Page 7 of The Professor's Possession (Crystal River Billionaire Brothers)

“I’m sure she knows who I am, babe,” Luke calmly says to Ava. “Everyone in this town knows whoIam. You’ll have to have been born under a rock to not recognize me.”

“Well, she actually probably doesn’t,” my roommate replies with relish. “And she wasn’t born under a rock either. Olivia’s not from Crystal River. She never went to Crystal River High. She won’t know who you are at all in the slightest.”

Luke raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Doesn’t that scare you, mister king popular?” Ava says, smirking. “Isn’t that simplyterrifyingfor you? Finding someone who doesn’t know the great Luke Abbott?”

I start to speak.

“It’s actually my first day in Crystal River...”

But Luke immediately cuts me off.

“I’m not scared of her,” he rumbles to his girlfriend.

Ava wraps her arms around him. “I’m just joking, babe.”

“That’s not funny, Ava,” he replies.

And then Luke turns to me, locking eyes with mine for the first time.

“Fresh blood,” he remarks darkly in my direction. It seems like he’s meant to be jokey, but his tone is deadly serious. It’s less of an acknowledgment of me and more of a threat.

“Luke used to be the star quarterback for Crystal River High,” Ava explains to me cheerily, breaking the tension. “That’s actually how we met: I was the cheerleader captain, and he was the captain of the football team. Cliché, I know, but it was very sweet. Our first kiss was on the field immediately after he threw a game-winning touchdown. Wasn’t that right, babe?”

Luke stares at me, giving his girlfriend the cold shoulder. “Why did you come here, Olivia?” he growls at me.

I can sense my heart thumping inexplicably.

Don’t be scared, Olivia. He can’t hurt you. You don’t have to be awkward...

“I’m from a pretty small town and I wanted to go to university,” I reply, my voice shaky. “CRU was the first place to accept me, so here I am.”

Luke simply grunts in retort before turning back to Ava. “Move over,” he tells her. “I want to sit down.”

I watch as my roommate makes way for her boyfriend to take up practically all the space on her bed. His biceps bulge out of his too-tight tee. No surprise that he was the star quarterback in high school; it’s like he was grown in a lab to be a perfect football specimen.

“You are coming tonight?” Luke asks Ava, straight back to totally blanking me. “I’ve got drinks.”

“Yeah, for sure.”

“My boys will be there. I hope you don’t mind me spending the night with them more than with you.”

“Okay, no problem. You chat to them. I’ll find my own fun,” Ava replies to him in a whisper, clearly aware of me in the room. This feels like a private conversation I shouldn’t be privy to but, unlike his girlfriend, Luke doesn’t seem to care. “I’ll still come.”

Luke grunts in reply.

I can’t help but notice that Ava seems to have lost something since Luke has entered the room. Her optimistic spark,that’sit.

“So you two have known each other for a long time before you started dating?” I ask.

“Luke’s dad and my dad go way back to their own days at high school,” Ava explains to me as her boyfriend sits on her bed in uncooperating silence. “Well, that isn’t so hard when everyone knows each other here. It’s kind of like fate how Luke and I ended up together. Like it was always meant to be.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” I reply. “I like that.”

“I bet Olivia never hooked up with her high school quarterback,” Luke says.

What the hell?

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