But Sam steals her lips from mine, unable to catch her breath. Taking a peek over my shoulder, she sighs in frustration when she sees students coming toward us. Her leg unhooks from my body, and she stands up straight to fix her hair and clothes. My dick is rock-hard, but thankfully, I had enough sense to wear jeans instead of track pants tonight.
“That can’t happen again,” she says, her tone now serious. “Someone could catch us and tell Professor Frazier. I can’t afford the risk. If I lose the TA position, I won’t graduate on time. Because I won’t be able to pay the tuition.”
“No one will catch us,” I assure her.
“I don’t share your confidence,” she counters. “You’ve been the focus of several editions of Dethroned now. Someone clearly has it out for you.”
I stare at her in shock. “You read that garbage?”
She nods. “Doesn’t everyone on campus.”
“So, you know what happened with my brother, then?”
Another nod. “I don’t want to be another headline. My reputation is all I have at this school, and I can’t afford to lose it.”
“We can still be friends,” I offer.
She turns her head away from me, unable to meet my gaze. “Friends don’t kiss. Friends don’t want to rip each other’s clothes off.”
“Friends with benefits do,” I add.
“You need a tutor more than another girl to hook up with,” she says, now looking at me again.
“And you want to be my tutor?”
She smiles. “For a price, of course.”
I frown. “Of course.”
Everyone wants something from me whether it’s money, status, or an invite to a party. Why would she be any different?
“You won’t pass the class without my help,” she says, and I know she’s right.
Clearly, judging by my grade on the quiz, I don’t understand the material. She knows it, too.
I cross my arms over my chest, and her eyes roam over my body. “What’s the price?”
“Same as before. Fifty bucks an hour.”
“Is that all?”
She tips her nose to the ceiling, thinking over my question. “No, I think that about covers it.”
“I’ve never felt more used in my life,” I admit.
She chuckles. “Put yourself in my shoes three years ago, and then we can talk about feeling used.”
I have no idea what to say. Even though I told her I wanted nothing more than sex that night, she still hasn’t moved on from the past.
“Give me one month,” I tell her.
She cocks an eyebrow at me. “For what?”
“To prove you wrong.”
Sam smirks, her silence louder than words.
Our time together this semester is my chance to prove to her that I’m worth her time. That I’m not the guy she remembers. Now, I have to find a way to make her see that people can change.
But have I? Not really. But I can.
I’m willing to try for her.
Chapter Nineteen
Sam
The library is impressive with its high ceilings and gothic architecture, making it easy to get lost inside and find hiding places. I found mine years ago. The top floor offers some refuge from the crowds downstairs. Before I decided to tutor students on my own, I worked at the tutoring center hidden in the back of the building on the first floor. Now, I prefer the solace of the stacks containing reference books.
It smells of dust, furniture polish, and aged parchment up here, but it’s my favorite place on campus. I come here often, and now I’m about to share it with Tucker Kane, of all people.
Hidden between a row of old microfiche machines, I flip through my notebook. No one can see me over here nestled between several bookshelves. On occasion, I sit by the window, at the only real desk on the floor, but I don’t want anyone to see me with Tucker.
The librarian checks this floor twice daily, usually making her rounds once in the morning and again before closing. I don’t expect her for a few more hours, but other students wander up here from time to time. Most of them are seeking a quickie while others actually want the peace and quiet it offers.
I can’t take any chances when it comes to Tucker.
He had suggested tutoring him at his house. That was a definite no for me. After what happened in the SAC the other night, I can’t be alone with him. Not entirely, anyway.
With an exaggerated sigh, I check the time on my cell phone. Tucker is late. Shocker. I’m used to the jocks on campus making appointments and either bailing or showing up late. He could have called or texted. It’s not like he doesn’t have my number now.
For the last few years, I’ve taken turns tutoring guys on the football, hockey, baseball, and basketball teams. I spend a lot of my free time with athletes. Tucker isn’t the first to hit on me, but he is the one who’s gotten to me most, our history something I cannot ignore. One kiss from him brought back all of the old feelings.
I hear footsteps from a distance, and a shudder runs down my arms. My chest tightens, my heart beating a little faster.
Tucker must be here. Finally.
My body responds to him accordingly every time.
So, why am I so nervous? It’s not the first time I’ve been alone with him. He’s seen me naked, explored every inch of my body with his big hands and even bigger…
Stop it, Sam.
“You okay?” Tucker stands in front of me on the other side of the table while staring down at me. His pale blue eyes are wide and bright, illuminated by the smirk that reaches up to them.
I lick my lips, recalling his nice, full lips pressed against mine.
“You must be thinking of me,” he adds, his smirk growing wider and more defiant. “I’ve been told I take a woman’s breath away.”
Cocky asshole.
I hate that he’s right. He really does have a way with women, one I can’t deny. Every girl on campus stops to notice Tucker and his twin brother. It’s hard not to with their chiseled good looks and muscular bodies. One Kane is enough, but two of them…
He analyzes every feature of my face as if I’m a specimen under a microscope. I study him with equal curiosity. Heat rolls over my skin in waves. He ignites a fire inside my body that only he can extinguish. As Tucker runs his thumb along his jaw, I’m speechless, unable to move or breathe.
I still haven’t answered his question, mostly because it doesn’t deserve an answer. Yes, I was thinking about him, but he doesn’t need to know. That would only feed his overinflated ego.
He winks, making a point that he already knows my answer. My silence has told him everything he needs to know. His gaze causes my lip to tremble along with my body.
He pulls a chair out from the table and sits across from me still burning a hole through me. My brain stops functioning, and I’m now wondering how I can go through with our lesson. I won’t make it long before I break my own rules. Tucker will make sure I break them sooner.
“I hope you’re ready to learn.” My voice is firm. “We have one hour before I have to get to my other job.”
I have to relieve Eden of her shift at Broad Street Beans. She has a meeting with the editor of the Strickland Gazette about her next assignment, and I can’t be late.
Tucker nods. “Then, let’s get to it.” His grin widens. “Teach away.”
He has a boyish look about him with his spiky blond hair and cute dimple nestled into his cheek. A boy that’s definitely a man in every way that counts. Ugh, I have to stop thinking about him, in any way. He’s my student. I have to act like the teacher, or in this case, the teaching assistant. Boundaries must be drawn to keep Tucker from crossing them.
Lead by example, one of my professors used to tell me.
Getting comfortable in the chair, I lean back against the wood and scan my notes. “Take out your textbook and flip to page fifty-six. The assignment is at the end of the chapter.”
He does as I say, and then peeks up at me, confusion scrolling acr
oss his handsome face. “You want me to read?”
I roll my eyes and laugh. “Yes, Tucker, I want you to read. How do you expect to learn?”
He scratches the little bit of stubble on the corner of his jaw. “Well, I kinda thought you were going to help me.”
I tilt my head back and laugh, this time too loudly for this section of the library. Now realizing my error, I quiet down and lower my voice. “I’m not your nanny or your mommy. I’m not going to read to you as if the material is your bedtime story. We can’t have a rational discussion if you don’t read the chapter first.”
He sinks back against the hard, wooden chair and sighs.
I lean forward, resting my elbows on the table. “Are you willing to put in the time and effort to pass this class?”
Tucker glares at me. The lust that was once in his eyes is now gone. He looks as though he despises me for making him work for a change. I must be the only person who’s ever made him earn a grade. From the start, he’s acted as if I should hand him the answers just because he’s good-looking and rich.
Spoiled brat.
He won’t get over on me. Nope, not going to happen. By the time the semester is over, he’ll either give up or learn what it takes to make it in the real world where he clearly doesn’t live.
Instead of responding, he grips the edges of his textbook and pulls it closer to him. His long legs graze mine as he settles into his seat to read the material. A simple touch sends a tremor up my thigh. This needs to stop happening. Tucker cannot have this effect on me. But he does.
He smells is so good, I take in the scent of his spicy aftershave which fills my nostrils every time we’re together. I commit his perfectly sculpted features to memory starting with his spiky hair I’d love to see messy enough to run my fingers through. His thick arms flex beneath a fitted Strick U hockey tee.
He has no idea he has this effect on me. Or does he? Every irrational part of me wants to jump across this table and pounce like a cat in heat. I want to finish what we’d started the other day in the hallway.
Tucker must feel my intense gaze because he lifts his eyes from the book for a second to stare at me. There’s an animalistic look in his eyes as if he’s ready to attack. And I wish he would. He licks his lips, and I can’t stop myself from staring at his mouth, hoping he would lick every inch of my body with his skilled tongue.
“Back to work,” I say, breaking our staring contest. “We only have forty-five minutes left.”
“Such a hardass,” he growls. “Your anger only turns me on.”
I chuckle. “Who says I’m mad?”
“You look pissed off ninety-nine percent of the time.”
“Oh, yeah? What about the other one percent?”
He smirks. “I don’t know. I was too busy kissing you the other one percent.”
“You’ll pass this class…” I promise, clearing my throat, “…. as long as you put the work in and stop hitting on me.”
Tucker digs his elbows into the wood and cups his face in his hands. The two feet which separate us is not enough when he flashes me a panty-melting smile that goes straight to my core. I cross my legs and suck in a deep breath.
Keep your shit together, Sam.
I can’t lower my guard around him even if he keeps trying to strip away my willpower.
“Hitting on you is part of the fun, Sam.” His condescending tone irritates me. Tucker loves playing with me as if I’m here solely for his amusement. “You know you like it.” His leg intentionally touches mine this time, and he rubs inside my inner thigh. “I want you, too. I don’t see the problem.”
“Stop it, Tucker,” I warn, sliding my chair back from the table.
“Deny me all you want, Sam.” He folds his arms across his chest and smiles. “I always get what I want.”
“You didn’t get your brother’s girlfriend,” I say, knowing it will piss him off.
Tucker supposedly let Trent have the sorority girl they were both chasing after. At least, that’s what my sources told me. The gossip has since fizzled out, and no one cares about what happened with the Kane twins, but I can tell I’ve struck a nerve with him.
He glares at me with real hatred in his eyes and fire in his words. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Get your facts straight before you open your mouth.”
He’s madder than I had anticipated. It was supposed to be a quick jab. I didn’t think Tucker liked girls for more than one night. Trent’s girl must have been more to Tucker than a hookup. Interesting. No wonder why The Queen was so intrigued by his story.
I shrug off his words and pretend as though his anger didn’t slice through me.
Guys like Tucker never see girls like me—at least not in the way they do sorority girls or cheerleaders. His interest will fizzle out faster than this started. He only wants what he can’t have, his pursuit nothing more than a game to claim a prize. And I refuse to be his trophy.
After an awkward pause, his gaze lowers along with his voice, his tone now softer. “I didn’t mean to yell at you. It’s just…” he trails off, and I can now see how much he liked the girl he gave up for his brother.
A pang of guilt hits me hard, right in the gut. He doesn’t throw the fact I’m poor and can’t afford this school in my face. I guess I misjudged him, or maybe I shouldn’t have judged him at all. I feel like a bitch for doing so, now wanting to help him for real.
“I’m sorry, too.” I reach across the table and hold my hand out for him to shake. “How about a do-over?”
He slips his fingers between mine, electricity skating along my skin, and he smiles. “I’d like that. We got off to a bad start.”
I nod in agreement and shake his hand. The tension between us provokes a deep yearning inside me. His thick muscles flex under the thin fabric stretched tight across his chest. For a second, I catch myself thinking of how good he looks naked and stop myself. His body really is a work of art, carefully created with purpose.
“How about we get back to work?” I lift my cell phone from the table to check the time. “I have to leave soon, and I’d like to get through the assignment before I have to go.”
He winks without speaking a word, and then his eyes are back on the textbook.
I have no idea how I will make it to the end of the semester with Tucker not only sitting in my classroom but also right across from me giving me delicious smirks that weaken me every time.
He’s always been a drug to me. I get a contact high just from being around him. Everyone does.
And that’s why they love Tucker so much.
Chapter Twenty
Tucker
I kick my feet up on the table and pound the rest of my beer. Romeo burps loudly in my ear. Professor crushes a can in his hand and throws it onto the lawn at the Delta Sig house. We’ve kept this pace for the last two hours, buzzed but not yet drunk. I can hold my alcohol, and so can most of the brothers in the fraternity.
“You hooking up with Sam?” Romeo asks me.
I shake my head. “Nah. She’s just my tutor.”
“Yeah, right,” Professor says, laughing. “That’s what Finch said before he got wifed up with Ella.”
Shawn Finch graduated last year. He was the star running back for the football team and a member of Delta Sig. At one point, Professor shared a bedroom with him. Finch was in a similar situation as me. He was failing, so his coach forced him into tutoring, and he ended up running off with his tutor. Now, he plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. I’m not going to be like Finch. No fucking way.
“No one is getting wifed up,” I shoot back, cracking open another can of beer. “Especially not me. Assholes.”
Romeo chuckles, his gazed fixed on Professor. He mutters something I don’t hear over the obnoxious sound of my phone dinging. It’s a desperate sounding text from Trent asking me to come home as soon as possible.
“He’s so dramatic,” I mumble and shove the phone back into my pocket.
“Is Parker riding your ass a
gain?”
I chug half of my beer. “No. Trent.”
“Dude, ever since you and your brother got caught switching places, they haven’t gotten off your ass.”
He’s referring to my friends and brother who never seem to let up. They constantly nag me. Tucker, you need to do this, you need to do that. Blah, blah, blah. I avoid my house as much as possible because of it, but I can’t run away from hockey.
“Parker thinks he’s my dad…” I growl in frustration, “… and Trent is just worried about me.” I finish off another beer and drop the aluminum can on the table in front of me, sliding my legs to the floor. “I better go see what Trent wants, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Romeo grunts, before bringing his fingers to his lips to whistle at the sorority girls walking by the house. He beckons them forward with his finger, and they stare at us, giggling. Professor gets up to lean over the porch railing and tells the girls to come and keep them company.
When I stand, I have to hold out my hand to maintain my balance. So, maybe I’m a little more drunk than buzzed.
“I’ll stop by later,” I promise, hoping Trent doesn’t have other plans for me.
Drinking on the porch is about the extent of what I had planned for my Friday night. I had asked Sam to come to a party with me this weekend, and she shot me down. That girl is driving me fucking crazy. The more she resists, the more I want her. She’s crawled under my skin and found a place for herself in my mind. I can’t stop thinking about her. No amount of liquor can get her out of my head.
Romeo slaps me on the back. “Later. Don’t forget the theme for tomorrow night.”
I smirk. “It’s so fucking lame, how can I forget?”
He shakes his head and laughs.
By the time I stumble into the house I share with my teammates, I can’t walk a straight line. Hours of drinking has finally caught up to me.
Teaching Tucker (Face-Off Legacy Book 3) Page 10
