King of Campus (24 page)

“Dylan, that’s so gross!  Get the hell away from me!”  She squeals the words, still trying to escape from the hold he has on her. 

“That’s manly sweat, baby.  Take a good whiff.”  Jokingly he squashes her face into his arm pit.

“Ugh!  I think I’m going to be sick!”  She starts making gagging noises like she’s going to throw up.

When he finally releases her, Lexie quickly scrambles away before turning back to give him the stink eye along with a one fingered salute.  “Now I’m going to have to fumigate these clothes.  You’ve funk-tified me with your putrid stench.”

He gives her a wide grin in return.  “How about I shower and then we can grab something to eat.  Sound good, babe?”

I see the exact moment reality crashes back over her and she remembers why we cut our shopping excursion short.  Almost instantly her face clears of all laughter and happiness.

Averting her eyes, she nods.  “Yeah, that sounds good.  Like an hour or so?”

Because Dylan is so finely attuned to her moods, he instantly notices the change in her demeanor.  As we enter the building, Lexie reaches the elevator first before pressing the button.  Dylan comes up behind her and very loosely wraps his arms around her before leaning down to whisper in her ear.

Wanting to give them a bit of privacy, I hang back.  Roan falls easily in line with me.  When I don’t immediately say anything, he carefully nudges my shoulder with his bigger one.

“Hey.”

I smile as my eyes finally settle on him.  “Hi.”

We haven’t seen much of each other since he took me home last Sunday.  We’ve both been busy.  Plus… it just seemed better to distance myself a little bit.  Spending the day with him was nice.  And the kiss we shared up in my old bedroom was actually more than nice.  Truth be told, I can’t stop thinking about it.

Or him.

I could easily fall for
that
guy.  But I know
that
guy isn’t who Roan really is.

“Have you been able to work on the project at all?”

I shake my head.  “Not since Friday.  I haven’t had any extra time this week.  I’m hoping that maybe tomorrow I can hit the library again.”

He nods.  “I was able to squeeze in a little more research. I’ll send the PDF’s to you through email and you can take a look at what else I was able to dig up.  See if it fits with the general theme we’re going for.”

“Great.”

Once again I’m reminded of just how far off the mark I was in my snap judgement of Roan.  I’m almost embarrassed that I listened to Finn when he said Roan wasn’t very smart.  Now that we’ve been in class together for a couple of weeks, I’ve seen firsthand just how easily Roan jumps into discussions with well thought out comments or questions.  It’s obvious from the amount of work he puts in that he cares about his grades.

Yeah… he’s the farthest thing from a meathead jock there is.  I’m actually pretty happy we’ve been partnered up for this project.  He’s suggested angles I probably wouldn’t have considered exploring on my own.

I just need to keep our relationship platonic.

Which means no physical contact.

Which
definitely
means no more kissing.

Unconsciously my eyes fall from those gorgeous turquoise depths to his full lips.  Roan is, hands down, the best kiss I’ve ever had.  And I’m not even going to bother lying to myself by saying that I’m not interested in doing it again.  Because I am.  Just thinking about it has my tongue slipping out to moisten my lips.

It’s the sound of a throaty growl filling the air that has my startled eyes cutting back up to his.  As they collide, the vibration in his chest grows.

When his voice finally rumbles forth, it’s all low and heated.

  “It drives me fucking crazy when you stare at me like that.”

I gasp, a flush stinging my cheeks, because I know exactly what was running through my mind when I was staring at his mouth.  Which probably means I was all but eating him up with my eyes.  Instantly lowering my gaze, I try wrestling my runaway thoughts back under control.  It’s no easy task.  So I do the only thing I can to salvage just a tiny shred of my pride.

“I wasn’t looking at you any kind of way.”

Liar, liar, pants on fire...

Apparently my words aren’t very convincing because Roan steps just a bit closer, invading my personal space until my heart feels like it’s sitting in the middle of my throat. “I never took you for chicken shit, Ivy.”

Our eyes clash for a long drawn out moment.  One that has lust and need arrowing right down to my-

“Cluck-cluck,” is all I can manage to choke out under the circumstances.

A wide grin sweeps across his face as the elevator door rattles open and Dylan and Lexie both step inside.  But Roan’s eyes haven’t deviated from mine and I find that I’m unable to break the connection binding us to one another.

“Saved by the bell,” he finally whispers when I show no sign of moving.

Unaware of what’s going on between us, Dylan finally yells impatiently, “Are you guys coming or what?”

I clear my throat.  It’s drier than the Sahara.  “Yep.”

Yanking my eyes from his, I scurry onto the elevator.  As the doors close, I keep my eyes focused directly in front of me even though Roan has moved to stand right next to me. I can practically feel his eyes crawling over me as if he’s blatantly staring.  When we finally reach the third floor, it seems to take forever for the doors to slowly slide their way open.  As they do, I shoot out of the elevator towards my apartment like the hounds of hell are nipping at my heels.

His low chuckles fill my ears as I hastily unlock the door before slipping inside.

Chapter Eighteen

Mmm, mmm, mmm, I love me some freshly showered Roan King.  Oh who am I kidding?  I’d happily take that boy all dirtied up.  Hell… the dirtier, the better ;)  KingOfCampus.com

Safely locked inside my apartment and away from Roan and his damn pheromones, the neurons in my brain once again start firing properly.  God, I’m seriously no better than all the other salivating groupies that stalk him around campus.  All I have to do is look at him and my mind turns to mush.

It’s completely frustrating.

Not to mention demoralizing.

I’m assuming Lexie told Dylan what’s going on because those two immediately holed up in her room and haven’t come out except to use the bathroom.  Which probably means they’re doing the pregnancy test she bought.  Even though I want to be there for her, I’m glad she shared her concerns with Dylan. This is an issue he needs to be involved in.

Once my hormones finally settle, I pull out some of my project notes to read over.  Just as I’m doing that, I get an email from Roan with the attachments he was talking about.  Skimming over them quickly, I’m impressed by what he was able to dig up regarding the Ponzi scheme and Bernie Madoff.

So I shoot him a quick email telling him just that.  And yeah, once again I feel like a jerk for wanting to dump him as my partner.  At this point, I think he’s actually plowed his way through more research than I have.  And Roan is right smack in the middle of his football season too, so it’s not like he has a ton of down time.  But he still manages to do quality work.

Yep.  I’m a complete asshole.

I shouldn’t have assumed that Roan was only attending college as a stepping stone to the NFL.  I guess I have the tendency to look at some of the higher profile athletes on campus, especially the football players destined for NFL greatness, and assume they’re just here killing time before moving on to bigger and better things.

It doesn’t take long for Roan to respond mentioning a few more resource leads he wasn’t able to check out.  Immediately I fire off another email saying that I’d be more than happy to look into those.  He replies that we should get together in a few days with all the research we’ve gathered and try sifting through what we want to include in our paper.

This might sound kind of nerdy, but I’m actually stoked as to how this project is shaping up.  The downfall of Bernie Madoff was big news and the amount of money he stole from people had far reaching consequences for those who mistakenly trusted him.

A few moments later there’s a knock on the door, since Lexie and Dylan are still locked away in her room, and it’s been at least forty minutes now, I jump off my bed to answer it.

A freshly showered Roan greets me from the other side. His damp locks look even glossier than usual.  He’s wearing a black Barnett football t-shirt that hugs the chiseled muscles of his broad chest and biceps as if it was specially made for him.  His hands are shoved into the pockets of his faded jeans which hang loosely from his lean hips.

His beautiful blue-green hued eyes are so bright and shiny and aimed right at me.

Something deep within me immediately snaps to attention.  I totally get why he has the entire female population of Barnett trailing after him.  And the fact he’s actually smart and more than likely going to turn pro makes him the complete package.

It’s taking everything within me not to reach out and bury my fingers in all that silky looking ebony colored hair.  To pull his face down to mine so I can feel his mouth roving gently over mine.

Inhaling a shaky breath, I realize the bastard has finally done it.

He’s finally gotten to me.

I have zero interest in being one of the many women he’s knocked boots with but… there’s no denying that I’m totally and unequivocally sexually attracted to him.  In the worst way possible.  And how attentive he was at my dad’s house last Sunday… yep, that was the clincher.

Unaware of the inner turmoil roiling through me, Roan says, “So I was thinking we could just talk face to face instead of emailing back and forth.”

That doesn’t necessarily seem like the best idea given how I’m currently feeling.

At the moment, I want to slap myself silly for allowing this to happen.  Instead of slamming the door in his face like every instinct within is screaming for me to do, I clear my throat.  “Um, sure.”  Standing back, I allow him into the apartment.

Without another word, he heads straight back to my room.  Apparently realizing we’re alone, he nods his head towards Lexie’s closed bedroom door. “Dylan and Lexie are in there?”

“Yeah.”  Unconsciously my eyes slide in that direction as well. I can’t help but wonder what’s going on.  Is Lexie pregnant or not?  Is she at least okay?

Stopping in his tracks, he turns to me before asking with a slight frown marring his handsome face, “You, ah, haven’t heard any loud grunting, have you?”

My brows slide together in obvious question.  Grunting?  I was maybe expecting some crying if the test turns out to be positive… but not grunting.  “No,” I say slowly, “I haven’t heard anything like that at all.”

Looking suddenly contemplative, he narrows his eyes.  “Maybe we should just head out and grab some dinner instead.  I don’t want to be here when the grunting and moaning starts.”

Is he being serious?  I almost can’t contain the gurgle of laughter that threatens to escape from my lips.  “What are you even talking about?”

The corners of his mouth tug up before he says in a loud whisper, once again jerking his head towards the closed door, “Haven’t you heard them having sex before?”

“Oh my god, no!”  Now I am laughing and he’s laughing too.  “I try very hard
not
to hear that.  They’re called earbuds, dude.  You need to invest in some if you’re being subjected to that.”

He snorts.  “Trust me,
dude
, I
have
to use them all the time with those two.”

I can’t help but shake my head.  “I don’t really want to hear this.”

“Then we should definitely leave before it starts.”

Considering what Lexie shared with me this afternoon, it’s highly doubtful there will be any grunting going on tonight, but I can’t very well tell Roan that.

“Okay.  Let me grab my purse and we can go.”  Even though I know damn well that spending more time alone with Roan isn’t going to dampen any of the feelings that have sprung up so unexpectedly within me, I just can’t bring myself to turn him down.

So, for better or worse, I’m going out.

With Roan King.

God help me.

Chapter Nineteen

Ohhhh, a sighting at Peppino’s has been made and (gasp!) he’s with the same girl from the photos previously published on this very site!  I’m sad to say that whatever is going on over at that table looks pretty damn serious…  KingOfCampus.com

He takes me to a popular pizza joint located in the middle of town.  I haven’t been here since I left for Paris.  It’s actually one of my favorite restaurants.  So coming back after nearly a year and a half of being away has nostalgia wrapping around me like a thick comfy blanket.

Grabbing a booth, we’re given menus although I don’t even bother looking at mine.  I know exactly what I’m having.  I notice Roan doesn’t pick his up from the table either.