To Professor, with Love (Forbidden Men #2)(16)

I grinned, deciding he might be okay after all.

“Where’s your friend tonight?” I asked Tianna, taking her hand to play with her fingers and coax her attention back to me. “You guys still keeping my rain check on that threesome you offered me?”

Tianna finally tore her gaze away from Lowe. “Oh, sorry. Marci had dance class tonight. So we’ll have to do it another time. But yeah, don’t worry. She’s still good for it. I swear that girl’s panties have been wet for you for months. Ever since I introduced you two during that party after the last football game, she will not stop talking about you. It’s actually annoying.”

“So, she talks about me, huh?” A slow grin spread across my face, my ego suitably fed, knowing someone still preferred me over freaking Mason Lowe. And her name was Marci. Cute.

“Well, I hate to make a girl suffer. What say you hook us up sometime? Soon.”

“Sure.” Her gaze returned to Lowe as she kept talking to me. “You going to that frat party next weekend?”

“Next weekend?” I groaned. “You’re killing me here, Tianna. I need something before next weekend.”

She let out a harassed sigh and sent me a scowl. “Okay, fine. I’ll see what I can do.”

“You’re the best.” I hauled her in for another quick kiss. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure to bring your new friend there to the party too, and I’ll pay you back…big time.” She ran a fingernail down my cheek as her face lit with a devious smile.

I was about to tell her not to even try with Lowe, he seemed attached to his girlfriend, but Ten appeared behind her. “Tianna!” He gave her a loud slap on the ass. “You ready to give me another go yet?”

Snorting, Tianna spun around to cross her arms over her chest and glare. “I haven’t lost my mind yet, so…hell no. Touch me again, and I’ll kick your nuts up into your throat.”

As she stormed away, I let out a low whistle and winced at the mere thought. Ten had some kind of talent. He was the only guy I knew who could piss off the queen of casual sex. Tianna never got mad at any guy, for anything. Made me wonder what the hell he’d done to offend her. Then again, he was Ten. The possibilities were endless.

After watching her march away, he turned to grin at me. “She totally wants me. She was asking about me, wasn’t she?”

I laughed. “Between kissing me, staring at Lowe, and setting me up with one of her friends, no, your name didn’t come up once.”

“A setup, huh? Who’s her friend? Dr. Kavanagh?”

Narrowing my eyes, I pointed at him threateningly. “I swear to God, if you don’t shut up about that, I’ll kick your nuts up into your throat.”

“Whatever, man. You know you want your teacher.” Then he put in his order to Mason and started flirting with a pair of ladies sitting at the bar.

The sad thing was, Ten was only teasing me about her because he was sure I didn’t want her, while, Jesus, even the mention of her stirred something inside me.

I should’ve gotten Marci’s number from Tianna. I needed something—anything—to flush thoughts of a certain dowdy teacher from my head. Because if this kept up, I’d no doubt find myself in a shit bowl full of trouble.

***

When closing time came, I put Lowe on cleaning duty. While he was wiping down the back counter, his cell phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and, I swear, as soon as he saw the I.D. on his screen, his face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.

“Hey, sweet pea,” he answered, his voice going all husky and private, letting me know he must be talking to his girl. Tucking the phone between his shoulder and ear so he could continue his work, he chuckled in response to something she said. “It’s been...interesting. I’ll tell you all about it when I get home. Oh yeah?” His eyebrows shot up, and I could only imagine what else his girl was suggesting they do when he got home, because all kinds of horny lit up across his face.

I couldn’t seem to look away as I watched him talk to her, though. It was just so...strange. The guys on the football team who had steady girlfriends never looked happy when their old ladies called to check in. They were rarely faithful to their girls, always hooking up with one-night-stands whenever we had out-of-town games. It made me wonder why they even bothered to stick with one girl.

Now that I thought of it, I hadn’t grown up around any monogamous couples in my life. My mom had rarely brought home the same guy more than twice, and all the marriages in our neighborhood ended in divorce or widowhood. So, okay, it really was rare for me to see a guy talking to his girl as if he wanted to talk to no one else in the world. And he looked so damn happy about it, too. It was kind of...sweet.

When he hung up with her, still grinning, Lowe pocketed his phone and went back to work, looking as if he’d just won the national championships or something.

“Who the hell was that?” Ten wanted to know as he neared the bar with a handful of glasses that needed to be cleaned. “You just win the lottery, newbie?”

“Hmm?” Lowe turned and glanced at him. “Oh. My girlfriend. She just wanted to know how my first night went.”

Again with the sweetness. It was a little endearing to watch such a pure, open emotion light his face when he talked about her. I was suddenly very curious about girlfriends and monogamy. Maybe they weren’t as awful as some of the guys on the team made them seem. Maybe it wouldn’t be the end of the world to settle down with one person.