Will tugged the collar of his jacket up around his ears—the nights were getting cooler—and made his way across campus toward Wellington Center. The play Finn was starring in was called The Banker, and it was about, you guessed it, a banker in New York during the roaring twenties who got on the wrong side of the mob. Finn and his cast mates were doing a dress rehearsal, and he was supposed to meet Will outside afterward to grab some pizza. Will was early though, because he wanted to catch a bit of their rehearsal. He was curious about this Kat whom Finn was so infatuated with.
He waved to a pair of students he knew from one of his psych classes and headed inside the building. From the front, Wellington Center didn’t look very big, but once inside, it was easy to get lost in all the corridors and wings. There were a dozen conference rooms in varying sizes, a food court, several lecture halls, and the theater, which was used both for plays and educational seminars.
Paintings by students hung along the walls—forest landscapes, portraits of people he didn’t know, bowls of fruit, and abstract shapes. He didn’t quite see the point of looking at random blobs of color just for the aesthetic, but he supposed that was why he wasn’t an art student. That, and the fact that he didn’t possess an ounce of artistic talent.
Taking the stairs down a single flight, he came to a long, narrow lobby. The opposite wall was set at long intervals with pairs of metal doors. He tugged one open and was immediately met by the sound of a girl shouting. She sounded furious. He quickly ducked inside to avoid interrupting the rehearsal.
The shouting was predictably coming from the stage. A backdrop of a cityscape at night draped down over the back of the stage while a handful of people stood around taxi cutouts and other props. The girl in question was wearing a red flapper dress and a wig with a feather headband. She made angry, jerky gestures as she shouted her lines at Finn, who stood opposite her, looking cool and unaffected in a gray suit.
At his entrance, which brought a bright rectangle of light down the dark aisle between seats, Finn’s gaze flicked over. Will waved and took a seat in the back row. He could see very little of the darkened audience, but he could just make out the dark shapes of a few others scattered throughout the stadium-style seating, so Will figured it was okay to watch. Finn acknowledged him with a nod.
The girl in the flapper dress paused and glanced over her shoulder to where Finn was looking. Even though the door had shut and Will sat in the dark, her gaze found him, and she gave him a look that would have buckled concrete. She looked different with the wig, and her features were unfocused from all the way down to the stage, but he concluded she was likely Kat. The adoring look Finn cast at the back of her head was an obvious sign as well.
An old guy Will assumed was the director flailed at them from off stage while yelling about why they’d stopped. Kat’s red lips moved, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying. When she fell silent, Finn scowled, tugged down the jacket of his suit and nodded. The director made a broad gesture which Will took to assume was permission to begin, and Kat started shouting her lines again.
He wondered if that was cathartic for her, considering Finn’s claim that she hated him.
The lights had been switched off everywhere except on the stage so after ten minutes of watching them repeatedly rehearse the same scene, Will closed his eyes and allowed himself to doze. To the University’s benefit, these seats were actually really comfortable.
Interminable minutes later, the unusually loud click of a nearby camera phone made him crack his eye open.
At first, he was certain he was dreaming.
Light from the stage lined her silhouette. She stood a bit farther down the aisle, holding up her smart phone as she took another shot of the stage. Her hair, which she always had tied back during therapy sessions, was loose around her shoulders, and her legs were covered in black tights and gray boots beneath a short skirt that fluttered slightly when she shifted for another shot.
He stared at the way the light outlined the bend of her arm, the curve of her cheek, and the long line of her legs. The way it softened all her edges. He couldn’t believe she was here. Hidden as he was in the darkest and farthest row from the stage, he wasn’t surprised that she had yet to notice him. He pushed himself up straight.
On the stage, the actors had changed back into their own clothing and were speaking quietly to the director as the crew cleaned up. Finn looked like he was searching the audience. Since he probably couldn’t see anything without the door to the lobby open, Will waved. Finn must have spotted him because he waved back.
At the gesture, his grumpy beauty gave a curious glance over her shoulder. She squinted a bit to make him out in the dark. He could tell the exact moment she realized who he was because her entire body stiffened, and she looked ready to bolt down the aisle. Will quickly stood.
“Hey.”
She gave the mostly-empty audience a wary look before pushing her hair behind her ear and holding her phone stiffly in front of her like a shield. Suspicious for someone who supposedly didn’t care about what other people thought of her. As he got closer though, he caught the way her eyes gave him a fairly languid once-over before focusing on his face. He smiled.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed before he could ask the same. Even scowling, she was beautiful.
He gestured to the stage. “My friend is in the play.” With a nod at her phone, he asked, “What’s with the pictures? You know someone acting too?”
“No.” She looked down to scroll through the photos she’d just taken. The light from her screen lit the tip of her nose and cheekbones.
“So you just like taking pictures of people rehearsing?”
Her gaze flicked up. “No.”
He offered her another smile, hoping to crack her shell again. The way she’d smiled the other week during the meeting, as though the action had caught her off guard, had made him immediately decide he wanted to see it again. Unfortunately, she hadn’t smiled since. Would it always take forcing her to talk about her childhood to get her to relax her guard? Although, truthfully, neither of them had been forced to share anything, so what did it say about them that they had?
“So what are you doing then?”
“It’s none of your business. Why are you talking to me?” She didn’t sound nearly as annoyed as he knew she could. He considered it a victory.
He thought about how to answer her question. ‘Because I like you’ would probably be too honest at this point. Or would it? She had kissed him first.
Speaking of which, her lips were stained red, the color made even darker by the dim lighting. They looked very kissable.
Seeing the direction of his gaze, she visibly swallowed—his eyes followed the motion of her throat—before her tongue darted out to moisten her bottom lip. Will’s stomach tightened.
His mind grasped for words as his feet moved forward, seized by the desire to erase the space between them.
“Are you against talking? Actually, don’t answer that.” Judging by how forthcoming she was at the meetings, he already knew the answer.
She rolled her eyes and didn’t budge even though he was now close enough that the edge of the phone clutched in her hand touched his chest. “I’m taking pictures to put up on the drama department’s website,” she mumbled, her words sounding like an afterthought. “They couldn’t get one of the photography students to do it.”
Did that mean she worked on the University websites? He smiled at the unwitting clue she’d given him about where he might be able to find her again.
She fingered the edge of her phone, her knuckles brushing against him. This close, he could practically feel the tension melt from her body, transforming into something else, something that set the air between them crackling. It occurred to him that there was no counselor lurking in the shadows, waiting to punish their disregard of his lessons.
“That’s cool,” he said, leaning down a bit, gauging her response. “Are you coming to see it next weekend?”
> “Probably not.” She’d spoken in almost a whisper, her breath warm against the hollow of his neck.
He grasped her wrist and stepped back. She looked surprised and, to Will’s pleasure, disappointed that he hadn’t kissed her. With a light tug, he pulled her down the aisle until they were standing next to the back row, in front of the exit, shrouded in darkness. She seemed to have picked up on his intent because she shoved her phone into a hidden pocket in her skirt.
Before she’d even finished, he had her backed up against the armrest of an aisle seat. Her hands found his upper arms, fingers tight against him, bracing. His eyes had quickly readjusted to the dark, and he could see the way she looked at him from beneath those thick lashes. Expectant. Wanting. It made him burn.
Chapter Twelve
“Did you mean it?” he whispered. “What you said at the last meeting. That you’re only there because your roommate forced you?” Because if that were true, it would mean she didn’t have a sex addiction, and he would feel less like an arse for wanting her, for what he was about to do.
Her brows pulled together into a distracted frown. “What does it matter?”
He waited, counting her quickening breaths against his collarbones. Each one sent odd jolts down his chest and arms. There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t be incriminating.
She tilted her head a bit, her cheek brushing his jaw. “Yes,” she whispered.
Despite her confirmation, she looked … not exactly doubtful, but not fully convinced either. Maybe she really didn’t know. Maybe her roommate was right about her.
Too bad that didn’t change how he felt at all.
So he kissed her anyway. Her lips were soft, achingly so, and he moved against her with barely restrained want. For her part, she didn’t seem to mind. Her palms slid up his shoulders and into his hair, gripping hard as she arched against him.
His own hands found their way to her face, cupping it with the sort of reverence he would have been embarrassed about if he were thinking clearly. His fingers curled against the soft skin just beneath her ears, his mouth drawing ragged breaths from her. His own chest felt in short supply of oxygen as well, but he couldn’t bring himself to break away.
Reaching down, he gripped the backs of her thighs and lifted her onto the armrest of the aisle seat. She immediately wrapped her legs around his waist, and the throaty whimper that escaped her as he settled against her was intoxicating. He pulled back just far enough to see her, to take in her hooded eyes and parted lips, her clear anticipation, before he leaned back in and trailed his tongue along the swell of her bottom lip. She nipped him lightly in response before deepening the kiss. Her legs tightened around him, her hips moving in response to his own tight, deliberate thrusts. There were too many layers between them. He ached to be inside her.
Everything faded away. There was nothing but the two of them, her hands in his hair, her mouth against his, and her body wrapped around him.
His fingers found the bottom hem of her blouse and brushed it aside until he felt warm, satin skin. She made a ragged sound of encouragement, her own fingers digging into his shoulder blades. He slid his palm up her side, loving the feel of her arching against him, until he touched the edge of her bra. Her lips broke away as she tilted her head back to drag in air, and he took the opportunity to press kisses down the side of her neck.
He could feel her shaking against him, the desire between them almost frightening in intensity. His fingers slid over the slippery fabric of her bra as he cupped her breast. She gave a quiet moan, moving her hips in earnest now. His other hand gripped her hip and pulled her tighter against him, the dry friction agonizingly sweet and yet not enough.
He whispered against her neck, “I want you.”
She whispered back, “Take me.”
Fuck. There went his self-control.
Supporting her weight, he straightened, shifting so that his back rested against the cool metal door of the exit. Reluctantly, he slowly lowered her to the floor, groaning as she deliberately rocked against his aching erection.
His hand found hers and held on as he turned and reached for the exit.
“Dude, where are you?”
Both of them froze. Finn was coming up the aisle, squinting into the darkness in search of him.
The sound of their heavy breaths felt suddenly like guilt. She snatched her hand from his and took several large steps away. The seconds it took Finn to reach them felt stretched, and at the same time, not long enough.
Awareness filled the silence—awareness of the physical distance between them now, of the cool air returning reason to their muddled thoughts, of what they had both been eager for and the shadow of doubt that maybe they should have been more sensible. Should he apologize? But he wasn’t sorry, and he had a feeling she wasn’t either.
Their gazes met, and he could practically see her expression go carefully, deliberately blank. She was shutting him out.
Will was stunned by how much that hurt.
“Hey.” Finn was close enough now that he’d finally spotted him. Since the aisle was narrow, Finn immediately saw Will’s company as well. “What’s up?”
“I have to go,” she said, sounding amazingly composed considering what they’d just been doing. She reached for the door. He stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She glared at his touch, but he was grateful when she made no move to sever the contact.
He licked his dry lips. With the haze of want having faded to a low burn, easily ignored for the time being, all he wanted now was to be able to talk with her, to have the chance to ask her on that date. And knowing her name would be great, too.
“My friend and I are going out for pizza,” he said. “Come with us?”
“No.”
Her rejection was immediate. Will swallowed back the disappointment, gave his bruised ego a pat, and rallied his optimism.
“At least introduce me first,” Finn said, looking between them with an expression that was hard to make out.
Will shifted so that he could open the door. Light from the lobby flooded through, illuminating Finn’s knowing smile. His nameless girl turned her face away and brought up her hand to avoid the sudden brightness. She peered at him from beneath the shade of her hand.
He looked at her and gestured to Finn. “This is Finn. He’s playing lead in the play.”
She gave Finn a curt nod, which made Finn smile and look bemused.
“Finn, this is...” He let his voice taper off, hoping she would fill in the blank and properly introduce herself.
Her flat look meant she knew what he wanted and wouldn’t satisfy his now-desperate need to know her name.
“An acquaintance,” she finished for him.
A moment ago, she had invited him to take her, and now he was just an acquaintance. Ouch.
He had no intention of letting that stand.
Finn laughed. “Are you coming to see the play next week?”
“I was just taking pictures for the drama department’s website.” She dropped her hand from her face, her eyes having adjusted to the light.
“I know,” Finn said. “Our director told us. Make sure I look pretty.” He flashed a grin, and damned if he didn’t know how to turn up the charm. Her expression actually softened.
“Are you a transfer student?” she asked.
Willingly furthering the conversation. Will wondered if he needed to be jealous.
“I’ve taken pictures for the department before,” she continued, “but I don’t recall seeing you.”
“Nope. I’m not actually a drama major.”
She frowned. “But you’re playing the lead.”
Since she wasn’t rushing off to disappear again until their next meeting, Will was happy to let them talk. He was less happy about the fact she had seemingly forgotten about his presence, but he took the opportunity to get a closer look at her in an environment where she didn’t constantly have her shields up. At the meetings, she looked like the world was out to get her, and
she would take it on with nothing but the sheer force of her glare (it was, indeed, formidable). She looked softer here, still wary, but not rigidly so.
How had she looked just minutes ago, wrapped around him? How would she look with all her defenses down? He vowed to find out.
When he realized he was staring at the way her mouth moved when she spoke, he looked away. She had a fantastic mouth—the fuller bottom lip and the way the corners of her mouth relaxed only when she smiled, which was rare enough to be disarming. That mouth had continued to haunt his dreams even though that first kiss happened two weeks ago. He was fairly certain his dreams would now feature more than her mouth.
A loud cough brought his head back up. The cough had come from Kat, who stood in the aisle past Finn. She fixed all three of them with a glare that could probably take his grumpy beauty’s in a fight. In fact, Kat’s glare could strangle all other glares, then vilify them and set their entrails on fire.
Finn had interesting taste. Not that Will had any room to judge.
“If you people could move, I’d like to be able to leave.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a gesture that was surely practiced for how it emanated disdain. Since she was an actor, it was entirely possible.
“Kat,” Finn said, returning her contempt with a besotted grin that made Will mentally wince. “Want to join us for pizza?”
“Are you insane?” she asked in a tone of voice that suggested she thought Finn’s intelligence rivaled a single-cell amoeba. Now that was impressive.
“You know, the state of my sanity has been questioned before. Just ask him,” Finn said with a nod at Will. He accompanied the nod with a hopeful look at Kat.
It was like watching a train wreck. To intervene or not...
“Maybe instead of wasting your time at a pizza joint,” she said, her voice cool enough to shame dry ice, “you should be studying your lines. I heard you fumble that last scene.”
Heat Up the Fall: New Adult Boxed Set (6 Book Bundle) Page 28