Page 7 of Ice Cold, Red Hot
“Um. Hi.” I did not want to talk to him. And I did not want my body to be reacting to his proximity the way it was. But even if I tried to forget, my body seemed to remember.
“Hello again.”
“Oh, you remember me this time?”
“I met you yesterday. Outside the apartment building.” He crossed his arms, looking down at me with a smirk. “See? I have a good memory.”
“No, you met me this summer. So your memory actually seems to suck.”
“I met you yesterday.”
I forced myself to look up at him, to meet his eyes. They were dark and cold, nothing like the warm gaze I’d fallen into so many times this summer. I blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know what game you’re playing or why, but if you’re going to insist we’ve never met, let’s just keep it that way. I don’t have time for this bullshit. I don’t have time for… you.” The last part was delivered too fast, and I stumbled over my words, giving away how much I cared even when I was trying to prove I didn’t care at all.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said, his voice hard and unaffected.
I glanced into his flat gaze once more, my heart wincing inside me, and then I wrenched my body away and hurried out of the event, weaving through people and tables and finally finding myself on the main campus walk, headed for home.
It was darker now than it had been when we’d arrived—partially thanks to evening falling, but mostly because the sky had clouded over and ominous flashes of lightning now accompanied the threatening rumble of thunder that seemed almost constant. I didn’t want to get caught in the storm, and as I approached the shortcut through the woods, I didn’t want to go in there, either.
“Shit.” I detoured around them, heading for the main road around the campus loop, which would get me back to the apartments, but would probably add fifteen minutes to the walk. As I turned onto the sidewalk, the first fat raindrop smacked my nose, trailing down my upper lip.
“Fucking fantastic.” A second later, I was in an all-out downpour. “Perfect.”
CHAPTER 4
SHEPHERD
The administration and the coaching staff all agreed that it was important for captains of sports teams to attend the welcome event for new students. Of course, there was one new student I really couldn’t welcome the way I wanted to. In fact, I had to pretend I didn’t fucking know her at all. And when she showed up at the event with Nat, wearing a tight crop top that showed the tan stomach I’d run my tongue over this summer, I nearly lost it.
Celeste Moreno was absolutely everything I would’ve asked for if I could build my perfect woman. Small, firm breasts, a tight athletic build, muscular legs, and an ass my hands couldn’t get enough of. Between that body and the endless waves flowing from her dark head, she was a visual feast, and I was a starving man. But if Celeste Moreno had simply been another hot girl on the Coldwater campus, we wouldn’t have a problem. The most attractive thing about her, unfortunately, was her brain.
The conversations I’d had with Celeste this summer had made me think about the world in a different way. Maybe Iwas a little sheltered—my parents sort of prided themselves on that, actually. And maybe I’d made some assumptions I shouldn’t have about the way other people grew up. Celeste was from a different world, and I admired every single thing about her—her work ethic, her determination, the sheer fire and optimism with which she approached every obstacle she encountered. Even a week with Celeste this summer had taught me more about myself than I’d learned in the last four years at Coldwater. She made me a better person, and that was addictive.
But now? Watching her across the event, laughing and smiling with Nat, made me realize how badly I wanted her. It was torture watching her shake hands and laugh as Dr. Gunning introduced her to those moronic, pasty-ass grad students who worked in her lab. I watched them fall all over her, knowing they were probably more interested in her looks than her brains, and something roared to life inside me.
I hadn’t meant to talk to her at all. The plan was to avoid her completely. Forever, if possible. But when I watched her walking away from Nat, it was like my feet were on their own program, and I found myself blocking her path without intending to.
I didn’t mean to antagonize her, and I felt bad about it. But if it was the only interaction I could have with her at all? Well, call me a masochist, but it was better than nothing. Every second her eyes were on me, that her words were directed at me, felt like a vague taste of what I’d had this summer. What I’d already fucked up.
I watched her leave just as the sky threatened to openup above us. No jacket, no umbrella. And I shouldn’t have done what I did next.
“I’m leaving.” I fired the words at Griff as I passed him, my keys already in my hand as I headed for my truck.
“Dude, how am I getting home?”
“Figure it out. You’re a big boy.”
I heard Griff and the other guys laughing behind me as I bolted for the parking garage. Five minutes later I was cruising the main campus loop like a stalker, my eyes trained through the pouring rain on the figure making her way down the sidewalk at the side of the road.
I pulled up to the curb and rolled down the passenger-side window. Celeste glanced at me, did a double take, and her mouth dropped open.
“Get in.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Get in.”
I sat there waiting as the rain poured down between us. Celeste had her arms wrapped around her body, and she was beginning to shiver.
