Combust (The Wellingtons #1) (21 page)

“You know, for someone you only met once, you sure care a hell of a lot about Andi’s personal life. Obviously that one night meant more to you than you’re letting on. So let me tell you one thing, Wellington. Stop fucking around. Either forget about her or do something about it.” His tone is challenging, and I’m beginning to wonder what the hell kind of relationship they have if he’s telling me to go after his girl. “You want a shot at Andi? Be my fucking guest. The only person stopping you is you. And I’ll echo your little threat you gave me inside. You hurt her, I will kick your fucking ass. Ball’s in your court, Wellington. The question is, are you going to play or are you just going to watch from the sidelines?”

With that, he strides back towards the bar and disappears inside. The ball’s in my court? What? I didn’t even know I’d been invited to the game, but now that he’s issued that challenge, there’s no way in hell I’m backing down. If he cares so little about being with Andi, then there’s no longer anything standing in my way to take what I want.

And right now? All I want is her. My hat’s being thrown in the ring, and I’ll be damned if I don’t come out on top.

I’M LOUNGING on the couch with a glass of white wine and my e-reader, currently being sucked into a world filled with vampires, shape shifters, and witches. I’m so into my book that I apparently don’t hear the front door. I don’t realize that I’m not alone until Teddy leans down from the back of the couch and blows a raspberry on my cheek, causing me to shriek, jump up, and almost spill my wine.

“Holy shit, Teddy! You scared the crap out of me!” I admonish, and then I frown when I look at the time and see that it’s barely nine p.m. “What are you doing home anyway? I thought you had a hot date.”

He comes around the couch and lifts my legs so he can sit down. “I did have a hot date,” he says simply.

“Oooookay. It didn’t go so well, I’m guessing?” I ask, sitting up and crossing my legs, hoping to hear a juicy story.

Teddy snags my wine glass and takes a long drink before giving me a wry grin. “Oh, it was going perfectly fine. We had a nice dinner and a couple of drinks at Sapphire. For a first date, it was going extremely well until she left to ‘go to the powder room,’” he says, using his fingers to make air quotations around the words.

I wrinkle my nose, wondering why people can’t just say bathroom these days. “So what happened? Did you bore her to tears by talking about Wall Street so much so that she had to escape out the back door?”

He gives me a dirty look and shakes his head. “No, Andi. I didn’t even bring up the current state of our financial market. No, my date was ruined by your little boyfriend.” My eyebrows draw together as I look at him with confusion. Fortunately, he doesn’t make me wonder what he’s talking about for long. “Oh, yeah. It just so happened that Mr. Wellington was also at Sapphire and he spotted me on my date. Apparently, he’s a little overprotective of you, and long story short, he threatened to kick my ass if I hurt you. Oh, and he also claimed that if he had you, he’d never look at another woman, and I’m basically the biggest idiot on the planet for doing so. According to him, I’m a pretty shitty boyfriend.”

My eyes widen with disbelief. “No way. You’re messing with me.”

He shakes his head, letting me know that he is most certainly not messing with me. I lean forward and grab his forearm, trying—and failing—to contain my excitement. I’m practically bouncing in my seat as my mind wonders why exactly Cohen would approach Teddy like that.

“What’d he say? Exactly. I want to know everything. Word for word. Don’t leave anything out.”

And Teddy doesn’t let me down. My mind’s racing as he tells the story, not leaving anything out. When he’s done, I just sit back against the couch, completely overwhelmed.

“You continued to let him think we were together but then told him to go for it?” I ask, incredulous and a little shocked that Teddy played right along with this ridiculous charade.

He grins at me and shrugs his shoulders. “I know, I know. It’s probably my fault for starting it at the pub the other night, but man, when he got in my face, he was intense. As much as I wanted to just come out and tell him we’re not a couple, I couldn’t help myself. I’m pretty sure when I left him standing there in the parking lot, he had no idea what was going on. Hell, he probably thinks we have an open relationship now.”

Covering my hands with my face, I groan out load. “Oh my god. You can’t just make things easy on me, can you? We have our first study session tomorrow and it’s going to be so awkward.”

Teddy leans over and takes my hands from my face. “Babe, it’ll only be awkward if you make it that way. Trust me. I don’t know what the hell happened that night or why you two never went out again, but that guy has it bad, and he has it bad for you. So much for it being complete history, huh?”

Letting out a deep breath, I finish my wine and get up to refill it. When I come back to the living room, Teddy has the television on. As much as I want to beg him to retell the story, I settle in beside him and go back to reading. Even though I was completely engrossed in the story, I’m now too distracted by Cohen’s actions from tonight. After reading the same paragraph three times, I set my e-reader aside and try to focus on the television, but it’s no use. Teddy must be able to hear the wheels turning in my head because he turns down the volume and looks at me.

“Can you stop thinking so loud? I can barely hear the TV,” he jokes. “Seriously, Andi. What is it with this guy? I’ve never seen you so worked up before, and believe me, I’ve seen you worked up.”

I ignore his smirk. “I don’t know. It’s complicated. And I’ll remind you, this is all your fault. But I am sorry your date got ruined.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” he tells me with a wink. “The night wasn’t a complete wash.

After I went back in to pay the bill, I got the number of a super-hot blonde. We got to talking and I’m taking her out tomorrow.”

“Of course you did. Well, I’m glad you’ve been able to move on so quickly from our faux relationship,” I respond wryly.

“Yeah, let’s just hope that, tomorrow, you can do the same.”

AFTER SPENDING the night tossing and turning in anticipation of seeing Cohen again, I’m running late for our tutoring session. No one else in the apartment is awake this early, and I stare longingly at the empty coffee pot for a few seconds before heading out the door. As tired as I feel, I’m also amped up for this morning, and I tell myself that it’s just because I’m excited to get a head start on conquering the last obstacle between me and graduation, but I know I’m only fooling myself. I’m burning with anticipation at seeing him again and I can’t wait to clear up this mess about Teddy and me.

I’m thankful that my car’s back from the shop so I don’t have to rely on Teddy to drop me off on campus. The last thing I need is Cohen seeing me get out of his car. He’s had a night to process his conversation with Teddy, and I’m wondering what conclusions he’s come to. If his night was anything like mine, he’s more confused now than he was after we saw each other at the pub the other night. If I didn’t want to choke Teddy for messing with Cohen, I’d actually find this situation funny. I feel like we’ve come full circle since that night freshman year, but instead of Cohen walking away, he’s walking back in, and this time, Teddy won’t be an obstacle. Now, I just have to tell myself that I can’t be one either, because ultimately, I was the one who messed everything up, not anyone else.

Fortunately, I’m only running a few minutes behind when I pull up to the tutor center. The parking lot is relatively empty, which isn’t surprising for a Saturday morning at the beginning of the semester. In fact, I don’t even have any assignments to work on, so I’m not sure what Cohen and I are going to do this morning.

When I get out of my car and make my way towards the building, I smile when I see him waiting on the steps. Readjusting my book bag on my shoulder, I stop directly in front of him and shiver at the cold winter breeze.

“Hi,” he says simply in a deep, husky tone that makes me weak in the knees. Despite the cool temperature, I instantly warm up as his eyes rake over my body, an appreciative smile now firmly planted on his face.

“Hi,” I respond, and unlike him, it sounds lame coming from my lips. “It’s cold, Cohen. You could’ve waited for me inside.”

“Trust me. The cold air is probably my friend right now,” he replies as he takes in the tight sweater that’s not doing a good job of hiding how the cold temperature is affecting my body.

My cheeks flush under his gaze, and I gesture towards the building. “Shall we?” I ask, and he nods as he opens the door for me.

After stepping inside, I allow him to lead me to a table in the back, notably the same table where we reconnected for the first time. I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything, but if I were alone and could kiss this table, I totally would. Instead, I sit down and Cohen takes the seat across from me. I pull out my books, hand the syllabus over to him, and watch as he studies it.

“You lucked out being placed in Professor Gates’s class. He can be tough, but he’s the best professor I’ve had at this school. And since I took his class, I know his teaching methods and can try to match them. Do you have any assignments to do?”

Shaking my head, I’m a little taken aback that Cohen was so quick to get into the tutoring portion of the morning. I thought maybe we’d talk about the other night at the bar or maybe he’d mention running into Teddy the previous night, but other than the little comment about the weather—which I know he was talking about his penis and/or my hard nipples—he’s all business.

He pulls out the glossary list that’s attached to the syllabus and starts informing me about the importance of terms such as covalent bonds and nucleoids. As I watch his lips move, I remember how good they felt on my skin, and I start to tune him out. The chemistry between Cohen and me is so much more exciting than whatever the hell he’s talking about, and I wonder if he’s going to take Teddy up on his offer and make a move.

“Hello. Earth to Andi,” I hear him say, and I look up to see him cocking an eyebrow. “Look, I know this isn’t the most exciting stuff, but try to at least pretend I’m not boring the life out of you. Now, tell me, what do remember from high school about protons?”