Kiss Me Like This

Chapter SIX

“Dude, no wonder you weren’t partying this weekend with everyone.” Kurt looked positively gleeful. “You were too busy making your moves on that supermodel again.”
Sean looked up from the bench press. Sure, he’d spent the weekend fantasizing about Serena, but he hadn’t seen her.
“How’d you convince her to let you into her pants?”
Sean didn’t blink, didn’t think, just dropped the weights and approached his frat brother and teammate with murderous intent. “What the f*ck are you talking about?”
Belatedly seeming to realize he’d said the wrong thing, Kurt shoved his phone at Sean a beat before he could knock a fist into his jaw. “Zane’s new girlfriend just told us she saw this.”
Sean looked down at the screen. It was one of those gossip sites, full of pictures of Hollywood stars. What he saw had him nearly crushing the phone in his fist.
Someone had taken a picture of Sean standing with Serena on Palm Avenue, just after they’d left the pizza joint. His hand was on hers and it was obvious from the way they were looking at each other that he wanted to kiss her—and that she wanted to kiss him right back. He scrolled down and saw that the second picture had been taken through the window of the pizza place, only this time her hand was on his arm while he’d been talking about his mom. There was also a shot of the two of them laughing together while on their way to get the pizza, when he’d been telling her about his brothers and sisters.
No wonder Kurt believed they were an item. Seeing the pictures and the title—The Supermodel and the Baseball Bad Boy!—Sean was hard pressed not to believe it himself.
Quickly scanning the story, he read that he was not only the top-ranked college baseball player in the country and was related to tech wonder Grant Morrison and rock star Drew Morrison...but that he also had a long and varied track record with women as a major campus bad boy.
Unfortunately, that was the end of the valid part of the story, as it also suggested that Drew was the one to introduce Serena to Sean and that they were now “inseparable.” It even went so far as to claim that Sean was the reason Serena had given up the glittering life of a supermodel—so that she could stay by his side to make sure he didn’t cheat on her with another girl.
She’d told him her life was strange, and he’d acted like he understood because his brother Drew had been open with their family about the difficulties of fame. But Sean suddenly realized the kind of spotlight that his brother had been under so far was absolutely nothing compared to this ridiculously intrusive bullshit that Serena had to deal with.
Without another word to Kurt, Sean grabbed his bag and shot out the gym door. If by some miracle she hadn’t yet seen it, he hoped he could figure out some way to help soften the blow.
She hadn’t given him her cell phone number on Friday after they went for pizza, so he ran across campus to her dorm in record time. When no one answered the door, Sean belatedly realized where he should have thought to look for her first.
Green Library was much closer to her dorm than the gym had been and within a handful of minutes he was inside, his slightly labored breathing loud in the otherwise quiet building. Sean stopped in front of the information desk. “Have you seen Serena come in?”
The woman took in his T-shirt and shorts, the sweat dripping from him, and raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry,” she said in a slightly frosty voice, “what is it you would like to know?”
“Serena Britten. I really need to see her and I’m pretty sure she’s here.” When the woman started to shake her head again, he added, “You couldn’t have missed her if she’s been in today. She’s beautiful.”
“There are many beautiful women that come to the library,” she replied in biting tones. “I don’t see what that has to do with you.”
He hated having to reduce Serena to nothing but a supermodel, but he had no choice if he wanted to find her. “This is Serena.” He held out his phone to show the woman the part of the online story where one of Serena’s modeling shots filled the screen. When the woman’s eyes lit with recognition, he asked again, “Have you seen her come in today?”
“Why?” Frost had turned to suspicion as the woman used her finger to quickly scroll through the story and obviously read the headline.
“I just found out about this and need to make sure she’s okay. They took her picture without her knowing about it.”
Finally, the woman nodded. “She’s here. I don’t know exactly where, however.”
“Thank you for letting me know she’s here. And if she comes out before I can find her, I’d really appreciate it if you could let her know I’m looking for her. My name is Sean Morrison and here’s my number.” He wrote his cell number on a piece of paper and handed it to the woman. “Please don’t mention these pictures to her, just in case she hasn’t seen them yet. I really don’t want her to be upset.”
He made a pass of the ground floor, before heading up the stairs. Man, this place was big. He’d been in the campus library before, of course, but it wasn’t his regular stomping ground by any means. Mostly, he’d come to look through the amazing photography archives in the basement. He’d even brought his mother with him once, because she’d wanted to see the Ansel Adams shots he’d raved about.
“Your pictures are this good, honey.” He’d known it was nothing more than a mother thinking her kid was great at everything, but her encouragement had meant a ton to a guy whom everyone else had always thought of as nothing more than a jock, the brawny Morrison twin.
Grief had him stumbling on the stairs for a moment. Righting himself, he worked to block out the thoughts of never being able see his mom again, or show her another picture, or have anyone else ever see inside of him the way she always had. Instead, he concentrated on looking for Serena, searching every corner, every desk, every row of tall bookshelves.
Thirty minutes later, he was nearly at the end of his search—and the hope that he’d actually find her in the maze of rooms and shelves and desks—when he saw the top of a baseball cap in the farthest, most remote corner of the third floor.
The books were especially musty smelling up here, and he doubted many people ever made it this far into the building. But, he thought with a smile, Serena had. Without her telling him, he guessed it was her hideout. Her one special place that would be hers and hers alone when it probably felt like everyone was trying to grab on to a piece of her.
He stopped halfway to her, noting the way the light streaming in the window made her glow like the angel he’d thought she was the first night he’d met her. He hadn’t wanted to touch a camera for three months, but the way the light was hitting her suddenly made him wish he hadn’t smashed it to smithereens.
Wait, what was he thinking? He didn’t want to take pictures anymore, had given that up.
It was simply that Serena was so beautiful, how could anyone not want to take her picture, if only to try to hold on to her rare and precious beauty for a little while?
Except now he knew just how invasive those pictures could be. And he hated that he would be the one to bust into her private spot. But he needed to talk with her about the pictures someone had taken of the two of them together, and couldn’t risk waiting any longer.
He moved to where she could see him, but when she didn’t look up, he realized she had her earbuds in and was totally absorbed in the book she was reading. Not wanting to scare her, he knelt by her side and gently touched her shoulder.
She jumped with a little yelp and immediately yanked out her earbuds. Fortunately, within seconds her surprise gave way to a smile that made him feel like he’d just won the World Series. Despite the bullshit they were about to deal with, he couldn’t keep from smiling back. It had only been a couple of days since she’d left him outside this library, but he’d missed her.
“Sorry about scaring you like that. You were pretty into what you were reading.”
She flushed slightly as she looked down at her book then back at him, her eyes bright and—he hoped—happy to see him. “I should be studying for my geology test, but I found this new book on my way in. I just can’t resist biographies about the Bront? sisters.”
“I’m like that with the photography archives downstairs.” The words were out before he realized it.
Her head cocked to one side. “They’ve got photo archives in here?”
Knowing he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t brought it up, he nodded. “In the basement.”
She looked at him a little more closely. “Cool. I’ll have to go check them out.”
He wanted to offer to show them to her, but he couldn’t. Not when the memories of the last time he’d been in there with his mom would surely hit him. And not when he had something else he needed to talk to her about right now.
She smiled at him. “Are you here to study, too?”
God, he loved to see her smile. Hear her laugh. See her look carefree and happy. She’d looked like that for a little while on Friday when they’d been heading into town for pizza and he’d been telling her about his family and then later when she’d been talking about why she loved books so much.
The rest of the time, he now realized, she seemed to be on guard.
Yet again, he wanted to reach for her. Not just because he wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anyone else, but because he also wanted her to feel safe.
“Actually, I was looking for you.” He knew he couldn’t stall any longer, but damn it, he hated having to put his phone on top of her book. “One of the guys showed this to me.”
Her smile immediately fell away and the color drained out of her face as she stared at his phone. He watched her scan the story, saw the way she lingered over the three photos of them together, noticed the way the pulse at the side of her neck was jumping faster and faster. Until, in a blur of sudden action, she was shoving her books into her bag, pushing her chair back, and making a beeline for the stairs.
“Serena, wait!”
She didn’t say anything, just shook her head, and he knew from the way she’d pulled her cap down even harder onto her head and tucked her chin into her chest as she jogged down the steps that she was horribly upset.
He followed right behind her and when they got down to the ground floor, he caught the concerned look from the woman behind the information desk right before he flew out the front door after Serena.
“Serena,” he called again, but she didn’t stop walking. And even though all she probably wanted to do was get away from him—from everyone—right now, he couldn’t let her leave when she was this upset. Reaching out, he gripped her hand in his and made her stop and face him. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I wish the magazine hadn’t written this story. I wish whoever took those pictures hadn’t done it. And I know you still don’t totally trust me, but you’ve got to know that I would never have tipped anyone off for this.”
But when she didn’t respond right away, he realized he couldn’t force her to believe that he was on her side. Especially given the way things had begun between them at the frat party, when he’d been exactly the kind of scum she’d been trying to evade her entire life.