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He held up his fingers to list them.
One finger raised. “Invited to all the best parties.”
Two fingers raised. “I almost never pay for beer.”
He looked up and to the right, searching for another one, and his face lit up with a smile. Three fingers raised. “And unlimited hookups.”
I choked out a laugh. “Eventually, we all have to make sacrifices, Jax. You just haven’t figured out what yours will be yet.”
“Nah, Sidney. I’ve already got everything I want. Well, almost.” Before another awkward silence could settle in, he looked at our stuff spread over the table and rubbed his hands together. “Time to work on winning that bet.”
An hour into studying, bouncing questions off each other, we’d gotten into a groove. We had been ticking through all the major components of our syllabus, our seats slowly moving closer until we were sharing the same book. Jax was freaking smart. It was way sexier than I wanted to admit. He was flying through his work and breaking everything down into easy bite-sized pieces. Maybe studying with him wouldn’t be so bad.
“You’re good at this.”
“Surprised?” He narrowed his gaze as he adjusted in his seat. A wall went up behind his eyes, making him closed off and defensive while his hands fiddled with his book.
“No, Jax. It’s seriously impressive.” I tried to infuse sincerity into my voice.
His shoulders visibly relaxed, and his eyes briefly caught mine. How many people had made the mistake of underestimating him? His arm grazed mine, drawing all my focus to where we were touching. I had been inching closer to him as the night went on, reading over his meticulous notes and listening as he explained. When I asked questions, he listened attentively, never getting distracted.
A zing of energy had been growing between us, like a magnetic pull forcing me closer. My gaze drifted down to his mouth, so close it would be easy to lean into him for a taste. These weren’t library-appropriate thoughts, but come on, who could blame me? And this was why I needed rules because, without them, I would be falling all over Jax Ryder.
His phone vibrated, but he didn’t look at it.
We were both breathing a little too hard, caught in this trance. All of his attention was on me, and it was intense. I was a moth to a flame. That thought gave me pause. The story didn’t end well for the moth.
I broke first, leaning back, and reached into my bag for my water. “Aren’t you going to get that?”
“Nope. Not important.”
He didn’t even check it. Did that mean he thought I was important? My cheeks heated, and I turned away, hoping he didn’t catch it.
“Hey, Jax. I didn’t expect to see you here.” A beautiful blonde perched her hip against our table. She came out of nowhere and positioned herself with her back toward me. My anger rose when Jax seemed to recognize her. Who was this girl acting like I wasn’t even here?
Jax was quick. “Sid, this is Stacey.” He gestured his hand toward me.
Was it?No one had ever called me “Sid” before. Jax was studying me. His eyes narrowed in a challenge to see if I would correct him on his little nickname.
Her smile fell as she reluctantly turned to face me. Her eyes took in my simple attire and basic makeup. “Nice to meet you… Cindy, is it?”
Ha. Funny…
“I’m pretty tired. Want to call it a night?” I asked Jax quietly.
“You sure?” Jax’s expression darkened. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought he was disappointed.
“All of that studying has my mind fried. I’m not going to be able to fit anything else in anyway.” My words came out awkward and stilted while I went through my phone, setting up my Uber. The car was nearby, so it wouldn’t be more than a few minutes.
“I hear you on that one.” Jax nodded, and he gathered all of his stuff. He was practically ignoring Stacey, who stood there, mouth agape.
Once I was ready, Jax looked over at her. “I’m going with her.”
She made a huffing sound, but I turned to leave, letting him deal with that. I walked straight out of the building into the crisp night air, and I scanned the parking lot. I didn’t realize how long we’d been there. It was nearly black outside.
“Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.”
“Actually, I walked here.”
