Page 14 of The Love Dare
He can’t even look her in the eyes the next time he sees her. He’s too ashamed—by what he did, yes, but also by how often his thoughts have traveled back to her flushed, heated, caught-in-the-act face, the fantasies made so much more real now that he knows exactly what she would look like if his hands were the ones reaching up to unclasp her bra.
He makes a silent oath that no one will ever learn the truth about that night. It’s too embarrassing, too pathetic, just too fucking pitiful really, that catching her in one little make-out session turned him into a complete and total wreck.
But he’d do it again.
In a heartbeat.
That’s how gone he is.
CHAPTER FIVE
winnie
6 YEARS BEFORE FILMING
“You’ll never guesswho just walked into our dorm,” an unfamiliar girl squeals and runs past Winnie to the other side of the room where her new roommate Maisie is unsuccessfully trying to stuff a sequined skirt into her overflowing wardrobe. She and Winnie haven’t really spoken outside of a few stilted words?—
“Oh, you’re here,” Maisie said as she walked into the room.
“Here I am,” Winnie chirped, spinning with an excited grin and holding out her hands. “It’s surreal, right? I can’t believe we’re in college. I feel like I’ve been dreaming about this day for so long!”
“Yeah. Totally.” Her roommate nodded, looking around the room. “So, what kind of name is Uldwyna, anyway?”
“Oh, it’s Romanian,” Winnie explained with a shrug as she turned around to pull a few paperbacks from the suitcase propped on her bed. “You can just call me Winnie.”
“Cute.” Maisie scrunched her eyes with a hint of scorn. “Is that entire suitcase full of books?”
Winnie nodded excitedly. “Do you want to borrow one?”
Maisie laughed. “Like, to read?”
The smile started to slip off her face. “…Yeah?”
“I’m good,” her roommate commented before crossing the room without another word.
Winnie knows from the few texts they exchanged over the summer that, as a soccer player, Maisie moved in two weeks early with all the other fall athletes, and apparently in that time, she’s made all the friends she needs. The girl was absent all morning while Winnie’s parents were there to help unpack, and aside from that brief hello about an hour earlier, she’s been pretty much shutting Winnie out—muttering one-word responses or just ignoring her attempts at conversation entirely. But it’s fine. So what if she and her roommate aren’t going to be best friends? There are thousands of other students here. She’ll find her group. She’ll finally understand what it feels like to belong. This isn’t high school anymore. College is going to be a million times better. She just needs to get settled, to get into a groove, to get?—
“Oh my god.”
The two other girls in the room gasp, drawing Winnie back to the present. She knits her brow with a sigh, not needing to turn around as a polite knock sounds at their open door.
She knew he would do this.
In fact, she made him explicitly promise not to do this.
Yes, after an immense pressure campaign from her parents to not split their family up any further, she decided to attend the University of Denver like her brother. And yes, in a lot of ways, it was her choice too. He’s her best friend. He’s her safety net. Having him close takes a lot of the fear of the unknown away. But she made it abundantly clear that she doesn’t want to live in his shadow anymore. She’s tired of people pretending to be nice to her because she’s “Rusu’s little sister” only to have them flip the second his back is turned. Let her make her own way. Let her figure things out. Let her grow up.
Three rules.
She gave him three freaking rules. Don’t tell anyone they’re related. Don’t try to intimidate anyone on her behalf. And don’t, under any circumstance, come to her dorm.
Yet here he is, day one, breaking all three.
“Hey, sis.”
“Go away, Alex.” Winnie spins with a growl, only to freeze at the sight of the blond boy hunching apologetically behind him. “Ty!”
“Oh, sure. Be nice to him.” Her brother snorts and steps into the room without asking for permission. Oh, to live the entitled life of a star athlete. The world is his oyster. On this hockey-obsessed campus, he’s a king. Alex grins at the two other girls, who are still frozen with shock. “Ladies.”
