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Barrick leaned in, touching his lips to the shell of my ear. “You can fall asleep in my arms,” he breathed before touching his tongue to my earlobe.
Goose bumps popped up on my entire body, and a delicious shiver went down my spine. Damn, he really knew how to sweeten the deal.
“I… Um…” I cleared my throat. “So, pancakes?” I said in a weak voice.
Barrick’s laugh rumbled in his chest, and Braxton grinned. I picked up my water glass, draining the rest of it in two gulps just as the waitress returned, and Barrick signed the slip before pocketing his card.
Still grinning like the devil he was, Barrick stood and offered me his hand. “Let’s go. I’ll even help you pack a bag.”
“Sweet of you,” I sassed but didn’t try to pull away when he entwined his fingers with mine and he walked me out to the Jeep.
Braxton climbed in the back as his cousin opened my door, but before I could move to get in, Barrick was touching his lips to the back of my neck. “I really want to see what all the fuss was about when you first got to the Underground tonight. Will you show me?”
All I could do was nod because I couldn’t find my voice to speak. He tapped me on my rear, urging me inside with a husky laugh at my ear. “You’re so damn beautiful. Let’s go, firecracker. Need to get you home safely.”
Back at my dorm, I made quick work of packing a few things to take to the cousins’ house for the weekend. Just pajamas, a change of clothes, and a few toiletries to get me through. They stood in the doorway watching me, and I handed over my small case before grabbing my books so I would at least get some studying done.
Barrick frowned down at the light weight of my case. “This it?”
“Yeah, why?” I slung my bag over my shoulder, made sure I had my phone charger and laptop, and then picked up my keys.
“I don’t know. Just figured girls needed more than this.”
I rolled my eyes and closed the door to my room. “I’m not most girls. I only take the necessities. Something you learn to do when you spend a good bit of your life living out of suitcases.”
“You went on tour with your pops a lot?” Braxton asked as he hit the button for the elevator.
“When I was little, they would do a tour every summer and take all of us kids. But that stopped thirteen years ago.” I pulled up my text messages, focusing on them so I didn’t have to look at either cousin. “But I was talking more about my summers in a different country, learning new styles of dance.”
Barrick’s hand touched my back, his fingers slipping under the sweatshirt and rubbing soothing circles on my bare skin, as if he knew I needed comforting. I did. Thinking of that last tour my father’s band did all those years ago was still a vivid nightmare I relived all the time.
“That must have been fun,” Braxton commented. “Where did you go that was your favorite?”
I began to relax, feeling safe with the two of them. And with Barrick’s touch calming something deep inside me, I was able to concentrate on the good things from my past rather than focusing on the scary.
“Paris,” I answered honestly. “But only because ballet is in my soul, and that was where I got to spend the most time focused on it. Plus, Paris. Do I need to say more?”
“You’re a girl, so no, I guess not. Paris is supposed to be every girl’s dream destination, right?”
“Maybe, I guess. Except my cousin Nevaeh. She would rather go to London and just disappear in all the libraries.” Any library would do with her, though. The smell of old books while she spent hours skimming through one from cover to cover was her happy place. “Speaking of which, I’ve arranged to Skype with her so she can help us with that first paper we have due for English.”
“But she’s a kid,” he said as we stepped off the elevator.
Barrick opened the front door, holding it open for me, but once I was through, two other freshmen came out behind me. They looked him over hungrily, and one of them even sucked on her lip as she glanced at him over her shoulder while she kept walking.
And he winked at her.
Jealousy hit me dead center, knocking the breath out of me for a moment. Clenching my jaw, I fell into step beside Braxton, determined not to let what just happened get the better of me.
“What do you mean ‘kid’?” I asked as we walked to the Jeep.
“She’s what? Twelve?”
“No, she’s about to turn sixteen in a few months.” And that was all I was going to tell him about her for now. I was super protective of Nevaeh.
Braxton opened my door for me, and I climbed in just as Barrick reached us and tossed my case in the back seat.
“Ready?” he asked, his jaw tense as he glanced between his cousin and me.
