Cornered

by Amy Valenti

Chapter One

I’d
never seen a
girl
try to turn a sandwich in the
university
cafeteria into a r
omantic dinner date before, but the new student, Kate,
seemed
determined to
turn my friendly gesture of welcome into something more
, and without offending her I
could
do jack about it. Though I
ate
as quickly as I
could
, she
took
tiny bites of her meal, drawing it out for as long as possible.

I
made
polite conversation, smiling and nodding where appropriate, but
Kate
either
didn’t
read the signs or
had
decided to ignor
e them. Just as her foot brushed
mine under the table, I hear
d
a familiar voice across the room, and look
ed
over to see Sian
wal
k in
.

She was a friend, officially. Unofficially, we both knew it was just a matter of time
before we became something more
. I wasn’t sure when, but sooner or later I was gonna
have to ask her out. We’d been dancing around each other for a year or so now, and the situation had progressed from exciting to maddening.

She spotted me, and a slow smile spread
across her face. Doubtless
our fellow students
had
been gossiping ab
out the situation, and she
’d come to check the situation out. She
tilted
her head a little to analyse
Kate
. I narrow
ed
my eyes at her a little i
n warning, and her smile split
i
nto a full-on grin as she headed
for the vending machines.

Kate
noticed
my c
hange in expression, and glanced
over her shoulder to find
the source of it. Her brows shot up when she located
Sian
,
who
was
g
othed up to the nines as usual,
and she jerked
a thumb over her shoulder, leaning in toward
s
me conspiratorially. “Takes all sorts, I guess.”

“
She’s in our next class
,” I told
her, relieved to be off the topic of her childhood in
Mississippi
.

“You’re kidding
me,” she said,
frowning
. “
She’s a medical student
?”

“
Just cause she
’s g
oth, that doesn’t mean she’ll
make
a bad doctor
,” I
replied
, shrugging. “
She’s smarter than me.
”

“Oh,
I certainly am
,”
Sian
called
, scooping a candy bar from the machine. “
And
I
can hear you.”

As she meandered
over to us, I perform
ed
the introductions. “
Kate Howard
, meet
Sian
Turner
.”

“Good to meet you,”
Sian
said
, rounding the table and taking a seat
…
in my lap.

Trying to ignore the sensations that having her warm body pressed against mine evoke
d
, I breathe
d
into her ear, “What the hell,
Sian
?”

“I’m rescuing you,” she replied
, her equally soft words sending tingles through my skin. “Work with me, he
re.
”

I was in uncharted waters, but I’d
always been able to improvise at a moment’s notice. Slipping my arms around her waist, I
pull
ed her tighter against
my body, smiling up at her. “Good day?”

“I
t’s getting better,” she answered
lightly, with the slightest quirk of her eyebrow.
Before I
could
respond, she d
irected
her next words toward Kate
.
“So how’d you meet my boy?”

Kate
blinked
at us, dismayed. If i
t wasn’t for the fact that she was
clearly interested in more than a cafeteria sandwich, I’d
have fe
l
t
bad for her. “We’re
in the same dorm
.”

“
Cool,
”
Sian
said
,
smothering a smile. S
he turned
further toward
Kate
, adjusting her position in my lap a little and giving an almost imperceptible gasp when I tighten
ed
my grip in response. “Hope y
ou’re finding your way around okay.”

“You two known each other long?”
Kate
asked
, trying to act as though I
didn’t
have a strikingly attractive
girl
nestled close to me.

“
Since our first anatomy class, last year, right?
” I
said
, and
Sian
shot
me a
theatrically
delighted
glance.

“You remember the date we me
t? That’s so sweet!” Before I could
anti
cipate her next move, she kissed
me full on the mouth, her lips lingering for a couple of seconds longer than
was
appropriate under the circ
umstances. My instincts overrode
my common sense, and I
couldn’t
stop myself from kissing back, enjoying the slight quiver that
ran
through her body in response.

“
Sian,
you remember we talked about that
‘
polite company
’
thing?” I murmur
ed when she drew
back, and cast an apologetic look at
Kate
, who was
shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

“You know, I just remembered
I have to stop by the administration building
,” she said,
pushing aside her half-eaten meal and standing up. “I’ll see you
in class
.”

“
See you later,
Kate
.”

S
he nodded,
attempting a smile
before beating a fast retreat.

“Bye…”
Sian
called
after her, but the new girl
didn’t
look around. We watch
ed
her leave the
almost-
empty cafeteria before locking gazes again.

“
Your
boy
?
” I
ask
ed
, trying to pull my emotions under control.

Sian
shrugged
, shifting in my lap with a casualness that almost
made me believe she was unaware of what she was
doing to me. “You had that
‘cornered
animal
’
look. I was ridding you of the
hunter
.”

“Could’ve burst into tears and told me you needed to talk, too,” I point
ed out, and she instantly began
to rise from my lap, her expression guarded.

“Next time I’ll do that, then.”

Impulsively grabbing her hips, I pull
ed
her back t
oward me.
S
he
overbalanced and
fell
back into
my lap with a gasp that was
half surprise at losing her equilibrium, and half dis
covery—
her thigh brushed my slight erection as she landed
.

“
You got rid of her.
I g
uess thanks are in order,” I growl
ed
into her ear
, running a finger down her arm and watching a wave of gooseflesh rise in its wake.

Her eyes
fell closed, and she opened
them again with an effort, whispering, “
God,
Ryan
…”

There was
no point in pretending I
didn’t want her, not while she was
sitting in my lap with her face only inches from mine. She
didn’t
even try to disen
tangle herself from my embrace,
and instead dropped
her he
ad onto my shoulder and pressed
her lips to the side of my neck in a teasing kiss.

“
You gonna keep that up?” I ask
ed
, breathing deeply to try
to
curb my more primal urges. Still, my traitor
ous brain fed
me images as she
continued
to
trail kisses along my jaw.
I could just spin
her so that she straddles me,
push th
at tiny skirt of hers aside and
—

“Well, she might come back,”
Sian
said
, and it
took
me a second to realise that she wa
s talking about
Kate
. A mome
nt later it ceased to matter. S
he skimmed
a hand across my erection
with a wordless purr, and I bit
back a curse at the int
ense sweep of need that resulted.

As much as I want
ed
to bend her backward
s
over the table and fuck her,
the cafeteria
wasn’t
the place
. “
Sian
… N
ot here.”

She ceased
her teasing with a reluctant nod, getting to her feet and watching me follow suit. “My
dorm
?”

“
Too far.
” Hoping like hell that we
wouldn’t
run into anyone
who’d notice my obvious hard-on
on the way
,
I
took
her hand and pull
ed
her
out into the hall.
There wa
s a
cafeteria storeroom
a short way down,
large enough to hide us if need be,
and the door wa
s unlocked—
thank
god.