AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The bustling B-School lobby blurred in front of me.
This wasn’t about Professor Lowe, and it wasn’t about Marcus.
This was all about avoiding the guy I really wanted.
Patrick.
*****
I’d laid eyes on Patrick a week before Thanksgiving, when Sydney, Maria, Ashley and I went to a party together and called it girls’ night. No boyfriends, no hookups, no dancing with anyone male — just us girls, enjoying the fuck out ourselves in the middle of the dance floor.
I wasn’t looking. I had a boyfriend — Dexter. I was with my girls. And we were having the best time, laughing, grinding, the right number of drinks in us, the DJ on point, when I caught a pair of intent blue eyes across the crowded room.
Eyes that were watching me.
The owner of those eyes was tall. Seriously built. Broad, but not husky. “Husky” implied “cuddly snugglebunny.” This guy was an efficient mountain of muscle with zero cuddle factor. He stood alone and silent, well-dressed in a dark grey shirt and fitted black pants, ample space around him even in the crowded room.
His gaze wasn’t friendly, but it was interested. When our eyes locked, he didn’t look away.
And…damn. I thought I knew desire — the nerves, the butterflies.
This was no butterfly. This was a roar of heat that rushed my body. My mouth fuckingwatered.My nipples tightened suddenly and painfully. An ache throbbed between my legs that made it hard to dance.
Our gaze held. And held. And held.
We were locked in an out-and-out staring contest.
I barely noticed Maria’s curls brushing my neck, Ashley’s sharp nose poking my shoulder, and Sydney grinding on me the way she did when she wanted attention. I let them move me in place while everyone bobbed and rocked around us.
Sweet Jesus, I could feel this guy on me. Against me. On top of me. I was an exposed nerve, frozen in his gaze, on fire. I was determined as fuck to win this contest, but if he looked away first, I knew what that would really mean: I lost.
His eyes were the palest blue — a lake, frozen over with a thin sheet of ice. Freaking me out, turning me on, making me dizzy as I kept my eyes on his through every note of the song.
A faint smileplayed over his lips. I licked my own lips, unable to smile back as he leaned against a column and folded his arms over his powerful chest.
I couldn’t take the heat, the cold, the strangeness and excitement of this kind of eye contact. With anyone, but especially a stranger.
And he was ripped. My eyes dropped to his biceps.
When I looked back up at him, his smile took over his face. A brief flash, gone in an instant. He mouthed something at me. It looked a lot likeI won.
You wish,I mouthed back.
Right then, Sydney grabbed my face and positioned me so I was looking at her. She leaned in, her long blonde hair tickling my shoulders.
“No, I amnotmaking out with you,” I yelled over the music.
“I know that.” She pouted and went for a kiss on the cheek. “Stop looking around! It’s girls night.I’mnot looking.”And you’re with Dexter,she didn’t need to say.
“Ladies!” Ashley hooted. “Do we have a problem?”
“God, I love you guys. I love you so fucking much.” Maria smushed us all together in a sweaty hug. We were on to the mushy-drunk stage.
Sydney was getting kissy again, and I was closest to her. That was probably her tongue in my ear, wet and warm, but in the crush of bodies and haze of alcohol, I didn’t really care.
I sneaked a glance to the side. Blue Eyes still watched me, his lip curled in amusement now. No, worse than that — condescension. He was laughing at me.
I bristled, but a new, sharp heat curled through my stomach. It tilted me off-balance. When I glared at him, he turned away.
