“Aghhh! You don’t get it! I have to resist! No kiss, no matter how good it is, is worth killing you for. I’ve already lost one boyfriend. I am not going tolose another one! Do you understand me?” Ryan didn’t answer my question, but he was positively glowing. “You just called me your boyfriend!” heaccused.“I—” My mouth dropped all the way to my lap. “I did not!”“Yes you did! You said you weren’t going to lose another boyfriend, and that would be me—the other boyfriend you don’t want to lose.”“But…I…I…”“Ha! You said it, and you can’t take it back! You are so my girlfriend now!”“I am not!”“Are too!“Am not!”“So are too!”“Aghhh!” I screamed again. “You are so impossible!”When I screamed, I lost control for a second and let out a burst of energy that stalled the truck.Ryan just grinned at me. He was lucky the car stopped right then, because I was contemplating knocking the stupid cocky smirk right off his face.Instead, I flung the door open.“Bye, honey!” Ryan called playfully as I jumped out of the truck. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow!”

“According to Mr. E., all of this was my fault,” Ryan explained. With a little too much amusement if you ask me. “For making you fall in love with meand ruining everything.”“Why did that ruin everything?”Ryan was quiet for a moment, and I couldn’t believe it when his grin changed into that infamous cocky smirk. “You just said you love me!” heaccused with excitement.Again, I gaped at him, temporarily speechless. Of course I denied it. I had to; it was my natural reaction to his ego. “I did not!”“Did too.” He grinned. “You said, ‘why did that ruin everything.’ Meaning you agree that it happened. You said it. Can’t take it back. You love me.”Learning to control my powers was child’s play compared to keeping a straight face right then, but I couldn’t give in to his smugness. He was just sosure of himself. “Do not.”“Do too.”“Do not.”“So do too.”

“Do I have to make a poster and scream Ryan, Ryan?" I kidded."The only time I want to hear you scream my name is when I'm making love to you. Although you did call me God the other night. That's acceptable, too.”

“I don’t know what your type is. I don’t know what your deal is. I don’t even know if you have a boyfriend. I know I like you and I want to be in yourlife, that’s it, and if you have any room for a boyfriend, I would like to be your boyfriend, and if you don’t have any room, I would like to be your friend.Any room you have for me in your life is great. If you would like me to start out in one room and move to another, I could do that.”

“When I got to school the next morning I had stepped onlyone foot in the quad when he spotted me and nearly tackled me to the ground. “Jamie!” he hollered, rushing across the lawn without caring the leastbit about the scene he was creating.The next thing I knew, my feet were off the ground and I was squished so tightly in Ryan’s arms that I could barely breathe.“Okay, Ryan?” I coughed in a hushed tone. “This is exactly the kind of thing that can get you killed.”“I don’t care, I’m not letting go. Don’t ever disappear like that again!” he scolded, but his voice was more relieved than angry. “It’s been days! Youhad your mother worried sick!”“My mother?” I questioned sarcastically.Ryan laughed as he finally set me back on my feet. “Okay, fine, me too.” He still wouldn’t let go of me, though. He was gripping my arms while helooked at me with those eyes, and that smile… You know, being all Ryan-ish. And then, when I got lost in the moment, he totally took advantage ofhow whipped I was and he kissed me. The jerk. He just pulled my face to his right then and there, in the middle of a crowded quad full of students,where I could have accidentally unleashed an electrical storm at any moment. And okay, maybe I liked it, and maybe I even needed it, but still! Youcan’t just go kissing Jamie Baker whenever you want, even if you are Ryan Miller!“Ryan!” I yelled as soon as I was able to pull away from him—which admittedly took a minute.“I’m sorry.” Ryan laughed with this big dopey grin on his face and then kissed me some more.I had to push him away from me. “Don’t be sorry, just stop!” I realized I was screaming at him when I felt a hundred different pairs of eyes on me. Itried to ignore the audience that Ryan seemed oblivious to and dropped the audio a few decibels. “I wasn’t kidding when I said this has to stop.Look, I will be your friend. I want to be your friend. But that’s it.We can’t be anything more. It’ll never work.”Ryan watched me for a minute and then whispered, “Don’t do that.” I was shocked to hear the sudden emotion in his voice. “Don’t give up.”It was hopeless.“Fine!” I snapped. “I’ll be your stupid girlfriend!”Big shocker, me giving Ryan his way, I know. But let’s face it—it’s just what I do best. I had to at least act a little tough, though. “But!” I said in theharshest voice I was capable of. “You can’t ever touch me unless I say. No more tackling me, and especially no more surprise kissing.” He actuallylaughed at my request. “No promises.”Stupid, cocky boyfriend.“You’re crazy. You know that, right?”Ryan got this big cheesy smile on his face and said, “Crazy about you.”“Ugh,” I groaned. “Would you be serious for a minute? Why do you insist on putting your life in danger?”“Because I like you.”His stupid grin was infectious. I wanted to be angry, but how could I with him looking at me like that?“I’m not worth it, you know,” I said stubbornly. “I have issues. I’m unstable.”“You’re cute when you’re unstable,” Ryan said, “and I like your issues.” The stupid boy was straight-up giddy now. But he was so cute that I crackeda smile despite myself. “You really are crazy,” I muttered.”

“He caught hold of my hand. “Sydney, please don’t do this,” he begged. “No matter how confident you feel, no matter how careful you think you are, things will spiral out of control.”“They already have,” I said, opening the passenger door. “And I’m going to stop fighting them. Thank you for everything, Marcus. I mean it.”“Wait, Sydney,” he called. “Just tell me one thing.”I glanced back and waited.“Where did this come from? When you called me to tell me you were coming, you said you’d realized it was the smart thing to do. What made you change your mind?”I gave him a smile that I hoped was as dazzling as one of his. “I realized I’m in love.”Marcus, startled, looked around as though he expected to see my object d’amour in the car with us. “And you just realized that? Did you just have some sort of vision?”“Didn’t need to,” I said, thinking of Wolfe’s ill-fated trip to the Orkneys. “It’s always been right in front of me.”