Need Me (Broke and Beautiful #2)(13)

Louis raised an eyebrow. “I took Rox to get Italian on our first official date.”

“And just look at you now. Next you’ll be getting a dog together.”

Russell stood, giving Louis and his blissful grin a look of disgust. “I’m going to take myself somewhere my intellect is appreciated. Xbox Live. Goodnight, ladies.”

Louis and Ben were silent for a while after Russell left. Ben hated the freedom Russell had so fleetingly thrown at his feet, as if it were that easy. Fuck the rules, huh? He’d seen firsthand what happened when people didn’t give rules, vows, the respect they deserved. There was an undeniable part of him that wanted to let go of the restrictions he’d placed on himself and just give in to his painful attraction. Maybe it would only take one time and he’d be free of it.

Ben almost laughed at that hopeful thought. One time and she’d have him. He’d be f*cked in every way imaginable. He didn’t know where that certainty came from, but it was there. Strong and sure.

Louis cleared his throat beside him, drawing his attention. “I know you’re smart, Ben, probably the smartest of all of us, so I probably don’t need to tell you this. But not every relationship ends the way your parents’ relationship did.”

“There’s only one way to guarantee that, though, isn’t there?” Ben stared straight ahead, remembering things he didn’t want to remember. Nights of screaming matches, his mother dragging him from their house in the middle of the night. Losing his father to another, newer family. Then another. Until their original family ceased to exist. “She wasn’t honest with me. The situations are too similar. That’s all I can see when I look at her.”

“You sure about that?” Louis crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “If that was all you saw when you looked at her, you wouldn’t be this f*cked up, Ben.”

He’d heard enough. He didn’t want anyone making sense to him. It was clear what he needed to do, and it actually surprised him that Louis and Russell were too blind to see it. “Thanks for the advice, but I know what I have to do.”

Stay the hell away from Lolita.





Chapter 5



HONEY WASN’T ABOUT to sit in the front row of literary theory class again. The forced proximity would only serve to antagonize Ben, and that would simply be pointless. She’d antagonized the man enough. But she’d be damned before she’d hang her head and sit in the back row, the way she’d done before he’d opened his eyes and noticed her. One of the middle rows would have to do. It said, I’m contrite, but go to hell if you think I’m going to say it again out loud.

She took a steadying breath and slipped into the lecture hall behind a group of sophomore guys discussing some bar downtown that didn’t check ID. One of them winked at her as she bypassed them, and she gave him an absent smile. It froze on her face when she saw Ben standing behind the podium, wearing his delicious tweed jacket. The one she wanted to crawl inside of and spend a week there. Every inch of her skin turned sensitive, buzzing and heating in his presence. The professor’s gaze was flat as it gave her a cursory head-to-toe look, just before it landed on the Winker. As she took her seat smack in the middle of the class, Honey decided she’d misinterpreted Ben’s spark of irritation at seeing a boy give her a mere wink. Her fantasies were getting out of control. He couldn’t have made it clearer that he wanted nothing to do with her.

“I have your graded papers.” Ben tapped the pile of documents he held briskly. “As I call your name, please come and get them.”

Oh boy. She hadn’t anticipated this. In the past, he’d left them on his desk at the end of class and let the students sort through and find their own papers. Suddenly her white tank top felt too tight, too transparent. Her short, flowery skirt felt several inches too short. How could she get up and walk down the aisle, him watching her the whole way, and not combust? Honey tried not to let her nerves show, but when the Winker tapped his pen on her desk, she jumped in her seat.

He leaned toward her, running the pen along his bottom lip. She wondered if he realized it was leaving ink in its wake. His cocky smile said probably not. “Nervous about the grade?”

“Um.” Ben had started calling names, so it was hard to focus. Should she be worried about her grade? He wouldn’t fail her out of spite, would he? If he did, she would raise ever-loving hell. “No. I think I’ll do just fine. What about you?”

“Didn’t read it. Winged it.”

He smirked at her, like she should be impressed by that. She wasn’t. “Cool,” she said politely.

“Ms. Perribow,” Ben’s smooth voice called from the front of the room. His eyes were no longer flat. They were on the Winker sitting next to her. Hard and analyzing. Honey suppressed a shiver and scooted out of her row, descending the seven steps toward Ben. He held out her paper, keeping his attention firmly on some unseen spot over her head. She took it from him, careful not to let their fingers brush, and turned away. But not before his gaze dropped to hers, just in the nick of time for her to catch it.

Breathing ceased to be a possibility under the heat she encountered there. Only a split second’s worth and not intended for her to see, she suspected, but there all the same. It singed her, that look. It made her aware of every curve of her body, how they shifted with each step on the way back to her seat. He couldn’t still be looking, could he? He’d called another name, but she could feel his awareness smothering her like the August heat in Kentucky.