Country Kisses (3:AM Kisses Book #8)(16)
Oh God, oh God, oh God! Instinctively, I take a careful step back, readying to retrace my steps and bolt straight for the library where I can drop this class with a modicum of dignity with the aid of my laptop.
Then the unthinkable happens, and he looks up. There he is—Cade in all his Piper James’s glory.
His eyes fix on mine for one strangling moment before he breaks out into that killer grin and offers a friendly wave over. How can I ever deny that boy?
“Good grief,” I whisper, hiking over backpacks and gangly limbs as I traverse my way in his direction. For a hot second, I thought he couldn’t place me—perhaps the best-case scenario. For a hot second, I thought he might remember and want to bolt himself.
“Hey,” I whisper, opting for the seat two away from him, on the left, of course—I may be avoiding that lap rocket he’s hiding in his pants, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want him gaping at the left side of my face for the next four months. Cade frowns at my current locale, and is quick to pat the desk next to him, nodding me over in such a friendly manner I’d be a jackass not to follow.
“I don’t bite.” He lets loose one of his toothy grins again, and those vampire-like fangs beg to differ. “Unless you want me to,” he says that last part so low I wonder if he meant for me to hear at all. I settle next to him as his cologne saturates the two of us in its spicy, manly goodness. It smells luscious, again most definitely expensive, and thanks to that one naughty romp, it smells decidedly like sweet, delicious sex.
“I’m the TA.” He playfully butts his shoulder into mine, and as much as I want to dislike him, relegate him to the frat brat pile and wallow in self-righteous regret, I can’t help but note that Cade James is an all-around nice guy.
“I guess that means I get an automatic A.” My face burns with heat because I’m pretty sure he has almost zero say in what grade I get. It was simply a moronic stab at adding levity to an already awkward situation.
His dimples press in as his eyes roam freely over me. Thankfully, it’s an easy feat to keep my neck twisted to the side this way. It’s shocking at how prolific I’ve become in hiding these ropey worms that lie frozen on the side of my face. That’s what I thought they were for so long when I was a kid—twisted worms listing in my flesh as I slept. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Cade thumps his pen over my desk. His knee finds mine and warms it. A sizzle of electricity shakes through me at his rather innocent touch, and my body begs for what it never got that night with him, completion.
“Well, I’ve been all over campus,” I offer a cheesy grin with the lie. “I guess you’re not a very good stalker after all.” Good God! Why don’t I just come out and draw him a map to my dorm room? What was I thinking sending him a formal invite to stalk me? It’s practically a challenge, and everyone knows the people of the penis are wary to let a challenge slip by. That way, when Piper opens the door to our room and finds her brother with nothing but a Valentine over his privates, she can stab a knife through both of our coital-loving hearts.
He leans in, those powerfully persuasive velvet eyes pin themselves to mine, and my insides implode with oven-hot heat. “I know where you’ll be every Monday and Wednesday. My lecture is on Thursday, so I know where you’ll be then, too. Still looking like an amateur to you?”
A tiny giggle works its way up my throat, but I swallow it right back down. “So, you’ve got me during my waking hours, but how about all those lonely nights?” Again? WTF!
“That’s easy.” He leans back with that cocky grin fading to black. “My place.”
My entire body catches fire. “No unicorns in your neck of the woods yet, huh?”
The professor steps in, a tall gray-haired gentleman, and rambles about the rain as he gets settled.
“No unicorns.” Cade swallows hard, dipping his gaze to my cleavage and back. I’ve always loved a low-cut V-neck, but only because I can’t stand that strangling feeling a higher neckline affords. The trade off, of course, being that you get ogled ten times more than should ever be allowed. But something about his gaze warms me, and I don’t mind so much the ogling for once. “How about you?” His thick, deep voice strums over me like the rattle of a steel drum straight down to my achy-breaky bones. “Any unicorns pointing their horns your way?”
I make a face. “I see what your horny self did there. Let’s say I’ve got one or two roaming the vicinity.” Mostly I’m a liar, but since I’m new to both sleeping with my roommate’s brother and the art of bending the truth, I decide to cut myself a little slack.
His knee softly grazes over mine once again. “If you want, we can hit dinner tonight.”
“Sounds too much like a date,” I say, pulling out my notebook, my fingers trembling as if I were about to wire a bomb. Everything about Cade James feels like an explosive waiting to go off in my face.
“Swing by whenever—after eight would be perfect. As soon as you knock, I’ll put Buddy in his room. I still owe you from the other night.” He taps his fingers over mine, and my right hand burns in his wake. “I’d hate to leave the impression that I’m nothing but a taker.”
The professor starts his dissertation on the merits of advertising in this golden age of technology, but I can’t understand a word that follows that sentence. All I can focus on is the fact Cade’s knee is still solidly welded to mine, and my entire body is wracked with wanting from that simple, heated touch.