Chapter Three
Sean waited at the front desk for her, and Lord if he didn’t look even better in the light of day. He was decked out in faded jeans, his hiking boots from the other night—tied this time—unbuttoned shirt over a T-shirt, a rough and faded jean jacket. He was magnificent, muscular, and powerful. He grinned at her, that same sexy smile he gave her the last time she saw him. The one that said he could deliver everything a smile like that promised.
She greeted him with a teasing gaze that took in his entire body. “I almost didn’t recognize you with pants. No Blarney Stone boxers today?”
He laughed. “If you’re nice, I’ll show them to you later.”
“Tease.”
To her surprise, he took her coat from her hands and held it out for her. She slid her arms in and turned back to him. He lifted her scarf out from under the coat and held onto it where it hung by her breasts. The backs of his fingers brushed against her nipples, which hardened instantly and thrust against her shirt and jacket, bringing a flushing heat her face that made her want to drop her gaze from his knowing eyes.
“Last chance to change your mind,” he said, his words brushing her lips.
“About?”
“About whether you want me to pay back everything I owe right now. In one payment. Because once the schedule is in progress, we won’t be deviating from it.”
The idea of having him deliver everything right now was super appealing, but the idea of spending time with him and drawing out the pleasure—and the anticipation—offered the greater appeal. “I haven’t changed my mind.”
His eyes danced with a light that showed he was pleased with her answer. “Okay then. Hungry?”
“Starved.”
“Then let’s roll.”
****
“How did a sweet Irish boy like you end up in this depraved little square of the world?” Kristin asked as she devoured her carne adovada burrito.
“I came here for the spicy food and the pretty girls.” He winked at her and took another bite of his green chile burrito.
“’Tis a load of blarney you be whispering in me ears,” Kristin said in her best Irish accent.
He laughed. “I’m helping put on the university’s archaeological field school this summer, and I arranged permission from my university to take my final master’s coursework here so I can prepare for the school.”
“How long will you be staying?”
“I go home the first week of August.”
Five months? It wasn’t nearly long enough.
“That will give you plenty of time to satisfy me…I mean, satisfy your debt to me.” She smiled then put her mouth to the straw, let her tongue jab the hole, her teeth bite the straw, then her mouth suck it.
She watched him and could see his mind giving her suggestive little move his rapt attention. He swallowed hard, his throat bobbing as if the mere thought of satisfying her, and the things her mouth could do to satisfy him, overwhelmed his ability to breathe.
“I have a feeling I’ll never have enough time to fully satisfy you.” He smiled. “Your debt, I mean.”
“True, but you’re willing to try, right?”
“Oh, aye. I’ll be giving it a go, all right.”
“Funny running into you two here…together.” Randy appeared at their table as they were laughing at their private joke and plopped down beside Kristin. He reached into her plate, grabbed a potato cube, and popped it into his mouth.
The laughter died in her throat. She rolled her eyes and pushed her plate away, wanting to smack Randy for shattering the moment with Sean.
“I didn’t think you knew each other well enough to have breakfast together,” Randy continued when neither of them said anything.
She lifted her gaze to Sean and returned his grin. The longer the silence hung on, the clearer it became that there was something between them, something that neither was willing to discuss with Randy.
“Okay, awkward,” Randy said, a flush crawling up his face. “Anyway…We should get together today to finish our report.” He lightly jabbed Kristin’s arm with his elbow to emphasize his final words.
She shot him a stern look. “As I said the other day, I think it’s best that you do your part, and I do mine—separately.” She kept her tone clear and firm so he couldn’t misinterpret her words or her wishes.
“Sure, whatever. You going to the Pike party tonight? We could go together.” He laid his arm behind her across the back of her chair.
She leaned forward, away from his touch. “I don’t go to frat parties.” Feeling uncomfortable at his closeness, she found Sean’s eyes again. He winked at her, making her smile. Making her feel safe.
“You can’t do this, Kristin.” Randy’s words, delivered in a low tone, caught her attention. His mouth was a tight line, his eyes narrowed on hers, and his cheeks bore red patches. One hand had balled into a fist on the table, while the other bit into her shoulder.
“Knock it off,” Kristin said, and twisted her shoulders to break his hold, but he didn’t release her.
“You can’t come on to a guy then just ignore him like he’s nothing.” His fingers dug in harder the louder his voice grew.
Sean stood and held out his hand to her. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes.” She grabbed his hand and stood, breaking Randy’s grip. Sean maneuvered her behind him and away from Randy, then leaned in to grab her jacket and his backpack.
“She told you she’s not interested, so I’ll ask you to leave her alone from now on.” Everything about Sean screamed stern, from his low, hard voice to his tightly restrained menace. “And if you lay a hand on her again, you and I’ll be having a little man-to-man. Nod your head so I know you heard me clear.”
Randy nodded once.
“Good.” He turned and, taking Kristin’s hand possessively in his, the two left the café.
****
“That was weird,” Kristin said as she and Sean strolled back across campus, her hand still in his. “I know Randy was disappointed about the other night, but…wow.”
“That guy wasn’t just disappointed; he was angry.” An unmistakable chord of irritation sharpened his usually lilting brogue.
“Yeah, and I don’t get it. Until we became partners for this project, we never spoke to each other. Not in class, not outside class. Yet, he’s acting like—”
“Like a jilted lover.”
“Yeah.”
As they walked, she noticed they had matched pace and gait. It amazed her that they had connected so soon. She smiled up at him. “Thanks.”
“For?”
“For being there when he freaked out. I’m glad you were with me.”
He met her smile with one of his own. “Are you, now?”
She nodded.
“How glad?” he asked, his voice so full of heat that she felt wisps of smoke swirl in her stomach.
She stopped, parted his jacket with her fingers, and rested her palms on his hard stomach. Sparks traveled through her hands as she slid them slowly up his chest.
“Very glad,” she whispered, and saw the moment her whisper crawled into his skin.
His eyes got heavy. His body tensed slightly, as if all nerve endings were on alert.
“Show me.” The words exited his mouth on a whisper, but her body heard and understood the request.
Her hand left his chest and rose to his face. Slowly, teasingly, she outlined his lower lip with her thumb before raising both arms and sliding her fingers into his hair. She eased his head down to her as she raised hers to him. Their gaze held. Their lips poised in place, ready to come together.
His warmth, the smell of his skin, the touch of his hands warming her lower back set a fire burning inside her that she knew only he could extinguish. Fireworks lit inside her, and they hadn’t even so much as kissed. He ran his tongue across his lips to wet them, and a pulse zapped through her, pushing her to eliminate the final sliver of space separating their bodies. She was starved for the taste of him, his mouth, his tongue.
She touched her lips to his and breathed him in. At first the kiss was about nothing more than getting to know the feel of him, enjoying how they fit so perfectly, how he tasted so sweet. Then, craving more, her mouth opened slightly and moved over his. She sucked his bottom lip, then his top. She ran her tongue along the smooth skin just inside his mouth. His tongue greeted hers warmly.
Lights flashed behind her eyelids, and fiery tingles pulsed at her mouth, the tip of her tongue, at her palms where they caressed him, all through her body where it touched his. She kissed him long and slow and deep, and he matched her, move for move, touch for touch. When they finally came up for air, his eyes gleamed and his breathing was as scattered as hers.
“That’s the best thank you I’ve ever received.”
She wanted to kiss him again, but he had already left her embrace, taken her hand in his again, and continued walking.
“Where are we going now?” she asked, hoping to hear the answer, “my room” or “your room.”
“Your dorm.”
Oh, God, yes! Her heart shouted the words and swelled with desire. It had been easier to get him naked than she thought it would be after his speech about not deviating from the schedule. Then she thought she better make sure of his intention.
“You mean, to my room?”
He chuckled. “Darlin’, I told you we wouldna be deviating from the schedule. Besides, do you really think I’m the kind of guy who would try to make love to you on our first date?”
She stared into his sinfully hot eyes. “Yes, actually.”
He laughed out loud and wrapped his arm around her neck, hugging her to his side and kissing the crown of her head. He dropped his arm to her shoulders, holding her tight, and she held onto his hand where it hung in front of her breast.
It made her smile that he hadn’t denied it. “So…You’re not interested in charming your way up to my room or into my panties, and you’re dropping me off early. Sounds like you have another date.”
“I do.”
Disappointment and jealousy raged through her body. She let her hand fall from his and stared straight ahead. “Oh.”
He laughed and hugged her closer. “Not so much a date as an appointment. I tutor to help pay my way here. My next appointment is in…” he glanced at his watch “…about twenty minutes.”
“Oh.” She breathed and took his hand in hers again.
“With a male engineering student,” he added.
She smiled and met his teasing gaze. “You don’t have to explain. It’s not like you and I are…you know.”
He smiled down at her. “You looked like you wanted to knock my head off.”
She looked away, embarrassed that he had seen through her so easily.
He stopped and faced her. “It’s your eyes,” he said, even though she hadn’t asked, and brushed a finger down the side of her face, pulling her gaze back to his. “They say everything your mouth doesn’t want to.”
She stared at him, opening a pathway to her deepest emotions, willing him to see what was written there. To see her desire for him. “And what are my eyes saying now?”
He paused as if reading, trying to translate the symbols he saw in the depths. “They’re saying I’ll miss all my tutoring appointments today if I don’t get you home fast. Oh, and just to clarify, I never said I wasn’t interested in getting into your panties.”
She laughed, but there was nothing funny about how the sweet spot between her legs heated up as her mind rolled around in the idea of him getting into her panties. They again set off toward her dorm, but instead of heading for the front door, he pulled her into a patch of sunlight crawling up the adobe-style building. He removed his arm from around her and stuck his hands in the front pockets of his jeans while she settled back against the warm wall.
“We still on for our walk tomorrow?” he asked.
As an answer, she grabbed onto his jacket and yanked him against her, pulled his face down to hers, and kissed him.
He pulled his hands from his pockets and settled them on either side of her to steady himself, but he did little more than allow himself to be kissed. But soon, as if her kiss had touched off something inside him he couldn’t resist, his hands left the wall. They moved inside her jacket and went around her waist, pulling her into his body. But he wasn’t done touching her. His hands slipped beneath the hem of her shirt and caressed the feverish skin of her back, and his tongue, which had previously been only a teasing heat, suddenly became a licking flame in her mouth.
She felt hot all over. Grabbing his hips, she held him tight against her. A moan crawled up from her core when he slid his thigh between her legs, and she arched herself hard against him.
Her erotic sounds and moves seemed to cool his ardor because he eased back from the kiss and braced his hands against the sandpaper-rough wall. His face hovered inches from hers, his eyes holding tight.
“So…You’re one of those kinds of people, are ya.” The growl of his low voice skittered lightly across her skin like fingernails.
“What kinds of people?” she asked, frowning.
“The ones that don’t play by the rules,” he whispered in her ear, then nibbled her lobe with his lips, sending a battalion of shivers racing across her body.
She released a slow smile. “Is that a problem?”
“No. Only a challenge.”
His eyes dropped to her mouth, and she knew he wanted to kiss her again—and she was waiting for it, ready for it—but then he didn’t. He stepped out of the pocket of desire enveloping them and eased his hands back into his pockets. The movement further stretched the tight and tented crotch of his jeans.
His chest rose and fell in sync with hers, as if the two of them couldn’t get enough air when they were this close to the other. Her body screaming in agony at losing his heat, his touch, she stared at him, her eyes asking why.
Their gazes held for long, hungry seconds when neither could say a word. He took a breath and released it slowly.
“See you tomorrow at three.”
If Sean had looked back as he sprinted across campus, he would have seen her touching her scorched mouth with her fingers and known that she keenly regretted not asking for the lump-sum payment.
****
“How was breakfast?” Zoe asked when Kristin came in from her date.
“Fabulous.”
Zoe sat up in bed, the sheet clinging loosely around her naked body. “I thought you didn’t like that place? You said the green chile tasted like sour pickles.”
Though what Zoe said about the café was true, today it didn’t matter. She would have eaten anywhere, even at a roach coach, as long as it was with Sean. “It was the company that was fabulous.”
Kristin peeled off her coat and her boots and curled up on her bed with her backpack to get some homework done so she’d have more time with Sean tomorrow should they decide to expand their walk to include a tour of his bed.
She felt Zoe watching her and looked up at her. “What?”
“You didn’t get any, did you?” she asked.
“We don’t even know each other, yet.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so…I don’t smell his cum on you. I’d notice a new smell like that.”
Kristin shook her head. She never knew what Zoe was going to say, but more often than not, it shocked the polish off her toenails.
“No, I didn’t bring any strange cum home with me.”
Zoe pushed back the covers, jumped onto Kristin’s bed, and laid her head in her lap. “But I can smell the sweet peach juice he stirred up in you.”
“Don’t get any ideas. I have tons of homework.”
“Ideas like this?” Her fingers moved up the inside of Kristin’s leg in little swirling motions.
Kristin was horny as hell, but she wanted Sean to satisfy her, not Zoe. Not that she didn’t enjoy what her roommate did for her—she just craved Sean.
“Stop,” she said with a smile, swatting away her teasing hand.
She buried her face in Kristin’s lap, exhaling her breath on her crotch. “I can do what Sean wouldn’t.” Zoe mouthed her mound through the jeans. Need spiraled like a tornado in Kristin’s body, but she knew she didn’t want to be satisfied this way. Not this time. Not after what she’d felt with Sean. He was still running through her veins like a drug.
Kristin caressed her friend’s head gently. “Thanks, but not now.”
After a moment, she eased back. “Okay. Fine.” She got off the bed and dropped down onto hers. “But keep in mind I may not be in the mood later.”
Kristin laughed and shook her head. The nymphomaniac was always in the mood.
Zoe laughed, too. “You owe me one.”
Kristin didn’t respond. A sudden, sharp feeling had stabbed her heart, telling her she and her friend-with-benefits would not be intimate as long as Sean was in the picture.