The spark was gone from her eyes. Shit, I’d done this to Sydney. I’d taken this vibrant girl and crushed her until she could hardly recognize herself. Until she compromised her beliefs so much she’d be willing to pimp out her own brother for his sake and hers. I’d pushed her too far.

The glow of the streetlights seeped through the small garage door windows and dappled across her worried eyes. Her skin was pricked with a million goose bumps, and I just wanted to hold her. Instead, I rubbed my hands together and slid my warm palms over her biceps. “Who said you can’t win, Sydney?”

“What do you mean?” She stretched out her forearms, letting my hands slide down to her wrists. When I lingered over her piano tattoo, she locked eyes with me. “What are you doing, Peters?”

I shook my head because, really, I didn’t know what I was doing. All I knew was Sydney was in pain. Pain I caused. I wanted her to curl up in my arms so I could tell her everything would be all right. No one would ever know her secret. I would have never let it get that far.

I held on to her hand as I pulled out my phone and sent Jack a text.

“Send Allison a message that Jack is in the garage,” I said. Then I circled an arm around her waist and slid her down the hood until she sank against my shoulder. Nudging aside her spice-filled hair with my nose, I brushed my lips across her ear. “I’ll do this favor for you, but you have to do me a favor.”

“Where do you get off, Peters?” she whispered, leaving a line of hot moisture across my jawline. “A favor? I can only guess what you want.”

“I don’t want sex,” I whispered, but my body was throbbing. I wanted to lay her across this hood and explore every last inch of her. “I want to put our past behind us. I want to be your friend.”

“You won’t want to be my friend tomorrow.” She turned her head until our faces swept past each other’s. “Trust me.”

“Then be my friend just for tonight.” Unable to stop myself, I leaned in, rolling my forehead against hers. When our skin made contact, Sydney skimmed my mouth with those corpulent pink lips. In complete and perfect silence, we inhaled the same air, dousing one another with scorched breaths, which were growing more urgent by the millisecond.

I slowly raised a hand to her chin, stroking a thumb across her bottom lip. She was beautiful. She had no idea the power she had over a man, and it made me want her even more. Under my touch, Sydney closed her eyes and relaxed her lips until the tip of my finger was moist.

“Friends don’t touch like this, Peters.”

“Maybe they should.” I pulled her toward me, and she parted her lips. I traced her mouth with mine, ready to take her just as the main door to the garage swung open.

I panicked.

Yanking Sydney off the hood, I watched as she landed in a thump against the concrete floor. Then I dropped down beside her.

“What the hell?” she whispered, rubbing the back of her skull.

“Gray?” Jack’s voice came from the doorway. “Gray?”

Before Sydney could mutter another word, the clicking of heels came from Jack’s direction.

“There you are, Jack!” Allison’s honeyed voice shot through the garage. “I’ve been looking all over for you. I thought… I thought you’d be with Theresa Denton.”

I motioned for Sydney to crawl behind the stacked rocket dog boxes. She turned on her knees, and I followed, staring right into her beautiful ass—the ass of my comrade. Behind the protection of a bratwurst wall, we both sat cross-legged, facing one another, and listened.

“I was in the house. I just spent thirty minutes in the bathroom, washing my shirt. It’s my favorite, so I whipped up an old concoction my grandmother told me about. Works like a charm.” Jack let out a nervous chuckle.

“But I did see Theresa. She’s acting weird tonight. I think she lost a contact lens because she asked for my help in Fernando’s bedroom, and then she dropped down on her hands and knees. So I did too, but I couldn’t find anything on the floor. When I looked up, she was super angry and dumped her drink all over me, yelling something about how I could have a sandwich if I wanted.”

Sydney and I grabbed each other’s forearms and stifled our laughter.

God, she was brilliant. Her cheeks always formed perfect round circles when she smiled. Those eyes, they’d haunt any man’s dreams, and sometimes their nightmares, depending on the situation.

“What was that?” Allison’s voice shot out from behind the boxes, and we both tightened our mouths.

“Probably rats,” Jack responded, and I raised my nose, twitching it around to make Sydney laugh. She did, covering her mouth. I couldn’t help it. Sydney had so much personality that every time I made her laugh or smile, I felt like I’d won an Oscar. Screw the Heisman.

“I didn’t know you were coming tonight. I mean, I would have invited you myself, but I thought Katharine was dead set against pledges being here. Do you want to go back inside?”

Allison let out a long sigh. “She is, and I do want to go inside, but Katharine will punch me in the uterus if I do. She’s threatened all off us with uterus jabs so we can’t make Kappa babies to pledge in twenty years.”

Sydney’s eyes grew wide and she made a fist, slamming it into the palm of her other hand. “I’ve got a sterilization trick for Katharine, but it doesn’t involve a blow to the uterus,” she whispered, and I covered her mouth with my hand.

She stuck out her tongue and licked my palm. I chuckled and lowered it in her lap—too close to her nether region—so I quickly started to drag it away. But before I could, Sydney grabbed it back, holding it tightly, and inched forward until our knees touched.

We were now face to face in my freezing garage, hidden behind the dark shadows offered by thirteen hundred rocket dogs (Fernando already ate a box), and there was nowhere else I wanted to be.

“Well, we can sit in Gray’s car,” Jack said, opening the door and slamming it shut. “Gray lets me drive it all the time. You know, we’re cool like that.”

Annoyed, I scrunched up my face, and Sydney squeezed my hand, still wearing a huge smile.

“Here, Ally, you’re cold. Please take my jacket. I really think you should eat more carbohydrates. You’re so thin and beautiful, but it’s good to have some extra weight in the winter.”

Sydney threw her head back and shook it in a silent laugh. When she lowered it back down, a tear escaped her eye, and I brushed it off with the back of my hand.

I couldn’t tell what kind of tear it was. A happy tear? A sad tear? Maybe a little of both. All I knew was I never wanted to make Sydney cry again, because her face full of any tears would be too much for me to handle.

“Jack,” Allison said, clearing her throat, “I’ve really liked hanging out with you over the last few weeks. I’d like for us to go out. Like on a real date. Outside of school and outside of the library.”

“Yes,” Jack quickly replied with clear and distinct confidence. “I’ve been wanting that since the moment I laid eyes on you, Ally. You’re the smartest, sweetest, and most hygienic girl on this campus. I would love to take you out.”

Sydney lifted her arms and jokingly sniffed her armpits, but that beaming smile stayed plastered on her face. It quickly dropped when smacking noises began from the front seat of my car.

“Do me a favor, Peters,” she leaned in and whispered, pointing to a toolbox set in the corner of the garage. “Pick up a wrench and knock me unconscious. I can’t live with myself if I hear my brother lose his virginity.”

I smiled and lifted my hands to cover her ears. “Can you hear me?”

She shook her head and whispered, “Now’s the time to tell me to go to hell, Peters. Your big meat paws are thick. I can’t hear shit.”

“You smell like mayonnaise left out in the sun too long, Sinister.” I started off with a childish low blow just to test her. She smiled, flashing me a thumbs-up.