Price of a Kiss (Forbidden Men #1)(66)

“Yeah, you mind?” he asked. “Or yeah, I can make a copy?”

“Huh?” I looked up and gave a slight shake of my head. “Why would I mind if you made a copy?”

Belatedly, I noticed the amused glimmer in his gaze a split second before he full-out grinned. The magnetism of his smile didn’t quite reach off-the-chart Mason levels, but it was pretty darn cute.

“You have personal notes in the margins,” he said. “Some people would mind.”

I stared at him a moment longer before saying, “I don’t mind.”

His smile warmed, rising his looks a couple of notches on the Richter scale. “Well…thank you.”

I watched him stroll away, considering the possibilities there, and surprisingly enough, they didn’t totally suck.

“Hmm.” That was nice to know. There might still be life for me after I’d totally ruined myself over a certain psycho stalker ex-boyfriend and then become completely hung up on a non-retired gigolo.

When Ethan returned, he set my worksheet down to the side of my books. “Here’s your original.”

“Thanks. Have you looked at number nineteen yet?”

“Just a sec.” Ethan dropped into his chair and consulted his worksheet. “Yeah, I remember reading about this.” Morphing out of sexy co-ed mode and back into bland study partner, Ethan flipped through one of his own numerous textbooks. “Here.” Quoting a passage aloud, he read, “‘Human diseases that are believed to be caused by prions are…’”

As he spoke, I scooted my chair around in order to sit next to him. He faltered in his reading to glance at me. Then he grinned, his cheeks flushed, and he kept on until he’d quoted the entire paragraph.

“There it is,” I murmured. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He cleared his throat and focused on his assignment.

“Oh, hey. And what Baltimore classification type did you put down for Parvoviridae?”

“I put down group two.”

I soaked in his answer and continued to stare at the question before wrinkling my nose. “But isn’t Parvoviridae double-stranded?”

Glancing up at the question, Ethan read it through again. “Oh, hell,” he muttered. He started to erase what he’d originally put. “Good catch.”

I grinned, feeling a little smug that I’d corrected the brilliant Ethan Riker.

“It’s fine.” I tossed my hair in my yes-I’m-awesome manner. “Would you put it into group one then?”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “It’d have go there, don’t you think? It’s a DNA virus and it’s not reverse transcribing, so…”

“Group one it is,” I announced.

“May I have your attention, please?” a voice spoke from the library’s speakers. “The library will be closing in five minutes.”

Groaning in disappointment, Ethan looked at his homework. “I’m not going to finish this assignment before they close.”

I gulped. “Neither am I.” Oh, the gloom.

I had to finish the assignment tonight or I wouldn’t—“Hey, how late is the student center open?”

Ethan checked his watch. “It closed an hour ago.”

I rolled my eyes. “Wonderful.”

Ethan’s stomach growled as if it agreed, which reminded me I hadn’t eaten either.

Not wanting to think about food because my kitchen shelves looked pretty bleak, I yawned and stretched, hoping to keep the sudden hunger pangs at bay.

“Have you eaten?” Ethan asked, bringing up the issue anyway.

I could’ve strangled him. Thanks, bud. Go and remind me I was down to my last box of brown rice and mac and cheese. It would have to stretch until my next money installment from my parents or one of my jobs.

I shook my head no.

“Well, I’m starving.” He shut his book. “If you don’t mind two roommates who’ll probably be playing Zombie Invasion as loud as the speakers will permit, I say we go to my dorm, where we can spread this crap out more and not get kicked out at closing. That way, we can order a pizza or something. My treat. I need to eat before I drop.”

I watched him warily, wondering if he had some kind of ulterior motive behind his invitation. But when he glanced at me, he didn’t look like some sex-crazed maniac who wanted to lure the first unsuspecting girl back to his lair. He looked like a tired and starving college kid who just wanted to finish his homework and go to sleep.

Realizing this was Ethan—not Jeremy—I was talking to, I shook my head free of concern. “I could eat. But let’s go to my apartment instead. I don’t have any zombie-addicted roomies who’ll bother us.”

Ethan looked stunned by my invite but quickly stumbled his way into accepting. When his face flushed, it finally struck me, wow, I think the guy might have a mini crush on me.

He turned suddenly awkward. “Do, uh, do you want me to follow you home then?”

“That’d be great.”

I have to admit, I had an ulterior motive. I didn’t want to go to Ethan’s now, while there was still some daylight left, only to leave his place later on when it was dark and scary out. Plus I liked the idea of having someone else around when I got home. Eva had been at my place so much lately, I felt a little spoiled. She might have been dealing with her own issues—she still hadn’t told her parents about the baby because Alec had totally flipped out when she’d told him—but her mere presence had helped keep my Jeremy terror at bay.