As I met his stare, I waited for embarrassment, but instead there was just this weird sense ofright.“Are you saying this is our spot, Professor Sullivan?”
Fuck me. Was I flirting, or was I trying to remind him that he was my professor?
Or was I doing both?
Was Ethan another attachment issue for me to deal with? And did I even care when his mere presence silenced the panic and anxiety I’d lived with for months?
He moved closer, until we were only a few feet apart. “What if I said that it was? Would you meet me here again?”
He was so relaxed and casual in his approach, and I had no idea how to handle it. He was the teacher and would lose his job instantly if we were caught, but he showed absolutely no concern in pushingwhatever it was we were doingin public.
“This isn’t a good idea.” That statement would have had more strength if my voice hadn’t been so breathless. I really just wanted to kiss him again—to lose myself in one of the hottest men I’d ever seen in my life, who didn’t hide in the shadows, who showed me what he wanted:me.
Ethan stepped even closer, and if anyone came across us now, there’d be some explaining to do. “I’ve got to get to class,” he said softly. “But I need you to meet me here tomorrow, sweetheart. Just make it thirty minutes earlier.”
He pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth, his tongue sweeping across my lip as if he needed to taste me, and then he was gone.
By the time I opened my eyes and caught my breath, it felt like the world had tilted. Everything spun, and I debated if Ishould race after him and demand he finish that kiss or race home and finish myself in the shower.
Because fuck. There was only so much teasing a girl could take before she combusted.
Stumbling over myself, I manage to get it together in time to collapse into one of the study desks. When I pulled out the assignment I’d been working on since two that morning, I got to work, only stopping when my skin suddenly prickled.
I wasn’t sure who I expected it to be, but when Haze’s dark eyes met mine, I found myself blinking like an idiot. His huge frame was crammed into a small study desk, and I was tempted to laugh. Or I would have been if every single part of him wasn’t intimidating as heck.
He had his computer in front of him, but he wasn’t bothering to even look at the screen, keeping that intense stare locked on my face. Was this about last night?Should I say something so he knows I’m not mad at him?I mean, he scared the fuck out of me, and I would like to know if there was a possibility that he’d actually physically hurt me if I accidentally touched him again, but other than that, I understood trauma.
He had trauma in spades.
It was almost bonding to know I wasn’t the only one super fucked-up.
Deciding that I didn’t mind his gaze on me—it almost felt protective—I got back to my assignment, and by the time I was packed up for lunch, my stomach screaming at me, Haze was gone, and I felt more at peace.
In the dining hall, I didn’t see Nina or anyone else I knew, so I just headed over to order. By the time I’d decided on the pasta special and grabbed a salad to go with it, there were more students piling in.
“Evie babe!”
Half the room turned as Brodie’s shouted, and I wondered if I’d be able to slip out the door and pretend I didn’t see himstanding in the middle of the room.Fuck.He looked good, hands on his hips, giving Xander Stone from theBloodstone Sentinelvibes. Brodie had been in the industry from a young age, one of those nepo babies whose father starred in daytime soaps. But his biggest claim to fame was when he was cast as the newest superhero in the largest franchise in the world.
Bloodstone Sentinelwas powered from a rare stone found on an alternate Earth and cast into Xander’s chest during a blood supermoon. Brodie Keller filled the role like he’d been born to play it, and here in Meadowridge College, wearing jeans and a faded band t-shirt, all I could see was Xander Stone.
This could not be my life.
When I didn’t move, he called again. “Bestie, I know you’re not ignoring me. Baby girl, you’re breaking my heart.”
He pressed his hand against his chest, and when his lower lip wobbled, a chick sitting at a table nearby all but sobbed as she yelled at me, “Get your ass over there, new girl. If you hurt Brodie Keller, we’re going to hurt you.”
With that, the faked sadness on Brodie’s face dried up. He nailed her with a glare, and there was no mistaking him when he growled, “Don’t ever threaten, Eve. That’s my last warning.”
Shaking my head, I hurried across to him before another cafeteria fight broke out. There was no reason to avoid Brodie—at least not while I needed him as an ally in the house from hell. As long as I never forgot that I was nothing more than a conquest to him—he didn’t care about a deluded weirdo who formed inappropriate attachments to fill the gaping voids in her soul.
Thanks, Dr. Graystone for that enlightenment.
If I could remember that, there was no reason not to enjoy the benefits of a hot superstar flirting with me.
12
EVELYN
