Page 47 of Our Secret Moments

Oliver rushes over to her, gently pushing the painting back into place.

Elle shrugs. “I was just looking,” she mumbles.

“You look with your eyes, not your hands,” he demands, and I swear I see him wipe sweat from his forehead.

I move in step beside them as we continue walking down the hallway, leading towards the stairs. “You need to chill out, Oli,” I say, messing up his hair.

“That word has literally no place in my vocabulary,” he mutters, trying to straighten out his hair again. “I should never have invited you over.”

“Have some fun, Nayman. Let loose,” Elle says, hooking her arm through his. Some of the boys on this team are wound too tight. They care too much about the little things. Like thousand-dollar paintings that hang casually on the walls.

“Yeah, Nayman,” I mock, slinging my arm into the crook of his other arm. He just laughs, shaking his head as his olive cheeks turn a deeper red colour.

We take our time going down the floating steps, giggling as we almost fall through the small gaps. It takes us a lot longer than it should, but we’re already a little light-headed and the night has only just begun.

Only it hasn’t.

Because now, where the stairs usually end there’s now a flood of people, dancing and moving around each other with drinks in their hands. When did this turn into a fully-fledged party? I register the horror on Oliver’s face as he unhooks his arms from ours, almost tripping down the steps as he tries to get the party under control.

Elle steps in beside me and she frowns. “What?” I ask and then I follow her line of vision to where my eyes snag on Connor, standing near the French doors and he’s staring right. At. Me. “Oh.”

“He’s looking at you like he wants to eat you,” Elle whispers out the side of her mouth. “Or eat you out. It’s hard to tell.”

The heat of Connor’s gaze is like something I’ve never experienced before. He has this weird, rare talent where whenever I look at him, everything, everybody just fades away and it’s just him. He makes me feel like there’s no one else in the room other than us and my eyes can’t be torn away from his. His face is so perfect to look at, so comforting yet so thrilling that it throws me off.

I have no idea what’s happening between us. That kiss that we almost had earlier is enough to know how badly this could end if someone found out.

The face that obstructs my view gives me a second to breathe. “More drinks?” Nora asks, grinning, holding up two solo cups to me and Elle.

When my eyes connect with Connor’s again, I know exactly what my decision is going to be. Looking at him trips me up more than it needs to. I just need another night to forget for a while. Forget about waiting on the next call from my dad. Forget about the assignments that I know will make me sick to my stomach just thinking about them.

I grab the cup from Nora’s hand, and she giggles like an excited child as she grabs a stray cup from the bannister, and we all clink our cups together.

Here’s to forgetting.

EIGHTEEN

CONNOR

MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT VERY PG RIGHT NOW

The secondI watched Cat take that cup from my sister’s hand, I should have known that tonight would end up like this.

Well, not exactly like this, but close to it.

“Shhhh,” she murmurs, swaying slightly as we stand outside her bedroom door. She presses her fingers to my lips that were not moving at all. “You’re being too loud.”

“That’s all you, Cat,” I say against her fingers, trying my hardest to suppress my laugh.

After cautiously watching all three of the girls drink and dance all night at Oli’s house, I knew I would be the one bringing them back to their dorm. Elle and Nora both crashed the second they got in, but Cat is making this extra difficult. I just wanted to take her back, make sure she got to her door and go back home.

Being the designated dad in the group is hard.

“When did you get so drunk?” I ask gently, attempting to put a finger on the exact moment she started going off the rails. All I know is she was tipsy going on a tour with Oli and then she gave mea lookbefore disappearing. After that, I tried to discreetly follow her around and make sure she was okay as she avoided me like I was a fucking disease.

“You keeping tabs on me, Connie?” she asks, her tone playful and light.

“Always.”