watch him go until Ranger closes the door completely, blocking off my view.
Glancing over my shoulder, I see the pair of beds on opposite sides of the room. If they weren't king-sized and graced with enormous leather headboards, it might look like any other dorm room. There are desks at the foot of each bed, wardrobes on the walls opposite the beds, and a huge, plush faux fur rug in the middle.
“You guys get a freaking fireplace?” I ask dryly, pointing at the wall between the two beds where the fireplace insert hangs. There's a crackling flame, making the room look all cozy. There are windows above each bed, the curtains parted to reveal the twinkling stars outside.
When I first got to this school, all the other students looked at me like a total asshole for getting the top floor room. Now I see that the top floor room is the shittiest one.
“Yeah, so?” Ranger puts his palm on the wall above my head, and leans in, so close that I can smell his leather and sugar scent, this dichotomous mixture of hard and soft that makes my toes curl against the stone floors. “What are you doing here … Charlotte?” he drags my name off the tip of his tongue in just such a way that it feels like both a promise … and a warning. “Spencer's got the wrong idea already, and all that. By the way, when are you going to tell him? He keeps accusing me of trying to get you to suck my dick.”
“Whoa, whoa, why does he assume that I'm the one sucking dick? Maybe you're the one sucking my dick?”
Ranger smirks at me and leans in so close that our mouths almost touch.
“Oh, Chuck, don't kid yourself: nobody thinks that.” He chuckles, and the sound makes me shiver so violently that I almost slide down the wall in a puddle. Ranger reaches out and fingers the lapel on the edge of my pajama shirt. “You're a bottom, hands-down. I knew it the first second I saw you. Me, I'm a top.” He pushes away from the wall, and leans back against the opposite side, his huge body filling the narrow hallway space.
“I'm not a bottom,” I mumble, but then I remember why I ran all the way down here in the first place and pull the key from my pocket, letting it dangle in the air between us. Ranger lunges forward, his hands covering mine and filling me with this strange warmth.
“Where did you find this?!” he asks, sounding choked. “I've been all over this campus with a fine tooth comb.” I let him take the key, watching as he pulls the one out of his shirt and holds them together. They're pretty much identical save for the color and a slight variation in the teeth.
“It was in my bed,” I tell him, “inside one of those decorative metal orbs on the ends of the posts.” Ranger stares at the keys, and then looks up at me, sapphire eyes burning.
“We need to go check the ones on Jenica's bed,” he says, turning to head for the door. I stop him by reaching out and curling my fingers around his arm, trying my best not to get too excited about those muscles of his.
“Not tonight,” I tell him, bile rising in my throat at the flash of memory from the other night. “It's too dangerous. Let's go in the morning before school.”
Ranger tenses up and then pauses with a sigh, raking his fingers through his hair.
“You're probably right,” he admits grudgingly. “I'm sure I'm on their radar now. It'll probably be my ass in the noose next, hanging in that same horrible tree.” He clenches his fist right around the pair of keys, squeezing so hard that his knuckles turn white. “I'm not much of a morning person though. Sorry in advance if I’m a cranky dick.” He tucks the pair of keys in his pocket, and then looks over at me. “And you need to figure out a way to tell Spencer your secret.”
“Who says I want to tell him?” I blurt, and Ranger gives me a long, dry look.
“You two have such serious freaking mojo going on, it makes me sick. Tell him, and just fuck each other, get it over with. Then we can stop with all the pining and whining and moping around that he does.”
“He pines for me?” I ask, trying not to sound interested. Because I'm not. I