Page 26 of Obsessed with my Temptation

His toffee hair was tied in a low bun as he stood over us, eyebrow raised in my direction.

“Nah, man. Scott’s cool,” Mark said, reaching with the hand behind me to squeeze my shoulder. “He’s here to chill.”

“Right,” Henry said, watching me for a moment before going to a sofa beside us and plopping himself onto it.

I doubted Mark knew, but Henry and I weren’t exactly strangers. We went to the same high school for a while. He was a year older than me and we didn’t hang out in the same circles, but he used to be close to Antony—until he wasn’t.

Which was probably why neither I nor my friends had been on the receiving end of his Heartbreaker-ways.

Anyway.

We were in a frat house, definitely not one of my usual haunts. We were in one of the “entertainment” rooms, with several sofas, bean bags, some low coffee tables littered with bottles and pizza containers, and even a pool table. There were several guys all around us—I didn’t recognize enough of them to know whether I was the only outsider here or if there were more, but as Mark had promised, it was for the most part a chill get-together.

“Just tell me if you want to get out of here and go play some video games in another room, okay?” Mark told me.

My brows furrowed. “Why?”

Instead of answering, he cocked his head to his side, and what I found in that direction made my heart stutter.

By the pool table stood no other than Travis Ashford, giving me a death glare for the ages.

Fuck.

Couldn’t I escape him anywhere? Since when did he hang out with frat boys?

The intensity of his stare made me both squirm and bristle. Was he mad that I was here, invading his space? It wasn’t like I’d known we’d see each other. I certainly wouldn’t have come if I’d known.

Or that was what I told myself.

In any case, I didn’t care for the way he was looking at me. Suddenly, he remembered I existed, but I didn’t care anymore.

I was over him already.

Sure,a dark voice whispered in a corner of my brain.

Just let me have this.

“He’s quite the character, isn’t he?” Mark said, demanding my attention again. He was watching my face very closely in a way that made me feel a little self-conscious. “Bad boy cliché to a T. Hasn’t changed a bit since high school.”

“You knew him?” I asked against better judgment.

Mark nodded, resting his cheek on his knuckles, turned completely toward me now. “We went to high school together. He used to get into a lot of fights, almost got kicked out because of it. I guess boxing helps him with all that attitude now, but once a bad apple always a bad apple, right?”

I didn’t say anything to that.

What he said didn’t match my impression of Travis at all, which was surprising in itself. Travis had a particular energy about him, adangerous auralike Becca had said, but it was more contained than outwardly aggressive or hostile. He intimidated most people, which was why they gave him a wide berth, but he wasn’t macho-aggressive or anything like it seemed Mark was suggesting.

I let it go, though, I didn’t want to think about Travis.

Conversation flowed with Mark and other guys sitting around our area. As I said, this wasn’t my usual crowd, so I felt a little weird and on edge, at it wasn’t because I was constantly aware of Travis’s eyes on me.

Disregarding my own promises unabashedly, I still stole a few glances toward the boxer. He was wearing a black leather jacket, the same as the other night at the bar, only this time, he wore a white t-shirt with a low neckline under it, teasing me with a peek of his impressive chest.Jesus, he was ripped.

He was playing pool with the guy that had been with him earlier. I looked away before he caught me staring and we got into another one of our staring games.

Back to Mark, he was…kind of physical. Maybe a little too much. It seemed that at all times he was touching or grazing some part of me—not too much for it to be outright inappropriate, but enough for me to notice. His bent leg was touching mine, and some of his fingers were touching my shoulder from where he, again, had his arm around the back of the sofa.

Was I overly aware of this because of my newfound attraction to men? I couldn’t tell. I’d never paid much attention to this sort of thing.

---