Love Me(The Keatyn Chronicles #4)

I smell cotton candy.

2pm



All of the Gods of Olympus competitors are on stage getting introduced by Whitney. Peyton tried to get me to go up there with them, but I wanted to be able to sit with Embry and the girls.

Peyton announces, “It’s said that the Olympics were started to entertain the newborn Zeus. They had wrestling, jumping, and running competitions. Our contestants will do the same. They will all compete in the 100-yard dash and a team relay. Points will be tallied and the field will be narrowed by half for the second round.”

“The second round is the jumping competition. Potential Gods will compete in the long jump and the 100 meter hurdles,” Whitney continues. “After that round, points will be tallied by our new teacher, Mr. Cooper Steele.” She puts on a big grin and claps for Cooper. Cooper flashes his dimples in a way that doesn’t look fake.

Peyton finishes for her. “And the field will be cut in half again. Then we’ll move into the gym for the final wrestling matches. Everyone, be sure to get your goodie bag. In it you will find trinkets for luck and golden coins that you can use to bet on who you think will prevail.” She points to a table set up in the corner. “Shark is our oddsmaker and bet taker. You could win an iPad, a dress down day for your dorm, pizza parties, and other great prizes.”

Whitney clears her voice. “The competitors are warming up now. Place your bets and get some snacks. The competition officially begins at two-thirty. Good luck to all the contestants. We look forward to feasting in your honor tonight!”

Braxton and Dawson wander up.

Braxton throws his arm around my shoulder. “Don’t care about the competition. Odds are that we’re getting it on tonight.”

Dawson punches him in the shoulder. Hard. Brax removes his hand and rubs his shoulder. “Oww.”

“p-ssy,” Dawson says with a grin as wraps his own arm around my waist and whispers in my ear. “Speaking of that . . .”

“Dawson! You’re bad.”

“Yeah, I am. Want me to show you just how bad?”

“You know that I’m hanging out with Aiden today.”

“Why do you think I chose not to do the competition?”

“Because you’re over all this high school bullshit?” Braxton replies.

“That, and it means Aiden will be busy. While I’ll be sitting with you.”

Braxton stops smiling and looks at his brother in awe. “I worship you. That’s f*cking brilliant.”

“I’m going to get some goodies. You’re welcome to come sit with us.”

“Who’s us?” Braxton asks.

“Um, me, Maggie, Katie, Annie, Pressley, Embry, and Maggie’s student, Alicia.”

“I haven’t met her yet. She a redhead, by chance?”

“Stop with the trio. You’re going to be sitting with the video trio. Consider yourself lucky.”

“I wanna get lucky,” Dawson whispers in my ear. “Brax, go place a bet or something.”

Braxton rolls his eyes but does as he’s told.

“You have to help me watch out for him at the party tonight.”

“You’re going to have to watch out for me tonight,” Dawson says, sliding even closer to me and grabbing my ass.

“Dawson!” I say, pulling away from him.

“Keatyn,” Cooper Steele says loudly behind me. “A word, please?”

I jump slightly, knowing he probably just heard what Dawson said to me. “Uh, sure.”

Dawson doesn’t let go of me right away though. He kisses my cheek and gives me a meaningful, “Later.”

Cooper motions for me to follow him over to the registration table. “What was that all about?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you sleeping with Dawson and Aiden?”

“Not that it is any of your business, but no. Why? You jealous?”

He rolls his eyes. “Not funny. Keatyn, I know guys.”

“One would assume, since you are one,” I say in a smart-ass tone.

“Trust me. That’s not going to work. You’ll push away the better man and end up with the one who’s willing to settle.”

“There’s no reason I can’t date them both if I want to. Is that seriously what you wanted to talk about? My sex life?”

He cringes. “You should not have a sex life. You’re seventeen. You have your whole life ahead of you.”

I stare blankly at him. “You know as well as I do, if Vincent finds me, my life might be very short. I’m going to enjoy it.”

He shakes his head. “We’re getting off track here. Did you think about what you’ll do if you can’t run?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I’d have to stay and fight. Can you teach me?”

He smiles. “I was going to suggest that, but I thought you’d argue with me.”

“I can’t start until I’m done with rehearsals.” I study him. “Just so we’re clear, I’ll never argue with you when it comes to my safety. This might be just a job to you, but it’s my life. ”

He grabs my arm and gets in my face. “I understand that probably more than anyone you know. Why do you think I’m here?”

“Because you’re getting paid well and you want a career with Garrett’s company?”

“Those are perks. Garrett has hundreds of specialists on his staff. Why do you think he went out of his way to find and hire me?”

I search his face. His tight, determined expression has turned to a sad, haunted one. “I don’t know.”

“My sister was murdered by her ex-boyfriend turned stalker.”

My heart drops into the pit of my stomach. I cover my mouth with my hand. I leap toward him, throw myself into his arms, and hug him tightly. “I’m so sorry, Cooper. I didn’t know.”

He pushes me gently out of the hug. “I’m not going to let it happen again.”

“What the hell is going on with you two?” Whitney says loudly, startling me, and causing me to react in a way that makes it look like something is going on.

“Nothing,” Cooper says eyeing me carefully. “Miss Monroe twisted her ankle. It’s painful.”

“I didn’t see you fall.”

“I just rolled it,” I lie.

Cooper bends down and pretends to examine my ankle. “It doesn’t look too bad. If it doesn’t loosen up, get some ice and elevate it.”

“I will,” I say, fake hobbling away. I stop, sigh like I’m in pain, and rest my weight on the check-in table. While I’m pretending to check out my ankle again, I notice a green marker on the table and grab it.

I figure I better still limp a little and not look miraculously healed. Like when Gracie says she has a tummy ache. You give her a piece of chocolate and she’s patting her stomach and telling you it’s all better before she’s even swallowed it.

As I limp back to the field, Aiden runs up to me. He’s a little out of breath, and there’s a shimmer of sweat gleaming on his sexy shirtless body.

Which makes my whole body feel a little limp.

“Are you limping?”

“Oh, yeah, tweaked my ankle. I’m fine.”

“I saw you talking to Dawson earlier. Why isn’t he competing?”

“He says he’s sorta over all this high school bullshit.”

Aiden narrows his eyes at me. “You’re mine today. You promised.”

“I know. But I’ll probably be sitting with him to watch. I promised his brother and they’re together.” I smile at him. I mean, how can I not? He looks like a real god.

I hold the marker in front of him.

“What’s that for?”

I smile, pull the lid off, and grab his arm. “Luck, Aiden,” I reply as I draw a four-leaf clover on his bicep.

He catches my neck in his hand, pulls my face close to his, and kisses my forehead. “Now, I can’t lose.”



I go back up in the bleachers, my mind a jumbled mess of thoughts about Aiden’s kisses, Cooper’s sister, and Vincent.

Embry is bouncing in her seat, excitedly waiting for the first race to start. She hands me a goodie bag. “Here, I got you one!”

“Thanks! Are you having fun?”

“Are you kidding? This is the best place ever. I wish I didn’t have to wait until next year. I don’t want to go home.”

“Neither do I,” Pressley says, giving her a hug.

“I don’t want to go home either,” Braxton fake cries from behind the girls, wrapping an arm around each one of their shoulders in a little group hug. “So, there’s this party tonight, ladies.”

“Braxton!” I bug my eyes out at him. “There’s no party.”

Braxton shakes his head. “Obviously, Keatyn doesn’t have this place wired like I do.”

I turn to Dawson and give him a what-the-hell-are-you-going-to-do-with-your-brother look. He shrugs.

Maggie says to the girls, “Keatyn’s right. You can’t go to a party. If you want to come here next year, you shouldn’t jeopardize that.”

Pressley sticks out her bottom lip. “But we like parties.”

Thankfully, the announcer starts calling off the names of the contestants for the first heat in the 100-yard dash.

Riley wins the first heat, beating out Jake and Ace.

Aiden’s heat is next. As he’s getting lined up, Aiden winks at me. How he knows that I’m looking at him from this far away is a little unnerving, but then he flexes his bicep and kisses the clover I drew.

I let out a little sigh. That is wooing.

Maybe there’s hope for us yet.

A hot, godly, tongue-kissing kind of hope.

“Brad’s gonna win this race,” Dawson says from behind me.

“Aiden’s faster than Brad,” Annie says, rolling her eyes at Dawson, while I rub the little glass shamrock that’s in my pocket.

Contestants. On your marks. Get set. Go!

Aiden is the first one out front, but Brad quickly closes the gap.

“That’s the shirtless goalie, isn’t it?” Pressley says reverently. “He’s going to win. He has on gold shoes. Like that god. Was it Hermes? The one that was so fast?”

“He looks like a god too,” Embry snickers under her breath to Pressley. They put their heads together and giggle as Aiden kicks it into high gear and crosses the finish line first.

I don’t care that Dawson is sitting here. I stand up and cheer.



After all the races, there’s a break while the scores get tallied.

“I smell cotton candy,” I say out loud.

“I f*cking love cotton candy!” Braxton exclaims.

“p-ssy,” Dawson says, hitting him on the shoulder. “You eating pink chick food now?”

Braxton flips him off then stands up, puts his hand to his chest, and yells at the top of his lungs. “To quote Aristophanes, the ancient Greek playwright, ‘ To blurt it out in a word—we want laying!’”

I cover my mouth with my hand, trying not to laugh. I can’t believe he just yelled that from the stands!

He stays in the stands, amidst cheers, while I follow my nose to the cotton candy.

“Hey, wait up,” Maggie yells from behind me. “I’m glad Logan won his heat.”

“Yeah, me too. I heard he’s a really good wrestler.”

She sighs. “He looks really good out there.”

“Why don’t you talk to him?” I ask, while thinking fate needs to figure out a way to get these two back together.

“I tried. I gave up. Part of me feels for Dawson, you know. I know what it feels like to do something and wish more than anything you could take it back.”

Shark bumps Maggie’s shoulder. “You two haven’t bet yet.”

I dig in my bag for some coins and hand them to him. “I’m putting it all on Logan. He needs to win.”

Maggie squints her eyes at me, understanding that I’m not talking about the contest.

He punches my bet into his phone. Then he says, “Oh, here,” and hands me back a temporary tattoo. Of a four-leaf clover.

I shake my head and laugh. “Did everyone get these?”

“A tattoo, yeah,” Shark says, holding out his forearm and showing me a panther with a rose in its mouth.

“Classy,” Maggie laughs.

He reaches in his jacket pocket and hands us his flask. “Ladies?”

“Most definitely,” Maggie says, grabbing it from him and taking a gulp. “In fact, can I have the whole thing?” She pats the other side of his chest. “You always have a spare.”

“You know me too well, Maggie,” Shark flirts.

I shove the tattoo into my pocket and drag Maggie to the cotton candy. We’re holding shots of vodka in our mouth and letting chunks of cotton candy dissolve in it, when Aiden and Logan beeline toward us.

“Shit,” Maggie curses under her breath.

“Congrats!” I tell them both.

Aiden pulls me into his arms. “You look like a goddess and smell like cotton candy. Reminds me of the Ferris wheel.”

“I didn’t look like a goddess then.”

“You always look like one,” he whispers.

I realize that Maggie and Logan are standing there awkwardly.

“Um, so good luck on the rest of the events. We’ll be cheering. Maggie and I have to get back to our students.”

“That’s okay,” Aiden says, patting a tight set of abs. Abs I really want to lick. “We have to go fuel up these bodies.”

I try not to drool but can’t keep from saying, “Yes. Yes, you do.”

“That was awkward,” Maggie says, shoving more cotton candy into her mouth.



We watch the rest of the field competitions. The winners get pared down to just six finalists who must wrestle their way to victory.

After watching all of the wrestling matches, we’re down to Jake and Logan for the championship.

Aiden takes my hand and leads me over to Logan’s side of the mat. It feels odd not being on the same side as Jake and Dawson.

While Aiden fills up Logan’s water bottle, I take the four-leaf clover tattoo out of my pocket and hand it to Logan. “I want you to have this.”

“A tattoo?”

“Yeah. It's for luck.”

“Aiden has been into shamrocks lately,” he says, eyeing me suspiciously, and not taking the tattoo.

“We both want you to have luck.”

“Jake is your friend.”

“Yeah, well, I hope eventually you’ll be my friend too.”

He grins at me.

“I think you should forgive her, Logan.”

“She won’t forgive me.”

“Was she good for you?”

“She was the best thing ever.”

Aiden comes back and hands him the water bottle.

I raise my eyebrows at Logan and shake the tattoo at him. “I’ll even put it on you.”

“Fine,” he says, a little smile playing on his lips.

He stands still while I dump water on a towel, place the tattoo on his arm, and then hold the wet towel against it. After a few seconds, I pull the towel and the paper off and look at the clover now on his arm. “Perfect.”

Logan fist bumps Aiden as he goes out on to the mat. “Wish me luck.”

Aiden puts his hands on my waist and looks straight into my eyes. “Why did you do that?”

“I see how he looks at Maggie.”

“She destroyed him.”

“He said she was the best thing ever.”

Aiden nods. “I was kind of jealous of their relationship last year. They were amazing together. Always happy.”

“Until they weren’t.”

He nods sadly. “Yeah.”

“If they’re meant to be, they’ll get back together, don’t you think?”

“I think he never should’ve let her go in the first place.”

The ref blows the whistle and I go sit on the bleachers to watch the match while Aiden stays to coach Logan.

Maggie takes a seat next to me.

It’s a back and forth battle. One point for Logan. A takedown for Jake.

Then a tied match.

They are grappling and twisting out of each other’s arms, when Logan makes a sweet move, flipping Jake over and pinning his shoulder to the mat.

The ref gets down on his knees and the crowd shouts as he counts by hitting the mat. One. Two. Three.

The ref pulls Logan up and his arm into the sky, proclaiming him the winner.

Maggie forgets who she was supposed to be cheering for and rushes out onto the mat, throws her arms around Logan, and hugs him.

He hugs her back in excitement.

But then he pulls away from her.

Maggie lowers her head just for a minute. Then she straightens up her shoulders and walks tall and confidently over to Jake. Jake grins at her, grabs her around the waist, and kisses her hard as Logan looks on.



Can kisses speak?

10pm



After the banquet, Aiden asks me to go for a walk, leading me down to the gym where we watched the movie on Friday.

“I didn’t get to show you this last night, so I had them leave it up.”

When we get to the door, he says, “Okay, close your eyes.” Then he leads me about ten steps across the gym floor.

I was here watching the movie. What could he possibly want me to see that I didn’t already?

He stands closely behind me, entwines his hands with mine, and rests his chin on my shoulder.

“Open your eyes.” I open them while he continues. “This is the view from a gorgeous hotel in Crete. Someday we’re going to stand on this balcony and watch this sunset together.”

“You had a sunset made for me?”

“I was the liaison between the drama department’s set designers for the gym, like Peyton worked with the art students to do the café.”

“You had a sunset made for me?” I blubber again.

“Yeah. I want to watch a million sunsets with you.”

I can’t speak. I want to stay wrapped in his arms forever and not move.

“We should probably get going before curfew, huh?”

“Yeah,” I say, but I don’t move. I just turn and look into his eyes.

He runs the back of his hand gently across my cheek. We lean towards each other and our lips melt together in a kiss.

Can kisses speak?

I hope so, because I’m trying to tell him everything I’m feeling but am afraid to say.

Aiden’s kisses are so different from any other kiss. Maybe it’s because he’s the God of all Hotties, I’m not sure, but his kisses say so much more.

Did you see the movie, Independence Day? There’s a scene where an alien does some kind of mental telepathy with the President, which allows him to see the alien’s plans.

That’s what it’s like with Aiden. When he kisses me, I feel like I can see our future.

It’s like he has the power to send me mental messages with his mouth.

His mouth. The source of all his power.

I don’t know why this surprises me.

He pulls his lips away from mine. I really wasn’t ready for the kiss to end. I don’t even care that there was no tongue. I’m never ready for it to end.

He moves his mouth to my ear as he slides his hands across the exposed skin on my back. “I’m not quoting Keats this time. Let’s try something else. ‘The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.’”

“That’s beautiful. Who said it?”

“Blaise Pascal. He was a French philosopher in the 1600s.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful. Like, you take my breath away. Sometimes when you’re tutoring me, I feel like I can’t breathe.”

I feel that way any time he touches me.

And especially when he kisses me, which he does again.

A slow, tender, amazing kiss.

It’s like when Prince Charming kisses Sleeping Beauty. He gives her that single, slow, perfect kiss to wake her up.

That’s how I feel with Aiden. Like he’s waking up something inside of me.

Kissing him is like watching fireworks: a little flash as it goes up in the sky, an explosion of colors, those colors falling and fading in the sky, and then you hear the boom.

Feel the boom. The beat of your heart booming in your chest.

“I’m really glad we’re getting to be friends, Boots,” he says. Then he chuckles. “Well, the kind of friends who kiss.”

What the hell?

Really?

Ohmigawd, I really do not understand him. Why all the wooing if all he wants is a friends with benefits relationship? Why a million sunsets?