Jude didn’t say anything, he didn’t even glance back at me; he just powered through the hallway, shoving into a dark room at the end of the hall.

“Good morning to you too—” But my words were cut short as he shoved me up against a wall, his hands and mouth landing on me like they’d been starved all weekend.

I kissed him back, winding my arms around his neck. And then, because close wasn’t close enough, I put my dancer’s strength and flexibility to good use and leapt up, winding both legs around his hips. He groaned, pressing me harder against the wall, his mouth moving in and over mine with such fury I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t care. In fact, passing out because Jude Ryder had been kissing the breath out of me sounded like something to add to the life goal list.

Right when I was certain this was it, this was the time and place we were going to go all the way, his mouth slowed at the same time he lowered me to the ground. Now was not the time for slowing down, not when everything was quickening in me, about to explode if we didn’t keep going.

I groaned when he pressed one final kiss into my mouth.

“Good morning,” he said, grinning like an idiot.

I groaned again when he took a step back.

“I missed you too.”

I tried to glare at him, but apparently it was a physical impossibility when the person who’d just kissed the living breath out of you was grinning in front of you. “You’re mean.”

“I know,” he said, brushing my hair back, “but the image of that got me through a long weekend. I needed that.”

“You’d been dreaming this up in your mind all weekend?” My stomach managed yet another flip-flop.

“That was all I thought about.”

Double flip and flop. “Did it meet your expectations?”

“Exceeded them,” he said, leaning in. “But in my dreams you were wearing this short school girl skirt and nothing underneath.” I felt his smile curve into place as he kissed my neck.

“Tomorrow’s another day,” I breathed, squeezing my legs together in agony. “Keep dreaming big.”

“Can do,” he whispered into my ear before sinking his teeth into my lobe.

“Don’t swallow my earring,” I said, my breath all ragged again. “I hear sterling silver can really upset a stomach.”

“No earring here,” he said, piercing another gentle bite into my ear.

I groaned again, but this time it was the frustrated kind. “Then it must have fallen out while you had me pinned against a wall,” I said, sending him a look as I dropped down to the floor, running my hands along the carpet.

“Are you sure you had one in?” he asked, scanning the floor above me. “I don’t remember seeing one.”

“I think you skipped through four senses this morning and barreled on through to touch.” I looked up at him, sitting up taller on my knees to take in more of the carpet. Class was about to start any minute and I’d cordon the entire room off before I left my favorite silver hoop behind.

Walking closer, he continued scanning the floor with me. “That does happen to be my favorite sense, by a landslide.”

“No kidding?” I said sarcastically, ready to get down on all floors and inspect the carpet a centimeter at a time.

“Oww!” I howled, snapping back up on my knees, hoping a chunk of hair hadn’t just been ripped out.

“Luce, wait. Don’t move,” Jude said, gripping my head in place. “Your hair’s caught on something.”

I tried pulling in the opposite direction, but my hair was caught good. “It’s caught on your buckle,” I said, begrudging fate that it would allow hair this short to be caught on such a small piece of metal.

“Stop moving,” he said, holding my head in place. “You’re only making it worse.”

I pulled back again, grimacing in pain. “Stop telling me what to do and start untangling it then.”

He laughed, trying to cut it short, but he couldn’t stop.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I said, looking up at him through a tangle of hair.

“I wish I could say I wasn’t, but I’d be lying,” he said in between his laughter.

“You’re so obnoxious,” I said, grabbing his hips and bracing myself for hair extraction.

Right as I was gritting my teeth, about to whip my head back, the door whined open, the overhead lights flashing on right after.

“Dude,” a voice said, stopping short in the doorway.

Another boy popped his head over the first’s shoulder. He lifted a cell phone and pointed it where I kneeled in front of Jude, hands on his hips, his hands on my head, and a flash went off. “This is so going on the internet.”

When all was said, done, and untangled, Jude’s and my picture did go viral, amassing about ten thousand hits all before the lunch bell rang. Two sophomores had their phones snapped in half and would never dare pass Jude alone in a hallway again, but otherwise Jude managed the unthinkable and kept his hellfire temper caged. Save for the phones and one innocent wall, Jude’s wrath fizzled short.

I was so surprised and impressed that he didn’t nosedive into a record setting explosion that I managed to stay pretty zen with the whole of Southpointe, as well as the western part of the country, getting an eyeful of our photo shoot. In fact, I didn’t even feel the urge to defend ourselves or explain what had actually transpired before I wound up on my knees, hands at his hips, head at his zipper because, well . . . no one in their right mind would believe the truth.

So I endured yet another flood of stares and whispers, girls looking at me like I was the red light hussy spawned of the devil here to decimate the world, and guys looking at me with dilated eyes and tipped smiles, like they were imagining me on my knees in front of them. The girls I got, they were just worked up because if I’d done it once, what was to stop me from blowing their boyfriends in the bio lab? I got that kind of disdain because I was a girl. However, the guys were just horn dogs, salivating to hump whoever and whatever they could. A couple of the repeat offenders I flipped off in passing.

“Hey, Morrison!” Jude slid into line next to me, hollering at the guy a few people in front of me who was staring at me in a familiar way. “Turn your eyes unless you want to lose them.”

Morrison tilted his chin at Jude. “Ryder, you are one lucky son of a bitch.”

An urge that was almost impossible to resist arose, ordering me to throw my bowl of red jello topped by a dollop of whipped cream straight at Morrison’s smug face. Point blank.

Jude moved in front of me, pressing me behind him with his forearm. “If you’re referring to the fact that my girlfriend is an intelligent, classy, sweet, righteous girl, you’d be right,” he said, squaring himself at Morrison, “but if you’re referencing anything less than honorable, then you might want to make some adjustments to your college applications because I don’t think Arizona State’s going to want you if you can’t run the ball.”

Morrison flipped Jude a salute and turned around, as a round of laughter passed through his trio of friends in the lunch line.

“Lace curtain bastards,” Jude muttered, glaring at the back of their heads. “I hear of any of them running their mouths or their eyes over you again and I’m going to show them how we do things at the bottom feeder level.”

Shoving my way around him, I turned on him. “Does that sound like someone who’s committed to staying on the good side of the law?” I asked, shuffling a piece of pizza onto my tray. “Does that sound like someone who promised their . . .”

“Girlfriend,” he filled in the blank, winding his arms around me.

“Their girlfriend they wouldn’t do anything to mess this up? Because going to jail for attempted manslaughter might be considered messing up to some people.”

“Woman,” he exhaled, resting his cheek against mine, “you are busting my balls. In every way.”