Foreplay: The Ivy Chronicles by Sophie Jordan Page B

stomach bottomed out. Great . He knew. “Oh. Yeah. He was nice.”
    His pale eyes glittered at me. “Is it true? You came here looking for him? You thought I was him?”
    I shook my head, words evading me.
    “Oh yeah. When he could stop laughing, he told me all about it. That’s why you’ve been so . . .” His gaze raked me up and down before finishing. “ . . . friendly to me?”
    I shook my head. “No. Of course not—”
    “You wanted to hook up with my brother because you heard the rumors about him.” It was a flat statement. Full of judgment.
    I tried to play it off. I snorted like it was the most absurd suggestion ever and went for outright ignorance. “Rumors? What rumors?”
    Those pale eyes of his turned to ice. “The rumors that my brother fucks every girl who points her ass at him.”
    I sucked in a sharp breath.
    He laughed roughly, but there was no levity in the sound. “It’s kind of funny, you know.”
    I shook my head, unable to imagine anything funny about this. “How’s that?” I managed to get out.
    He waved a hand. “All of these college girls . . . even a nice girl like you”—the way he emphasized nice clearly told me he didn’t think I fell into that category anymore—“throwing yourselves at a kid in high school.”
    I felt my forehead crease. “What?”
    “Logan’s still in high school. He’s eighteen.”
    Oh . My . God . As if this moment could get any more embarrassing. If things hadn’t gotten all mixed up that first night I came here, if Logan had been working and receptive—if I hadn’t seen Reece first and fixated all my longing on him—I could have hooked up with a high school boy. Eighteen or not . . . he was still in high school!
    I shook my head as if breaking free of the vestiges of a bad dream. “I didn’t throw myself at him. I just met him tonight.”
    “But you came here for him . You thought I was him.” His gaze cut into me, merciless and deep.
    As a rule of thumb, I didn’t run from life when it got ugly or uncomfortable. I’d faced a lot. A father dead. A mother who chose her addiction over me. This— him —shouldn’t be anything I couldn’t handle. His opinion or judgment of me wasn’t supposed to mean anything. He was just one step getting me closer to Hunter. That’s all he was supposed to be.
    Even telling myself this, I couldn’t stop myself. The time had come to retreat.
    The tide of people shifted. Bodies bumped us. His grip slipped off my wrist and my opportunity arrived. I ran, using my elbows as he’d once advised me. Plunging out the back door, I spotted Emerson with her phone to her ear.
    “There you are,” she said when she saw me. “I was just trying to reach you.”
    “Let’s go,” I growled, latching onto her arm and pulling her down the street toward the packed parking lot.
    “What’s wrong? I mean besides the obvious awkwardness of finding out we confused your hottie for the other hottie.” She laughed. “C’mon. It’s kind of funny.”
    I slid her a look.
    She bumped me with her hip. “C’mon. Pat yourself on the back. According to Annie, Reece is the elusive one. And he kissed you.”
    “Reece just cornered me back there, when we got separated.”
    “Ooh.” Her eyes flared. “What did he say?”
    “Oh, he knew all about it.”
    She winced. “Awkward much?”
    “Oh, yeah, and his brother. Logan? He’s eighteen and still in high school.”
    “Oh, that’s awesome.” She laughed, clapping her hands. “Wait till I tell Annie.”
    “Yeah, Reece pretty much thinks I’m a terrible person.”
    She stopped laughing. “Impossible.”
    “Yeah. He does.” I nodded doggedly, my footsteps beating out a hard rhythm across the gravel. “You should have seen the way he looked at me.”
    “Well then he’s a jerk. Screw him. Who needs him?”
    She unlocked her car and I opened the passenger side door. I sank down onto the seat with a heavy sigh.
    “You can hone your skills on any guy you