The door swung shut with a loud click after we entered Zac's studio. He set our backpacks down on the hardwood floors and took a step towards me with a mischievous smile. Nervously, I stepped back.

"What are you doing?" I squeaked as his arms reached around to pull me in close. His hands rested lightly on my waist. He pressed his lips to my forehead. Then, he kissed my temples. My cheeks. First the left side then the right. And finally my nose.

He stopped right before my mouth and whispered, "What do you think I'm doing?"

"I-I don't know..."

I thought we had agreed to no touching and kissing, but apparently I was wrong. Zac was purposely being obtuse about it. My whole body was tingling. It was hard to think straight when I wanted him so badly.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked suddenly.

I didn't want him to stop at all, but I forced myself to stay focused. I placed my hands on his chest and gave him a gentle push. "We should probably... stop. I mean, didn't we come here to talk?"

His mouth tightened. Disappointment clouded his features. In mild tones, he muttered, "Fine then. So let's talk."

Zac turned and started to walk away. I followed him over to the mattress in the middle of his apartment. We sat down on the bed. Normally, he would be crowding all over my personal space. At the moment, however, he was sitting a safe distance away from me. I could tell that he was a little butthurt. I hadn't meant to reject him so abruptly. It would've been so easy to fall backwards onto the soft flannel sheets we were sitting on and start making out. But now wasn't the time for fun and games, and we weren't supposed to be dating or acting like a couple.

To snap myself out of my hormonal stupor, I decided to open with the biggest buzzkill I could think of, and I figured nothing deflated a lady-boner faster than talking about a potential psychopath who was becoming increasingly obsessed with me.

"I probably should have brought this up sooner, but..."

"What is it?" he asked.

"There was so much other stuff going on around us..."

"Go on," he prompted curtly.

"Last weekend, I noticed a strange car parked outside my house," I told him apprehensively. Zac's bland expression twisted into one of genuine distress as I continued, "The driver in the car started texting me from a private number. Really creepy shit, like, refusing to tell me who she was when I asked. And then soliciting me to open the front gate so she could get in the house. This morning, Lily found me in the parking lot. She admitted to sending those crazy texts and tried to kiss me—"

"She stalked you outside of your house? And then she fucking kissed you?" Zac nearly shouted as his entire body grew taut with outrage.

"It's fine. I fended her off," I responded as reassuringly as possible, "I'm actually more worried about her figuring out what we're trying to do through Bea. I'm hoping that her prank was just a prank and nothing more."

He suddenly wrapped his arm around me, crushing me tightly against his chest. He burrowed his face into my neck and murmured, "I'm so fucking sorry for bringing you into all this shit. I don't wanna leave you alone with her next semester. I swear to God, I'm gonna find a way to stay at Ashton Wellesley!"

"Don't think about that right now, Zac," I placed my hand on his head to comfort him, running my fingers through his soft brown hair, "There are more pressing matters at hand. We need to start looking at the logistics. If Bea can convince Lily to move the charity ball to her house, then we'll need to formulate a plan of action on how you can get in and out of the study without getting caught."

His arms tightened around me. "I don't feel good about getting you involved in this at all. I don't want to do it, Cate. I really fucking don't."

"I think it's too late for that," I sighed with a grim expression, leaning into his solid chest and the warmth of his embrace almost instinctively. "We're in pretty deep. Lily has already set her sights on me. Even if we were to back out now, I'd still have to find a way to deal with her weird infatuation. The best thing we can do for now is to try and take her down before she realizes what's going on."

Zac groaned in disapproval, "No, Cate! Please don't do anything stupid to antagonize Lily."

"Do you think you could sketch out a blueprint of her house?"

Distrustfully, he asked, "Why the hell do you want a blueprint of her house?"

"We need to decide which room will work best to set up the main festivities," I explained patiently. "It should be somewhere far enough so people don't notice when you sneak into the study but close enough that it wouldn't be too suspicious if we were caught wandering around that part of the house."

"Cate, I'm not talking about this with you," he grunted. "For the record, I haven't agreed to any of it!"

I glanced up at him and widened my eyes innocently. "Baby..."

He made a strangled sound of frustration, "Uh-uh! Don't you 'baby' me, Cate!"

"But, baby," I cooed adoringly as I pressed my hand to his cheek and drew his face closer to mine. Our eyes locked. Hazel on gold. "We could be so good together. We might actually be able to succeed."

Now, it was my turn to rain a series of faint kisses all over his cheek. His jawline. The crook of his neck. Zac moaned softly in pleasure. I pulled away slightly. He stared back at me through heavy-lidded eyes. I went in for the kill. "Do you remember that special drawer I told you about? The naughty one in my room?"

Zac nodded and said somewhat dazedly, "Uh-huh. I, um... think about that drawer a lot, actually."

In a husky voice, I promised, "When all of this is over, think of how much fun we could have together. I'd let you celebrate with me. On my bed. I could even show you what's inside my drawer. If you wanna see it."

"Cate," Zac mouthed sternly as he tried to pull away. "You're not playing fair!"

"No, I'm not," I admitted shamelessly, "because I'm playing to win. You know I'm right."

"Do I, though?"

His question seemed to be more introspective than directed at me.

"You do, baby, you know we can do this," I whispered like a devil on his shoulder. Then, breaking all of the rules that we were supposed to follow, I leaned over and kissed him passionately on the lips.