Thin Love (6 page)

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 fucking 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.

Where had that come from?
he thought, moving his head back against the couch. He pushed Keira and any thoughts of her body out of his head and especially the idea that she had seen him in the showers that day. Thoughts started to trail to the steamy locker room and Keira in front of him instead of Lydia, and he had to rub his palms into his eyes to dispel the image. He didn’t need the distraction she could easily cause him if he sat there thinking about her.

Above him the high glass ceiling reflected a murky night and the few intermittent fractures of lightening in the sky. The library was quiet and gave Kona a few minutes to think, for a change. His room at the team house was rarely quiet; the silence in the library a welcome break from the activity that seemed to always be at his place. There were no loud, rough housing football players screaming at something on the TV or an endless parade of girls flitting in and out of whoever’s room they’d eventually pass out in.

He closed his eyes when the quick whiff of jasmine hit his nose. It was a familiar scent, something his mom kept in her garden. The sound of the steady clip of heels coming closer accompanied the scent, announcing the girl’s arrival.

“Well, I think we might get snow.” Keira’s voice moved just next to Kona’s head and he smiled at the sound. It was soothing with a hint of melody behind the inflection and he didn’t have to look at her to know she’d calmed down from her earlier mood.

Relaxed against the sofa, head still reclined back and legs spread so that no one would be tempted to sit next to him, Kona smiled at the dig he knew was meant for him. “Is that supposed to be a joke about me being here?”

“It’d only rain since you’re here.” She flopped next to him on the couch and moved his leg to make room for herself. She was bold, a little bolder than she had been that first day in class and he understood that she was likely putting up a good show, trying to convince him that he didn’t intimidate her at all. “It’ll snow because you made it before me.”

“Funny. Real funny.” Kona moved his head to the side and had to quickly close his open mouth when he opened his eyes to look at Keira. The oversized jacket was gone. She looked comfortable, relaxed, wearing a simple light blue cardigan that fell just above her hips. She didn’t look like she put up much of an effort getting ready for their meeting, but she did look good, hair straight and slick, soft against her shoulders, jeans crisp and starched. It was only the third time he’d seen her away from their class and Kona figured the big hoodies were simply an early morning routine. In normal clothes, she looked great. But she didn’t wear a stitch of makeup and her face was scrubbed clean, as though she’d just hopped out of the shower. “You look nice.” Kona exhaled, releasing an unconscious grunt when Keira moved her eyelids to hide the bright blue irises, as though she was trying to figure out his angle. “What? I can’t pay you a compliment?”

“Not without me thinking you’re plotting something.”

Laughing, Kona held up his hands, surrendering defeat before she could accuse him of anything shifty. “I am plotless tonight, I swear.”

“Umhmm. I don’t buy it.” When she stood, hefting a large black backpack onto her shoulder, Kona followed her, walked two steps behind her so he could watch the subtle sway of her hips and catch a glimpse of the slight jiggle in her ass. He blinked twice, pulled his attention away from her when Keira led them into the elevator. “I reserved a study room on the third floor.”

“I thought they only held those for grad students.”

“And honor students,” she explained pounding twice on the button as though it would hurry the trip up the floors.

“Figures,” he said, leaning against the metal wall.

“What was that?” Those squinted eyes came back and Kona shook his head, ignoring how Keira had straightened her shoulder, preparing for an argument.

“Nothing.” He didn’t want to piss her off again. Fighting with some girl in the library would get back to his mother and he could really do without the endless bitching he knew would follow.

When the elevator doors opened, they settled into the tiny room with a small table and two chairs. There was barely space enough for both of them and Kona let Keira sit first, let her pull out her notebook and pen before he sat across from her. He watched her expression when he moved the door closed, but she didn’t argue, didn’t seem nervous about being alone with him in the confined space. Never mind that the walls were glass; that nothing shocking could go on in one of these rooms without everyone on the floor getting an eyeful.

Kona pushed the lingering, bawdy thought from his mind, not wanting to let the image of the girl over him, better still, under him, play on with too much detail in his imagination. This girl was hot, but she wouldn’t be down for what he wanted. He could tell. Keira was just too uptight to have any kind of fun with him.

“Okay, we need to set up a schedule. We’ll have to connect the Legends or at least thematic elements in them with a contemporary work with the same elements. So, write down whatever pops into your head and what you’re willing to do and we can work a schedule accordingly. I’ll type it up this weekend.” Her voice was clear, firm and Kona got that this was Keira getting down to business. She wasn’t awkward now, wasn’t blushing like a virgin on her wedding night as he looked over her features. He kind of liked her taking charge. It didn’t happen often when he interacted with girls.

“This weekend?” he asked, amazed but not really surprised that Keira was the type to spend her free time studying. “You plan on working all weekend?”

“No, I have a meet on Saturday morning. After that I plan on working.”

He shook his head and leaned back against the chair, one arm resting behind him. “Not going to celebrate our win?”

When Keira only frowned, Kona thought he might have annoyed her. She did this funny thing with her mouth—a twitch of her bottom lip and then a deep frown—when she was debating something; as though whatever she was thinking had to be weighed and sorted in her head before she decided to speak.
Yep, crazy uptight,
he thought.

“That statement implies a lot of assumption.” Keira pointed at him with her pen to emphasize her argument.

“We’re going to win.” That shouldn’t have been in doubt. Even though the season had just started, everyone on campus knew that had yet to lose a game. This weekend they played LSU. Gerry DiNardo’s team was having a shitty season. They were currently ranked at 15 and CPU, at 3, was faster, more elusive. No way would the Tigers beat them.

“That’s one assumption,” Keira said, waving her pen as though she didn’t care about the game. “But you assume I follow football. I don’t.”

Kona blinked at her, astounded. “What?” She leaned back when he rested his elbows on the table and worked his gaze over her face. He wanted to see if his bullshit detector went off. She had to be messing with him. Even the most self-absorbed gold diggers on campus followed the team. Everyone did. It was a given. “You do know you’re attending the university whose football team has won the Sugar Bowl the last three years straight?”

“No, I’m attending the university whose English department has a sister program with Oxford.”

“That’s… seriously?”

“Seriously.” Keira’s expression remained controlled. There was no twitch moving her lips, no understated tic in her composed expression that told him she was joking.

It made sense when he thought about it. He’d watched her in class, watched how she and that Leann girl kept to themselves, only speaking to Miller when she wanted to argue a point. She got off on the literature shit their professor droned on about endlessly. And what he’d learned about Keira today when he flirted for information with a few girls on the cross country team had only confirmed what he had guessed. Keira didn’t have many friends, she kept to herself, seemed to always be in the library or locked up in her dorm. “That explains so much.”