“What if I were to say…” She rolled her eyes up, plotting. “That if you bring home a medal we can…” She pushed up on her tiptoes and whispered the most exciting, terrifying, and wonderful thing in my ear. It sent warm shivers along my skin, firing up that deep craving in my blood.

I gasped, popping back to catch the wild gaze in her eyes.

“You better hurry,” she said, closing my mouth with the tip of her finger and planting me with a kiss. “You don’t want to be late on your first day.”

I grabbed my bags, shaking my head as I backed away a few spaces, certain if I touched her again after that comment, I would spontaneously combust. “DC,” I said, continuing to back up toward the building.

She opened her car door, that smooth, confident grin shaping the mouth I couldn’t get out of my head. “DC,” she said, one leg in the car. “Oh, NightLocker?” she asked before I could turn around.

“Yeah?” I asked, pausing.

“Everyone gets a medal.” She winked at me before sinking into the car and driving away.

My heart skipped a beat and it took me a few seconds to remember I had a place to be. I walked toward the building, a wide smile on my face.

Six weeks was a long time to be away from her.

But she was worth every second.

My fierce hacker of a girl.

The one I thought I’d never be able to catch.

My pixie.

Epilogue

Epilogue

Amber

One year later

NightLocker: What are you up to?

I straightened in my seat, blinking out of the haze I’d been in seconds ago while I waited on the professor to get his PowerPoint together. A full-body flush and about a thousand tingles tickled my skin at the sight of Dean’s chat box on my screen.

PixieBurn: I’m in class

NightLocker: what class?

PixieBurn: Psychology

NightLocker: Oh

NightLocker: So that’s why you snuck out of bed this morning

The flush deepened, my mind instantly jumping backward to last night. And the night before.

And the one before that.

I’d spent them all in Dean’s arms.

Each night better than the next.

One year at MIT behind us—a new semester starting today—and he still had the power to melt me with a simple sentence.

I glanced away from the screen, checking to make sure the professor was still in hold-mode until his presentation came up. Once I was sure, I reached toward the keys.

PixieBurn: I didn’t sneak

NightLocker: I woke up to an empty pillow and cold sheets

PixieBurn: Awh, poor baby

NightLocker: Exactly

NightLocker: I didn’t think you had a class this early

PixieBurn: I didn’t either. It was a last minute addition. I’m lucky they let me in.

NightLocker: Psychology

PixieBurn: Yes

PixieBurn: I’m...

PixieBurn: I’ve decided to minor in it