Page 37 of Last Christmas (Private 0.60)
want to stay. "He took another step closer. The tips of his shoes bumping against hers. I do, Ariana thought,
her longing taking over. I do, I do, do. She had to touch him. Had to kiss him. Now. Right now or she was
going to lose her mind. "Aria-" She silenced him with her touch. She grabbed him around the back of his
neck and pulled his mouth down on hers. Power surged through her body as she took control, kissing him
until he finally woke up from his shock and kissed her back. He yanked her scarf from around her neck, and
his lips moved down from just below her ear, down, down to her collarbone. He groped for the buttons on her
coat as she struggled with the belt. The moment she was free of it, his hand slipped inside and under her
sweater. Her skin seared everywhere he touched her. She let the coat drop to the floor and slid her hands up
under his clothes, running her fingers over his chest. Every inch of her body trembled with excitement, with a
kind of energy she'd never felt before. "Want flooded through her and she gave in to it, feeling completely,
wonderfully out of control. She needed more. More. More now.
But when he starting pulling her sweater over her head, she pushed him away. "Wait. Not here," she
whispered. "The professors ...they're still around...."
Wordlessly, he grabbed her hand. Ariana had just enough time to grab her coat and bag off the marble floor as
he tugged her toward the double doors. Once outside, the snowflakes swirled thick around them, and Ariana
felt as if her heart were swirling too. Wildly spinning with no chance of stopping. She didn't think about how
she was supposed to be in love with Daniel. How she was supposed to be on her way to the train station. She
just let Thomas lead her through campus to the edge of the woods. She had no idea what was going to happen.
How far she would let things go.
And for the first time in her life, she didn't care.
DESTROYED
***"After you." Thomas held back several thick, snow-covered pine branches. Behind them were a series of
cracked stone steps leading to the old chapel's doorway. The building had been marked for demolition at the
beginning of the year and was supposed to be torn down by the end of December. The student body had been
warned by Dean Marcus to stay away from the woods until the area was cleared, but a select few, Thomas
included, had ignored the dean's warning. It was the perfect place to drink and get high.
"I haven't been back here in awhile." Ariana tilted her head back, taking in the circular stained-glass window
above the door and the crumbling steeple that stretched into the cloud of snow above. She felt a sudden,
unexpected surge of sadness. The old building had withstood so much over the years and had become
strangely more beautiful, stronger with age. But it was only a matter of time before it would be completely
