"Ha!" he laughed, squeezing me. "I will show you the time of your life, Goddess. Mark my words, I will make it unforgettable."

I smiled fondly. "Everything about you is unforgettable."

His eyes searched the room. "I'll call my assistant to get started on your accommodations, flights, passport verification. I mean, just for you to have, in case you do me the pleasure of saying a definite yes. You do have a passport, yes?"

I nodded.

"Outstanding."

Finally letting myself feel the excitement and give in, I clung to him. "I suppose it would be a whole lot of fun." I bit his shoulder and he laughed.

"I'm going to give you the world, oh Fierce One."

I kissed his soft lips, melting. "So, what now?"

He sat up and fingered my curls. "I'm all yours until Saturday."

My eyes widened. "Saturday? It's only Thursday."

"My next show is Saturday night. I'll be with you until that morning. So, think your twin bed can accommodate the two of us or shall I rent a swanky hotel room? I do sort of like the idea of holing up with you and not leaving for days on end. We'll just pay off that roommate of yours if you like."

I felt totally and completely taken aback. I was going home tomorrow, but what was I supposed to do now? What would my parents say? Should I just stash him in a hotel room and tell my parents I was staying and disappoint them?

But they missed me. And I was considering going to Europe with him, and I certainly hadn't broached the subject with Mom and Dad yet. I don't know what they'd say. And, if I did go, this would be the last time I'd see them for months. I couldn't skip out on them if I was planning on skipping out on them this summer.

Gah, this man. Kept my panties in a twist, my heart in my stomach, and my stomach in knots. Just how I liked it.

"I hope that deer-in-the-headlights look is excitement and not horror, dearest."

Willing my mouth to work, I squeaked out a reply. "Won't you get, like, mauled if you go to campus with me? I mean, the dark glasses and paint worked at the black-light party, but . . ."

He grinned evilly. "What, Goddess, you aren't up to the challenge?"

"No . . . I-"

"You don't want to protect me from throngs of obsessed fans?"

"I-"

"It's fine," he said, holding up his hands. "I'll just drive back-"

I tackled him back to the bed roughly. "You're not going anywhere."

I strapped him spread-eagle to the bed and peppered him with kisses. "You." Kiss. "Are." Kiss. "My." Kiss. "Rock star."

"All yours," he moaned.

"And I'll sneak you into my dorm. After I'm done with you again."

Again, the rascal grin.

I crawled on top of him, continuing my parade of kisses and wiggled up against him.

"Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have tied you so tight," I whined. "I kind of want your arms around me when I fuck you."

Within a second, his hands had slunk out of the knots and were wrapped tightly about my waist. "Like this," he whispered.

Busted.

I sat up with a pout. "You just stay still to keep me happy?"

He shrugged. "No. Not unless you tell me to, like just now."

I bit my lip. "I'm good at the rope stuff," I said, a bit dejected. "Could you get out regardless of how well I tied the knots?"

"Honestly, Goddess, you do a fantastic job ninety-nine percent of the time. Then again, sometimes I'm a slippery bastard."

I cocked an eyebrow and lowered myself on him again. "Oh, I'll show you slippery."

SCARLETT USHERED US OFF INTO the night with hushed words, a few kisses, and the promise of some fun after I came back from spring break. She also gave Keaton an Indiana Jonesstyle hat that she kept in her costume room.

It helped disguise him. Sorta.

Keaton was just, I don't know, Keaton. Even if people didn't actually know him, his magnetism was positively undeniable. The way he walked, his swagger, simply invited you to watch his hips and imagine them at work. The confident way he squared his shoulders could make even the straightest of men question their entire sexual identity.

There weren't many people on campus, but those we walked by seemed to be drawn to him, staring. Even in the dark. Even anonymous.

"Dumb it down," I whispered as we marched arm in arm across a darkened campus. He pulled the brim of his hat low over his eyes and I wanted to have crazy Temple of Doom sex. Indy and that whip . . .

"Pardon?"

I brought his ear to my mouth. "You're too sexy. Walk with a limp or something. You're going to get us caught."

He started to shuffle oddly. "Not like you have a load in your pants, jeez," I groaned. His amble became slightly more normal. He slouched a bit too.

"Better."

"See? I can be normal."

"Oh no," I replied, waggling my finger, "you'll never, ever be normal, my Baby Blue."

He stopped. "Wow."

"What?"

He scratched his head. "I just love hearing you call me yours."

"Is that okay?"

He nodded. "Felt good. Like this is real. Every night as I fall asleep, I get an awful pang in my gut and wonder if I'd wake up and find I was just dreaming."

Slipping my fingers out of his hand and up his arms, I pulled him into a hug. "That makes me feel better somehow. It's hard for me to imagine a guy like you being hung up on one girl, you know."

He rested his chin in the crook of my neck. "I dream of you every night, Goddess. I know you think I'm a bit of a cad, and I was. There's just something about you I can't shake, something that makes me want only you."

"It's mutual," I confessed. Oh, there go those fuzzy feelings again. My heart felt like it was unfolding like some young rose. Now I was coming up with cliche similes, great. Thanks, Keaton. But his words did more than reciprocate my feelings; they emboldened me to pull the trigger and just tell him where I was headed for the next two days. "I have something to tell you. I'm going home tomorrow."

"Then I want to come with you."

I blinked. "Really? I am considering just telling them I have work to do and staying in our little shoebox of a dorm room."

Keaton pulled me close. "I want to meet the spectacular people who raised you, and I want them to like me."

I imagined the shock on their faces. I'd only brought a boy home once. Tomorrow, I'd be bringing a man. More than a man, a rock star. Oh dear.

His voice lowered. "Let's get to that tiny little shoebox of a room and we can talk about it later."

A grin spread across my face and I spun out of his embrace and pulled him toward the direction of my dorm.

The campus was pretty dead, aside from a few drunken partygoers stumbling back to their rooms. Maybe we'd make it inside having avoided detection.

Keaton and I strolled across the quad with swift and quiet strides. I really just wanted to lay down with him in the damp grass and look at the stars. The way we could have spent time thousands of years ago, like the dream I had of us while I was studying Roman Civ. I imagined life when it was simple. Just Keaton, myself, the earth below, and the sky above. But as much as I wanted to take this sentimental detour, the most important thing I could do was smuggle him into the dorm and figure out how to deal with him in the morning. Truthfully, it was hard, thinking that far ahead. I was picturing him tangled in my twin sheets now.

The thought of my dorm room sounded alarm bells in my brain.

I had a curfew.

I checked my watch-nine fifty-five. We'd have to bolt. Keaton and I picked up our leisurely pace and I changed directions-no more scenic route.

"Hey, you," I heard, watching a drunken frat boy stumble toward us like some sort of beer-fed zombie. "With the hat."

I stiffened. Did he recognize Keaton? "What?" I asked as he shambled closer. I worried he'd barf on my shoes.

"Lemme see that," the boy said, reaching toward Keaton's hat.

"I'll be keeping this," Keaton said in an American accent, and I nearly died laughing.

The frat brother wrinkled his nose and squinted. Shit. "I just wanted to try it on," he mumbled then slouched away.

I exhaled.

We made it up to the room and I slid my key into the door with a sigh of relief. "Mission accomplished," I said, swinging the door open and turning toward him with a smile. It was fun, going on this little covert journey. And the idea of him being in my domain, of course, was a turn on. My room, my power. Keaton would be wholly mine tonight now that we were on my turf.

His eyes went wide. I worried I had left smelly gym socks out. "Not exactly accomplished."

I spun.

Callie, Donelle, and five other teammates sitting on our beds, drinking.

"OH MY GOD, IT'S KEATON LOWE!!!"

Deer in the headlights turned into couple caught in the camera lights. Like cowboys in old movies grabbing their sharpshooters quicker than the eye could see, these girls had already taken out their phones and snapped a picture of us.

Shit.

"Guys!" I shouted, holding my hand above my face and pushing Keaton backward. "The fuck?"

Callie bit her lip with an apologetic frown. I didn't blame her-she had no idea Keaton was coming. Donelle just shook her head. She must be here to check to see if I was in at ten. We made it in at nine fifty-eight, but I don't think that mattered anymore. The other girls from the team positively ogled Keaton so hard I wanted to slap them.

"Ladies," I said, inhaling and exhaling slowly and trying not to have a full-on coronary, "this is my friend Keaton. Please, chill."

He poked his head from behind me and rested his chin on my shoulder. "Boyfriend, actually," he said, kissing my neck.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. Not now, Keaton. Please no major relationship revelations as we're currently being found out. I mean, he did say he felt monogamous with me, but he didn't say the actual word.

"Boyfriend?!" Callie asked, as if reading my mind. "The hell, Thea!"

Pulling Keaton into the room, I held my finger to my mouth and tried to keep the rest of the dorm floor out of my personal life. We sat down on the bed. Keaton smiled at the girls and I thought Sherry was going to do a face-plant into the floor.

"Yes," I said quietly. "But, because of who he is, we were keeping it discreet."

Keaton squeezed my hand. "You guys seem cool though," he said with a charismatic flick of an eyebrow, "so I think we can trust you."

Donelle's face fell a bit. "I, um, may have been a little hasty," she said, sliding out her phone. "Itchy trigger finger." The picture was uploaded to her Facebook, with me tagged in it. The caption read Heartbreaker of the Century with Rookie of the Year?

My stomach felt like ice. "Seriously?" I asked, burying my head in my hands. Curls fell over my fingers and I just wanted to stay behind a wall of hair. The entire campus was going to think I was some groupie. Just when I was starting to get real respect. Hell, the boys' team was even eating lunch with me in the caf, Wes and all. Now I'd never hear the end of this from anyone.

Keaton's hand moved to my shoulder and he pushed the hair away from my ear. "It's okay. I don't mind."

I picked my head up and ignored the girls for a moment. "Are we going to be dealing with tabloids?"

He shrugged. "Nothing compared to meeting your family tomorrow. I mean, your parents will probably love me, but I'm worried about the kiddos. Do they even listen to rock?"

"Oh my God," Callie whispered. "You're meeting the 'rents?!"

"That's serious shit," Donelle replied. "All this is pretty serious shit." She didn't look happy. Then again, it wasn't in my deal with Coach that I couldn't date rock icons. Just that I had to be in before ten. Which I was.

But I was also terrified of what people were going to say. Not that the court of public opinion mattered to me, but being outed like this was just plain scary.

I felt my lip tremble. Was I going to cry?

Keaton stirred next to me. "Ladies, as much as I'd love to hang out with you all, clearly Thea and I have a lot to talk about." He pulled out his wallet and peeled off five hundred-dollar bills. "Why don't you go out, get a swanky hotel room, and have a little fun, eh?"

A collective gasp whooshed from the girls' mouths, and within a minute, they were silently shuffling out of the room, goofy grins spread across each face.

"Glad you were in before ten," Donelle commented, and left.

"That was easy," Keaton said, kicking his legs onto the bed and lacing his hands behind his head. "Now let's figure this all out."