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“The pony didn’t do it for you? I always liked their rainbow hair myself.”
She slugged him lightly in the thigh and he laughed, trapping her hand against his bunched muscles before she could pull it away. “It’s not funny. Okay, maybe it is a little.”
“I’ll spare you the stories of how I used to jerk off and with what.” When she would’ve asked him, he cleared his throat. “So you got kicked out of school. Then what?”
“My parents were mortified. They’d already had to endure my several years after high school where I took every job I could get. Anything and everything. I worked at a butterfly zoo, at a clown school, at the mortuary. Anything that sounded unusual and unique and something I could count as an experience, I tried. I so didn’t want to be trapped behind a desk all my life. That was my worst fear. Settling down before I’d ever really lived.”
She curled her fingers around his, surprised to find how much easier it was to talk while their skin was touching. It was as if he was giving her courage just by existing.
“Mine too. That exact one. After growing up the way I did, the last thing I could imagine was buying a box and calling it mine and just staying in that one place forever.”
“Yes. That.” She wet her lips and stopped herself from asking him about his family. If he wanted to tell her, he would. She would give him that space.
Space was what they’d both been searching for most. Space to grow and be and discover. She just hadn’t been nearly as gifted at going after that one thing as he was.
“Eventually, I realized what I enjoyed most was working with kids. I got them. They made sense to me. They have so much enthusiasm for life. So much excitement to learn and grow until life beats it out of them. I wanted to help them beat life back.” She bit her lip, chancing a glance at him. “Does that sound stupid?”
He just stroked her hair away from her cheek with the hand not holding hers and left his fingers there, cupping her jaw, while he waited for her to continue.
“I got free tuition at the school my parents’ taught at, and I was desperate to make it up to them for what they saw as wasting my life. So I moved back home and I enrolled in college and for a couple years, everything was okay. Except I didn’t know how to date, and I didn’t own a My Little Pony.” At his doubletake, she laughed. “Just checking to see if you’re still with me.”
“Oh, I’m with you.” He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles and a wave of warmth swept over her, so different from her feelings of humiliation earlier.
“Then I got kicked out of school last fall. And Ethan, well, we’d been friends since we were young. He’s a few years older, but he was the one constant in my life. I never went more than a few days without speaking to him. Ever.”
Because he was in love with you—or maybe in lust?—and you were too dumb to see it.
She would never be able to wrap her brain around that one. Just could not.
“He’ll come around. You’ll see. It just shocked him to see you living for yourself. On your own. He’s used to being your savior, I bet.”
Nodding, she exhaled. “Yeah, I guess he has been. He swooped in to ask me to move in with him. I didn’t have another place to go, and we always had fun together. He came with me to all your concerts, West. It wasn’t his music, but he came because he was my friend.”
Something passed over West’s face, but rather than saying it, he cocked a brow. “What do you mean wasn’t his music? We’re awesome.”
“He wouldn’t hurt me. Not intentionally.” She grimaced. “Except today, and he wasn’t being himself. If I somehow gave you that idea last night, if I made you think you had to protect me from him, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lead you on that way. I kept enough from you.”
“Like your project, and why you were stalking my band. And it wasn’t for sex.”
“Not at first. Now? It’s probably partially for intercourse, yes.” She leaned back into the aisle to ascertain his bandmates weren’t lurking too close by. “You’re really good at it, so I’m not taking full blame for that one.”
“And just think, I haven’t even shown you a fraction of the whole yet.”
“The whole was in my mouth this morning, and I loved every second.”
Laughing softly, he wrapped a handful of her hair around her hand and pulled her up so that he could lower his mouth to hers. Gently. Exploring her as leisurely as if time itself had slowed down just for them.
Between kisses, Lauren heard snatches of squabbling, getting louder and louder. But West’s warm, soft lips stole most of her focus.
“…next time someone hassles you, you come to me. Don’t go off halfcocked looking for security when they’re on a lunch break.”
“I told you the professor wasn’t hassling me, Ry. He was after West’s new virgin.”
“His new virgin? Does he collect them?”
West stiffened but Lauren snorted out a laugh. “That would be some collection.”
“It’s not funny.” West let her go to step down to the pavement. “Hey, we’re standing right here. I think you owe Lauren an apology.”
