Thin Love (Thin Love, #1)(11)
She crossed her arms, stepping further away from his stupid smile. When he pulled on her arm, tugging the sleeve of her gray jacket, Keira jolted, slipped once on the wet steps and fell right back into Kona. He held her for a moment, hands circling her waist. She could feel how wide they were, how his long, large fingers held tight, dug next to her hipbones. Standing that close to him, she could smell the heavy scent of cologne on his shirt and felt the curved contours of his chest against her neck. She looked up, her chin moving so that her mouth was inches from his. She blinked quickly, wondering why his grip on her waist had tightened, why she felt transfixed as he pulled in his bottom lip under his teeth. When a small chuckle vibrated in his throat, Keira jerked out of his arms, wiggling forward until he released her.
His stare was cool, unaffected, but in her peripheral she noticed him balling one hand into a fist, as though he was trying to get rid of the memory of how she’d felt against him. “Hey. Listen, I’m sorry my mom was a bitch to you. I’m sorry you walked in on Lydia Kemp blowing me.” Keira scrunched her nose and Kona laughed again before he held up his hands. “I’m sorry I missed our meeting.” He took a step, forcing Keira to look away from him, returning her gaze back onto the soaking sidewalk. “Lunch? My treat.”
“No, I’m good.” The answer was automatic.
He made a noise, somewhere between a half-attempted laugh and a cough before he spoke. “Wait. What?”
“I said I’m good.” Keira had to refrain from laughing at Kona when she caught his expression. His mouth hung open, brows together so that the space between his eyebrows wrinkled. “What’s the matter? Not used to hearing no?”
“Not from girls, no, I’m not.”
“First time for everything.” She shrugged, pulling up the hood on her jacket. “I told you, I’m in a bad mood and, to be honest, I don’t like you.”
He laughed again, the sound peppered with disbelief, maybe a hint of real amusement. “Shit. You’re blunt as hell.” Another shrug and Kona’s laughter increased. “It’s just lunch. I’m not asking to see you naked.” Keira felt her cheeks heat like a fever had suddenly flashed through her blood and she cursed her pale skin that never hid a blush. One quick glance at his smile, and then Kona’s laugh only became fuller, deeper. “Damn,” he said, stepping next to her. He stood so close to her that Keira felt his breath warming her chilled skin. “You’re cute when you get all flustered like that.”
“Shut up.” She walked away from him, onto the edge of the steps and a steady stream of rain began to sprinkle off the alcove and onto her hood.
“Hey, don’t walk away. I don’t even know your name.”
A rare smile worked over her face and Keira tried to hide it, to push it off her lips because she didn’t know why it was there or why Kona Hale of all people had forced it out of her. Her dismissal had wiped the obnoxious grin from his mouth, that, she thought could have invited her smile, but she didn’t let herself linger on that thought. She was too caught up in how he stared after her, how he seemed eager to figure her out. “You would if you paid attention in class.” Keira jogged down the rest of the steps but stopped long enough to throw her gaze over her shoulder, catching how Kona’s eyes were focused on her ass. Seeing her pause, his attention returned to her face and that grin made a comeback. “Don’t be late tonight.”
Kona had only been at CPU for a year and this was the first time he’d ever been to the library. He didn’t need it. If there was research to do for any of his classes, he usually went into his mother’s office and worked on her computer. But this place was nice, he thought. He’d been in hundreds of libraries, usually when his mother’s sabbaticals had taken him and his brother everywhere from Canada to their island back in Hawaii.
The floors were marble and shone like a mirror, even with the random CAUTION: WET FLOOR signs littering every corner. The lobby seemed endless, with rows of thick, wooden tables lining either side of the room and sections of upholstered chairs and couches circling the two large staircases.
He sat in the lobby on a brown leather couch waiting for that girl, Keira he’d discovered her name was, to make an appearance. For all her bitching about him missing their first meeting and her anxious bullshit about him f*cking up her grade, the little brat was late.
He checked his watch, a worn leather and gold thing his grandfather had carried in Korea, and saw that Keira was running ten minutes behind. Kona wondered if she was testing him, was going to leave him hanging alone in the library but then immediately figured she didn’t have the nerve. He laughed at that, at her anal demeanor and the rigid way he’d noticed she carried herself.
Kona closed his eyes, remembering her earlier that day, rain soaked and wet and those tight jeans she wore clinging to her muscular legs and sweet, plump ass. Damn if the girl wasn’t hot. A little bit of a bitch, but still hot. She had potential that was for sure. He caught enough of a glance at her that night in the cafeteria when she was fresh from the track and her face had gone all pink and flushed, and again today when he flirted with her and her skin had turned red and blotchy. He liked that he did that to her. He did that to most girls, but Keira didn’t seem like the other girls he’d messed with before. She didn’t know what she was, how a rare little smile and the quick intake of breath (which pushed up her round tits) could have any guy panting after her like a dog.