A sticker.
She’d given me a gold star.Literally.
“Now that you have Scooby Doo’d this mystery,” she continued, ignoring the way I looked at the sticker on my chest then at her as she settled back down into study mode, “why don’t you go have a protein bar, and I don’t know, go look for one of the many jock bunnies that like to follow you and your buddies around and bug them? I’m busy tonight.” And just like that, I was dismissed. It irked me. Who did she think she was?
“Jealous?” I stupidly asked yet couldn’t get myself to regret the words when she gifted me one of those sexy-as-hell eye rolls and soft chuckle.
“Oh, please,” she scoffed. I knew I’d be hearing those two little words in my head later while I jerked off thinking about other ways she’d sound that while my head was buried between her thighs.
“I mean, if you ask nicely again, I’d do pretty much anything for you, Teresa.” The flirtatious tone in my voice was foreign to me. I had no idea why I tried so damn hard around her.Liar,the thing that she’d woken up by just existing whispered in my head.You want her as infatuated with you as you are with her.
“Tere,” she corrected then slammed her book shut, and once again, I was granted the gift of her attention solely focused on me. And fuck, I was a goddamn simp staring at her like she was responsible for everything beautiful and that held meaning even existed on this green earth.
“Look, Fletcher. I don’t know what your deal is but?—“
“Go out with me. Let me take you to dinner,” I cut her off.
It was risky.
Ballsy, really. But I had to do something drastic. Just trying to talk to her at the gym or forcing myself next to her on her morning runs wasn’t cutting it. No matter what I said or did, it pissed or annoyed the hell out of her.
“No,” she answered way too quickly, shaking her pretty head at me.
“No?” I repeated. She bit the inside of her cheek with what I could only hope was a smile, one that let me know she thought I was cute in the very least. “Why not?”
“You’re a baseball player,” she stated, as if that was reason enough. I leaned forward and watched as those big brown eyes turned bigger, wider.Who can blame her?I hadn’t invaded her personal space like this before, not even on those quiet early morning runs.
My hand rose and stroked her cheek, and I quickly realized my damn mistake.
Touching her was stupid.
Not only didn’t I have that kind of privilege, she wasn’t the kind of girl you crossed boundaries to push and see what you could get away with. Yet the silky soft feel of her skin under my fingers made me hunger for more.
“Who hurt you, Teresa?” I asked quietly. She blinked. Once. Twice. I could have sworn she might have even started to sway closer, leaning into my touch just a smidge, but it was too quick to know for sure before she pulled away and pointed at me.
“Knock it off, Fletch,” she huffed. She might have been pissed at me for touching her, but there was no denying the way her breathing had changed. The way her lips had parted with desire before she licked them and how her eyes had skidded down to my mouth.
“Go out with me.” It wasn’t worded as a request this time, and it earned me an honest-to-goodness snort.A motherfucking snort!When was the last time a girl snorted around me on accident, much less on purpose?
“¿En serio, que te piensas?” she rapid-fired Spanish. My brain worked overtime to translate.Seriously, who do you think you are?I opened my mouth to answer, but her eyes narrowed and she sighed. I knew the language but was a little rusty. Not that I let on I understood what she’d just said. “I have to study.” Her fingertips tapped the top of her book, but I didn’t miss the way her eyes skirted to the biology book next to her and her shoulders slumped in almost defeat. “And unlike baseball players, who get a walk on their grades?—”
“A walk on their grades? I see what you did there,” I mumbled proudly because it meant she knew the sport I loved so much.
“Soccer players don’t.”
“I don’t—“ I started to share about my grades, but she cut me off.
“So, let’s please not play whatever cat and mouse game or whatever it is you’re doing.”
“I’m not?—“
“I get it.” She sat back into the booth, crossing her arms over her chest and making me have to stifle a deep guttural groan as her beautiful breasts pushed together, making my mouth water for a taste. To shove my face between them and breathe in deeply before dropping my mouth onto her….
“Hey!” she snapped. “My eyes are up here, Fletcher.”
“What?” I shook my head, slightly embarrassed about being caught staring at her tits.
“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” She glared, and because she poked something inside of me that couldn’t keep his goddamn trap shut when it came to her, I leaned a little closer and grinned.
