That was how it always happened.
I wanted to give her a call or a text. I thought about her every moment of the day, but I wasn’t going to do anything to make up for how I’d treated her. I wasn’t going to give in. I wasn’t going to lose my mind over any woman, least of all her.
Firm in my convictions, I made it outside, where I lit up a cigarette.
“Hey, Miller. Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” A familiar female voice caught my attention. Standing before me was the last person I wanted to see—Megan Wayne.
“Aren’t you supposed to be on another campus?” I waved my smoke away and looked her up and down. She was wearing too-tight leather pants and a black T-shirt with a large silver skull printed on it, right over her bountiful tits. The rocker-chic look never got me going, but she looked good in it.
“What? You don’t like my look?” she asked when she noticed my eyes on her body. She arched an eyebrow in challenge.
“Look, Head Case, I’m not in the mood for conversation,” I told her glumly, trying to get her to stop bothering me.
“Always so taciturn, Miller.” She tucked a lock of her black hair behind her ear and looked intently at me. Her ivy-colored eyes were always trying to encroach on me, always trying to look past what I showed everyone else.
“And you’re always a pain in my ass.” I took another drag and looked around at everything but her. Her very presence bothered me.
“Wow. Such courtesy.” Megan gave me a fake-surprised look, and I cut my eyes at her. I watched her eyes drop to my lips, where I’d stuck mycigarette. “Makes me wonder how someone like Selene puts up with you for more than ten minutes,” she taunted, not realizing that bringing up Babygirl was a mistake. I was trying my best not to think about her.
“What does she have to do with anything?” I snapped irritably.
“You two were cute during that game of pool.” She smiled slyly at me, and I decided I needed to nip any ideas she might have had in the bud.
“We’re not together,” I said clearly, shifting my gaze to a nearby gaggle of blonds. I studied them carefully, hoping one might pique my interest, but once again, nothing happened.
I was bored with women, and my body wasn’t reacting to them.
“Yeah, she was quick to say that too.” Megan shrugged before going back on the attack. “Alyssa told me she went back to Detroit after you acted like a total dick to her dad,” she continued, sounding curious, and I stared at her in confusion.
“Don’t you and your sister have shit to do? Besides gossiping about me, I mean,” I said carelessly. Megan always seemed inexplicably up-to-date on what was going on in my life, which annoyed me.
“Logan told her everything, and she told me,” she said casually.
“One of these days I’ll have to tell Logan to shut his trap,” I answered, annoyed. I hated people who tried to stick their nose in my business or analyze me the way Megan did.
“You like Selene,” Head Case said abruptly, sitting down on a low wall nearby. I looked at her as blank as ever, and she gave me a sarcastic smile in return.
“What do you know about that?” I stood up straight and continued staring her down. I wasn’t about to let her get inside my head.
“I could tell by the way you looked at her.”
“Oh, yeah? And how did I look at her?” I brought the cigarette up to my lips, and again her eyes seemed to get caught on my mouth.
“Like you were in the middle of the best dream you’d ever had,” she answered, and my impenetrable affect disappeared. My Winston dangled from my mouth, and I breathed the smoke out my nose, having no response.
“Bullshit,” I managed finally, watching a girl walk past us. Her auburn hair was the first thing I noticed. Her eyes were just a regular shade ofblue, though. A color just like any other. There was no sea, no ocean in those eyes.
Nothing like Selene’s.
Still, the girl in question returned my glance avidly in the vain hope of catching my eye. My awful reputation preceded me—I’d fucked so many women that I couldn’t be bothered by girls looking for exactly what I’d always given them. But this time, I had no ulterior motive. There was no lust, no perversion. The only thing I really wanted was to see Selene magically appear in front of me. To see her cock a hip as she yelled at me to quit smoking so much and stop being such a dick. I wanted her to pounce on me and give me one of her awkward, unpracticed kisses. All at once, I had the urge to taste her full lips, which always had a hint of coconut, and her tongue that filled my mouth with sweetness.
“You got all riled up about Luke Parker being there. You can lie to other people, Miller, but never to me.” Megan spoke again, and I mourned the few seconds when she’d been silent. I scrubbed a hand over my face, swearing under my breath.
“Why does it fucking matter to you? What, are you studying me?” I had begun to lose my patience with her nonsense, and she just laughed. Like always, she made light of my dominating nature and wasn’t afraid of me in the slightest. I hated that about her.
“Chill out. I like aggressive dudes only in bed.” She splayed her legs wider, making herself more comfortable on the little wall.
“If I took someone like you to bed, you wouldn’t be walking for a week after. You deserve to get punished for real,” I burst out, thinking about how satisfying it would be to tie her ass up and leave her alone in some hotel for a few days. Maybe then she’d learn not to push me.
