Page 38 of Dirty Shots

He felt as though a fog were clearing, and he looked down to see the boy’s eyes rolling in his head. Blood dribbled from his nose and the corner of his mouth. Small hands tugged on his shoulders again.

“Eric, please.” Anya’s voice, full of pleading and desperation.

Eric lifted a hand and wiped his face. More blood—his own this time—smeared across his palm. Slowly, in a daze and shaking from the adrenaline, he climbed off Anya’s attacker.

A small group of students had surrounded the fight, all watching with a mixture of dismay and morbid delight. Someone stepped from the crowd, another male student.

He lifted a hand and pointed at Eric. “Hey, man. Don’t I know you?”

Eric suddenly remembered himself. He’d lectured here. People would recognize him. Quickly, he turned to Anya, ducking his head. She seemed to understand his reaction, and she grabbed his elbow, ushering him away from the group, and from where the young man was groaning and starting to push himself to sitting.

“He’ll be fine,” Anya said, hustling him back across the grass toward the parking lot. “You need to get out of here.”

“I have a car.” He pointed to where he was parked. “The black Lexus over there. Who was that guy?”

“Gavin Hollis. He thinks he’s some big deal around here.”

“Does he make a habit of hassling you?”

Anya shrugged. “Now and then. He doesn’t like that I don’t date any college guys. He takes it as a personal insult and ... I don’t know ... some sort of challenge.”

“Asshole.”

“You got that right.”

He realized she’d managed to maneuver him back to his car. The collective eyes of the students were following their every movement. Gavin Hollis was on his feet now, his friends gathered around him, one nodding seriously at something he’d said, another pointing in Eric’s direction.

Anya gave him a little push on the shoulder. “Go on. Get out of here before someone calls the cops on you.”

Eric frowned. “But he was practically assaulting you!”

“No, he wasn’t. He was just being a jackass—something I’m perfectly capable of handling by myself.” It was her turn to frown. “What the hell are you playing at anyway, Eric? You are a grown man. You can’t go around beating up college kids.”

“I saw how he was grabbing at you,” Eric growled.

“But what are you even doing here?” Something dawned on her, a realization in her face. “Are you following me?”

“No! Not following you. I just needed to know you would be okay. You’re too precious to me to ...”

“To what? To have a life outside of you and your studio?”

He hung his head in shame. “I was going to say, to have you getting hurt.”

“He wasn’t the one who hurt me,” she said, and he tried not to recoil at her words. Anya gave a sigh. “Plus, I deal with assholes like Gavin every day. I don’t need you defending me. Now get in the car and drive away before the cops arrive and you find yourself being prosecuted.”

She started to open the driver’s door for him, but he slammed it shut. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

“Don’t be an idiot. I need to go back to my dorm and change before someone accuses me of soliciting.”

“Get in the car with me, and we’ll go straight to the store, and I will buy you more clothes.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t need you buying more clothes for me, Eric. I have plenty of decent ones a few hundred yards away in my room.”

“I have the money,” he growled. “I can afford it.”

“I don’t care.” She sighed. “Look, drive around the block, get out of here. I’ll go and get changed and then meet you one block south of here, okay? Then we’ll talk.”

He didn’t want to leave her alone again, especially not with all of Gavin Hollis’s friends hanging about and her with her shirt still torn, but it wasn’t as if he could bundle her into his car and drive off with her. That would make him no better than idiots like Gavin.

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