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“What are you doing here?” He stared down at me, and I lost myself in those piercing ice-blue eyes. I needed?—
His fingers curled around my wrist for a brief moment before he released me. I fucking trembled at his touch.
“Joshua. I don’t know why you’re here, and you shouldn’t be here in case anyone sees…but it’s so good to see you.”
“I’m being discreet, I promise. Full disclosure—I came because I wanted to see you in action. To see if the situation was really as dire as your friend was making it out to be.”
He laughed humourlessly. “It really is that dire. I’ve only been here ten minutes, and I want to leave.”
I shook my head vehemently. “No. You can do this. Just…just pretend that this is something you really want to be doing. Trick your brain into thinking you’re having a good time. Channel someone social. Me, for instance.” Lightening the atmosphere, I grinned at him. “This is what I would do if I were the one out there. Now, pay attention.” Tapping lightly on the top of my cheekbone, right beneath my lower lashes, I said, “First and most important thing—eye contact. Try to hold eye contact with whoever you’re talking to. But don’t let your eyes glaze over when you get bored, okay? It’s fine to look away. Just try and hold contact as much as you can.”
“I guess I can do that,” he said grudgingly, folding his arms across his chest. “What else?”
“Ask questions. A lot of people—I’m excluding you—love to talk about themselves. You work with these people, and you have plenty of work-related things in common, even if they’re not people you’d choose to hang out with outside of work.”
“Do you have that?”
“Do I have what?”
“People on your degree course that you’d avoid outside of your degree subject. People you don’t even like. Is that possible?”
Good question. Did I? Yeah, there were people on my course I never really interacted with and had no desire to. But actively disliked, no. I didn’t have the energy for that. Oh. Apart from Finn, Ander’s football friend who ruined my custom trainers. Just kidding. I didn’t even dislike him. He had offered to replace them, after all. It wasn’t his fault they were irreplaceable. I sighed. “Of course there are people I wouldn’t choose to hang around with, but like I said to you, we have dance-related things in common. For everything else, I have my other friends. I guess after growing up with my grandma and being surrounded by so many different people from all walks of life, I find it easy to start up a conversation with almost anyone.”
“Yeah.” His voice was soft and bitterly sad. “Guess that’s another thing I can blame on my upbringing. Moving around so much…I never really developed the social skills that others take for granted.”
Fuck. Killian. He looked so lost. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and protect him from the world and at the same time choose violence towards anyone that made him feel like he wasn’t fucking amazing, just the way he was. I needed to tread carefully because the last thing I wanted to do was add to his issues.
I swallowed around the sudden lump in my throat. “You have the skills. And I know that for a fact because I’ve seen you with G, and she was a complete stranger to you. You’re relaxed around Gage, and with me…from the first moment we met?—”
“I don’t seem to remember us doing much talking.” Heat flared in his gaze.
“You knew what you wanted, and you took it. Do the same thing here tonight. Take what you want. You deserve that promotion, Kill. You’re fucking amazing at what you do.”
He smirked at me then, and just like that, my entire body relaxed, warmth curling low in my belly. “How do you know I’m amazing at what I do? Have you been stalking me, Mr. Everett?”
“You’re the stalker in this relation—uh, I mean, out of the two of us, you’re the stalker. I simply have amazing powers of deduction.” Fuck, I hoped he hadn’t noticed the word I’d almost said. Batting my lashes at him, I gave him a bright smile. “You wouldn’t have made it as the principal lecturer if you weren’t good. And I’ve heard my housemates and friends complain about you enough to know that you work your students hard and don’t tolerate slackers.”
“Fair enough. You forgot something, though.”
“What’s that?”
Moving closer, he leaned into me, his warm breath skating across my ear, making me shiver. “You followed me here tonight. That makes you the stalker.”
“Mmm. Maybe I am. Do you have a problem with that?”
He chuckled darkly. “Oh, I have no problem with that. Not at all.”
Was it getting hot in here, or was it the insanely attractive man radiating heat from his body, being all sexy and speaking in that husky voice that made me want him to do bad, bad things to me?
“This is a respectable establishment.” Breathing far too hard for someone who was as fit as I was, I stepped back, discreetly adjusting the erection that was insisting on attention. Believe me, in the trousers I was wearing, it was noticeable.
Killian’s gaze flicked down, his lips parting, and his hand slowly and deliberately went to the obscene, mouthwatering outline of his cock. “Very respectable.”
“Okay. I’m going to go outside and cool off. You…do something about that and then go and try my tips. Good luck. Bye,” I said breathlessly, backing away, and he laughed.
“Goodbye, Joshua.”
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