The corner of her lip pulls up into a half smile. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I know,” I say, my hand tingling from where it makes contact with her skin. I run my fingers down the length of her arm, leaving a trail of gooseflesh in their wake. Taking her delicate hand in mine, I stroke the center of her palm with my thumb. “I want to.”
It takes a few seconds to tear my gaze away from the perfection of her hand and meet her striking green eyes. She’s giving me a look I can’t decipher—something between arousal and shock. Am I being too forward? After what we did outside of the ice cream shop yesterday, I thought a little PDA would be alright, but maybe I was wrong. It was dark and kind of happened in the heat of the moment. I release her hand, immediately regretting the loss of her soft warmth.
She tells me what she wants—tea, not coffee. I tuck that little golden nugget away and get in line to order.
When I return, I find James something-or-other, one of the big wigs with that frat where Charlie got attacked, sitting in my chair talking to Charlie. Now, I wouldn’t generally call myself the jealous type, but that asshole needs to get the fuck out of my chair before I knock that douchey smile off his face.
“James,” I say, by way of greeting as I hand Charlie her tea. She gives me a smile that’s so forced, her teeth look ready to crack from the pressure. What the hell was he saying to her?
“Oh, hey. I didn’t see you there,” James the douchebag replies.
That’s because you were too busy hitting on my girl.
“What do you need, James?” I’m trying to keep my voice calm, but I’m crap at hiding my emotions so my tone comes out sounding just short of “I’m going to cut you up into little pieces and run you through a woodchipper.”
James’s eyes flit about nervously. Well, what do you know? Little Jamie’s not as stupid as he looks.
Before James can answer, Charlie says, “He wants me to retract my statement to campus police.”
I think my brows have officially breached my hairline. I don’t know why I’m so surprised. This is entitled asshole 101. God forbid the guy actually has to deal with the repercussions of his actions. “And tell me, James,” I say, punctuating his name.“Because I’m a little unclear on this. Why the fuck should she do that?”
Trembling fingers slip into my hand and squeeze. I look down expecting Charlie to tell me to back off, but instead, she’s smiling warmly at me, her eyes saying thank you without words. I don’t understand how a man could look at someone as sweet and fragile and remarkable as Charlie and see that as something to take advantage of, when every instinct in my body tells me she should be protected and cherished and…
Fuck. I am so gone for this girl.
Douchebag James (it has a nice ring to it) doesn’t seem to understand how rhetorical questions work because he stupidly answers. “We all understand how upsetting this has been—”
“Really?” Charlie says with a don’t fuck with me attitude.
That’s my girl.
She cocks her head and asks, “Has anyone ever tried to rape you?”
“Well… uh... Of course not…” He laughs nervously
“Then, I don’t see how you could possibly understand what it’s like to be physically overpowered and sexually assaulted.”
James is staring at Charlie with this stupefied expression on his face, and I seriously want to kiss this girl right now.
James clears his throat, his car salesman bravado diminishing a bit. “What I mean is that he’s been thoroughly reprimanded, and this can only come back to hurt the frat and we were hoping—”
“I have a question,” I say. Still holding Charlie’s hand, I fold my free arm across my chest. “Did you throw him out of the frat?”
James draws back as if shocked I would even ask the question. “Uh… No, we can’t. He’s a legacy,” he stammers, quickly adding, “but he was reprimanded.”
“You keep saying that word,” I say, and keeping my eyes glued on James’s, I slowly lift my cup and take a sip of coffee. It’s an intimidation technique I’ve seen Trey use. I might not be as frightening as my brother, but to this douche, I might as well be. “What exactly does that even mean? You gave him a stern talking to?”
That last part was intended to be a lousy joke, but James nods.
I sigh and take another sip of coffee, giving myself a minute to calm down before I rip this guy a new asshole, but Charlie beats me to it.
“I’ll tell you what,” she says, and she’s got both mine and James’s full attention.
She’s not actually making some sort of deal with this jerk?
“You leave now and never bother me again,” she says, “and Iwon’tgo straight to Dean Hawthorn, who’s a friend of my father’s by the way, and tell him how you tried to harass me into dropping the charges against your frat member. I can’t imagine he would be too keen to hear how your frat leaders were complicit in trying to cover up a sexual assault committed by one of your brothers, in your house. Hmm?”
