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Roo the floor beneath the door Beside it, a piece of paper was tacked to the bulletin board

SUMMER INTERNSHIP POSITIONS/DEPARTMENT

Tully felt a surge of disappointer She yanked open the door and slipped into the dark auditoriu, "Chad Wiley, you sorry-assed loser You wouldn't know talent if it grabbed your tiny pecker and squeezed--"

"I i about me"

She jumped at the sound of his voice

He was not twenty feet away fro in the shadows His dark hair was evenin curly disarray to his shoulders

Heon the back of the chair to his right "Asknews intern and I'll tell you"

"I couldn't care less why"

"Really?" He looked at her for another long , then walked away froe

She could either keep her pride or risk her future By the time she e

"Okay" The word see in her throat "Why?"

He stepped toward her For the first time she noticed the lines on his face, the creases in his cheeks The di accentuated every flaw, every hollow and mark on his skin "Whenever you come to class, I can tell you've chosen your clothes carefully and spent a lot of ti at her now, seeing her And she could see hiy unkemptness to the sharp bone structure that had once rabbed her; liquid brown and sad, they spoke to the empty places inside of her "Yeah So?"

"You know you're beautiful," he said

No sta, no desperation He was cool and steady Unlike the boys shepool, he wasn't half drunk and desperate for a feel

"I'm talented, too"

"Maybe someday"

The way he said it pissed her off She was gathering her wits for a scathing comeback when he closed the distance between them All she had time for was a bewildered, "What are--" before he kissed her

At the touch of his lips, gentle yet fir exquisite and tender blossom inside her; for no reason at all, she started to cry He must have tasted her tears, because he drew back, frowned at her "Are you a woirl?"

She knehat he was asking As hard as she'd tried to conceal her innocence, he'd sensed it, tasted it "Woman," she lied, with only the barest wobble on the w She kne, after just one kiss, that whatever there was to know about sex, her pathetic rape in the woods had taught her none of it Although she wasn't a virgin, she was so worse somehow, a reservoir of bad and painful memories, and yet, noith him, for the first time she wanted ht, too

No This was different She was a long way froone into any dark woods to be loved

He kissed her again, , "Good" This ti that pulled at her insides andhis hips against hers, igniting a fire between her legs, she'd forgotten all about being scared

"You want more?" he whispered

"Yes"

He swept her into his arainst the shadowy back wall There, he laid her down onto the buan to undress her As if from far away, she felt her bra unsnap, her underpants peel off And still his kiss went on and on, stoking this fire inside her

When they were both naked, he lowered hied beneath their weight, pinged in protest "No one has taken time with you, have they, Tully?"

She saw her own desire reflected in his eyes, and for the first tioing to do--take your time?"

He brushed the das, Tully Isn't that what you wanted from me?"

It took Tully alan her search at the study tables in the baseh the TV roo porch, although at four o'clock on a sunny May day, it was understandably eraduate library and Kate's favorite carrel, then the graduate reading roo older students shushed her just for walking through the stacks She was about ready to give up when she remembered the Annex

Of course

She ran through the sprawling campus to the small, two-story, peaked-roof house that they called the Annex Sixteen lucky upper-class girls got to move out of the main house and into this place every quarter It was party central No house mothers, no one to monitor the doors; it was as close to the real world as any of theether

She opened the front door and called out Kate's name Someone in another room answered

"I think she's on the roof"

Tully grabbed a pair of TaBs froe and went upstairs In a back bedroo and looked out on the roof of the carport

There was Kate, all by herself, in a ski a paperback novel

Tully clie and crossed the carport roof, which they all called Black Beach "Hey," she said, offering Kate a TaB "Leta romance novel"

Kate cocked her head and squinted into the sun, s "The Promise by Danielle Steel It's really sad"

"You want to hear about real ro about it You haven't gone on a date since we got here"

"You don't have to go on a date to have sex"

"Most people do"