Temptation (The Hunted, #1)(13)

Or maybe I should invite Tyler. I believed that he was sorry. Plus, he had been so sweet recently. I placed my face in my hands. This was so dumb. All I wanted to do was invite Professor Hunter. But he had a girlfriend. And he was my professor. I was so pathetic.

I looked up when Melissa walked into the room.

"Great news," she said excitedly.

"Will I think it's great?"

"That depends."

"On what exactly?"

"On if you already have a date for Saturday."

Oh no, what did she do? I just looked at her, hoping she would continue. When she didn't, I said, "I don't."

"Well you do now. I ran into Austin again, and he's coming."

I didn't want to see him. I felt sick to my stomach. "Where do you even keep running into him?"

"First of all, you're welcome. Coincidence? Fate? You can decide on Saturday." She sat down at her desk and opened up a book. She seemed mad at me.

"Sorry, Melissa. I'm sure Saturday will be fun. Thanks for asking Austin for me."

She turned around with a big grin on her face. "No problem," she shrugged, and went back to studying.

Crap! I lay back on my bed. I should have invited Tyler when I had the chance. Josh and Tyler were in the same fraternity. They were probably friends. There was no way Josh would fail to mention to Tyler that I had been on a date with another guy. Tyler was going to hate me. For a second I thought about calling Austin to un-invite him. That would feel so rewarding! I smiled to myself. I wanted him to feel rejected like I had all summer. Too late now, though. A part of me, even if it was rather small, did want to see him again.





Chapter 11


Friday

I couldn't compete with the mystery woman from Professor Hunter's office. There wasn't anything to really suggest that they were together, though. Maybe it was just one date. Could I compete? Did I even want to?

The woman had been sophisticated. She had even been wearing nylons. I rolled my eyes to myself. She had been sophisticated, but that didn't mean that I needed to be. I opened up my backpack and pulled the sweater out. Luckily Melissa was still sound asleep, because I didn't want her to judge me.

I pulled his sweater over my head. It was pouring outside, so I slipped my red rain boots on and grabbed my matching red umbrella. He had implied that he thought the sweater looked better on me. I took a deep breath and walked out of my dorm room.

When I reached class, Tyler was already sitting in the desk next to mine.

"Are you feeling better today?" I asked him as I sat down.

"I didn't miss class because I was sick. I just needed a day off."

"Classes only just started," I laughed.

"Well I needed an excuse to get together with you so I could copy your notes." He was leaning on the edge of his desk, staring at me rather seductively.

I laughed again. "Professor Hunter basically just defined the word emotion. You're supposed to make your audience feel something when you give a speech. I didn't take notes."

"Penny you're making this impossible. Do you have plans this weekend?" There was something endearing about the way he was looking at me. Confident yet eager at the same time.

I sighed. "My roommate is forcing me to go on this strange double date with her." Hopefully that would make it seem rather innocent. And it was true, I didn't want to go.

Tyler smirked at me. "If you want to ditch it, I'll take you out to dinner."

"If you knew Melissa, you would know that that isn't an option. Sorry Tyler," I said and smiled at him.

"The rejection hurts," he said with a smile. He placed both his hands on his chest and let his head fall back like I had just hit him with a fatal blow.

"Oh, come on," I said, and lightly shoved his shoulder. "Rather dramatic."

"Rain check?" he asked.

I nodded. I looked up as Professor Hunter entered the room. He was wearing his glasses and his hair was sexily disheveled. A tight black t-shirt and light jeans made him look so casual and approachable. I tried not to think about the fact that he may be dressed casually because he was up late with the mystery woman.

It was hard to pay attention to what he was saying. His sweater that I was wearing smelled like him and it was like I was in some kind of trance. Does he notice that I'm wearing it?

Today's assignment was to talk about our weekend plans.

On Tyler's turn, he looked down at me while he spoke: "I will be spending the weekend wallowing in my room, because this girl I'm crushing on is too busy to hang out with me."

"Oh my God," I mouthed silently to him.

"Penny Taylor," Professor Hunter called.

When I stood up, it looked like his jaw dropped slightly. He quickly closed his mouth and looked down at his paper.

I wanted to make him jealous. Tyler had already set me up. "This weekend I'm going on a double date with my roommate and her new boyfriend."

Professor Hunter seemed to wince when I said "date."

I quickly added, "But I'm absolutely dreading it," before sitting back down. I was bad at playing hard to get.

Tyler leaned over. "I wish you didn't have to go either," he whispered.

Professor Hunter called the next name on the list without looking back over at me. When he was finished listening to the other students, he walked over to the board. He wrote "lust" on the board in all caps.