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That scraping sound catches my attention again, but this time Angie’s as well. She looks over her shoulder and then back to the front of the room.
My neck is refuses to budge, all because I can feel his gaze. I know he’s watching and he’s going to want an answer. Or an explanation. Or maybe neither. Maybe if I just ignore him, he’ll leave me alone.
That’s what I should want, but it hurts to think of that possibility. Inexplicably so.
It’s funny how time passed so slowly before I came here. Every day was agonizingly painful. Now that I’m so very aware I need to make a decision, the class is over before I can let out a breath.
I need to force my body to relax and move normally so I’ll look just like everyone else. The moment I do, I look behind me, arching my neck and succumbing to temptation.
Dean’s dark eyes stare back at me.
I don’t know how I thought for even one second he’d have looked away.
Maybe he has an obsession like I do.
All that anxiety, that fear, it all slips away as the clock ticks and our gazes meet. As though I’m his reflection, his lips lift into a slow smile and mine follow.
Dean could be my personal heroin. And I want a hit. I want it hard and fast.
It terrifies me. But I want that distraction more than ever now. I want him to take me away from this. However he can. I know it’d be simple too. As effortless as jotting down on paper that I want him and exactly where to find me. It would be all too easy.
Time resumes as I wrap my hand around the leaking pen and toss it into the wastebasket at the front of the room. I don’t look up as everyone walks past me heading for the exit, including Angie and her friendly smile. Trying to keep my composure, I head back to my seat, only to peek up and see Dean waiting for me.
I fucking love it. I love how he makes his intentions clear and that he’s willing to give chase, to put himself out there.I love that he wants me.
“What’s on your mind?” he asks me. My first instinct is to joke, to flirt, to keep things light.
If only he knew the truth.
He’s already too close. And I’m too invested.
I should have stopped this before it got this far. A dark and deadly voice in the back of my mind whispers, coaxing in its cadence,It has to happen. It’s meant to be this way.
“Nothing,” I answer him immediately, ignoring the voice and reaching down for my bag.
“I knew it,” he says with a cocky grin. “I knew there was literally nothing going on in there.”
“Fucking asshole,” I mutter as my smile broadens. I feel naturally at ease around him … happy even. And that’s dangerous. His rough chuckle makes my entire body heat. Some places more than others.
“I can tell you what I was thinking,” he says as he leans closer, so close that I get a hint of his cologne. It’s clean and crisp, but with a hint of woodsy musk that makes me lean in too.
“I bet I already know exactly what you were thinking,” I immediately retort, which only makes him scratch the stubble on his jaw, his smile ever present.
“What do you think?” he asks me, and I arch a brow to admonish him.
“Thoughts like that don’t belong in the classroom.”
“Where else are we going to find a desk?” he asks me, and I can’t help how my thighs clench and my chest and cheeks warm with a slow, heated blush.
I always have a comeback but not this time.
“So, you want to go out?”
“No.” I laugh off his suggestion. “Doyouwant to go out?”
“I could go out,” he answers effortlessly. Like it doesn’t bother him in the least.
“I don’t know,” I tell him, feeling that unease from earlier crawling back into my skin. I forget why I’m really here when I’m with him and I can’t let that happen.
