by Liz Lincoln
They lapsed into silence that was oddly comfortable. Which immediately made her feel awkward. She didn’t have comfortable silences with anyone except the youngest of her older brothers, Drew, and her roommate, Raina.
“So what’s all your data for?”
Wait, was Marcus James actually asking her about physics? This couldn’t be happening. Her day had gone from boring to shitty to surreal in the span of fifteen minutes and she couldn’t keep up.
“I’m finishing my dissertation, and the data was for the charts and graphs I need to put in.”
“Wait, so you just lost all the data for your PhD?” His eyebrows shot up. “No way.”
She laughed stiffly. “No, it’s not that bad. I have it all somewhere else. I was formatting some of it to make into graphs and charts, and tweaking how the charts look, and all that tedious stuff.”
“Thank God.”
“No kidding.”
“I’ll let you get back to work in a second. But first, I want to make one thing clear.” His face turned serious.
Dread curled in Bree’s stomach. Of course he wasn’t as affable as he’d first seemed. He was going to demand special treatment because he was a star.
“What’s that?” she asked cautiously.
“I want you to know I have serious reservations about a teacher who keeps Star Wars figures on her desk and not Star Trek. It’s a clear indication you have poor taste.”
She stared at him, trying to make sense of his words, and blinked a few times. He nodded toward her monitor, so she looked to where she had Funko Pop! figures of Princess Leia and Rey. As the meaning of his words settled in, she continued her blank stare. Because he couldn’t seriously be implying that Star Trek was better than Star Wars. It was objectively false.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware there were kickass female characters on Star Trek that I could look up to as an impressionable young girl with three older brothers.”
He grinned, his deep dimples sending a warm tingle through her. “What, you’ve never heard of Uhura? Not just a female, but a female of color.”
He had her there. And she wasn’t about to admit she’d taken up her admiration for Princess Leia because it was either that or be R2D2 when her brothers started pretending they were Luke, Han, and Vader. Sometimes they even let her use a light saber and battle her oldest brother as Vader. Hank never let her win, though.
“And since then, Star Wars has brought in all kinds of other strong, awesome women. Star Trek has given us what, a doctor and a psychotherapist? Ooh, how original.” Were there women on the newest versions? She’d only ever seen the series with Patrick Stewart, and a handful of the original episodes.
“There’s also—”
“Please tell me you’re not having an argument about Star Wars.” Raina, Bree’s office mate, roommate, and best friend rolled through the door. She maneuvered her wheelchair to her desk and set her lab notebook in front of her, then turned to Marcus. “On behalf of the rest of humanity, I apologize for her behavior. Her love of Star Wars isn’t quite rational.”
Marcus turned his panty-melting grin on Raina. “Any love of Star Wars isn’t rational, as it’s clearly inferior to Star Trek. But I have a doctor’s appointment I need to get to, so we’ll have to leave her education on the many kickass women of Star Trek for another time.” He used his crutches to hoist himself onto his feet. “Thanks for the autograph.” He waved his drop/add form.
“Make sure you pick up the textbook before class tomorrow,” she said as he made his way to the door. “And I’ll send that syllabus tonight.”
“Sounds great.” He paused in the doorway and gave her one more smile that, yep, totally melted the panties right off her. Or singed them off. “See ya tomorrow.”
Bree waited until she couldn’t hear the clomp-shuffle of his crutch-assisted gait, counted to thirty, then let out a dramatic sigh and sank back in her chair. “Raina.”
“Damn, girl. He is one excessively sexy man. And he’s adding your class?”
“Yes,” Bree squeaked.
Holy shit, Marcus James was in her class. And he turned her on like no man had in a long time, just by touching her hand and smiling at her.
“He looks a lot older than your typical freshman.”
“He’s twenty-nine.”
“And you know this already because…?”
Bree covered her face with her hands. “He’s Marcus James.”
“Should I know who that is?” Raina’s computer chimed as it came out of sleep mode.
“The Dragons’ tight end that I’m borderline obsessed with.” And had to face in class twice a week, plus weekly lab.
“The one you were whining about because he got hurt? That one? Oh, the crutches. I get it.” Raina promptly burst into laughter.
Bree grabbed a pencil and threw it at her best friend. “Thanks, bitch.”
Raina shifted her chair so she faced Bree. “Your football star crush shows up in your office, and you go hardcore nerd girl to him about Star Wars? We need to work on your flirting skills.”
If she had another pencil, Bree would have thrown it. “He brought it up.”
Raina just kept laughing. “Just remember, it’s bad form to hit on your students.”
“I hate you.”
“You could probably ask for tickets, though.”
“Go to hell.”
Love stories you’ll never forget
By authors you’ll always remember
eOriginal Romance from Random House
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