Yes, the chemical current between us was exactly that powerful. I’m not even exaggerating.
He broke the connection by shifting his attention to Eva. I gasped from the release as if someone had just ripped a Band-Aid off my soul.
Not that I could really tell, but I swore his eyes narrowed when he focused on my cousin. He sent me another quick dart, which suddenly seemed full of accusation, and swiftly turned back to his group, dismissing us both entirely.
Never before had a mere glance rattled me so deeply.
Blowing out an unsteady breath, I set my hand against my wildly thumping heart. If I had just flatlined and someone had used a defibrillator to bring me back to life, I don’t think I would’ve felt more jolted than I did now. “Whoa.”
“Yeah,” Eva murmured, sounding similarly affected. “I think I need a cigarette.”
I turned to her and blinked. “You don’t smoke.”
She rolled her eyes. “I swear, sometimes, we cannot possibly be related. You weren’t supposed to take that literally, ReeRee. Gah.”
My rational cognition was still too fried for me to think properly, so I merely murmured, “Oh.” Then I shrugged. “Well, my sparkly ballet flats still kick your sandals’ ass.”
“Dream on.” She snorted. “Sandals are so in this season.” And with that, she chomped her gaze back on
my
piece of man candy.
“Whatever,” I mumbled with a petulant sniff, battling this insane urge to pull her hair and scream that I’d seen him first, or at the very least remind her
she
had a boyfriend. “Chillax, E. I was just looking anyway. It’s not like I want to get married and set up house with him. I am so not ready for another relationship right now.”
“Whatever,” Eva repeated right back, but in a much nastier tone than I’d used. “I told you he was unattainable.”
Damn, what had crawled into her Wheaties and died? And why did she keep staring at him? Seriously, it pissed me off something crucial, because now I couldn’t sneak another peek. Two girls eye-gushing over the same guy was just plain pathetic.
Oh, hell, it didn’t matter if she wanted to hog all the ogling to herself. I was a little too intimidated to look at him again, anyway. I mean, what if he looked back? I wasn’t sure I could take that kind of shockwave twice in one day.
I assume no one had ever actually overdosed from a lusty glance before, but with Hotness around, I had a bad feeling I’d probably be the first.
So, I focused my attention on my class schedule I’d pulled up on my cell phone two-point-five seconds before becoming intensely aware of Mason Lowe’s existence. Draining the rest of my latte, I looked up the room number for my first class. The heat and steam from the drink burned all the way down, but I kind of welcomed the pain. It kept me distracted from you-know-who.
Gasping out a silent gulp to cool my inflamed esophagus, I blinked back tears. “So…” It took me a few tries before I could add, “You said you had Brit Lit with me, right?”
“Right,” Eva answered. From her breathy reply, I could tell she was still busy staring.
“Well, it starts in…three minutes. Maybe we should get going.” At this point, anything to get her to heel and take her eyes off my hunk would do, even attending Early British Literature.
Spotting a trashcan nearby, I took aim and sank my empty cup, nothing but net, thanks to three years on the high school basketball team. “So let’s do this,” I announced, gathering my backpack and getting ready to stand.
But Eva slid over, slamming her body into mine until she smashed us together, hip to hip. “Wait.” Her voice went hushed and serious as her hand landed on my leg, holding me in place. “He’s coming this way.”
Drawing in a sharp breath, I glanced up. He’d abandoned his bronco statue and was strolling down the sidewalk by himself toward the main entrance of the school. Problem was, the bench Eva and I inhabited sat along the edge of that very path. He was going to walk right by us.
Nothing but ten feet of dead air was going to separate him from me.
Dear Lord in heaven, please deliver me. Could I survive such close proximity? I honestly didn’t know. My chest heaved from the sudden unsteady rhythm of my breathing.
“Watch this,” Eva whispered in my ear.
I glanced at her, hoping to find some kind of direction, for her to tell me what to do. But she didn’t look a bit aware of my approaching panic attack. The girl looked damn mischievous.
I grabbed her wrist. “Oh, God. What’re you going to do?”
Eva merely smiled her infamous Cheshire cat grin as she settled her gaze on the passing hottie. “Good morning, Mason,” she called.
Every muscle in my body tightening, I dug my nails deep into her wrist, warning her to shut it. But her greeting had already captured his attention.
He glanced over, his gaze indifferent. Jerking his chin in that way guys had of greeting someone with their head, he nodded. “Sup?”
I melted, and a dreamy whimper oozed out. But, wow, he had a compelling voice to go with that compelling body. It was deep, yet smooth, and entirely too sinful to belong to someone so pretty. It made me want to close my eyes, and just…liquefy.
“Looking good today,” Eva told him, her tone full of feminine wiles and not-so-hidden invitation. Tipping her face just enough for the sunlight to catch her flawless complexion, she let her beautiful mane of platinum blonde hair spill over her shoulder to bounce down her sizable chest. She couldn’t have said come-and-get-me-big-boy any more flamboyantly than if she’d shrieked it aloud. “What say we skip class this morning and do something…fun instead?”
Mason Lowe snorted out his disinterest at the same moment I gasped, “E!” I really was going to have to remind her she had a boyfriend, wasn’t I?
At my reprimanding hiss, Hotness zipped his attention to me, and suddenly his expression was no longer unresponsive. His intense gaze burned into me, and yes, I was going to need a whole vat of Aloe Vera to soothe the delicious sting it left behind.
Again, our immediate connection held me prisoner. His heavy stare cemented me into place as if it made every organ in my body weigh a million pounds each. I could do nothing but gape back. Like a punch to the solar plexus, he left me breathless. I sucked in air, seeking oxygen.
He looked even better from ten feet away than he had fifty yards away. Separating himself from his guy-pack hadn’t even diminished his appeal.
And that face. I swear, angels sprouted up around him and began to sing in harmonious worship of that glorious face. Straight nose, prominent brow, über-defined square jaw, dimpled chin. He had every alpha male feature a guy could possibly possess. Even his eyebrows were thick and rugged. There was simply a hallowed kind of masculine perfection about him.
When he tore his gaze away, I felt wrung out and abandoned. I watched him pass by us and stroll all the way to the front door. Then I watched him disappear inside. Licking my parched lips, I turned to my cousin in a daze.
“Okay,” I heard my own voice say, the tone a trifle faint to my ears. “Maybe I could believe women paid him for sex.”
“Hells yeah,” Eva purred. “If I had the cash, I’d definitely do him.”
She sounded a little too invested in her statement, so I nudged my knee into hers, aghast. “What about Alec?”
She gave me an empty stare. “Hmm? Who?”
I lifted one eyebrow. “Your boyfriend.”
“Oh.” Blinking, she seemed to return to herself. With an airy shrug, she pushed to her feet and swung her bag over her shoulder in a fluid, graceful way only a supermodel could accomplish. “Mason is only a pipe dream. Like I said, we could never afford him.”
Something about the way she worded that made me think she’d actually tried. It worried me, but I didn’t question it. Guys were the very last thing I wanted to get tangled in right now. And true gigolo or not, Hotness had sticky mess written all over him. Eva obviously had some kind of prior claim.
For once in my life, I let my curiosity lie dormant. Silently, I trailed Eva toward the front doors of Waterford County Community College and into my new life as Reese Alison Randall.
Linda grew up on a dairy farm in the Midwest as the youngest of eight children. Now she lives in Kansas with her husband, daughter, and their nine cuckoo clocks. Her life's been blessed with lots of people to learn from and love. Writing's always been a major part her world, and she’s so happy to finally share some of her stories with other romance lovers. Please visit her at her website:
http://www.lindakage.com/