“It sounds like I’ve managed to ensnare the second-best hacker in the school,” I whispered against his lips. “I believe I’m drunk on the power of it.”

He smiled, maintaining the game, never once breaking and kissing me already.

We could joke all we wanted, but we both knew he had me totally wrapped.

Dean trailed the tip of his nose over mine, before grazing the line of my jaw. My toes curled in my sneakers, the pleasant soreness between my thighs solidifying that last night was real. That he was real. And the way we loved each other…that was more real than anything I’d ever felt before.

Strong.

Consuming.

Brilliant.

The kind of simmering chaos I lived for during hacks, manifested in a boy who was beyond perfect for me.

“Do you have to go?” he asked, kissing the corner of my mouth enough to shoot sparks across my skin.

“I don’t want to,” I admitted. “But I have things I need to do.” I wanted to tell him I had another blog post to schedule. Wanted to tell him he could keep the deadmau5 shirt and simply ask for his help.

But I couldn’t.

Because I would never put him in a position to lose everything. Like I was.

At least I had him. Despite everything else going on…I had Dean.

“Busy, busy,” he said, an easy smile on his lips. “I get it. I have…obligations, too.”

I furrowed my brow, noting the suddenly plagued look in his blue-gray eyes.

“You okay?” I asked. “Need help with anything?”

A muscle in his jaw ticked before he schooled his features. “No thanks,” he said. “I’m good.” He smoothed his knuckles over my cheek. “I’ll call you tonight?”

I nodded, heading toward my car. “Dean?”

He stopped outside his open driver’s side door. “Yeah?”

“Thanks…for everything.” It was a pathetic use of the word, but I didn’t know how to convey how much he’d helped me. How much him loving me for me meant to me.

“DC, Pixie.”

“DC.”

I sank behind the wheel, not bothering to spare a second glance at the cars still parked in Jake’s driveway. Last night may have started off bad, but it had ended better than I could’ve ever imagined.

Question of the Day

Anonymous457 asks: “I don’t go to your school, but I got the code from a friend. Hope I can still post here, and if not, well, I guess just getting it out will be good enough.

This past weekend, something happened. Something that…shifted things inside me. Perspectives and prejudices and bias and all that stuff.