A tiny smile flitted across my face. “At this point, I’m doing whatever any professor asks of me, Raff. In a year or so, I’m gonna need help getting an internship and not long after that, I’ll probably need references to land an actual job, so if a professor says jump, I ask how high?”
He stared at me for a long moment. “You’re so driven, Lex.”
I pressed my lips together. “So are you.”
He looked past me and his eyes fixated on something. “A goddamn rolling pin. Ought to take a fuckin’ rolling pin to his dick and flatten it out.”
My eyes widened just before I laughed.
His head whipped toward me. On a scoff that might have held a trace of humor he demanded, “What the hell are you laughing at?”
“The visual you just painted. That’s extreme.”
He stalked closer to me. “If I hadn’t shown up when I did, do you really think he’d have stopped? He laughed at you holding the rolling pin. Sure, you hit him with it, but you didn’t aim for his temple.”
My head reared back. “I didn’t want to kill him.”
His brows arched and he dipped his chin. “Then maybeyoudidn’t listen to my mom when she gave us that talk. She’s vicious as fuck, and she’d have told you to aim for the head.Especiallywith the way he snuck in here on you.”
I didn’t see the point in rehashing things. “Why did you ask about my schedule?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t have to be anywhere until tomorrow afternoon. Beyond that, I’ll have to reschedule some shit so I can get back here.”
“Why would you need to come back?” I asked.
Seemed that wasn’t the thing to ask, based on the anger suffusing Rafferty’s features.
He took a deep breath and his body relaxed. “I asked you to think about giving me a chance. Also told you I’d bring you dinner, but something made me come back here sooner.” His eyes shifted to the rolling pin on the counter behind me. “Thank God I did.”
“Yes, I’m grateful that you did. Seriously. I’m not sure how to thank you for that.”
“I wasn’t finished. If you decide to give us a shot, then the last thing I want to do is spend the night only to leave tomorrow and not get back here until the weekend - if I’m lucky.”
I dropped my head for a moment as I pressed my lips together. The idea of spending the night with Rafferty thrilled me. “As much as I hate to admit this, I need you to go back until the weekend because I won’t get much done if you’re around.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer. “Bullshit, Lex. You’re the most disciplined person I’ve ever met. If you need to study, you’ll tune out everything to make that happen. Are we gonna see where this goes with us?”
I bit my lip, took a deep breath, rested my hands on his broad chest, and decided to take the plunge. “Yeah, but I don’t think you realize, I’m busy as fuck most of the time. Finals are pretty much the only time life slows down, and even then… that’s so I can cram.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist. “If we’re both set to make this work, it will work, Robertson. Besides, the brothers are gonna run me ragged since I’m not gonna get my patch for another seven months at least—”
“You don’t know that. It could happen sooner since you’re a legacy.”
He lowered his chin. “Yeah, but no matter how cool your Dad was with me on the phone about us—”
My eyes widened. “What? How—? Why does Dad know?”
“Seriously? He would lose his mind if I didn’t tell him before we really started seeing each other.”
I shrugged. “He loses his mind no matter who I date.”
He gave a single nod. “Yeah, so I’m heading that off at the pass, but the other brothers…like Blood or Volt, or Razor are gonna give me a whole new ration of shit when they find out.”
I tipped my head to the side and tried to hold back my smile at him mentioning the other brothers - especially Uncle Razor, since for some reason he had a soft spot for me. “I’ll tell Razor to go easy on you.”
His eyes widened. “Don’t do that. Christ. That’s a sure-fire way to get them to send me to Memphis.”
That brought me back to reality. “I thought you were moving.”
