Co-Ed(20)

It was scribbled in pretty handwriting that matched her skin and lips. Handwriting I traced with my finger a dozen times before I got to work.

The first three answers were wrong.

I winced as I kept grading, and when I tallied up her score, I felt so bad for her I wanted to accidentally lose the test so she could do a retake.

Sixty-eight percent.

Not exactly the best grade on the planet, though she still did better than most people in the class who got lower than a fifty percent.

I finished up the grading then entered the percentages into the online Blackboard site and called it a day, just as Professor Duke was leaving.

“Hey, Duke.” I was one of the rare ones he let call him by name.

“Knox?” He turned and rubbed his tired eyes with his free hand then returned his glasses. “Finished already?”

“Yeah.” I crossed my arms over my bulky chest. “I actually was just wondering if you needed me to help tutor anyone? This test was rough for a lot of students.”

Total bullshit. What I really wanted to ask was if he could please force me to tutor a certain girl so she had no choice but to say yes.

He sighed. “That bad, huh?”

I snorted. “What did you expect? The test was seven pages long.”

He grinned. “I like testing their mental fortitude.”

“Achieved.” I laughed. “Trust me, there will be tears.”

“Bah!” He waved a hand at me. “The world is full of tears. This is where we mold students to fight past them, am I right?”

He gave me a knowing glance.

I looked away and mumbled, “Right.”

“There are a few who have asked. I’ll email you some names tonight, and you can see if your schedule meshes with any of them.”

“Great.” I tried not to look too eager.

I must have failed because his eyes narrowed. “And you’re just doing this out of the goodness of your heart?”

I winked. “You wound me.”

“Uh-huh.” He sputtered out a laugh. “Day’s over, Knox. Get out of my hair.”

The man was bald.

I left with a wave anyway.

And whistled all the way to my Mercedes coupe.





Chapter Fourteen


Shawn

I tapped my pencil against my thigh as I waited in the library for my tutor to show. His or her email was [email protected], so I had no clue if I was getting a male or female, and honestly? I didn’t care. I’d bombed my last test and between practices, weightlifting sessions, and the crazies across the suite, I was slowly losing my mind.

When did college students even have time to do all the things? Especially college athletes?

I grunted, cracking my neck so that some of the tension would release from my shoulders and all the tight muscles. I flipped open my textbook then checked my phone again.

Two minutes to five.

I huffed out a breath when I checked my cell again and saw it had been another five minutes. Still a no-show. And then, as if I had conjured up the devil himself, I looked up into Knox’s hypnotic blue eyes and gaped. “Can I help you?”

He set down the same, exact textbook I had and slid an iced coffee toward me. “I think that’s my line.”

I grabbed the coffee, clenched it actually, almost afraid it was poison, or worse, some sort of drug that would make me hump his leg. Yeah, that would be just awesome. “Pardon?”

“Can I help you?” he said slowly, leaning in and licking his lips. “Now, if you open to Chapter Three—”

“Wait, wait!” I looked around the busy library as if it was some sick joke, and someone was going to pop out and say, “Gotcha!” “I told you I didn’t need you.”

“And you nearly failed your last test. Trust me, I graded it.” He shrugged, apparently trying to disregard the fact that it was extremely embarrassing that he’d gone over all of my crap answers and marked them with an angry red pen. “Professor Duke paired me with students who need help. Thus, here I am.”

I deflated.

So, he was here doing his job as the TA? I mean, of course he was. Why did it matter? I was just another job. Fantastic. This would be a good thing. I shifted in my seat. A great thing, even. I cleared my throat and said, “You could have told me you were the TA.”

“A guy has to have his secrets.” He smirked then sipped his own iced coffee and grabbed a notebook from his messenger bag. His blond hair kept falling out of his messy man bun. It was a seriously strong temptation to use my fingers to brush that hair back. “Like I said, Chapter Three…”

“R-right.” I cleared my throat and turned to the correct page then waited as he started firing off definitions and study techniques for Duke’s test.

He was talking so fast that I had to put a hand up. “Wait, say that again.” I wrote down as much as I could and tried not to be intimidated by his obvious intelligence compared to my own stupidity when it came to the material.

Two hours later, he was yawning, and my neck felt like someone had sat on it then twisted for good measure. I dug my left hand into the muscles while my right kept taking the last of the notes he had for me.

When I looked up, he was gone.

And then massive warm hands were on my back.

And I was so sore I didn’t even jerk away; instead, I moaned out, “This in the TA job description?”