Later, in the safety of my room, I asked Mark to summon Nicholas. Yet, just as he arrived, Veronica arrived too. I wasn’t unhappy to see her, exactly, but there were things I had hoped to speak with Nicholas about that I hadn’t wanted others to overhear. When I heard Veronica’s reasons for visitin

I clawed at Nicholas’s shoulders. He was wearing too many clothes. But then, so was I. His kiss devoured me, entranced me. I felt so fully under his spell that I couldn’t think clearly. All I knew was the trace of Nicholas’s hand up my spine, slipping under my shirt. He lifted it up and off my hea

Charlotte and I flipped through the fabrics on the table near the sewing machines. “It has to be a bright color, right? Something that says, I’m having fun,” I said. I picked up a bolt of red fabric. “What about this one?” Charlotte shook her head. “Red means danger. You’ll give someone an anxie

“What the hell are you talking about?” Nicholas snapped back. “You need to stop walking Piper around,” Julian said, firm. “It makes me look bad. She’s supposed to be my date, remember?” “It’s after hours,” Nicholas said. “There shouldn’t be any cameras.” “’Shouldn’t be,’” Julian said. “You adm

Nicholas I was relieved to see Piper rush away, but I was also furious at myself. All my talk about protecting her, and I couldn’t stand up against my own father. Julian was right. I was a coward. And my cowardice was what was going to cost me Piper in the end. “Father,” I said, ready to try a