There’s that word again. It makes me want to melt in my seat, and I know he realizes it, because he’s beingreallydangerous with his driving, watching me more than the road.
There’s another span of silence where I’m wondering if I can merge with the soft seat beneath me. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m embarrassed, confused, or because my head is going to that fuzzy place again. Whatever it is, I let out a small sound when he breaks the quiet. “Which building are you in?”
“The sports dorm,” I answer automatically. When he hikes his brows, I actually manage a grin. “It was a housing error, but my roomie was fine with it.”
Zandy was so nice when he realized he’d been roomed with a nerd like me instead of another football player. He said something about me taking up less space and being fun, and then he’d ruffled my curls.
Of course, things had been perfect until he’d started sneaking mean psychopathic blond guys into the room to confuse me.
I make another small sound, and Professor Levine glances at me again.
“As long as you’re happy with it.”
I blow out a breath as we pull onto the main road to campus. I really should have looked for a club further away so nothing like this could happen. What if I’d runintoZandy and his boyfriend?
God, I don’t even want to think about them at a place like that, probably with Zander in leather and Kerian…
No. Nope. Not doing it.
“I’m happy.” Lying Luca lies again, but…
“Are you?”
God, why does it feel like he can see right through me when he asks the question? I press my lips together and nod, electing to stay silent instead of somehow messing up further. I manage to stay that way until we pull into the parking lot attached to my building. I’m not sure why I hesitate when the car idles, why I feel like I need to say something—anything—to salvage this situation. Because as much as I messed up, as much as I’m not sure I’m going to be able to look him in the eye ever again… I still need the TA position. And if I’m being honest with myself, he was completelydrowningin paperwork and disorganization without me.
Yeah, I’ll tell myself I’m savinghimand that’s why I want to stay. Not because my brain is trying to quietly shuffle away how his body felt near mine for spank bank material later.
Nope. It isn’t that at all.
“Thank you again. And I promise I’m not always this big a… a mess.” His brows knit together at the self-depreciation, so I quickly add, “I’ll do a good job for you in class, I swear.”
Thatwordis plaguing me tonight. It’s like we both realize I said it at the same time. My face goes hot and his attention drops to the jump of my pulse at my throat.
His fingers skate across my knuckles again, and his eyes are dark when he lifts them up to meet mine. “Do you like being good, Luca?”
OhGod. Is it possible to get hard enough that you pass out? I want to sway forward, to fall against him. I want to get lost in the bulge of his pecs beneath his stupidly tight shirt.
“I… I don’t… I mean, I think…”
He leans a little closer, and Iwhimper. I actuallywhimperwhen he tickles his fingers along the back of my hand again in a soft, silent question that I don’t have the answer to.
The tension in the air is so thick it’s like it’s filling my lungs and making it hard to breathe. I’m choking on how warm his eyes are, how I can remember the feel of Professor Levine pressed against me, like the memory is going to chase me to my grave. When I’m on my deathbed, I’m going to think “Damn, I really should have let him kiss me.”
And I…
“No… nope… No. I can’t do this.” And then, as fast as I can gasp in the air, I spit the word out again. “Teacher. Teacher, teacher,teacher.” I’m half stumbling out of the car as I say it, completely drowning in the confused and somewhat amused look crossing Professor Levine’s face.
I’ll deal with Zandy figuring out that something is wrong, because I’m very positive that if I stay in that car for another second, I’m going to end up doing something I can’t take back.
Chapter
Eight
MADDOX
“You left awful fast,”Crista says as she steps into my office Monday morning. She looks around and whistles. “It’s really coming along. I swear your little Mr. Archer might be a better TA than Thomas. And he kept you in line.”
Yeah, Thomas kept me in line so much that I made him cry on at least three occasions when he put shit away and didn’t keep a system. The only thing that kept him on for so long was the fact that literally no one else wanted the position.
