Co-Ed(11)

“Well, the good ones are touching me,” she pointed out.

Leo laughed and stopped rubbing. “You looked cold.”

“I’m not.”

“So, would you say you’re hot then?” Finn asked.

“Why does this feel like a trap?” she wondered out loud, glancing at the full cups in her hands. “If I answer right, can I go back to my room?”

“Why would you want to do that?” Leo said from behind her. “I promise you’ll have more fun out here.”

“Yes, having an orgy sounds awesome,” she deadpanned.

Finn burst out laughing. “Honey, I’m sure it would be, but that’s not exactly what goes on behind closed doors. I think you’d be surprised how non-sexual what we do is.”

“Uh-huh, and the moans?” She tilted her head. “That’s non-sexual?”

“Can’t help it when we bring a woman pleasure without even touching her,” Leo said, dripping with so much sexual innuendo I almost rolled my eyes.

“Your loss, baby girl.” Finn winked. “Anyway, nothing wrong with making new friends. Let us know if you ever need anything.”

Leo walked around her, careful to graze her arm one last time as he and Finn moved past me. Finn whispered under his breath, “She’s all ready for you.”

Shawn was almost to her door when I approached her; she was doing her best to ignore me and walk fast enough that it didn’t look like she was sprinting to get away.

“One minute,” I said in a confident voice. “All I need is one minute.”

“So you can lecture me on microwave safety again?” She glared.

I liked her spunk.

Almost more than I liked her mocha skin. God, she was beautiful when she was annoyed. That might be my new favorite addiction — annoying her.

“Nah, I think we got that all out of the way last time,” I teased before I walked around her body as if I was memorizing her. “Like I said, one minute.”

“Fine, but you can’t touch me.” She smirked.

It was almost unfair how easy it was to read people, even her.

“Agreed.” I grinned. “And you don’t even have to set the glasses down.”

She rolled her eyes. “This I have to see.”

“Oh, that’s the thing. Your eyes have to be closed. I promise I won’t touch you; I’ll just give you an idea of what sharing with grownups is like.”

She gave me a disgusted look and closed her eyes.

“Fifty-nine seconds,” I whispered, holding my hands out in front of me, careful to keep them one inch from her body as I slowly ran them over her arms, her head, her legs. One of the first things I’d learned before signing up for this was Reiki work, or energy-field massages, and from my experience, they worked extremely well on stressed-out college students, especially women.

I moved the energy around her arms, her legs; her body gradually started to slump as her breathing slowed, while I stood behind her and took the negative energy swirling around her head and sent it packing. My fingers heated as I pushed good energy around her face, her lips, her mouth, concentrating on her eyes and the small scar on the right side of her cheek.

Ten seconds.

I moved to the front of her and cupped my hands over her ears, still without touching her, then ran one hand over her mouth.

Five seconds.

I stood in front of her, my mouth inches from hers.

And I sucked the air between us like the slow burn of a cigarette.

Damn it, she was like nicotine, wasn’t she?

“Open,” I whispered, still in front of her.

“What…” Her voice croaked as she swayed a bit in front of me. “…the hell was that?”

“You carry a lot of stress in your neck.” I touched her then, grabbing the pieces of muscle between my fingers and pressing as she moaned as she sagged forward. “A lot of athletes do. You need to be icing more, all right?”

She nodded against my chest.

Then, as if she’d just realized we were touching, she jerked back and narrowed her gaze. “That’s not fighting fair.”

“What?” I smirked.

“You.” She pointed at me with one of the glasses. “That’s like memorizing someone’s weakness then pouncing when they’re too tired to fight you.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I wanted to stay. I wanted to fight with her, to argue, to kiss her senseless. Instead, I backed away and nodded my head. “Have a good night, Shawn.”

She gaped.

She seemed surprised I wasn’t staying.

The struggle was real. After having my hands so close to her body, yet not touching her, my fingers had burned, so I’d broken one of the rules. I’d touched her afterward just to see if her body would respond.

And it had.

Fuck, it had responded beautifully.

She gave her head a shake as her door jerked open.

Slater gave me the same glare I’d been on the receiving end of since the incident freshman year.

I glared right back.

The memories came crashing in, like they always had.

Memories of her smell.

Memories I saw haunting his eyes too.

I looked away.

Backed off.

Because apparently, the universe hated me, and the one girl who’d piqued my interest just happened to be staying with the one guy who had a reason to hate me almost as much as I hated myself.