Just as we’re walking into the apartment building, Roan and Dylan catch up to us. Right away, Dylan wraps his beefy arms around Lexie, practically hauling her off her feet in greeting. Almost immediately she wrinkles her nose, trying to push him away.
“Ewww!” She screeches, “You stink!”
This only makes him laugh before gathering her closer.
“Dylan, that’s so gross! Get the hell away from me!” She squeals the words, still trying to escape from the hold he has on her.
“That’s manly sweat, baby. Take a good whiff.” Jokingly he squashes her face into his arm pit.
“Ugh! I think I’m going to be sick!” She starts making gagging noises like she’s going to throw up.
When he finally releases her, Lexie quickly scrambles away before turning back to give him the stink eye along with a one fingered salute. “Now I’m going to have to fumigate these clothes. You’ve funk-tified me with your putrid stench.”
He gives her a wide grin in return. “How about I shower and then we can grab something to eat. Sound good, babe?”
I see the exact moment reality crashes back over her and she remembers why we cut our shopping excursion short. Almost instantly her face clears of all laughter and happiness.
Averting her eyes, she nods. “Yeah, that sounds good. Like an hour or so?”
Because Dylan is so finely attuned to her moods, he instantly notices the change in her demeanor. As we enter the building, Lexie reaches the elevator first before pressing the button. Dylan comes up behind her and very loosely wraps his arms around her before leaning down to whisper in her ear.
Wanting to give them a bit of privacy, I hang back. Roan falls easily in line with me. When I don’t immediately say anything, he carefully nudges my shoulder with his bigger one.
“Hey.”
I smile as my eyes finally settle on him. “Hi.”
We haven’t seen much of each other since he took me home last Sunday. We’ve both been busy. Plus… it just seemed better to distance myself a little bit. Spending the day with him was nice. And the kiss we shared up in my old bedroom was actually more than nice. Truth be told, I can’t stop thinking about it.
Or him.
I could easily fall for that guy. But I know that guy isn’t who Roan really is.
“Have you been able to work on the project at all?”
I shake my head. “Not since Friday. I haven’t had any extra time this week. I’m hoping that maybe tomorrow I can hit the library again.”
He nods. “I was able to squeeze in a little more research. I’ll send the PDF’s to you through email and you can take a look at what else I was able to dig up. See if it fits with the general theme we’re going for.”
“Great.”
Once again I’m reminded of just how far off the mark I was in my snap judgement of Roan. I’m almost embarrassed that I listened to Finn when he said Roan wasn’t very smart. Now that we’ve been in class together for a couple of weeks, I’ve seen firsthand just how easily Roan jumps into discussions with well thought out comments or questions. It’s obvious from the amount of work he puts in that he cares about his grades.
Yeah… he’s the farthest thing from a meathead jock there is. I’m actually pretty happy we’ve been partnered up for this project. He’s suggested angles I probably wouldn’t have considered exploring on my own.
I just need to keep our relationship platonic.
Which means no physical contact.
Which definitely means no more kissing.
Unconsciously my eyes fall from those gorgeous turquoise depths to his full lips. Roan is, hands down, the best kiss I’ve ever had. And I’m not even going to bother lying to myself by saying that I’m not interested in doing it again. Because I am. Just thinking about it has my tongue slipping out to moisten my lips.
It’s the sound of a throaty growl filling the air that has my startled eyes cutting back up to his. As they collide, the vibration in his chest grows.
When his voice finally rumbles forth, it’s all low and heated.
“It drives me fucking crazy when you stare at me like that.”
I gasp, a flush stinging my cheeks, because I know exactly what was running through my mind when I was staring at his mouth. Which probably means I was all but eating him up with my eyes. Instantly lowering my gaze, I try wrestling my runaway thoughts back under control. It’s no easy task. So I do the only thing I can to salvage just a tiny shred of my pride.
“I wasn’t looking at you any kind of way.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire...
Apparently my words aren’t very convincing because Roan steps just a bit closer, invading my personal space until my heart feels like it’s sitting in the middle of my throat. “I never took you for chicken shit, Ivy.”
Our eyes clash for a long drawn out moment. One that has lust and need arrowing right down to my-
“Cluck-cluck,” is all I can manage to choke out under the circumstances.
A wide grin sweeps across his face as the elevator door rattles open and Dylan and Lexie both step inside. But Roan’s eyes haven’t deviated from mine and I find that I’m unable to break the connection binding us to one another.
“Saved by the bell,” he finally whispers when I show no sign of moving.
Unaware of what’s going on between us, Dylan finally yells impatiently, “Are you guys coming or what?”
I clear my throat. It’s drier than the Sahara. “Yep.”
Yanking my eyes from his, I scurry onto the elevator. As the doors close, I keep my eyes focused directly in front of me even though Roan has moved to stand right next to me. I can practically feel his eyes crawling over me as if he’s blatantly staring. When we finally reach the third floor, it seems to take forever for the doors to slowly slide their way open. As they do, I shoot out of the elevator towards my apartment like the hounds of hell are nipping at my heels.
His low chuckles fill my ears as I hastily unlock the door before slipping inside.
Chapter Eighteen
Mmm, mmm, mmm, I love me some freshly showered Roan King. Oh who am I kidding? I’d happily take that boy all dirtied up. Hell… the dirtier, the better ;) KingOfCampus.com
Safely locked inside my apartment and away from Roan and his damn pheromones, the neurons in my brain once again start firing properly. God, I’m seriously no better than all the other salivating groupies that stalk him around campus. All I have to do is look at him and my mind turns to mush.
It’s completely frustrating.
Not to mention demoralizing.
I’m assuming Lexie told Dylan what’s going on because those two immediately holed up in her room and haven’t come out except to use the bathroom. Which probably means they’re doing the pregnancy test she bought. Even though I want to be there for her, I’m glad she shared her concerns with Dylan. This is an issue he needs to be involved in.
Once my hormones finally settle, I pull out some of my project notes to read over. Just as I’m doing that, I get an email from Roan with the attachments he was talking about. Skimming over them quickly, I’m impressed by what he was able to dig up regarding the Ponzi scheme and Bernie Madoff.
So I shoot him a quick email telling him just that. And yeah, once again I feel like a jerk for wanting to dump him as my partner. At this point, I think he’s actually plowed his way through more research than I have. And Roan is right smack in the middle of his football season too, so it’s not like he has a ton of down time. But he still manages to do quality work.
Yep. I’m a complete asshole.
I shouldn’t have assumed that Roan was only attending college as a stepping stone to the NFL. I guess I have the tendency to look at some of the higher profile athletes on campus, especially the football players destined for NFL greatness, and assume they’re just here killing time before moving on to bigger and better things.
It doesn’t take long for Roan to respond mentioning a few more resource leads he wasn’t able
to check out. Immediately I fire off another email saying that I’d be more than happy to look into those. He replies that we should get together in a few days with all the research we’ve gathered and try sifting through what we want to include in our paper.
This might sound kind of nerdy, but I’m actually stoked as to how this project is shaping up. The downfall of Bernie Madoff was big news and the amount of money he stole from people had far reaching consequences for those who mistakenly trusted him.
A few moments later there’s a knock on the door, since Lexie and Dylan are still locked away in her room, and it’s been at least forty minutes now, I jump off my bed to answer it.
A freshly showered Roan greets me from the other side. His damp locks look even glossier than usual. He’s wearing a black Barnett football t-shirt that hugs the chiseled muscles of his broad chest and biceps as if it was specially made for him. His hands are shoved into the pockets of his faded jeans which hang loosely from his lean hips.
His beautiful blue-green hued eyes are so bright and shiny and aimed right at me.
Something deep within me immediately snaps to attention. I totally get why he has the entire female population of Barnett trailing after him. And the fact he’s actually smart and more than likely going to turn pro makes him the complete package.
It’s taking everything within me not to reach out and bury my fingers in all that silky looking ebony colored hair. To pull his face down to mine so I can feel his mouth roving gently over mine.
Inhaling a shaky breath, I realize the bastard has finally done it.
He’s finally gotten to me.
I have zero interest in being one of the many women he’s knocked boots with but… there’s no denying that I’m totally and unequivocally sexually attracted to him. In the worst way possible. And how attentive he was at my dad’s house last Sunday… yep, that was the clincher.
Unaware of the inner turmoil roiling through me, Roan says, “So I was thinking we could just talk face to face instead of emailing back and forth.”
That doesn’t necessarily seem like the best idea given how I’m currently feeling.
At the moment, I want to slap myself silly for allowing this to happen. Instead of slamming the door in his face like every instinct within is screaming for me to do, I clear my throat. “Um, sure.” Standing back, I allow him into the apartment.
Without another word, he heads straight back to my room. Apparently realizing we’re alone, he nods his head towards Lexie’s closed bedroom door. “Dylan and Lexie are in there?”
“Yeah.” Unconsciously my eyes slide in that direction as well. I can’t help but wonder what’s going on. Is Lexie pregnant or not? Is she at least okay?
Stopping in his tracks, he turns to me before asking with a slight frown marring his handsome face, “You, ah, haven’t heard any loud grunting, have you?”
My brows slide together in obvious question. Grunting? I was maybe expecting some crying if the test turns out to be positive… but not grunting. “No,” I say slowly, “I haven’t heard anything like that at all.”
Looking suddenly contemplative, he narrows his eyes. “Maybe we should just head out and grab some dinner instead. I don’t want to be here when the grunting and moaning starts.”
Is he being serious? I almost can’t contain the gurgle of laughter that threatens to escape from my lips. “What are you even talking about?”
The corners of his mouth tug up before he says in a loud whisper, once again jerking his head towards the closed door, “Haven’t you heard them having sex before?”
“Oh my god, no!” Now I am laughing and he’s laughing too. “I try very hard not to hear that. They’re called earbuds, dude. You need to invest in some if you’re being subjected to that.”
He snorts. “Trust me, dude, I have to use them all the time with those two.”
I can’t help but shake my head. “I don’t really want to hear this.”
“Then we should definitely leave before it starts.”
Considering what Lexie shared with me this afternoon, it’s highly doubtful there will be any grunting going on tonight, but I can’t very well tell Roan that.
“Okay. Let me grab my purse and we can go.” Even though I know damn well that spending more time alone with Roan isn’t going to dampen any of the feelings that have sprung up so unexpectedly within me, I just can’t bring myself to turn him down.
So, for better or worse, I’m going out.
With Roan King.
God help me.
Chapter Nineteen
Ohhhh, a sighting at Peppino’s has been made and (gasp!) he’s with the same girl from the photos previously published on this very site! I’m sad to say that whatever is going on over at that table looks pretty damn serious… KingOfCampus.com
He takes me to a popular pizza joint located in the middle of town. I haven’t been here since I left for Paris. It’s actually one of my favorite restaurants. So coming back after nearly a year and a half of being away has nostalgia wrapping around me like a thick comfy blanket.
Grabbing a booth, we’re given menus although I don’t even bother looking at mine. I know exactly what I’m having. I notice Roan doesn’t pick his up from the table either.
“Know what you want?”
“Yep. Mushroom, sausage, and pepperoni.” It’s my absolute favorite. And I especially love the way they prepare it here because the sausage is cut paper thin instead of left in little chunky balls and the mushrooms are ridiculously huge. The crust is New York style which means it’s super thin. A lot of people like to eat it by folding the slice in half. My mouth literally starts to water even thinking about it. I’m suddenly glad Roan suggested we come here.
For just a moment he stares at me silently. “That’s my favorite too. Did you know that?”
I almost snort. Is he seriously suggesting I’ve been what- cyberstalking him? You know… just in case we grabbed a pizza together which, let me remind you, was entirely his idea in the first place?
“No, that’s what I always order,” I say with a distinct edge to my voice. “You can ask Lexie if you don’t believe me.”
And just like that, I’m thinking that agreeing to this dinner with Roan was a colossal mistake. This guy has one hell of a massive ego…
“Open the menu and take a look at the specialty pizzas.” His suggestion is mildly stated as if he knows his question has rubbed me the wrong way. Guess I have to give him points for that. Begrudgingly…
Feeling annoyed that he thinks I’m some creepy closet Roan King fangirl, I don’t question his reason for asking me to do this. I’m too busy silently seething across from him. The second page has a long list of all the different styles of pizza you can order. Without another word, my eyes start scanning the list. Hawaiian. Supreme. Veggie. Margherita. The King. The Henry Winkler. The Works…
Wait a minute.
The King?
My eyes immediately arrow back up to that one. Mushroom, sausage, and pepperoni.
Oh come on… are you kidding me?
It’s rather flatly that I ask, even though I already know the answer, “They seriously named a pizza after you?” At my favorite place. God… the injustice of it all…
He grins and something dangerous pings in my belly. Damn him for being able to do that. “Yep.” His eyes actually twinkle with unfettered glee. “Glad to see you’re finally a fan of something of mine.”
The waitress arrives with two big glasses of water. Clearly they’re well acquainted because she gives him a little wink even though I’m sitting right across from him. Then Roan orders us an extra-large King. I roll my eyes when he says it. He must notice because he looks like he’s trying to rein in his laughter as the waitress asks if we need anything else. Almost as an afterthought, Roan tacks on an order of garlic knots.
Which, yeah, I love as well.
But I’m not telling him that.
Once she’s gone, he takes a long drink of his water, almost draini
ng the entire glass. When I raise my brows in question, he explains that he and Dylan just worked out. And he only wolfed down a protein bar before leaving for the gym and that was hours ago.
Leaning forward, he looks to be on the verge of saying something when an older man approaches the table with his wife.
Breaking eye contact, he glances over at the elderly couple before giving them both friendly smiles as if they’re already acquainted. But I notice it’s different than the smiles he beams in my direction. There’s not a devilish curl to his lip or humorous twinkle in his eyes.
“Young man, I hope you don’t mind the interruption, but we just couldn’t resist coming over and congratulating you on the winning season Barnett is having.” The couple has to be in their late seventies, maybe even early eighties. They’re so cute.
“Thank you, sir.” He nods politely to the man’s wife. “Ma’am. The whole team is playing well.”
The man’s face crinkles in response. “Yes, they certainly are, but it’s you who keeps catching all those passes. Can’t say I’ve seen anything like it in a good decade. You sure are something to watch out there on the field.”
Nodding again, Roan accepts the compliment graciously. “Thank you, sir. But I couldn’t catch any of those passes without Liam Garrison throwing them right to me.”
The man agrees easily before laying a wrinkled hand on Roan’s shoulder. “Garrison’s a solid quarterback. Has a good arm on him.” He pauses for just a moment before his sparkling brown eyes take on a decidedly cagey look. “Been hearing rumors about you turning pro after this season. Not sticking around for another year, huh?”
Looking slightly contrite, Roan dips his chin in acknowledgement. “That’s the way it looks right now.”
“Well, I sure hate to see Barnett lose you. There’ll be quite a hole in the program when you leave.”
“I appreciate you saying that but there are a number of talented players coming up. I have no doubt they’ll be able to fill the open spots left by this year’s graduating seniors.”
King of Campus Page 18
