Meredith is quick to jump on his offer. “That would be awesome, Trevor. Do you mind walking me to my dorm?”
“Not at all. Elizabeth, what about you?”
“I think she already has her ride,” Meredith tells him and points to someone outside the glass windows of our study room.
I glance out to see Ryder leaning casually back against one of the stacks across from our room looking like a GQ model with his shirt stretched taut across his muscular chest and his jeans-clad legs crossed at the ankles. The dreamy sigh I make has Meredith giggling like a five-year old.
“Girl, you are so gone for that man.” Yes, I absolutely am.
Ryder gives me a guy chin jerk when our eyes meet which should look cocky but when he does it, it makes me all hot, bothered, and breathless. I practically skip out of the room to meet him.
“I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“I know. Thought I’d surprise you.” He traces a single finger down the side of my uplifted smiling face.
“It’s the best surprise.” I grab ahold of his front belt loops but don’t lean in to kiss him even though I’m dying to. I know we have an audience, so I try to behave myself. It’s really hard.
“What’s up, man,” Trevor greets him.
“Not much. Just picking up my girl.” The girlie part of me screams and does an internal happy dance when he says I’m his girl. “Good study session?” he asks me.
“Yeah. We have a lot of work to do to finish the presentation but we’re planning on meeting again tomorrow and next week, so it should be good to go by next Friday.”
Meredith pops up next to Trevor. “Hi. I don’t know if you remember me from the other day.”
“Meredith, right?”
“That’s me! Are you ready, Trevor? Looks like Elizabeth’s all covered for getting home tonight.”
“Yeah. Let’s go. See ya around, Wildcat.”
Meredith gives me a big bear hug and the guys do that fist bump thing. Ryder takes my bag and places his hand possessively on my lower back as we walk outside. I’m surprised at how busy the campus still is at nine o’clock at night.
“Goodnight, Elizabeth!” I hear Meredith yell at me from across the quad as she and Trevor walk toward the dorms. I wave and then settle my hand in Ryder’s when he reaches for it.
“I was right, you know.”
“Right about what?”
“Trevor. Wanting you.”
I spin around and fist my hands around the front of Ryder’s shirt, because let’s face it, my hands won’t pass up any opportunity to touch this man. As I walk backward, tugging him along with me, I tell Ryder, “I’m aware he’s interested, but he knows I’m taken. I think you made that very clear to him outside the study room.”
“I shouldn’t have done that,” Ryder says, stopping us when we reach our parked cars. “Word could get back to Jay or Jules if people start talking about us as a couple around campus.”
“I honestly don’t think Meredith or Trevor are in their same social circles. But I get it. We need to be more careful.”
The humid night’s air hangs heavy with a tinge of ozone as lightning flashes somewhere in the distance from a lone cumulonimbus cloud. I feel my back being gradually pressed up against the cool metal of my car as Ryder slowly pushes into my body, one hand splayed flat on the hood of my car. He hasn’t done anything more than that and I’m already turned on and desperate for him. My fists grip tighter to his shirt and I pull him in closer.
Dipping down, Ryder rubs our noses together while breathing in deeply. “You always smell so good. Jasmine, right?”
I hum my reply as I return the favor by rubbing my nose up and down his cheek. Ryder has a unique smell - a mixture of something citrusy and spicy. “Would you like to follow me home? I could whip up something to eat?”
“I could eat,” he replies in a tone that alerts me that his words mean more than their literal translation.
I unclench my fists and allow my hands one leisurely swipe up his torso and back down to the ridges of his stomach. “Let’s get going then.”
The dizzying feeling of my body being lifted and settled causes me to shriek then giggle as Ryder’s body lands on top of mine, his mouth eagerly falling on my collarbone to deliver a flurry of sensual kisses that have me writhing underneath him.
