Need Me (Broke and Beautiful #2)(12)

He hadn’t seen her face, obviously, but he’d known from her sweet voice and innocent rambling and God, her supple ass, that she’d been young. He stayed away from young girls. In order for her to be a student in his class, she had to be . . . young. She was young. There had been no decision involved, though, which wasn’t just unusual for him, it had never happened. He always made decisions based on sound logic and possible consequences. It scared him that she’d taken that away with so little effort. I’ve been soft for you all day. Christ. He’d practically thrown her up against the wall with the need to discover the soft. Touch, taste, take the soft.

Worse, his lust hadn’t exactly taken a hike since he’d found out closet girl was Honey and Honey was Lolita. No, it had revved higher. How was he supposed to stand in front of her tomorrow and lecture to a hundred students when her eyes would be on him? He didn’t have many options unless she transferred out of his class, but they were too far into the semester for that to be a viable option. Plus, it would mean he wouldn’t get to read any more of her work, and that upset him just as much as not being able to touch her. Okay, almost as much. He wouldn’t lie.

“Ben, you over there thinking about coconuts?”

He flipped Russell the bird, but turned to Louis. “How did this happen? You’ve been dating Roxy for a month and we’ve never met her friends? This could have been avoided.”

“Sorry, Ben. I’ve been kind of busy in my attempt to ruin her for other men.” Louis sipped his beer. “The party on Friday night was supposed to be the meshing of two supergroups. You kind of f*cked that up by trying to jackhammer the coconut, man.”

Ben felt an ugly flash of anger. “All right, stop talking about her like she’s some kind of object. I don’t like it.” In fact, he really, really didn’t like it. He knew his friends were just trying to lighten his mood, and hell, they’d had their fair share of beer as well, but someone talking about Honey in a less-than-respectful manner didn’t work for him. No, not Honey. Ms. Perribow. He thought of the way he’d shouted at her, the things he’d said, and swallowed the lump in his throat with a swig of beer. Hypocrite. “She’s not my type.”

“That sounded convincing.” Russell ran a hand over his shaved head. “Look, you want my advice?”

Ben and Louis both groaned, abandoning their beers on the table. Russell had developed a reputation in their group for giving out the worst advice. The fact that he retained his belief in its golden value, no matter how often it failed, made it even more unbearable to sit through. Still, in his present state of mind, Ben would take a distraction from thoughts of Ms. Perribow in any shape or form. Don’t think of her shape or form. Don’t think—

“Fire away,” Ben croaked, ignoring Louis’s look of disbelief.

“The way I see it, you only have one option.” Russell shrugged, rather awkwardly. “We get the supergroups back together and you guys learn to get along. Without any jackhammers or coconuts.”

Louis dropped his head forward on a laugh. “You’re too obvious, Russell.”

“What?”

“This has nothing to do with Ben. You just want to see Abby again. Admit it.”

Ben’s mouth dropped open when his usually too-confident friend sputtered in response. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Abby and I are just friends.”

“You don’t want to jackhammer her coconut?” Ben asked with a raised eyebrow.

Russell’s jaw ticked. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

Ben and Louis high-fived Russell’s showing his hand. The construction worker had it bad for the debutante. How would that play out? Damn, it felt good to have the focus momentarily off himself. “So if you like her, what’s the problem? You’ve got all the best advice, now’s the time to use it.”

“I told you, we’re just friends,” Russell grated. “I’m fine with it.”

“Did Abby friendzone you?” Louis held up a finger while he swallowed a sip of beer. “She did, didn’t she?”

“I’m not talking about this anymore with you *s.” Russell took out his wallet and threw a couple of twenties onto the table. “Ben, here’s my real advice. Stop acting like that gorgeous girl did you a huge disservice by making out with you. We should all be so lucky. Fuck the rules. They were made by old men who couldn’t land a girl like Abby.” He gave a quick head shake. “I mean, Honey.”

“Oh my God. I think I agree with Russell.” Louis’s head whipped toward the window. “Was that a pig that just flew by?”

Russell sent Louis a look, then focused back on Ben. “But if you do pursue her, keep the upper hand. Take her somewhere nice for dinner, but not too nice.” He tapped a finger to his temple. “Women get notions. You take them to places with white tablecloths, they start picturing their wedding receptions. Flower arrangements and shit. They can’t help it. It’s in their genetic makeup.”

“And there it is,” Ben said.

“Thought we’d lost you for a minute there, man.”

“Take her to get Thai food,” their ill-advising friend continued, completely ignoring them. “For the love of everything holy, never take her to an Italian restaurant.”