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14
HANNAH
“Glad to have another member!You said your name was Hannah …” The faculty adviser holds a pen poised above her clipboard, letting my name trail off in question.
Ready for the chaos my answer is going to bring on, I tense my shoulders and shove my hands into my pockets, keeping my sights fixed solely on the woman in front of me.
“Hannah Smalls.”
There’s the sound of choking behind me. I ignore it.
But I can’t ignore Nathan stepping right in front of me, clasping both my cheeks in his hands and staring down at me with joy equivalent to me offering to buy him a sports car for Christmas.
“Your last name is Smalls? HannahSmalls?”
The pleasant heat of his skin against mine isn’t enough to keep me from scowling.
“Yeah. So what?”
He moves as if to say something, but instead, his mouth just hangs open in a grin.
This gloriously happy version of him is too much. My eyes are likely to burn in their sockets from facing the overwhelming handsomeness of him. Trying to extract myself, I wrap my fingers around his wrists, ignoring how the hairs on his arms tickle my palms.
“Lucifer—”
Whatever plan I had to move away from him fizzles to nothing when he crashes into me with a kiss meant to melt my brain and set the rest of my limbs on fire. My grip on his arms becomes vital to standing, and I let him worship my mouth as I try not to lose consciousness. We might as well be embracing in the middle of an apple cider shop because all I can smell when I breathe in is his heavy scent of cloves.
The kiss ends abruptly with a quick nip of his teeth against my lower lip. I have to blink the lust from my eyes before I can focus on his giddy face again.
A heavy throat clearing just off to my right has me shoving Nathan away. Guess I surprised him because he stumbles back, laughing all the while.
“Please don’t do that in front of the children.” The woman who started the whole mess by asking for my full name divides a disapproving look between the two of us.
“Sorry, Professor Wesley. I’ll keep all interactions G-rated from this point on.”
Not as embarrassed as me, Nathan tosses an arm over my shoulders before pulling me to the van a handful of other students have already piled into. People call out hellos to him as we approach, and Nathan introduces me around.
Their friendly smiles ease some of my nerves.
After we climb into the van and I’m sandwiched between Nathan’s hard leg and the window, he reaches out to tug on a strand of my hair. The playful gesture doesn’t hurt. Instead, it incites a riot of tingles scattering over my scalp.
“How long did you think you could hide your full name from me?” Nathan takes up even more of my space by laying his arm on the back of the seat behind me. He’s like one of those giant Saint Bernards that tries to crawl into your lap because they think they’re still the size of a puppy, and even though you start losing feeling in your legs, you don’t have the heart to shove their furry ass off.
Probably why my attempt to push Lucifer back into his seat is only halfhearted.
“Stop man-spreading.”
He grins and pokes my side before I slap his hand away.
“Come on, Shorty. If you’d told me your name from the start, I could’ve been calling you Smalls this entire time instead.”
My hair gets another teasing pull.
“What a tragedy. Anyway, I only had to hold out for a few more weeks; then, I’d have been gone, and you’d have been none the wiser. But my plans were foiled!” I give him my best mock glare, only to realize the goofy grin is gone from his face.
For a brief moment, Nathan stares down at me with a frown in his heavy-lidded eyes. Then, he lets out a sigh and gives me back some of my space. He doesn’t pull my hair again, and we quietly sit next to each other for the twenty-minute ride.
Pretending like I don’t know what upset him would make me naive, and I’d like to think I’m smarter than that.
