“Actually, do you remember that guy I noticed in your building? When you had me over for dinner towards the start of the year? That night when Drake’s friends came over to play poker?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she drawled out.
“It’s the same guy,” I admitted. “The one I bumped into. The only guy I’ve really noticed at all this year so far.”
“Okay. This all sounds pretty good so far. When do we get to the advice part?” Lexi asked.
“Well, I’m into him, and I think he’s interested too. But he hasn’t asked me out on a date or anything.”
“So you should just ask him out,” Lexi advised.
My best friend, who hadn’t dated for almost three years until she met Drake, who had literally swept her off her feet, was telling me to ask a guy out.
“Really? That’s your great advice?”
“It seems pretty easy to me. You like him. You think he likes you, but he hasn’t made a move yet. You really only have two options. Either you keep waiting for him to do something or you pull up your big-girl panties and you ask him out yourself,” she said, shrugging her shoulders like it was no big deal.
“Seriously. Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?” I deadpanned.
Lexi giggled in response to my joke. “I guess I have a different perspective now. I know it’s hard to picture me asking a guy out. Like, ever. But if Drake hadn’t asked me, then I can only hope at some point in time I would have gotten up the nerve to ask him instead, because if we hadn’t gone out on that first date, then I wouldn’t be as ridiculously happy as I am today,” she explained.
“Except Drake didn’t ask you out. He pursued you relentlessly,” I pointed out.
“Yeah. And your point is what?” she asked.
“So you knew how much he wanted you because he had no problem showing you.”
“Oh, Aubrey,” Lexi sighed and grabbed my hand. “Are you worried that this guy really isn’t that into you?”
I looked down at the table and took a calming breath before I answered. “Yes. When I said I was into him, I think I might have understated it a little. I’m really, really into him. At that’s after only seeing him nine times during tutoring sessions and bumping into him at your elevator.”
“You’re counting the number of times he’s tutored you?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I admitted sheepishly.
“I’ve never seen you like this over a guy before Aubrey,” she said before giving my hand a quick squeeze and letting go. “Not with any of your high school crushes and not with anyone you’ve dated in college.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before. There’s just something about this guy that really gets to me, Lexi.”
“No, I get it. I fell for Drake hard and fast when I least expected it. Sometimes you just know what you know,” she said, comforting me.
“That’s certainly true,” I said. “So I guess I better be prepared to ask a guy out on a date for the first time ever tonight.”
“Tonight?” she asked. “You have a tutoring session today?”
“I sure do,” I answered, looking at my phone to see what time it was. “In three very short hours. Or long ones depending on how you look at it now that I’m super nervous.”
“Then we’d better hurry up and eat our lunch and head over to your dorm,” Lexi said.
“I’m not really that hungry, anyway. But why do we need to hurry?” I asked.
“Because there’s no way that I, as your best friend for life, can send you off to meet your super-hot, hockey-playing math geek tonight without making sure you look your very best. Duh, Aubrey!” she exclaimed.
So I spent the afternoon doing things with Lexi that I hadn’t been able to do in a while. We went for manicures and pedicures, and she insisted that I have my hair done while we were at the salon. Then, when we went back to my room, she had me try on outfit after outfit until it looked like a hurricane had hit it. The time spent with my best friend nourished my soul, and by the time I was ready to go to the library, I felt like I certainly looked my best. Lexi sent me off to battle looking hot.
Chapter 4
Luka
I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do. Tutoring Aubrey was a lesson in self-control for me. I didn’t want to be so drawn to her, but how could I resist when I was in such close proximity so often? I couldn’t stop imagining her sprawled naked in my bed. And it was my own damn fault because it had been my idea to tutor her so often. What the hell had I been thinking when I said I could squeeze her in a few times a week. I’d been thinking with my dick—that’s what I’d been doing.
My dick, which stood up to attention every single damn time I was with her but didn’t seem interested in any other chick on campus. It didn’t matter that, from what I’d heard, she wasn’t really girlfriend material. When I’d mentioned to Jason that it was Aubrey I was tutoring, he’d filled me in on all the campus gossip I’d missed out on by keeping to myself before.
I wasn’t happy to hear that Aubrey had dated a lot of guys on campus. Guys who weren’t worried about spreading it far and wide that she was incredible in bed but wasn’t too keen on keeping the same guy around for too long. If that was true, then she was exactly the kind of girl I needed to stay away from. So I’d managed to resist asking her out over the last few weeks even when she’d looked at me like she was just waiting for it each time she left me at the library. And then she’d turn away with a sad look in her eyes that drove me crazy and made me want to call her back.
I figured I would crack sooner or later though. Because I was sleeping like shit with dreams of her waking me up each and every night, my cock hard as a rock. It was worse than morning wood, and it didn’t matter how much I jacked off, because it just kept going on and on. But damn, had she added something special to my spank bank.
I hadn’t been joking when I had told Jason that I didn’t have to worry about being backed up because I took care of myself in the shower. I’d never had a problem with that because I’d gotten used to the need to blow off steam when I was dating Kat long distance. What I wasn’t used to was only being able to get off by thinking about one woman. Back then, I’d had plenty of visions float through my head. Now, it was like I was fucking obsessed with thoughts of Aubrey.
“Dude,” Jason said, interrupting my line of thought. He nodded down to the obvious boner in my pants. “Just ask her out already.”
“Who?” I played dumb.
“You damn well know who.” He rolled his eyes at me. “Aubrey.”
“Shit, man. I don’t know if it’s that great of an idea,” I answered.
“Look. I’m not saying you have to marry the girl, but I haven’t seen you so much as look twice at another chick since school started. But every day when you have a tutoring session with her, you walk around the apartment in the morning with that waving around”—he pointed at my dick—“and then you come back later looking like someone kicked your puppy.”
“You’ve heard the rumors, Jason,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, and I fucking wish I hadn’t shared them with you now. But you know what I haven’t heard?” he asked.
I shook my head, not sure where he was going with this. “No. What?”
“We’ve been back for two months and I haven’t heard of a single guy she’s even been on a date with. What does that say to you?”
Jason was right. As far as I knew, Aubrey wasn’t dating anyone now and hadn’t at all this school year. And I sure as hell would know if she was because it seemed like all the guys were keeping tabs on her for me now even though we weren’t together. They’d mention seeing her on campus just to get a rise out of me.
“Maybe she just isn’t interested in dating,” I argued.
“Or maybe there’s a certain guy she wants to date and she’s waiting for him to pull his head out of his ass and ask her out,” he countered.
“But what if she hasn’t changed?” I worried aloud.
Just the thought of Aubrey and other guys, even in the past, made me see red. It wasn’t fair, but it was the truth.
“I know,” I growled in response.
“I’m serious, man. I get that you and Kat were high school sweethearts and she didn’t have very much experience before you guys hooked up. But that sure as hell didn’t stop her for from getting that experience while you were her boyfriend. Don’t make Aubrey pay for Kat’s mistakes by not asking her out,” he cautioned.
His warning stunned me for a minute as I realized that that’s exactly what I was doing. I had no idea where this thing with Aubrey might go, but I would be an idiot to not even try with her because I’d been burned by my ex.
“I hadn’t thought about it that way.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what you’ve got me around for. Besides which, if you don’t get off your ass and ask her out, then I might have to because she is seriously hot,” he threw in, taking the conversation to a place he should have known better than to take it.
I grabbed him by his shirt collar. “Don’t even think about it, Jason. I’m not fucking with you on this.”
He had the nerve to laugh in my face. “And there you go. If our serious conversation didn’t knock some sense into you, then now at least you’re wound up enough that maybe you’ll do something about it today.”
I pushed him away, not appreciative of the fact that he could read me so easily. And I sure as hell didn’t like the idea of Jason with Aubrey at all.
“Yeah, well, watch out or what I’ll do is bash your head into the ground.”
“How about you ask your girl out on a date instead?” he suggested.
“Yeah, I just might do that,” I answered with a smile on my face as I walked out the door to go to class.
By the time Aubrey showed up at the library for our tutoring session, I was strung tighter than a wire with tension. I couldn’t get Jason’s taunt out of my head. Although she wasn’t dating anyone else now, there was no guarantee that wouldn’t change unless I did something about it.
She walked in the door of our usual cubbie and the sight of her robbed me of breath. Her blond curls flowed down her back and her blue eyes twinkled at me. But that wasn’t what caught my attention. Fall was in the air, so she’d changed her wardrobe up a bit and was wearing black boots that came up to her knees over jeans so tight that I had no idea how she’d managed to get them on.
Any other thoughts in my head were completely erased. All I could think was I wanted to see her in those boots without the jeans, sweater, or anything else for that matter. I wanted to see her strip off her clothes for me. I wanted her to kneel down in front of me with those damn boots on so that I could hold those pretty curls in my fists as she sucked my cock. So that I could see those pouty lips as I drove in and out, fucking her face.
I was so distracted by that vivid vision in my head that I didn’t catch most of what she was saying except the words payment and check. I tried to gather my wits as I asked her to repeat herself.
“I just realized the other day that we’ve had nine sessions already, but I have paid you anything yet,” she said.
Shit, this was damn awkward. My mind was on asking her out and getting her into my bed and she was thinking about owing me money.
“How about I let you take me out to dinner instead?” I replied.
“Dinner?” she repeated.
“Yeah. You. Me. Out for dinner,” I repeated.
“Like a date?” she asked.
“I think that will work even better,” I said.
“Wait. What?” she said, confused.
I stood up and walked towards her until I had her backed up against the closed door. “I like your idea better. How about I take you out on a date? Dinner tonight?”
I watched as she studied my face like she was trying to figure something out. “Yes, I’d like to go on a date with you.”
“Good. That’s settled, then,” I replied, very happy with her answer.
“Except that doesn’t solve our problem,” she pointed out.
“Problem?” I asked, not certain what problem we could possibly have now that I’d finally asked her out and she’d said yes.
“I owe you money for all the tutoring you’ve done for me,” she reminded me.
I shook my head in response. “No, you don’t.”
“Of course I do,” she argued. “You’re my tutor and I’m supposed to pay you for your help. It’s your job.”
“Yes, that’s normally true. But here’s the thing. There’s no way in hell I’m taking money from you,” I tried to explain.
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” she disagreed. “Professor Davidson told me to expect to pay you more than the other math tutors because your time is so valuable.”
I reached up and cupped my palm around her face, swiping downwards until my thumb rested on her incredibly kissable lips. “He was right when it came to the other students I’ve helped before, but he was wrong when it came to you.”
“But why?” she asked.
I leaned down, my lips almost touching hers as I cupped the other side of her head with my other hand. “Because it’s you,” I explained before I moved my thumb, the only thing separating our lips. I placed a light kiss on her mouth. “What’s going on between us isn’t about money. It hasn’t been since our first session. So you’re not going to pay me.”
“That’s not fair,” she whispered, her tongue flicking out to wet her lips and lightly grazing against mine.
“I don’t care about fair, Aubrey. Not when it comes to you. Do yourself a favor and don’t plan on me playing fair with you. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it my way. And my way means you don’t pay me for helping you with math because it allowed us to meet and get to know each other. That’s payment enough for me,” I rasped before I crushed my lips against hers. I tilted her head up towards mine so I could get to her mouth more easily, nipping at her lips.
“Luka,” she sighed as her mouth opened and my tongue swept inside.
Her hands crept up to my shoulders, and the feel of them on my body along with the taste of her in my mouth made me grind my hips against her. I could feel pre-cum leaking from my dick, and I wanted inside her so badly. One little kiss was enough to almost send me over the edge. If we weren’t at the library right now, I wasn’t sure that I would have been able to pull away instead of ripping her clothes off and burying myself deep inside.
“Tell me you understand,” I commanded.
“Yes, I get what you’re saying,” she agreed.
“Then get your sweet ass into that chair so we can get some studying done before I take you to dinner,” I ordered, pointing at a chair at the end of the table.
Aubrey chuckled when I sat down at the other end of the table, as far away from her as possible.
“Something funny?” I asked.
“You usually sit next to me,” she pointed out.
“That was before I got a taste of you. If I sit over there tonight, then neither of us is going to get anything done. You’ve got another quiz coming up next week, so that’s not an option,” I explained.
Aubrey flashed me a sassy grin before she opened her notebook and began studying. I adjusted myself so I’d be a little more comfortable and tried to get some of my own work done too, but with the boner from hell in my pants, I didn’t think I was going to get a lot done before we left. That was okay, though, because I felt like I could do just about anything knowing that Aubrey was mine tonight. And after that kiss, I needed more time with her to see where this thing w
ould take us. I might have resisted this thing between us because I’d let fear rule my decisions, but there was no turning back for me now.
Chapter 5
Aubrey
I tried to concentrate as hard as I could on the numbers swimming on the notebook in front of me, but it was just impossible. Not with Luka sitting next to me. Luka, who had just asked me out on a date, told me I couldn’t pay him to be my tutor, and kissed me. I had not seen that one coming at all. This night was turning out way better than I had ever imagined.
I glanced up when I heard Luka slam his book shut.
“You done?” he growled.
Since only about fifteen minutes had passed, I was pretty sure he knew damn well that I wasn’t finished with my studying. But I figured what the hell because I wasn’t going to be able to finish it anyway.
“Yeah, I’m done.”
“Thank fuck,” he muttered under his breath as he shoved his stuff into his backpack and started to gather my books up next.
I grabbed my books from him and put them into my bag. “All set,” I said as I finished.
“Let’s go,” he commanded as he picked up both our bags and held the door open for me.
I couldn’t hold in the smile that escaped as I walked past him and he grabbed my hand. He practically dragged me out of the library to his car.
“What about my car?” I asked as I climbed in.
“I’ll bring you back here to pick it up tonight.”
“Works for me.”
“It better work for you, ‘cause that’s the plan,” he said with a smirk on his face before closing the door.
“Bossy,” I mumbled, not entirely certain how I felt about him taking charge like this after waiting so long for him to make a move of any kind. It was a little confusing since it felt like he’d moved from cold to hot so quickly. I wasn’t sure what to think about that and what it might mean.
Luka climbed in and gave me a long look before starting the car. “How hungry are you?”
The Blythe College Complete Series Box Set Page 46