Fallen - By Lauren Kate Page 0,41

a hunk of bread, she asked,

"And who else were you planning on picnicking with before I came along?"

"Before you came along?" Cam laughed. "I can hardly remember my bleak life before you."

Luce gave him the slightest of snide looks so he'd know that she found the remark incredibly cheesy ...

and just a little bit charming. She leaned back on her elbows on the blanket, her legs crossed at the ankles.

Cam was sitting cross-legged facing her, and when he reached over her for the cheese knife, his arm brushed, then rested on, the knee of her black jeans. He looked up at her, as if to ask, Is this okay?

When she didn't flinch, he stayed there, taking the hunk of baguette from her hand and using her leg like a tabletop while he spread a triangle of cheese onto the bread. She liked the feeling of his weight on her, and in this heat, that was saying something.

"I'll start with the easier question first," he said, finally sitting back up. "I help out in the kitchen a couple of days a week. Part of my readmittance agreement at Sword & Cross. I'm supposed to be 'giving back.'"

He rolled his eyes. "But I don't mind it in there. I guess I like the heat. That is, if you don't count the grease burns." He held out his upturned wrists to expose dozens of tiny scars on his forearms,

"Occupational hazard," he said casually. "But I do get the run of the pantry."

Luce couldn't resist running her fingers along them, the infinitesimal pale swells fading back into his paler skin. Before she could feel embarrassed by her forwardness and pull away, Cam grabbed her hand and squeezed.

Luce stared at his fingers wrapped around hers. She hadn't realized before how closely the shades of their skin matched. In a landscape of southern sunbathers, Luce's paleness had always made her feel self-conscious. But Cam's skin was so striking, so noticeable, almost metallic - and now she realized she might look the same to him. Her shoulders shivered and she felt a little dizzy.

"Are you cold?" he asked quietly.

When she met his eyes, she knew he knew she wasn't cold.

He scooted closer on the blanket and dropped his voice to a whisper. "Now I guess you're going to want me to admit that I saw you crossing the quad through the kitchen window and packed all this up in the hopes of convincing you to skip class with me?"

This was when she would have fished in her drink for ice, if it hadn't already melted in the stale September heat.

"And you had this whole scheme of a romantic picnic," she finished. "In the scenic cemetery?"

"Hey." He ran a finger along her bottom lip. "You're the one bringing up romance."

Luce pulled back. He was right - she'd been the presumptuous one ... for the second time that day. She could feel her cheeks burn as she tried not to think about Daniel.

"I'm kidding," he said, shaking his head at the stricken look on her face. "As if that weren't obvious." He gazed up at a turkey vulture circling a great white statue shaped like a cannon. "I know it's no Eden here,"

he said, tossing Luce an apple, "but just pretend we're in a Smiths song. And to my credit, it's not like there's much to work with at this school."

That was putting it mildly.

"The way I see it," Cam said, leaning back on the blanket, "location is negligible."

Luce shot him a doubtful look. She also wished he hadn't leaned away, but she was too shy to approach when he was reclining on his side.

"Where I grew up" - he paused - "things weren't so different from the penitentiary-style living at Sword

& Cross. The upshot is I'm officially immune to my surroundings."

"No way." Luce shook her head. "If I handed you a plane ticket to California right now, you wouldn't be totally thrilled to break out of here?"

"Mmm ... mildly indifferent," Cam said, popping a deviled egg into his mouth.

"I don't believe you." Luce gave him a shove.

"Then you must have had a happy childhood."

Luce bit into the chewy green skin of the apple and licked the juice running down her fingers. She ran through a mental catalog of all the parental frowns, doctors' visits, and school changes of her childhood, the black shadows hanging like a shroud over everything. No, she wouldn't say she'd had a happy childhood. But if Cam couldn't even see a way out of