Misadventures of a College Girl (Misadventures #9)(44)

“Shit. I’m never going to be able to memorize this damned scene.”

“Yes, you are. If we practice the scene enough times, you’ll memorize it without even trying. That’s why I keep nagging at you to rehearse.”

“Can’t I just read from the book when we perform it for our class?”

I’m aghast. “Blasphemy! Oh, my God, Tyler. My heart.” I clutch my chest. “If you’re on-book during the performance, you won’t be able to completely immerse yourself in Romeo’s emotional life.”

Tyler rolls his eyes behind his mask. “That was literally the most theater-major thing you’ve ever said.”

I ignore his jab. “This scene is about Romeo seeing Juliet for the first time and feeling like he’s been struck by a thunderbolt. He sees her, and he’s instantly positive she’s his destiny. You won’t be able to convey Romeo’s heart-stopping, all-encompassing, written-in-the-stars attraction to Juliet if you’re staring at the pages of your textbook.”

Tyler sighs. “It’d be a whole lot easier if those two knuckleheads would just speak plain English.”

I giggle. “And what would those two knuckleheads say if they did?”

“They wouldn’t say ‘lest faith turn to despair,’ that’s for fucking sure.”

Oh my God, he’s so cute when he’s annoyed. “What would Romeo say in plain English? We might as well start fleshing out the companion contemporary scene we’re supposed to write. We’re way behind on that.”

Tyler considers his reply. “Well, this scene is about Romeo seeing Juliet at a party and feeling like she’s his idea of the perfect girl, right?”

“That’s a great way to explain it. Yes.”

“Well, then, that’s easy. Romeo would say to Juliet whatever I said to you when I first saw you at the party.”

My heart stops. Oh, my God.

“Do you remember what I said to you when I first approached you?” Tyler asks breezily, apparently unaware of the heart-stopping dots he’s just connected. “I could barely think when I first saw you. You were so gorgeous, you fried my brain. Plus, I was drunk that night, which wasn’t typical for me.”

My heart is racing. “Yeah, um, I remember exactly what we both said. You were like, ‘Hey, I’m Tyler Caldwell.’ And then I said something like ‘Gah-buh-dah-boo-gah.’ And then you said, ‘I don’t go for freshmen because they’re batshit crazy.’ And I said something like, ‘That’s dumb.’ And then you said, ‘Rules were made to be broken.’” I laugh. “We weren’t the second coming of Romeo and Juliet, to be honest.”

Tyler chuckles. “Okay, then we should make our modern-day Romeo say what I was thinking when I saw you, not what I actually said. That ought to give our modern-day Juliet something more interesting to work with.”

The hairs on my arms stand up. “What were you thinking when you saw me?”

Tyler scoots closer to me on the edge of the bed. He grabs my hand. “Hey there. I saw you across the crowded kitchen and couldn’t believe my eyes. You’re the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen in my life. My idea of perfect. The minute I saw you, every other girl at this party faded away. Every other girl in the world, as a matter of fact. Suddenly, it was just you and me and my very hard cock.” He smiles and leans toward me, sending my heart fluttering. “Beautiful girl, I want to kiss you so fucking bad—more than I want to draw my next breath.”

My cheeks feel hot. I nod and pucker, and he leans in and kisses me.

And that’s it. I lose my mind. I throw my arms around Tyler’s neck and slide onto his lap and straddle him and attack him—and not ten seconds later, Tyler’s Shakespeare textbook has landed with a thud onto the floor, our masks and underwear are off and thrown willy-nilly across the room, and our Romeo and Juliet rehearsal is officially done for the night.





Chapter Twenty-Seven





It’s Wednesday night, and I’m at Tyler’s house. Once again, we’re practicing our Shakespearean scene in his bedroom.

“Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take,” Tyler says, his blue eyes glinting behind his mask. “This is where I kiss you, right?”

I nod.

Tyler pulls me close and lays a sexy kiss on my lips. And then he whispers, without needing to glance at the book sitting next to him on the bed, “Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.”

“Then have my lips the sin that they have took,” I reply.

“Sin from thy lips?” Tyler replies. “O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again.”

He kisses me again, only this time like he’s going to fuck the living hell out of me.

“Oh, my God. That was amazing, Tyler!” I’m giddy with excitement. “You were amazing! My only note is that you can’t kiss me quite that passionately when we perform it for the class. But, otherwise, it was absolutely perfect.”

“Why can’t I kiss you that passionately? Romeo and Juliet are totally hot for each other. You said Romeo feels like he was struck by a thunderbolt.”

“Yeah, but they just met.”

“So what? Five minutes after I met you, we were swallowing each other’s faces and dry-humping each other on a dance floor.”