Need Me (Broke and Beautiful #2)(19)

Thankfully, she let it slide, but she didn’t let him off the hook. “I’m young, but I’m not na?ve.”

“Everyone says that when they’re young.” He regretted being harsh when she looked away, probably wishing she hadn’t wasted her time talking to him. The loss of her attention dragged his stomach to the floor, and he had to get it back. How? His mind flipped like the pages of a novel. “One time, I got locked in the library after hours. I’d been grading exams and lost track of time.” Hesitant, golden eyes met his once again through the gap, and he immediately felt better. “I went to the front desk, hoping to find someone who could let me out.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I might have seen Miss Woodmere and Dean Mahoney. And she might have been dripping candle wax onto his bald head. While George Michael might have been playing from her computer speakers.”

“No. No way.” Honey shook her head. “You’re a dirty liar.”

He held up both hands, palms out. “His head is pretty shiny. That’s all I’m saying.”

“It’s reflective.” She laughed into her sleeve again. “Why did you tell me that?”

The truth just fell out, tumbling into their dim, secluded corner of the world. “I thought it would be nice if, just once, we didn’t walk away from each other angry or upset.”

He heard her swallow. “I guess I should walk away now before you blow it, huh?”

Ben really didn’t want her to leave. Could have stood there talking to her all damn night. But he’d had his time with her, and he couldn’t be greedy. Not when every moment he spent with her left him wanting more. More. “That’s probably a good idea.”

She stepped back from the shelf. “Goodnight, Ben.”

“Goodnight, Honey.”

He didn’t move again until she’d been gone long minutes.





Chapter 7



A QUARTER MILE from where Honey had grown up in Bloomfield, there was a ramshackle baseball diamond. At least, it had been ramshackle. Every day of her childhood, she rode past it, watching weeds take it over a little more each time, no local kids making use of it as they should. When her parents asked her what she wanted for her seventh birthday, she told them she wanted to fix up the baseball diamond. It took six weeks of hard work. Her friends filtered in and out, helping one day, disappearing the next, but Honey and her parents kept on weeding, laying sod, cleaning up ancient garbage.

When they were finished, it outshined the school baseball diamond. Her father spent hours pitching her the ball while her mother fielded, and she got pretty damn good by the time she turned nine. So good that she signed up for the town Little League. Only to find out it was for boys only.

After her parents asked around and Honey talked to the kids in her class, it became obvious that she wasn’t the only one who hadn’t made the cut. Not just girls, but boys who weren’t friends with the coach’s son or couldn’t afford the uniform fee. So she started her own little league, running it on Saturdays in the diamond near her house. She didn’t charge or turn a single person away, and they had fun. Local vendors started donating items, such as uniform shirts and postgame snacks. It became so popular that kids from the first Little League began dropping out and joining Honey’s. In the end, the original league acquiesced and combined the two, with the promise to run the league in the spirit that should have been intended. They actually called a meeting with Honey at the town diner, two grown men sitting across from a ten-year-old Honey as she sipped a chocolate milk shake and listened to their terms.

Bottom line: Honey didn’t slink off into a corner when things didn’t go her way. And she could be stubborn as hell. Never in her life had she gone after a member of the opposite sex, mostly because she’d always been with Elmer. And after yesterday, when Ben had implied she was na?ve, she shouldn’t give him another thought. Unfortunately, their conversation in the library had elevated the too-sexy professor from infatuation to . . . guy she wanted to spend time with. Talk to. Learn more about. In addition to messing up the sheets with him. Sheet messing was definitely still on the agenda.

Honey didn’t know what made her so certain Ben would attend the poetry reading tonight, but she somehow knew he’d be there. Monday after class, he’d obviously been irritated when Winker had said he’d see her at the reading. Even shoving the flyer into his pocket rather than returning it to her. Before they’d parted ways yesterday in the library, she’d been so tempted to ask if he’d be there tonight, but she’d known that if she vocalized the hope, he’d stay away. Which would throw a serious wrench into her seduction plans.

Honey stepped back and looked at herself in the mirror. She’d once again raided Roxy’s closet, and she’d come out with a vintage halter dress in a dusky rose color. It was modest on top, showing no cleavage, but it more than made up for that lack of boob action once you traveled downstairs. The hem brushed the middle of her thighs like a tease, making her legs tingle all the way down to her heeled sandals. She’d opted to pile her hair on top of her head because it kept getting tangled in the dress’s tie at the back of her neck, which kind of made it look like she was dressed for a Homecoming dance, but hey, this was her first seduction, so she would give herself a pass.

Half an hour later, she’d taken the train uptown and walked to the English building on campus. She’d made sure to show up twenty minutes late so she could slide into an empty seat in the back row and not stand around pretending to be fascinated with the snack table. Since starting at Columbia, she’d tried to attend as many of these events as possible. In the back of her mind, it justified her being here, all the money her parents were spending and loans she’d be paying off for years to come. This experience wouldn’t be wasted because she wasn’t adept at small talk.