THORNE

It started out as any other challenge. How long would it take Cress to succumb to his charms now that she was no longer Rapunzel? He didn't want to be with a girl who only liked him because she was drunk. No, that wasn't any fun at all. It even made Thorne feel a little cheap. Still, his experience with Cress at the Masquerade and then in the elevator, of all places, had sparked something inside of him.

He wanted more of this girl. She messed with his mind. In a good way.

He realized that he was a bit too eager that night when she forced him to watch Tangled. While he'd expected it to be easy to find an opportune moment to go in for a kiss, none had come. His imagination had run wild thinking that she'd be quite ready to become tangled herself—with him of course—once the movie had ended. That had been a joke. Cress had jumped up from the couch, claimed to be exhausted, and ushered him out. He'd made sure to grab his coat on the way out.

Maybe it was because they'd already made out at the Masquerade. Maybe it was because he knew they were both attracted to each other and there was this underlying tension between them. Maybe it was because he thought he'd earned her trust in the elevator. Maybe it was just the desire for her that snuck up on him, despite her poor choice in films.

Looking back on the situation objectively, though, he didn't know why he'd expected anything else to happen. It wasn't like she'd given him any of the right signals throughout dinner. She hadn't fawned over him like the other girls did. And she certainly hadn't thrown herself at him whenever he smiled or teased her. Quite simply put, she was different than the other girls he'd pursued.

But this was not an ordinary wooing situation, after all. Despite the short time they'd known each other, they already had a bit of a complicated history, and a large misconception of the other. Well, at least Thorne had a misconception of who Cress was. He certainly had never pretended to be anyone else. This, he decided, was probably what was keeping him on his toes. While Cress was right in front of him, a part of him still yearned for Rapunzel from the dance. He liked both of her personalities, with the exception that Cress wasn't exactly making it easy for him.

A little more than two weeks into it, he decided that hanging out with Cress wasn't exactly hard work. On the contrary, he was actually rather enjoying getting to know her. Considering that he was someone who got bored rather quickly with the women he dated, this was something in and of itself.

Cress was a fascinating person. Her views on many topics surprised him. She was incredibly smart, even outside of her profession, and he enjoyed listening to her muse about all sorts of subjects. For some reason—maybe related to whatever was keeping her in therapy—she sometimes had a harsh view of reality. And yet, this softness and innocence about her still reined everything in so that she mostly stayed hopeful. Cress had all these big plans and dreams about things she was going to do with her life once she saved up enough money to "get outta here." A part of him even wanted to talk Kai into giving her a raise.

Though at their first dinner he hadn't perceived her to be very flirty, he learned that she had her moments in that area as well, which Thorne loved. As he'd gathered in the elevator, she was actually quite introverted, but with a little coaxing he could sometimes get this feisty attitude out of her. He liked to call that the Rapunzel side. It made it easier for him to keep his thoughts straight.

He loved to tease her because it was far too easy to make her blush. The more they hung out, the more at ease she became, and the more she opened up to him. He started getting better at understanding her moods, and no longer felt blindsided by her like he had in the elevator. And she was just so cute and sexy that it was hard not to want to be around her. He constantly found himself intrigued by the unique woman in front of him: part shy, part naïve, part wise, part strange, part vixen.

Mostly a sweetheart.

She was also obsessed with love stories. To be fair, all of their interactions should have made that obvious, but he hadn't realized exactly to what extent. Those little pins in her backpack hadn't even told half the story. It took him only a week to realize that if Cress was ever going to let him kiss her again, he was going to have to pull out all the stops. He started trying to think of dumb over-the-top romantic gestures that might make her happy. He was normally good at romancing women, but Cress was sometimes a bit too hearts-and-flowers for his usual moves. He even considered asking Kai what he would do, but Kai would never let him live that down, and besides, Kai had no idea that he was hanging out with Cress. Thorne had made sure of that.

But one night, to his great surprise, Cress lingered in the doorway just a bit longer than normal as he was leaving. She looked down at her feet, then up at his eyes, and then at his lips. Thorne, caught off guard but naturally still quite attuned to this particular cue, whipped out the smile he'd been saving for precisely this moment. The one that was knowing and sexy and slightly cocky. The one that made all the ladies swoon.

Cress blushed, and bit her lip. Thorne drew out the moment a little longer, basking in the tension that was boiling between them. When she looked up at him again, he decided to give her a sweet kiss—one still full of passion and a touch of hunger, but a sweet one nonetheless. It would be better to leave her wanting for more this time, rather than the other way around. He leaned down and watched as she closed her eyes, and then it was as though their lips recognized each other from their time together at the Masquerade. As though they'd been waiting to reconnect. And though he'd meant for it to be a sweet kiss, Cress lingered longer than he'd expected and it became very clear that his resolve was crumbling. Fast.

He forced himself to break away from her and bid her goodnight. Thorne walked breathlessly back to his car. He groaned in weakness and frustration as he started the Rampion.

Cress was a goddess. He didn't need Rapunzel.

That Saturday, though they hadn't planned on hanging out for once—Thorne did have to pretend that he was doing other things besides seeing her, after all—Cress called him crying. Apparently she'd had a terrible session with her therapist, and the jerk had made her feel completely worthless. She apologized profusely for calling him in this state, but said that she couldn't think of anyone else to talk to. While the idea of girls crying usually made him feel uncomfortable, something about Cress being sad made him feel a little sad too. And that was no good.

So he surprised her by bringing over some take-out. The look on her face when he showed up was enough for him to know that he'd done the right thing—even if it had blown his "I'm busy" cover just a bit. He supposed he could always make up an excuse later so that she didn't get too attached. She'd stopped crying by the time he showed up, which was great, and she'd also decided that she didn't really want to talk about it anymore, which was even better. While he loved talking to Cress, he made sure they avoided heavy topics laced with too many feelings. They were too messy. Too personal.

Cress wasn't exactly herself though, and it was easy to see that whatever had happened today had clearly made her feel terrible. He wanted to cheer her up, but he certainly didn't want to watch another Disney movie with her. He'd set a rule about how many of those he could handle, anyway. It was important not to set a precedent by breaking that rule now. She warmed up a bit when he asked her about some projects she was working on at Rikan Corp. The girl liked to hack, or prevent hackers, or whatever it was she did. It cheered her up some. But not enough.

He thought back to their conversation in the elevator. Sometimes she just needed to get out of her head, she'd said, to forget about everything. He certainly wasn't going to get her drunk, because he'd seen first-hand how that turned out, and yet, he wanted to do something. What was something she loved to do, that he liked as well? Something they could do together?

He snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. He grabbed her hand and led her over to her living room. She waited expectantly, as if he were about to reveal something big. Instead, he stretched his arms over his head and jumped a bit on the balls of his feet, warming up.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking at him warily and just a bit like he'd lost his mind.

"What's your jam, Cress?" he asked.

She stared at him.

He walked over to her stereo system attached to the iPod dock. "C'mon, what's your jam?"

She put her hands on her hips. "I'm not dancing for you, or something like that, if that's what you think is gonna happen here."

Thorne threw his head back, unable to contain his laughter. "You're amazing, you know that? What's going to happen here, gorgeous, is that we are going to dance. Together."

"Here?"

"Why not?"

"Thorne," she whined.

He picked up her iPod and began to shuffle through. "I know you need to get out of your head. So, what'll it be?"

She sighed, but her voice was less agitated when she spoke again. "You'll probably laugh at me."

Thorne put his own hand on his hip, imitating her. "Give me some credit, Cress. Did we or did we not, in fact, meet on the dance floor?"

She hesitated. "You can't really dance to it that well."

"I can dance to anything. I want to know what your jam is, so stop stalling."

"Fine. I currently can't stop listening to Style."

Thorne grinned and began to scroll through her iPod. "Fan of Miss Swift, are we?"

"I wasn't always," she said quickly. "But that song is just so…catchy. And I like the lyrics. Have you heard it?"

"Have I heard it? Now what kind of question is that?"

It wasn't the song he would've chosen at all, to say the least, but this was about her, not him. Besides, it wasn't the worst song she could have picked, to be honest. He was already picturing her singing along to the music while she danced, and the thought made him just about ready for anything. He turned the song on and the volume way up. Her eyes widened and she suddenly looked shy. But the intro faded and the beat picked up, and Thorne let his right shoulder pop up a few times. He knew he looked silly, but that was the point.

"C'mon, Cress," he said, moving his shoulder more."I just can't control it."

She was obviously trying not to smile. It would just take a little bit more to get her to relax. He shimmied over to her, now wiggling both of his shoulders dramatically. She burst out laughing.

"Midnight, you come and pick me up, no headlights," he sang as he danced in front of her. She continued to laugh, but then he held out his hand and yelled over the music. "The chorus, Cress! The chorus!"

She took his hand and he spun her as the music picked up and before long Cress was dancing too. Their moves were not quite so sophisticated this time around, but this was just for fun, and with no other audience, it didn't really matter. She eventually started singing by the time the second chorus came on, which was good because he rather loved seeing her dance and sing, and he didn't know all of the words anyway. She started adding in some of the cute moves she'd done the night of the Masquerade and he reciprocated with encouragement.

As the bridge came on, Thorne decided it was time for his grand finale. He sank to his knees, fisted his hands in front of her, and put on his most dramatic agony and desire face. "Take me home…just take me home…yeah, just take me home!"

Cress, barely able to control her laughter, pulled him up and slid her tiny arms around him. They swayed together for the last bits of the song, one of his hands against her back, the other glued to her hip. She was not able to stop smiling. He loved every second of it. Another song came on, so they kept at it, and Thorne relished in the closeness between them. He had a pretty good feeling that Cress felt the same way, because she didn't let go of him.

When that song ended, he decided he'd had enough of this particular genre, so he went over to the iPod dock again to find something that was a bit more his style. Now that she had relaxed a bit, he didn't think she'd mind. "Any requests?" he asked anyway, scrolling through her very large assortment of mp3 albums.

When Cress didn't reply, he glanced up from the screen. He temporarily forgot to breathe when he saw her leaning against the back of the couch. She looked at him with innocent eyes, but body language that screamed anything but. She wrapped a finger around a lock of hair and twisted it. Slow and methodical and deliberately teasing.

Holy aces. This woman made him weak in the knees.

Nearly dropping the iPod, his lips were instantly on hers. Unlike the last time they kissed, he didn't feel like exercising any restraint this time. When she strained on her toes to better meet his lips, he decided to make it easy for them and pulled her down to the floor with almost too much enthusiasm. She landed on top of him, safe in his arms. As they began to make out on the floor, he thought about all the people who could probably see them through her gigantic windowed walls. It was kind of risqué, and he wasn't completely sure that even he was ready for that. Before long, Thorne swept her off the floor and carried her to a much more comfortable spot: her bed.

"You know," he said between kisses, "this is so much easier without all that extra hair."

She pulled back, despite his efforts to continue his assault on her lips. A mischievous glint lit up her eyes. "I've still got that hair, you know."

Thorne groaned. "Please no."

She giggled and pulled him closer to her again. He reached over her and turned the light on her nightstand off. She reached up and turned it back on.

"I want to see you."

Both of his eyebrows shot up. It took him a moment to collect himself. "Hey, that's my line."

The smile that appeared on her face almost made him delirious. Unable to think of anything else to say, he leaned down and began to kiss her along her collarbone, just as he had at the Masquerade.

This time, she didn't fall asleep.

The next morning when he woke up, Thorne decided to stick around. He rolled his head on the pillow so he could admire the sleeping beauty lying next to him. Then he turned away quickly, realizing that these little morning moments could be all it would take for him to turn into a sap like Kai. He unhooked her foot from his, stretched, and headed to her kitchen. On his way out of her bedroom, he realized curiously that she didn't actually have a door to her bedroom. How had he not noticed that last night?

Cress hadn't let him cook for her yet, so he decided to show off his skills by making waffles. He had a reputation to uphold, after all. He was almost done making the batter when he realized that there were no eggs. That was an unfortunate kink in the plan. He grabbed his coat, slid into his shoes, and drove the Rampion to the supermarket nearby.

He prided himself on making it back in less than twenty minutes, but when he went to let himself back into her townhouse, the door was locked. He fiddled with it, not wanting to wake Cress up, but then finally decided to ring the doorbell.

Cress answered, but instead of looking surprised that he was there, she looked incredibly pissed. "Forget something?"

Thorne scratched at his chin. "Uh—hey. Sorry if I woke you up. Just went to get some eggs." He held out the carton for her to see.

Her annoyance faded into confusion. "Eggs?"

"For waffles?"

She opened the door for him and walked into the apartment. He kicked off his shoes hastily and caught up with her. "Hey, are you mad at me?"

She sighed. "I woke up and you weren't here. I guess I thought you were just one of those guys who leaves without even saying goodbye."

His Adam's apple bobbed, swallowing the fact that he had actually considered leaving this morning. He had stayed in the end, though, so what did that fact matter? He didn't want to hurt Cress. They were just getting started, after all.

"Nah," said Thorne, "just wanted to make you something special for breakfast." He held out the eggs again.

Cress' embarrassment showed in her cheeks. "Sorry I thought the worst of you."

"No problem," he said. "You don't really know me that well yet, so…"

"I've enjoyed getting to know you so far," she said quickly. "I hope…well I hope we're going to see a lot more of each other."

"Hey," he said, then kissed the top of her head. It was easier than kissing her mouth, due to the height difference and the eggs and keys in his hands. Besides, she'd appreciate the gesture. "Me too."

Thorne studied Cress as he absentmindedly dried the dishes she handed him. Even with the dishwasher already full and running, it was taking an awfully long time to clean up after everyone had left the party. Cress hummed as she scrubbed away, though, and Thorne wished that he could shake off the feeling of unease that had been plaguing him since his argument with Kai. He was not one to worry. This girl in front of him, this intriguing girl that he'd spent so much time with in the last month—he didn't need to worry about her. Kai had only seen her background information; he didn't know anything about her.

Why was he so afraid to ask Cress about her past then? No, he told himself, he wasn't afraid. That just wasn't his style, getting mixed up in all the serious stuff from before. Talking about those kinds of things would open up way too many floodgates of other intimate discussion topics. She'd already shared about her past enough on the elevator, hadn't she? What was important was who they were now, today. Yesterday was gone and tomorrow would take care of itself. Today mattered. That's all. And today, they were good. They were great, in fact. Today he wanted to be around Cress, and she around him. Why worry about the other stuff? Kai was just trying to mess with him, like he always did. Kai was just jealous that Thorne had a knack for meeting cool, cute women.

"Thorne?"

"Hmm?"

"You seem really distracted tonight."

Thorne focused on Cress again. "I'm fine."

Cress went back to her dishes but after a moment turned off the faucet and took off the dish gloves. "You know, we've been at this for a while. I think we should finish this in the morning."

Thorne shrugged. "Okay."

He followed her upstairs. They usually stayed at her place these days, but she'd been over enough to know her way around.

"Do you think your friends liked me?"

He had totally forgotten about the others. Knowing her, of course she'd want to make a good impression. She didn't know that they'd met so many other of his girls already that they probably couldn't even tell them apart anymore. "Sure they did."

"Even Kai?"

Thorne paused, his shirt already halfway over his face. He pulled it off slowly. "Why? Do you think Kai doesn't like you?"

"I don't know," said Cress. She climbed into his bed and patted the spot next to him so he would come sit by her. He obliged. "You guys seemed mad at each other for the second half of the dinner."

"Oh, that doesn't have anything to do with you," he lied. "We were just…riled up about Ran."

"Is that why your lip is a little…swollen?"

Thorne scowled. The stinging of his lip had faded pretty quickly, but the mention of it reminded him of the taste of blood he'd spent nearly ten minutes rinsing out of his mouth. "Something like that."

She reached for him, maybe to touch his lip, maybe just to be close to him, but Thorne shifted away uncomfortably. "Not tonight, Cress. I'm totally worn out and just want to sleep."

Cress scrunched up her face, trying to hide the obvious hurt in her eyes. "You want me to go?"

He closed his eyes and exhaled, trying to call back the personification of a gentleman. "No, of course not."

Cress ran her thumb over his chest. It was a move he loved and she knew it, and now she was using it against him to get him to open up to her. "I wish you would tell me what's wrong. You've been so serious tonight."

"Please, you know I don't do serious."

"I know, that's why I'm worried."

Thorne forced out a smile, and placed his hand against the small of her back, drawing her closer. "Let's not talk right now. Maybe I'm not so tired after all."

His lips found the curve where her jaw met her throat. Despite his swollen lip, he found that he could still enjoy himself. Yes, this was much better. Better than worrying, better than confessing secrets or talking about the past. Certainly better than thinking about how his best friend had just punched him in the face after he'd purposely provoked him to do precisely that.

He could just lose himself in this beautiful girl in front of him, and forget any notion of guilt that clipped at his insides.