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