Foreplay (The Ivy Chronicles #1)(45)

“Okay,” I repeated, grinning like a fool.

He lowered his arm from my car and walked backward, still looking at me as he moved. “Wait here. I’ll bring my Jeep around.”

“Okay,” I said again, wishing I could come up with something better to say. Something clever and flirty.

I released a shaky breath as he turned and jogged away.





Chapter 15

Dropping into the driver’s seat, I waited, watching his tall frame disappear in my rearview mirror. My fingers tapped the steering wheel anxiously. Giving my head a fierce shake, I released a little shriek inside the safety of my car, getting it out of my system. Lifting my hands, I pressed them against my flushed face.

Yanking down the visor, I stared into my eyes, the green brighter than usual, and addressed myself firmly, “All right. Pull yourself together, Pepper. You’re a big girl. You asked for this. You’re not doing anything hundreds, thousands of women aren’t doing tonight.” I was probably doing less considering I wasn’t even having sex. “No. Big. Deal.” Even as I spoke the words, I continued to shake in my seat.

The lights of Reece’s Jeep soon flashed behind me and I put the car into reverse and backed out.

He followed me out of the lot and down the strip. I cut through campus, driving between the familiar red brick buildings lining Butler, past the quiet quad with its grassy lawns and empty benches. I managed not to total my car, which was somewhat miraculous considering I couldn’t stop glancing in the rearview mirror to watch the dark shadow of Reece inside his vehicle.

We found two spots near each other in the parking lot. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my backpack from the passenger seat and climbed out, grateful that I’d at least gotten all my studying done at the Campbells’. Reece was already waiting for me, looking relaxed and at ease with a hand buried halfway in his pocket.

“Are you all right leaving the bar?” it occurred me to ask.

“I called my brother. He can close up.”

“Oh. Good.”

He fell into step beside me as we headed toward the dorm. I glanced at his bare arms. “Are you cold?”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s a short walk,” I volunteered unnecessarily. “We’re almost to the door.” Apparently nervousness made me spew gibberish.

I swiped my card and entered the dormitory. At the elevator, I pushed the UP button and sent Reece a small smile as we both stood in awkward silence. I tried to appear more confident than I felt. Fat chance. He knew what I was. What I wasn’t. I trained my gaze on the descending floor numbers, watching each one light up. Seven. Six. He knew what I didn’t know. Five. What I needed to learn. Four. Three. Everything. Two.

I quit my study of the flashing numbers as two girls spilled noisily into the building. They clearly had a few drinks in them from the way they hung on each other.

I didn’t know them, but they looked familiar. But then so did everyone else who lived in the building. I was sure we had passed each other in the halls or shared an elevator before. The blond one had maybe even loaned me a quarter in the laundry room.

Their giggles and shrill voices died when they saw me standing there with Reece. They exchanged wide-eyed looks and compressed their lips as though it was killing them to hold silent. The doors slid open with a ding and muffled whoosh. Reece waited for all three of us to step in ahead of him and I swear they tittered like thirteen-year-old girls.

Rolling my eyes, I pushed for the fifth floor, wishing we had just taken the stairs. It was habit that I avoided the stairwell this late at night. It was too dark and smelled like sweaty socks on a good day. Plus, I just didn’t like the sense of isolation in the stairwell. Like I was inside a tomb. Small spaces and I never got on well. Too much of my childhood spent in closets and bathrooms.

When the girls got off on the third floor, they didn’t wait for the doors to close before they started whispering indiscreetly and looking back at us.

“God,” I muttered. “It’s like high school. Some things never change.”

“Some things do.” He slid me a long glance as we stepped off at my floor. “I didn’t spend the night with too many girls in high school.”

I arched an eyebrow. “No?”

He grinned. “No. That came later.”

“I bet.” I unlocked my door and moved into the pitch-black of my room, my steps automatic, moving from memory. I flipped on the lamp at my desk and dropped my bag onto the chair. The room’s adjoining door was ajar, as usual. I peeked inside the murky space. Emerson’s shape was visible beneath the covers of her bed. I could even detect her soft snores. I closed the door between our rooms (probably a first) and turned the lock.

Whenever Georgia wanted to be alone with Harris, they hung out at his place. She even spent the night there on occasion. I couldn’t help smiling at the thought of Emerson waking up to a closed door. She wouldn’t know what to think.

I faced Reece, smoothing my hands over my thighs, the soft denim somehow normalizing me. Lifting my chin, I braced myself for his first move.

Only he wasn’t even looking at me. He was studying my room, turning slowly, his gaze exploring my private sanctum like he was viewing something interesting. My bedspread with its overly large purple flowers. A poster of Mickey Mouse’s ears, just the shadow of them set against a star-speckled night. He took it all in, and so did I—seeing it through the eyes of a stranger. His eyes. My gaze skimmed the bed, the poster, the stuffed Pluto resting against my pillow that had seen me through so many years. It was a poor substitute for Purple Bear, but it was the first gift Gram had bought me so I treasured it. It was a little girl’s room, I realized. Or at least it would appear that way to him.