She Likes It Irish (5 page)

“Where are we going now?” she asked, hoping to hear the answer, “my room” or “your room.”

“Your dorm.”

Oh, God, yes!
Her heart shouted the words and swelled with desire. It had been easier to get him naked than she thought it would be after his speech about not deviating from the schedule. Then she thought she better make sure of his intention.

“You mean, to my room?”

He chuckled. “Darlin’, I told you we wouldna be deviating from the schedule. Besides, do you really think I’m the kind of guy who would try to make love to you on our first date?”

She stared into his sinfully hot eyes. “Yes, actually.”

He laughed out loud and wrapped his arm around her neck, hugging her to his side and kissing the crown of her head. He dropped his arm to her shoulders, holding her tight, and she held onto his hand where it hung in front of her breast.

It made her smile that he hadn’t denied it. “So…You’re not interested in charming your way up to my room or into my panties, and you’re dropping me off early. Sounds like you have another date.”

“I do.”

Disappointment and jealousy raged through her body. She let her hand fall from his and stared straight ahead. “Oh.”

He laughed and hugged her closer. “Not so much a date as an appointment. I tutor to help pay my way here. My next appointment is in…” he glanced at his watch “…about twenty minutes.”

“Oh.” She breathed and took his hand in hers again.

“With a
male
engineering student,” he added.

She smiled and met his teasing gaze. “You don’t have to explain. It’s not like you and I are…you know.”

He smiled down at her. “You looked like you wanted to knock my head off.”

She looked away, embarrassed that he had seen through her so easily.

He stopped and faced her. “It’s your eyes,” he said, even though she hadn’t asked, and brushed a finger down the side of her face, pulling her gaze back to his. “They say everything your mouth doesn’t want to.”

She stared at him, opening a pathway to her deepest emotions, willing him to see what was written there. To see her desire for him. “And what are my eyes saying now?”

He paused as if reading, trying to translate the symbols he saw in the depths. “They’re saying I’ll miss all my tutoring appointments today if I don’t get you home fast. Oh, and just to clarify, I never said I wasn’t interested in getting into your panties.”

She laughed, but there was nothing funny about how the sweet spot between her legs heated up as her mind rolled around in the idea of him getting into her panties. They again set off toward her dorm, but instead of heading for the front door, he pulled her into a patch of sunlight crawling up the adobe-style building. He removed his arm from around her and stuck his hands in the front pockets of his jeans while she settled back against the warm wall.

“We still on for our walk tomorrow?” he asked.

As an answer, she grabbed onto his jacket and yanked him against her, pulled his face down to hers, and kissed him.

He pulled his hands from his pockets and settled them on either side of her to steady himself, but he did little more than allow himself to be kissed. But soon, as if her kiss had touched off something inside him he couldn’t resist, his hands left the wall. They moved inside her jacket and went around her waist, pulling her into his body. But he wasn’t done touching her. His hands slipped beneath the hem of her shirt and caressed the feverish skin of her back, and his tongue, which had previously been only a teasing heat, suddenly became a licking flame in her mouth.

She felt hot all over. Grabbing his hips, she held him tight against her. A moan crawled up from her core when he slid his thigh between her legs, and she arched herself hard against him.

Her erotic sounds and moves seemed to cool his ardor because he eased back from the kiss and braced his hands against the sandpaper-rough wall. His face hovered inches from hers, his eyes holding tight.

“So…You’re one of those kinds of people, are ya.” The growl of his low voice skittered lightly across her skin like fingernails.

“What kinds of people?” she asked, frowning.

“The ones that don’t play by the rules,” he whispered in her ear, then nibbled her lobe with his lips, sending a battalion of shivers racing across her body.

She released a slow smile. “Is that a problem?”

“No. Only a challenge.”

His eyes dropped to her mouth, and she knew he wanted to kiss her again—and she was waiting for it, ready for it—but then he didn’t. He stepped out of the pocket of desire enveloping them and eased his hands back into his pockets. The movement further stretched the tight and tented crotch of his jeans.

His chest rose and fell in sync with hers, as if the two of them couldn’t get enough air when they were this close to the other. Her body screaming in agony at losing his heat, his touch, she stared at him, her eyes asking why.

Their gazes held for long, hungry seconds when neither could say a word. He took a breath and released it slowly.

“See you tomorrow at three.”

If Sean had looked back as he sprinted across campus, he would have seen her touching her scorched mouth with her fingers and known that she keenly regretted not asking for the lump-sum payment.

****

“How was breakfast?” Zoe asked when Kristin came in from her date.

“Fabulous.”

Zoe sat up in bed, the sheet clinging loosely around her naked body. “I thought you didn’t like that place? You said the green chile tasted like sour pickles.”

Though what Zoe said about the café was true, today it didn’t matter. She would have eaten anywhere, even at a roach coach, as long as it was with Sean. “It was the company that was fabulous.”

Kristin peeled off her coat and her boots and curled up on her bed with her backpack to get some homework done so she’d have more time with Sean tomorrow should they decide to expand their walk to include a tour of his bed.

She felt Zoe watching her and looked up at her. “What?”

“You didn’t get any, did you?” she asked.

“We don’t even know each other, yet.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so…I don’t smell his cum on you. I’d notice a new smell like that.”

Kristin shook her head. She never knew what Zoe was going to say, but more often than not, it shocked the polish off her toenails.

“No, I didn’t bring any strange cum home with me.”

Zoe pushed back the covers, jumped onto Kristin’s bed, and laid her head in her lap. “But I can smell the sweet peach juice he stirred up in you.”

“Don’t get any ideas. I have tons of homework.”

“Ideas like this?” Her fingers moved up the inside of Kristin’s leg in little swirling motions.

Kristin was horny as hell, but she wanted Sean to satisfy her, not Zoe. Not that she didn’t enjoy what her roommate did for her—she just craved Sean.

“Stop,” she said with a smile, swatting away her teasing hand.

She buried her face in Kristin’s lap, exhaling her breath on her crotch. “I can do what Sean wouldn’t.” Zoe mouthed her mound through the jeans. Need spiraled like a tornado in Kristin’s body, but she knew she didn’t want to be satisfied this way. Not this time. Not after what she’d felt with Sean. He was still running through her veins like a drug.

Kristin caressed her friend’s head gently. “Thanks, but not now.”

After a moment, she eased back. “Okay. Fine.” She got off the bed and dropped down onto hers. “But keep in mind I may not be in the mood later.”

Kristin laughed and shook her head. The nymphomaniac was always in the mood.

Zoe laughed, too. “You owe me one.”

Kristin didn’t respond. A sudden, sharp feeling had stabbed her heart, telling her she and her friend-with-benefits would not be intimate as long as Sean was in the picture.

Chapter Four

The pinging sound of the rain slashing against the windows sent shivers across Kristin’s back. She pulled her blanket tighter around her body for warmth. Through the wet rivulets, she saw Sean rushing toward her building, head down, eyes squinting to see through the rain, the ever-present grin on his face. Her heart sped up and her smile beamed when she saw the unopened umbrella he carried in his hand.

They weren’t calling their walk due to rain.

Losing sight of him when he entered the building, she left the window, tossed the blanket onto her bed, and slipped on a hooded raincoat. She dug in the back of her closet for her rain boots and pulled them on.

“Are you going somewhere?” Zoe looked up from her textbook.

“My walk with Sean.” The words danced out of Kristin’s mouth in a happy stream.

“But it’s raining. And freezing.” She tucked the blanket around her and shivered.

“Sean’ll keep me warm.” Kristin smiled at the thought, her heart buzzing like a swarm of bees in a field of wildflowers.

The throbbing strains of the ringtone she used for Sean’s calls caught her ears. Her phone was on the table by Zoe’s bed. As she reached for it, Zoe snatched it and put it in her lap to prevent Kristin from answering it.

“Tell him you can’t go, that you need to stay with me and do homework.”

“No. I want to go with him.” She tried to grab the phone, but Zoe folded herself over it. “Give me my phone.”

“No.”

“Give it to me!”

“No!”

Kristin lunged at her, pulling at her to uncover the phone. Zoe held firm, but Kristin managed to get a hand on it and drag it from her grip just as the music stopped.

“Dammit!” Kristin shot her friend the evil eye. “What the hell’s the matter with you?” She grabbed her room key and stormed out of the room, slamming the door soundly behind her.

She raced down the stairs, hoping Sean was still in the building and hadn’t left thinking she’d stood him up. Rounding the corner to the first floor, she burst through the door leading into the reception area. Several gazes spun toward her but Sean’s was the only one she cared about.

He was by the TV, phone at his ear. Water misted his hair, the tips of his eyelashes, and his face. Joy danced in her heart as if rows of spring daffodils had bloomed there in the past second. He glanced up, his eyes capturing hers.

His smile felt like sunshine on her face. She wanted to run into his arms but wasn’t sure whether he’d welcome it after the way he left her yesterday.

“Hi,” he said, tucking his phone into his pocket.

The grin alone was enough to make her moan with pleasure, but she collected herself enough to speak. “Hi.”

He held out his hand to her and she took it. “I missed you.”

“You did?” She smiled. “How much?”

He pulled her closer until she was right in front of him. “This much.” His hands cupped her face, his fingers in her hair, and he kissed her, his rain-slicked lips greedily drinking her in as if trying to quench an unquenchable thirst.

Her arms were around him, holding onto him with all her might, as his mouth devoured her. This was the response she’d dreamed of! How was it possible that after only a couple of days, she already felt like “next to him” was where she belonged?

Sounds of TV laughter, people chatting, phones ringing, music playing vibrated against her boots and radiated up through her body. She unlinked her body from Sean’s and allowed a breath of air to slip between them. She was damp where he was damp, and it felt like heaven.

“I’ve wanted to do that since I left you yesterday morning.” Sean’s words, said low and quiet through a smile, were like a rare gift just for her. “And judging by the way you kissed me, I’d say you missed me, too.”

“Maybe a little.” Her words carried a breathless tone that she couldn’t contain.

“A little?” he repeated her words with a grin. “Maybe I’ll leave now and come back when you miss me more.” He turned away.

Laughing, she grabbed his arm and pulled him back to her.

“Okay. I missed you more than a little. And I’m glad you didn’t bail on our walk because of the storm.”

He slid his arm around her, the grin full on his face again, and led them to the door. “Darlin’, where I come from this is nothing but a gentle mist.”

She peered outside at the steadily falling rain. “A gentle mist? Here it’s called raining cats and dogs.”

He held up the umbrella. “This won’t do much against cats and dogs.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“What a trooper.”

They clutched each other, as if life depended on being able to touch each other, and pushed outside.

He popped opened the umbrella and raised it above his own head, leaving her exposed to the elements. Laughter danced in his eyes as he looked at her. “Didn’t you bring one? You’re going to get soaked.”

She shoved him playfully, a grin on her face. “And you’re not going to get any more of my kisses, that’s for sure.”

He caught her and tucked her safely against him and under the protective dome. “I’d give up everything I have for one more of your kisses.”

Pure joy surged inside her like an erupting volcano and she dipped her head into his chest and giggled to release some of it before she exploded.

He put his hand on his heart and stumbled dramatically backward as if her giggles had wounded him. His eyes closed in mock pain. “I pour my heart out and you laugh at me?”

Kristin yanked him flush against her, still laughing. Her eyes on his, she invited him to push his gaze deep inside her to see the truth and the rolling desire in her heart.

“I laugh like a little kid who’s ripping the paper off a present she’s waited a whole year for.”

It took him a moment to respond, as if he couldn’t find the right words. “I must be rubbing off on you. That’s the most Irish load of blarney I’ve heard you say. But I liked it.”

She laughed again, and through the layers of his clothing, she felt him melt against her, telling her the corny words had touched him.

Arms around each other, they walked the campus, rain pinging on the umbrella above their heads. Being tucked up next to Sean, the sound of the rain, the smell of the air, the chill blanketing them, washed goose bumps across her body in waves. It felt like they were in their own little bubble and that made everything they did, everything they felt, everything they said, heightened, almost magical.