Page 33 of Classroom Confessions

Behind Lucas, grumbles sounded from several guys at a nearby table. One stood and started forward. A girl moved with him, the two of them beckoning their friends to join them.

“Is there a problem here?” Ethan.

I’d recognize that cold fury anywhere.

Lucas didn’t break eye contact with me. “No problem. Just having a chat with my girlfriend.”

“I’m not your girlfriend. We broke up months ago. Get the fuck over yourself.”

“You heard her.” Ethan shouldered his way between me and Lucas. He towered over my ex, his broad shoulders completely obscuring my view. “Security is on their way. Since you’re not a student, and I’m sure you don’t have a pass to be here, I’d suggest you get lost.”

Damn. I wished he hadn’t said that. I’d really liked to have seen Lucas dragged off campus by the two beefy men wearing security badges. They bookended Lucas. “This the guy?”

Ethan gave a clipped nod. “Yep. He’s been going in and out of classes all day. And he’s grabbing girls against their will.”

“Hey.” Lucas held up both hands. Even now, he wore that same shitty grin that most people looked at and thought he was harmless. “I just wanted to talk to Rebecca.” He tried to look around Ethan, but Ethan blocked him, nudging me slightly behind him with a hand on my hip. The touch seared through me.

Was he being protective? We’d had a few close encounters in class, but this went beyond a little flirting and sexual banter. This felt like a blatant display of possessiveness.

Unlike when Lucas treated me like I belonged to him, Ethan’s concern warmed me. I peeked around his arm.

“Let’s go, dude.” One of the security guys slapped a hand to Lucas’s shoulder. “Can’t be here unless you’re a student.”

Lucas practically breathed fire when he realized he couldn’t get to me. He spun on his heel and walked away without a backward glance.

I knew better than to think I’d seen the end of him. If he’d decided to show up after four months, he had an agenda.

“Are you okay?” Low and guttural, Ethan spoke to me over his shoulder, shoulders so tense I could bounce a bowling ball off them. His hands fisted at his sides, but the spark of animalistic anger I’d seen in his face faded when he turned slightly toward me. “Rebecca?”

“Fine.” I shuddered my way through the crash of adrenaline. “He’s an asshole, but he didn’t hurt me.”

“And he never will.” Ethan made the words the single most intense promise I’d ever heard.

16

ETHAN

Never in my life have I wanted to destroy a human so much as I wanted to obliterate Lucas from the face of the earth. Vibrations shook my body, tightening my shoulders and keeping my fists locked in place.

Seeing him grab Rebecca ignited a fuse I didn’t know how to put out. She’d said he didn’t hurt her, but the sudden paleness said otherwise.

“I can’t keep standing here.” Rebecca inched around from behind me, bringing more of her profile, then her full face, into view. “I have another class.”

“I’ll walk with you.” I kept my distance, not even daring to let my sleeve brush her arm. One touch and I’d lose control. One moment without my control, and I’d have her in my arms where she belonged.

No. After what I’d seen from Lucas, I didn’t dare turn on the least bit of aggression. She deserved better. She deserved everything.

“Thank you.” Her shoulders hitched toward her ears, then fell. “I’m sorry you saw that.”

“I’m not. I’m glad I was there.” I wouldn’t tell her I’d been watching for her from my window and had raced across campus the instant I saw her confronting Lucas with her eyes wide in fear and apprehension.

I wouldn’t tell her I’d envisioned punching the man out cold. Violence wasn’t typically in my nature, but I was finding that I had a mean streak of protectiveness when it came to Rebecca.

We slid into the quiet space between buildings, a place overshadowed by the sloping roofs where the sun didn’t penetrate.

Rebecca locked her arms around her waist and bowed her head until her forehead touched my chest. “I know you don’t like me, and you have every right to hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.” I grasped her shoulders and pulled her closer, waiting for the moment when she jerked away.

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