Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers Book 1) (6 page)

“What offer? What offer is he talking about?”

“Relax,” I snapped, closing my fist around the keys Jason had dropped into my hand. “He’s a car salesman, just talking about some deal.”

It probably wasn’t fair to Grayson to be so annoyed with him, but I was
seething
mad. Mad as hell that Jay’s offer had turned me on so much. Mad as hell that Grayson had shown up unannounced, looking all… not at all like the type who would kick somebody’s ass about their girlfriend.

Mostly because he wouldn’t.

Mostly because I was barely his girlfriend.

I hadn’t seen – and had barely heard – from him in the over two weeks since the night I’d passed up Refill with Olivia to kick it with him. And we hadn’t even kicked it, not really. He’d pawed at me a few times until I gave him some ass, and then he promptly fell asleep.

I woke him up and sent him home.

Generally speaking, I wasn’t that bothered. I didn’t really have the time or energy for a boyfriend anyway, I just needed convenient companionship, and Grayson fit the bill. Honestly, it hadn’t started out like that. When we met, we were really into each other, if for nothing other than shallow reasons.

He was all shiny and pretty, with thick black curls he kept cut low, and creamy caramel skin, and sexy light brown eyes. Tall, and decently built, with an easy laugh. Just pretentious enough with his law degree and his Lexus and his standing lunch date with the Mayor’s office to appeal to my slightly pretentious nature. He was busy, I was busy, and his dick was big, so it was the perfect scenario for a casual, shallow relationship that was about 65% sex, 35% actually liking each other. I wasn’t the jealous type by any means – I pushed for exclusivity for my health. I wasn’t about to fight anybody over him, or end up with a disease.

We’d been seeing each other for almost two years, and I used to get so excited about our time together. He treated me like he was lucky to have me, sending flowers, random texts, and offering up sweet, passionate sex when we were able to make our schedules mesh.

Over the last six months though, that had stopped.

He got even busier, trying to make partner at his law firm, and so did I, after accepting the grad assistant position officially. I didn’t really miss the flowers, but the loss of the sentiment stung. I
did
miss the silly texts he used to send, and while sweet sex wasn’t what I wanted all the time, I definitely missed the fact that he used to make an effort, because now he just didn’t.

Like last week.

And now he popped his Al B. Sure! looking ass up at the most inopportune time, with the nerve to act like he had a problem. I was always pretty mellow with him – he didn’t bring out the slick mouth that Jason did – but
whew
… I was two seconds off of cursing him out.

“Yeah, with you wearing
that
? Sure, I’m sure he was incredibly interested in talking to you about low interest rate car loans. What, did he want to take you for a “ride”?”

I sucked in a deep breath, and then counted to ten before I opened my mouth. “I was cleaning, and planning to go for a run when I was done. I’m wearing workout clothes, not a G-string and bikini top. And let’s be clear – if I
was
wearing that, it would be my prerogative, because I’m a grown ass woman, and I’ll wear what I want.”

“I-I’m just saying, damn. How am I supposed to feel when this big buff dude was towering over you, looking at you like he wanted to snatch you up?”

I suppressed a shiver from running up my spine at the thought of Jason “snatching me up”. Gray made it sound like a bad thing… but I guess to him it probably was. The thing was though, if he had a problem, why didn’t he straighten up his damn back, and walk over with confidence? Ask what was going on? Palm my booty to make it clear I was his?

Instead, he slunk over from behind his car, eyeing the army tattoos on Jason’s broad arms. With his hand in his pocket, no doubt unlocking his phone in case he needed to summon the police. Calling my name with no bass in his voice, like he expected
me
to do the claiming and protecting.

I wasn’t nearly progressive enough for
that
shit.

I let out a heavy sigh.

“I get it,” I said, trying not to flinch when he pulled me into an embrace. The lack of warmth I felt made it clear to me that our relationship ship was well past the climax, and reaching the resolution. Fast. It just wasn’t a conversation I was ready to have today.

“What are you even doing here?” I asked. “I thought you had some legal conference or something to get to today?”

He gave me a beautiful smile that did nothing for me, moving his hands to grab handfuls of my ass and squeeze. “I do, this afternoon. But I was hoping that before I drove up there, you could give me a nice little send off…”

I’m not quite sure how I controlled myself from sneering. “Um, let’s raincheck, okay? I wish you’d called. I really have to finish my weekly cleaning, and I have to get this run in, and-”

“So you’d rather clean, and work out, than be with me?” His hands loosened their hold on me, and he stepped away, shaking his head. “Or is this about the little stare off between you and GI Joe?”

“Oh
God
,” I rolled my eyes. “No. I’m just not feeling it right now. Is that a crime?”

“Not feeling
it
, or not feeling
me
?”

I bit my lip. I was trying so hard but…

“You know what? Not feeling
you.
You claim you’re too busy to even send me a damned text message throughout the day, and the first time you get to see me in two weeks, you want to drop by for a quickie? Really Gray? That seemed like a good plan to you?”

He opened and closed his mouth for a few second, like he was searching for something to say, before he finally dropped his shoulders. “I thought that’s what you would want?” he said weakly, and I bit down on my lip again as I nodded.

“Did you? Okay.”

His face brightened. “Okay? So come inside, let’s do this…”

I pushed his hand off my ass. “No, you misunderstood. We’re not having sex today. If all you have time for is a quickie, you don’t have time to make up for falling asleep after those five pumps last time I saw you, for not making any effort to talk to me these last few weeks, and the
months
before that, or for dropping by here unannounced like this is a cat house!”

He recoiled backwards. “Damn, Reesie… what has gotten into you? Why are you being so mean?”

Mean?

Mean?

He looked damn near ready to cry, when Jason would have…
Ugh!

I looked away from him, inhaling a deep breath through my nose, letting it stream out of my mouth before I brought my gaze back to his. “I’m sorry for being mean, but I think you should go ahead to your conference.”

Not giving him a chance to respond, I climbed in my mother’s car, moving it down to her driveway. I hoped that by the time I was done, Gray would have gotten the picture, and taken his ass home.

- & -

I stopped in my tracks as I headed into the library, narrowing my eyes at a familiar-looking car. I thought about it for a few seconds and then went in, heading straight for the second floor.

“Liv!” I called out, when I spotted her coming out of the bathroom, fixing her clothes. I could have sworn she saw me before I said her name, but maybe she was just distracted. She seemed flustered when she turned around, but her face bloomed into a bright smile as I approached.

“Hey, Reese! What are you doing here?”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Umm, it’s the library… where the books are, and my mom’s classroom, and office…”

“Ah! Right! Sorry.” She shook her head, then finished smoothing her clothes. “I’m a little bit out of it.”

“Girl, we all have our days. Hey, have you seen Gray in here?”

Her eyes went wide, and she leaned her head forward a little. “Who?”

I laughed. “Grayson… my boyfriend, crazy girl!”

Olivia and I hadn’t known each other very long – just the past two years, since I’d started grad school. We weren’t confidant-friends, more like “hey let’s go out/do lunch”, but she’d met Grayson before, on more than one occasion at Refill.

“Ohhh,” she said, nodding. I shook my head. She really
was
out of it today. “Umm, yeah. Some hours ago, over in the legal section. He was researching case law.”

“Oh.” I twisted my mouth a little. “I thought all of that was available online?”

Olivia’s face spread into a weak smile. “Oh, you know how Grayson is. Likes to put his hands on it. Touch the pages.”

“So… he’s up here often?”

“No, I wouldn’t say often,” she shook her head. “Has he not mentioned it to you? Is everything okay with you guys?”

“Of course,” I lied with a smile. “Like I said, we all have our days, and I’m a little out of it myself. I’m gonna head on to this office. See you later.”

She nodded. “Okay. Bye hon!”

I turned and walked away from Olivia, trying to keep my shoulders relaxed even though I was seething inside. Another a week and a half had passed with minimal contact between me and Grayson, though he had apologized for that stupid Saturday morning.

The thing was, I wasn’t looking for an apology. I didn’t want his meaningless words, I wanted him to
do
something. I wanted him to let me know he was going to be at the law library while I was on campus, I could help him research. I wanted him to send me those random messages again throughout the day. I wanted him to stop by my place in the middle of the night, wake me up, and screw me back to sleep. I wanted him to make me forget Jason Wright existed.

I wanted… something that wasn’t the relationship we’d established.

But just like that Saturday morning we’d fought, I wasn’t trying to think about that. I had other things on my mind. I had my
own
paper due next week, and a test, plus heavier shit that I was trying to ignore. Men weren’t in the top five list of things I needed to be thinking about. Hell, they weren’t even in the top ten, but somehow Grayson’s actions had sunk my already sullen mood even further.

As I turned the corner to get to my mother’s office, I walked right into a tall, broad body. I was moving so fast that I damn near bounced backwards, but strong arms went around me, keeping me balanced.

“Sorry,” I said, then stepped away, and was already about to continue my journey down the hall when he spoke up.

“That’s it? No insult today?”

My head popped up, and I really looked at who I’d bumped into it.

Jason.

I hadn’t seen him since last Saturday either, but he’d certainly been on my mind. I’d needed to meet with one of my professors during the time I would have normally seen him in my mother’s class, and I felt halfway insane for almost… kind of…
missing
him.

Although we hadn’t been in each other’s presence, I’d read his words. The class was on the romance novel that I’d recommended to my mother, and the students had been tasked with giving their preliminary thoughts, at the halfway point of the book. Not a full paper, not even a critique, not about the technical aspects, not really. Just their casual thoughts.

“Honestly? I think these two are silly. I’ll admit that I don’t read a ton of romance novels, but does this dynamic ever work? According to his description of her, Vivienne is smart, sexy, successful, and amazing in bed according to these sex scenes. What man wouldn’t want to make her his? Well, this idiotic one in this book, Carter. I’m a little past halfway, and she just dropped the “what am I to you?” bomb on him, and I swear I wanted to smack this dude for his reaction. If he wasn’t into her like that, okay, I would get it. But that’s not the case. He
loves
this girl, but instead of admitting that, and explaining whatever (most likely bullshit) reason he has to not be with her, he broke her heart. It’s not cool. Not at all.”

I was supposed to be commenting on these. I was supposed to be asking questions, pulling more from them based on their thoughts, compiling a list that my mother would use to discuss love, romance, and dysfunctional family dynamics in literature. The next book on their list was literary fiction, with a heavy romance element. The one after that was more focused on families. They’d be contrasting the difference between how different elements were interwoven in the three novels.

So it was important. And still, I was putting it off. For one, because the class was still reading the book, and there was still time before that discussion. Also?

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what Jason’s thoughts were on life, and love. I was intrigued enough without that.

“No, not today,” I said, giving him a wry smile.

“Wow, do I need to check your temperature or something? Call a doctor?”

I laughed a little as I studied him, and shook my head. “Nah. Not necessary.”

He was wearing the mechanic’s shirt again today, and for the first time, I noticed the “
J. Wright
” embroidered above the pocket. No idea how I’d missed it before. “Okay,” he said, nodding. It was almost funny, that he looked so genuinely confused. “You sure you’re aiight?”