Tease (10 page)

He grabbed his shirt from where he’d dropped it on the edge of the bed. He moved with unhurried movements, collecting his jacket where he had discarded it on the chair.

“I never want to see you again.” My voice trembled on the air with barely suppressed emotion, and I hoped he did not mistake the sound of it for fear. That would be humiliating, and he had already humiliated me enough for one night.

He paused at the door. Still bare chested, he turned to look at me, apparently unconcerned about stepping out of my room partially dressed.

I stood up from the bed and turned my back to him, trying to dismiss him from my sight if not from my mind. Crossing my arms, I fixed my gaze on the blinds and waited for the sound of the door shutting behind him.

“Don’t think this is over, Emerson.”

I swung around at these words, my eyes snapping to him, startled by the determination I heard in his voice. He stood with one hand on my doorknob, the other one clutching his crumpled shirt. The line of his shoulders was rigid and tense, and I knew I wasn’t the only one angry. He looked huge in the cramped space of my suite. Even now, looking at the sculpted expanse of his chest made my face flush hotly.

I lifted my chin. “Well, I say this is finished.” Whatever
this
even was. It was too complicated, too full of emotions and feelings that I’d never felt before. That I never wanted to feel. “We are done.”

“You keep telling yourself that, princess.” He pulled the door wide open. “See you later.”

Then he shut the door, plunging the room into muffled silence . . . leaving me staring after him, wondering what precisely in the hell had just happened.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins
Publishers

....................................

Chapter 9

T
he next morning I
woke to the smell of coffee. Espresso, to be precise. Wafting deliciously close to my nose. I crept one eyelid open to find Pepper standing in front of me, holding a large-size cup from the Java Hut.

Georgia sat propped in her bed across the way, already cupping her drink in both palms. I barely remembered her coming in the night before. It must have been late though because I had stared into the dark long after Shaw left me.

Georgia smiled at me. She had one of the sweetest smiles. Natural and unaffected. She really was the modern southern woman. Sophisticated but still clinging to a certain gentility and wholesomeness that eluded the rest of the female population of Dartford. I could well imagine her waltzing at all those high school cotillions her mother made her attend. “Pepper brought us coffee.”

“Hmm.” Pushing myself up on one elbow, I accepted the proffered cup. “You’re an angel.”

“Not really.” Pepper settled in the beanbag chair in the corner, plunking her own drink down on the floor, near her feet. With her free hand, she rattled a brown paper bag. “Scones?”

I nodded and she tossed me one, which I managed to catch without crumbs flying all over me.

Pepper continued, “I’m just dying to know what’s going on between Emerson and Shaw.”

Georgia turned interested eyes on me. “Shaw? Who’s Shaw?”

“No one,” I mumbled. The chocolate chip scone was still warm as I bit into it. “Yum This is delicious.” I chased the flaky goodness with a swig of cappuccino. Heaven.

“Who’s Shaw?” Georgia repeated.

“Shaw is a guy that Reece went to high school with. Just back from the Marines.”

“Oh.” Georgia’s eyebrows, several shades darker than her blonde hair, winged high over her expressive eyes.

I wagged my scone at her. ‘ “
Oh
’ nothing. It’s not like that.”

“Is he hot?” she asked, looking back and forth from me to Pepper.

I squared my shoulders. “What difference—”

“He’s smoking,” Pepper interjected.

I glared at her. “You have a boyfriend.”

“What? I can’t look? It’s hard not to notice something like that. He either is or isn’t. And yeah, he definitely is.”

Georgia nodded, absorbing this as she rose to investigate the bag of scones. She selected a scone from the bag and sat back, crossing her legs Indian style. She was still wearing her pajamas with little red Santas even though Christmas was over. She probably grabbed them because they were her warmest pair.

“So this Shaw, Reece’s old high school buddy . . . is hot.”

I nodded once, reluctantly.

“And you left with him last night,” Pepper chimed in, as if I needed reminding. If I inhaled I could still catch a lingering whiff of him on my bed.

“Where’d ya’ll go?” Georgia asked, her soft Alabama accent rolling through me like warm honey.

“Here,” I said, my voice so low even I had a hard time hearing myself.

Georgia lowered her cup and leaned forward. “I’m sorry. What was that? It sounded like you said ‘here.’ ”

“I did. I brought him here.”

Pepper and Georgia both stared at me in stunned silence.

“What?” I snapped. Taking another bite of my scone, I took turns staring at each of them.

“Well, you hardly ever bring anyone here.”

“Like never,” Pepper agreed, nodding, her wild mane of hair moving around her like some fiery nimbus.

“Well, I did.” I wasn’t about to explain that he gave me little choice in the matter. “Not that it’s going to become a habit or anything.”

“Tell me more about this Shaw.” Georgia got that narrow-eyed, considering look. I thought of it as her “parent” look. Which was okay considering my parents didn’t really care one way or another about the company I kept. It was nice knowing she had my back. Even when I didn’t want her there.

A business major, she was the pragmatist among us. Steady as the tide, she never flip-flopped her majors. It was like she knew who she was, where she was going, and with whom. As much as I didn’t like Harris, I couldn’t help thinking how comforting it must be to be with the same boyfriend since you were sixteen. To have that kind of familiarity. To know that you can drop your guard around him and be yourself. To have that trust.

I shrugged. “He enlisted after high school. Served two tours. What else do you want to know? He lives in a lake cabin his grandfather left him. His mother remarried and is living in Boston.”

“So what’s he do now?”

“Reece said he works in a garage. That he’s an awesome mechanic and he’s saving up to start his own custom shop.”

I looked at her, unable to hold back the question even if it revealed my interest—and how little I still didn’t know about him. “He is?”

“Apparently he’s really into bikes.”

Maybe that’s what he was doing at Maisie’s then? Rubbing elbows with a potential clientele?

“So he sounds interesting . . . ambitious,” Georgia said, nodding again.

I couldn’t stop annoyance from pricking at me. I didn’t need Georgia’s approval of a prospective boyfriend. Not that he was a prospective boyfriend. He wasn’t a prospective anything as far as I was concerned despite his confidence that he and I weren’t finished.

“Why does this feel like an intervention?” I asked before taking another sip.

Pepper blinked and pressed a hand to her chest. “When did best friends talking get reduced to being labeled an intervention?”

“Yeah. We just want to hear about your new—”

“He’s not my new anything,” I cut Georgia off quickly. Setting my half-eaten scone down, I scooted off the bed. Holding my cup in one hand, I approached my closet and pulled my robe off the hook.

“What are you doing?” Georgia asked.

“I need a shower.”

I felt their eyes on me as I gathered up the rest of my things. When I turned to face them, I sighed. “Oh, c’mon. Why are you guys looking at me like that?”

“Wow.” Georgia shook her head. “You’re actually running away rather than talk about a guy with us. I’ve got to meet this Shaw.”

“I knew it.” Pepper grinned like she had just won some prize. “You like him.”

“Wrong. I just need a shower. I still smell like a bar.”

“We’ll just be waiting here when you get back.” Pepper snuggled down into the beanbag chair like she was settling in for a good long stay.

“When I get back I’m going to the library to study.”

Georgia made a sound that was halfway snort and halfway laugh. “Oh. I know you’ve got it bad now. You’re running to the library.”

Pepper’s eyes rounded. “Do you even know where the building is?”

“Oh, now you’re just being shits.” I grabbed my shower caddy and yanked open the bedroom door. Their laughter followed me, but so did the knowledge that they weren’t entirely wrong.

I was running. Not just from them though. I was running from myself. From the echo of Shaw’s voice in my room. The only problem was that even away from my room, I could still hear his voice.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins
Publishers

....................................

Chapter 10

I
held true to
my word and went to the library. I actually had a paper due in Medieval Art History the next week, so I was able to knock out the first draft, which left me feeling totally guilt free when I surfaced.

It was dark by the time I emerged from the building. Nights came early in winter. I walked down the snow-powdered sidewalk, wrapping my cashmere scarf several times around my neck, shielding my mouth from the wind. My phone vibrated and I dug it out of my bag.

Pepper:
Where r u?

Me:
Headed back to room. Where r u?

Pepper:
At Mulvaney’s w/ Reece. Join us?

My fingers hesitated over the keys. Crash their date? No thanks. I typed back.

Me:
Think I’m just staying in.

Pepper:
Kidding?

Shaking my head, I glanced up to make sure I didn’t walk into someone. Or a wall. The sidewalk stretched before me. Not a soul out.

Me:
I’m fine. Just tired

Pepper:
U need 2 eat

Me:
I ate

The lie seemed easier. I would just grab a granola bar or cook up some popcorn in the microwave.

Pepper:
Ok. Walk to class together in the morn?

Me:
Sure

I didn’t bother to inquire if she was sure she would be spending the night in her dorm or even be around to walk to class together. The answer seemed obvious. She spent almost every night with Reece. I wouldn’t be surprised if he put a ring on her finger before graduation. Yeah, she was young, but there was something about them . . . about her and Reece together that made me believe they were in it for the long haul. The real deal. For some people it happened, I guess.

As happy as I was for her, it also hurt to know that nothing would ever be the same again for us. No late nights munching popcorn. No me dragging her away from studying to watch TV or go get a pizza. Those days were gone.

Pepper hadn’t brought the subject up, but we would have to put in our rooming requests for next year. I wondered if she wanted to even room with me and Georgia again. Since she and Reece hooked up, she practically lived at his place. Why not save the money and make it official by moving in with him? Pepper wasn’t like me with a father paying her way. She was forging her own way on a combination of student loans and scholarships. She worked, too. Babysitting gigs and part-time at a local daycare. Why should she waste money on a dorm room she hardly used anymore?

The idea that I might be losing her as a suitemate gave me a sharp pain in the chest. I rubbed at my sternum as if I could rid myself of the feeling. It was selfish of me. I should only be happy for her.

The night was quiet as I passed the quad. A white blanket of snow stretched across the lawn. Students, eager for the sun—and girls eager to show off their bikinis—would be sunbathing there in late spring regardless of the lingering chill in the air.

“Hey! Em!”

Looking up, I spotted Annie walking toward me. She was dressed to go out in a miniskirt and thigh-high boots. Her overcoat was open at the front to reveal a sweater that exposed her belly and a winking belly button piercing.

“Hi,” I greeted.

She wiggled her fingers at me like nothing was amiss between us. Like she hadn’t abandoned me at a biker bar. “Guess where I’m going tonight?”

I looked her up and down and resisted saying something snarky. Instead I settled on civil. “Where?”

“I happened to get an invite . . .” Her voice trailed off. She wiggled her eyebrows at me in a clear attempt to entice me to take a guess.

I stamped down my impatience. “Where?”

She leaned forward and held a hand up to her mouth and whispered loudly, “The kink club.”

I blinked. “You got an invite?” I didn’t know why this surprised me. I guess it was a hit to my ego. I had a reputation as being a wild party girl. How was it no one thought to invite me?

“Well. I met someone who is a regular. I’m headed to her dorm now. She can bring a guest. Who knows? Maybe they’ll let me join and then I can bring a guest.” She waved a finger at me suggestively.

A few months ago I’d be all over the suggestion of this. Now? I forced a smile. “Well, have fun tonight.”

“Oh, you better believe I will. I’ll give you a full report. What are your plans? Seeing that sexy beast from the bar again?”

I smiled weakly. “Uh, no.”

“No?” She shook her head, waiting for me to elaborate.

“I’m just staying in.”

She giggled. “No, seriously.”

I nodded. “Seriously.”

“Oh. Well. That’s different. Have . . . fun.”

“Night.”

She sashayed past me. There was no other word for what she was doing with her hips.

For once, I didn’t care that staying in was in direct opposition to the image I had created for myself. Even party girls needed a night off now and then. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I fished it out and frowned at the message staring back at me from an unknown number.

What
are you doing
?

I hesitated and then typed.

Who
is this
?

A single name popped up on the small screen.

Shaw

My heart jumped to my throat.

Me:
How did you get my number?

Shaw:
Pepper

Traitor.
Of course
. Shaking my head, I typed back.

Me:
I have plans

Shaw
:
Break them

My fingers locked, poised over the keys, heart hammering at his words—at this connection to him through this little box in my hands. I shouldn’t have been so surprised to hear from him. He’d said I would. But he hadn’t even waited a day, and that only made my heart trip even harder.

Me:
I can’t

Okay. So the word
won’t
would be more accurate, but the end result was the same. Suddenly, my phone rang in my hand. I jumped a little, staring at the number I knew was his. He was
calling
me?

I answered the phone and brought it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Have you eaten yet?”

No greeting. Just straight to it. That was him. Direct. No games. Most girls would love that. Except me. I was a girl who played games. Who counted on them for protection.

“N-n-yes.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

I sucked in a breath, walking slowly, freezing my butt off. I was almost to my dorm, but I couldn’t walk any faster. It was like my brain couldn’t walk and talk at the same time. At least not when I was talking to him.

He continued, “You got to eat, right?”

Not with
you
. “I have plans.”

“I’m sure you do, but you can still eat with me before you head out for your wild night.” I rolled my eyes at his assumption. “Where are you?”

I frowned. He said that like he knew I wasn’t home at my dorm.

And then I understood why as I rounded the corner of my building. I stopped dead in my tracks. Shaw was leaning against the front of the building just near the front door. Talking on his phone. Talking to me. He hadn’t spotted me yet. He wore a small, sexy smile on his face as his voice rumbled in my ear.

“C’mon. I know this great burger place. Let me take you there.”

Was he asking me out? A shiver rolled through me. Excitement? Dread? Maybe a bit of both. I didn’t do dates.

He looked up then and caught sight of me. And then more shivers. He lowered his phone as I walked up to him. There was no choice. He was in front of my building.

“What are you doing here?”

Smiling, he reached across the space separating us and tapped my phone. Realizing I was still talking into it, I fumbled to put it away, feeling like an idiot.

“I came to take you to dinner.”

“Like a date?” I couldn’t help it. I said the words as if he’d just declared he was taking me on a safari or something equally outrageous.

“If going out for food with me is a date, then yeah.” He studied me closely, the building’s perimeter lights hitting the angles and hollows of his face and making him look only hotter. “But if you don’t like that word, then fuck it. Call it something else.”

A smile flirted on my mouth. “Look, Shaw, you’re a really nice—”

He threw his head back and laughed, and that only made him look sexier. And not nice at all. He looked delicious and dangerous in the best way. A bad boy who would know how to make a girl scream. Again, in the best way.

I stopped and glared. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re about to give me the same tired brush-off you give every guy who trails after you here.”

A pair of girls I vaguely recognized from my floor approached the door. They looked us over—well, they looked Shaw over. Their eyes heated with appreciation and speculation as they gave him the once-over. A sudden possessive urge to touch him, mark him as mine, seized me.

I waited for them to enter the building before responding to Shaw’s accusation. “That’s not true.” Okay, maybe it was, but I wasn’t admitting that to him.

“Yeah. It is.” He stopped laughing and leveled his dark eyes on me. They glinted in the near darkness. “Because I’m not a nice boy, and you know it. That’s really why you won’t go out with me. You’re too scared.”

He might as well have waved a red flag in my face. “I’m
not
scared.”

“No? Prove it.” He nodded toward the parking lot where I assumed his truck waited. “Let’s go eat.”

“This is ridiculous—”

“Chicken.”

I felt my eyes widen. “Oh my God. Does this really work? Do girls really go out with you if you dare them into doing it?”

He shrugged. “It’s not a dare. Just stating the facts. You’re scared. And I haven’t asked a girl out since I’ve been back, so I wouldn’t know. But they never said no in high school.”

I snorted. “I’m sure they didn’t.” I could just imagine him and Reece together in high school. The girls must have been throwing their panties at them both.

Well, not this girl. After last night I knew he was hard to resist, but the key was to never end up alone, on a bed, with him again. Should be easy enough to manage.

“Fine. No big deal. It’s just food.”

He nodded, looking supremely satisfied. “Sure.” And yet he looked like he had just won a skirmish.

“I’m paying for my own meal though.”

His smile slipped. Feeling as though I’d won this round, I turned and headed toward the parking lot, leaving him to follow.