hector scoffed, reaching out toward the book. “That’s a—”
“It is!” Marisa squealed.
I nodded slowly. “A gilded Steele.”
“May I?”
I handed him the book and he turned it over in his hands, looking at it with awe and appreciation in his eyes. “Only, like, fifty of these exist.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“Who sent this?” he asked.
“She doesn’t know,” Marisa answered. “That’s why I saidsecretadmirer.”
“Okay, so, you’ve only been here a few hours and you already have a fan.” Turning the book over in his hands, Hector shook his head. “It’s not fair. It took meat leastfour weeks to get noticed around here.”
Marcustsked. “I noticed you.”
“You didn’tspeakto me for four weeks.” He lifted only his eyes and leveled his gaze on Marcus. “And you certainly didn’t send me sexy gifts like gilded Simona Steele hardbacks.” Hector paused. “Actually…you still don’t send me gifts like this.”
“Yes, but I moved you into my apartment?”
Marisa laughed, swiping the book from Hector’s hands. “Stop molesting Rylan’s present.” She handed it back to me. “Come on. Let’s go eat and figure out this mystery with food in our stomachs.”
After ordering our meals, the topic turned back to me and my new book. It sat in the center of the table like a shrine, and we all stared at it as if doing so would provide us with answers.
Finally, Eloise spoke up. “So, who do you think sent it? And what does that message mean?”
“Ooh,” Hector agreed, “yeah, what’s a billion-dollar industry?”
“Romance,” I answered, only half paying attention to the conversation. My cheeks heated as I thought back to the way I acted toward the handsome stranger in the elevator this morning. The way I practically bit his head off. It was probably just my nerves–or the stress of nearly crapping my pants on the first day–but thewhydidn’t matter.
It was thewhothat troubled me now.
I closed my eyes and shook my head.
“What is it?” Marisa asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I was in the elevator with this guy this morning, and, I don’t know, he was really… confusing. Like, arrogant but also… super-hot. I couldn’t tell if he was flirting with me or… mocking me.” I shook my head as my cheeks heated.
I’d just lied to my new friends. Icouldtell. I could verydefinitelytell.
His signals may have been mixed, but the look in his eyes had reached me on a deep level.
“Anyway,” I continued, “I dropped my book.” I paused to grab my tattered Simona Steele paperback from my purse and hold it up to show the others. “He picked it up, this guy in the elevator, right, and then he looked at me with thatlook, you know? The ‘romance isn’t literature’look.”
They all nodded in unison.
“We know that look.” Hector snorted. “We all know that look.”
“Well… I sort of went off on him.” I groaned at the memory. I’d beeninstantlyon the defensive. Maybe he hadn’t even been teasing me, and I just lit into him for no reason.
“You went off on him?” Marisa asked, leaning forward in her seat. “Explain?”
“Well, I guess I got a little defensive. Laid into him and let him have it. Romance is a very lucrative business and…” My words trailed off as Marisa’s eyes widened. “What?”
She opened her mouth and closed it, then repeated the motion a few times like a fish struggling for oxygen before saying, “You… youlaid intothat man in the elevator?”