Stuck With The Four Hotties

After cheerleading practice the next day, I head to the office of our English teacher, Miss Peregrine. The room is locked and dark, the lights off, and the shade over the small window pulled down. To get in, I’m either going to need a key… or a lockpick.

Cursing under my breath, I head back to the chapel building, down the hall and out the stained glass doors on the other side. Once I get to Tower Three, I take the elevator to the fifth floor and head over to Zack’s room. I barely raise my fist to knock when he’s opening it, dressed in low-slung sweats, no shirt, and a fine layer of fresh sweat.

“Marnye?” he asks, stepping aside to let me in. There is some seriously sexy jazz music on, and all the shades are pulled down. For a moment there, I wonder if I’m interrupting something that I don’t want to see.

I spin around, and find Zack is suddenly standing far too close to me. He smells good too, which is really weird considering he’s all sweaty. But seriously, there’s something so different between fresh sweat and old sweat. The latter is disgusting, but the former … it’s almost like a cologne. I find myself attracted to it even though I don’t want to be.

“Is there a girl in here?” I ask, and Zack narrows his eyes on me. He takes a step forward, and I take one back. The movement surprises him, and he ends up raising one of his dark brows.

“That bother you?” he replies, his voice dark and smooth and cold as bittersweet chocolate ice cream. He takes a step toward me again, but I have

nowhere to go. My butt bumps up against the table, and Zack puts one hand on either side of me.

“No,” I lie, ducking out from underneath his arm and stepping aside. When I turn back to face him again, he’s smirking. My first instinct is to wipe that look off of his face, but instead I just sigh. “When we went to Lower Banks, didn’t you get in trouble for stealing a car?”

Zack is still smirking as he leans back against the table and crosses his muscular arms over his bare, sweaty chest. We always seem to be together when he’s shirtless, Zack and me. Like the universe is trying to throw us together.

“Yeah, so?” He looks me up and down appreciatively, and I shiver. I’m wearing the short black practice shorts with the rhinestones on the butt cheeks that I hate, a pair of red bike shorts underneath, and a black razorback tank top with the Burberry crest logo on the front. Even cheerleading praFtiFe comes with required uniforms.

“I need your help,” I say, hating the phrase even as it leaves my mouth. “Could you pick a lock on a teacher’s door?”

Zack thinks for a moment, letting his chin fall down and his eyes close. After a moment, he looks back up at me and gives me a sexy sideways smirk.

“I could. It’s risky though, with the bodyguard guy patrolling the halls, and all those new cameras. But if we had a cover story, some reason to be over there that didn’t involve … whatever it is that you’re up to, it might work.” His smirk turns into a grin, and I shift uncomfortably. “I’m assuming this has to do with the revenge plot?”

“Maybe …” I hedge, and Zack’s grin gets a little wider.

“Let me put a shirt on then.” He pauses and takes a few steps closer to me, his chocolate brown eyes staring at me through his thick lashes. “Unless

… you’d rather I wasn’t wearing one?”

“Shirt is fine,” I blurt, holding my ground. “But if you have an extra sweater, I’ll take it. It’s freezing outside.” Zack laughs at me, and snatches his hoodie from the back of the couch, tossing it over to me. I slip it on and quickly realize that drowning in a big, soft, Zack-scented hoodie is both a blessing and a curse. If I were his girlfriend, I’d wear his hoodie all the time.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Right,” Zack says, taking in my much smaller form as I burrow in his hoodie, and running his tongue over his lower lip. “Sure, and lock picking kit.”

“You brought a lock picking kit to the academy?”

Zack glances over his shoulder and grins, this dark sensual expression that gives me goose bumps.

“I guess you can take the boy out of the bad school, but you can’t take the bad out of the boy.” He winks theatrically at me, and I can’t decide if what he’s just said is sexy or hilarious.

I choose the safer option and laugh, but that doesn’t mean that my heart doesn’t race or that I don’t bundle the hoodie close around me.

Zack and I head outside together, moving through the winter-dead gardens toward a cluster of admin buildings. There are a few students here and there, but because of the cold front we got last week, most people are still inside. It really is chilly out here.

Campus security patrols the area regularly, and I know there are cameras, too. I also know that the footage isn’t regularly checked, not unless there’s a problem.

Besides, Zack says he has a plan.

As we approach the door to Miss Peregrine’s office, Zack grabs me by the shoulders and turns me around, looking straight into my face with a very serious expression.

“Will you trust me with this?” he asks, voice sober. “I’m not asking you to trust me all the time, just right now.”

I nod my head, and before I know it, Zack is backing me up against the door. He wraps his right arm around my waist, pressing our bodies together. His mouth drops to mine, warm breath fluttering across my lips.

“Can I kiss you again?” he whispers, and then he smiles softly. We’re so close, I can feel the emotion against my own mouth. “It’s all part of the plan, of course. Although, I can’t deny that seeing you in my hoodie isn’t exciting as fuck.”

With his left hand, Zack pulls a small metal tool from inside his pocket, and inserts it into the lock on the door. There’s not much in these offices but

papers, framed certificates, and desks, so the locks aren’t exactly high-tech. I imagine Zack will have us in in no time.

I also suddenly understand what he meant by having a plan. If we’re caught, all the security guard will see are two students making out. They won’t see the lockpick, and they won’t need to ask what we’re doing out here. Even if we get in trouble, we can claim we were trying to get into the office to … have some

private time together.