College Girl

by Shelia Grace

  But it wasn’t a dream, because before last week I never could have imagined Ryan Bennett’s deep blue eyes or the way he had looked at me. No guy had ever looked at me like that, so the fact that he had was crazy. And crazy was the perfect description for what I was doing right now. I looked out the window and saw A Street. One more stop.

  When I stepped off the bus, it was colder and quieter than I expected. Crossing at the crosswalk, I looked at the street numbers and tried to remember how many houses down Ryan’s had been. I zipped up my jacket and looked up, hoping it wasn’t about to start raining again. The last thing I needed was to show up at his house looking like a drowned cat.

  Finally I reached the blue and white house that I would never forget. In addition to the black motorcycle, there were two cars parked out front. A black Audi and a white BMW with a vanity plate that said PRNCSS. Princess? I swallowed and looked up at the house. Maybe it was a neighbor’s car?

  After several deep breaths, I worked up the nerve to walk up the stairs and knock. As soon as I did, I heard Finn barking from somewhere in the back of the house. I smiled. Amongst others things, I loved Ryan’s dog. Actually, I was deliriously excited at the prospect of petting him again. I missed having a dog. The porch light clicked on, and the door swung open a second later.

  I looked at the well-dressed woman standing in the doorway and bit my lip. Her expression reminded me of the girls in high school who looked through everyone else like they didn’t matter.

  “What?” she snapped.

  “Sorry. I-is Ryan here?” I managed to stammer, listening to Finn bark wildly from the back of the house.

  As if to answer my question, I saw Finn bounding toward me just before Ryan stepped through the kitchen door wearing only a perplexed expression—and a towel around his waist. I looked back at the woman in front of me, and she smiled. Without hesitating, I clamored down the stairs and ran as fast as I could.

  “Alex!”

  When I heard Ryan shout my name, I turned and saw him standing on the steps in the towel, an image that would probably be scorched into my memory forever. Then I kept running. Tears blurred my vision, but I didn’t stop until I was back on the main road toward campus. How could I have been so stupid? What the fuck had I been thinking going to his house? Epically brainless, Alex.

  I slowed to a walk after several blocks—only because I was out of breath. I would have kept running full speed if I could have. Seeing the bus pull up at the next stop, I ran toward it. I got on, and when I looked out the window a minute later, I saw the single headlight of a motorcycle slice by. Taking out my phone, I texted Julie. Then, on a whim, I jumped off at the next stop and headed for the creepy red and white house, which looked like it belonged in a horror movie.

  Hearing a whirring sound behind me, I turned and saw a motorcycle pulling up at the curb. The rider flipped up the visor. It was Ryan. Shit! He must have doubled back.

  “Alex, we need to talk.”

  It wasn’t the most mature maneuver I had ever pulled in my life, but instead of walking over to him like a rational adult, I turned and ran full-speed toward the frat house. When I got to the door, the guy sitting on a lawn chair out front asked if I was twenty-one.

  “No,” I gasped.

  “Yes, you are,” he smirked before strapping a plastic bracelet on my wrist.

  I pulled my arm back and darted into the house. Apart from the creepy black lights everywhere, it was dark—and loud. Someone pressed a drink into my hand, and when an arm came around my shoulder, I jerked back, sloshing some of whatever was in the cup. I looked up, expecting to see Ryan. Instead, I saw a ghoulish glow-in-the-dark mask that looked like a hooded skeleton.

  “Hey, I haven’t seen you before. What sorority are you rushing?” the masked stranger yelled in my ear.

  I shook my head.

  “I’m not.”

  “You’re a freshman, right?”

  I nodded distractedly and tried to pull away.

  “I need to find my friend Julie.”

  “Julie? Oh, I know Julie,” the male voice said.

  “I doubt it,” I muttered.

  I caught sight of Tony across the room. Finally! Someone from my dorm. Right now, Tony looked like my savior.

  “Tony!”

  When I started to pull away, the arm that had been draped around my shoulder tightened. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. Shit! It was probably Julie.

  “Let go!” I snapped.

  “Why don’t you come with me?” the voice hissed in my ear. “We’re having a private party in the back.”

  “No thanks, asshole,” I muttered under my breath, tugging harder against his grip.

  Dammit. He wouldn’t let go. When he started hauling me toward another doorway, I looked around for Tony. There was no sign of him. A second later, after evaluating my chances of making it out of this freaky funhouse without great bodily harm, I hurled the full cup up and back. Liquid splashed my jacket, but I also nailed the masked shithead right in the face before hip checking him with all my force.

  “You bitch!” he yelled, releasing my shoulder.

  I ran across the room, desperately trying to find the exit when an arm wrapped around my waist. Unlike the last guy, I couldn’t shake this one off me. I kicked and screamed until he finally picked me up and carried me fireman style out of the house. When he finally set me down, I looked up—and saw Ryan staring down at me.

  “Are you always this much trouble?” he growled.

  Chapter 10

  Ryan

  I stared down at Alex Reed, still in awe that I had just chased her through the worst fucking frat on campus. There should have been a page in the new student welcome packet identifying these frat assholes as the most likely to roofie the cheap, shit beer they were passing around to any freshmen dumb enough to walk through the door to this place.

  “Am I always this much trouble?” Alex demanded, glaring up at me. “Are you kidding? I only went in there because—”

  “Fucken bitch is right there.”

  I looked toward the house and saw a small group of knuckle draggers coming down the stairs. On any other night, I might have found their chest-thumping entertaining, but neck-deep in fucking girl-centered drama, I couldn’t spare the energy. Locking my hand around Alex’s wrist, I hauled her toward the bike, finding her less resistant now that she had seen her other option. I pulled the helmet over her head and put on my own just as the cadre of geniuses reached the sidewalk. When I got on the bike, Alex took my hand without question.

  “Get off the bike, douchebag. I need to have a chat with your fucking girlfriend.”

  I revved the engine and lifted a hand to my helmet. Alex was gripping my waist, reminding me that I had more than just my own goddamned ego to worry about. Luckily for her, I wanted to get her out of here more than I wanted to prove what a macho dickhead I was. These assholes were doing more than enough of that.

  The asshat in a soaked polo shirt stepped forward, and I released the brake and punched it. The last thing I wanted to do right now was take Alex back to my house with Gretchen there, but dropping Alex off at the dorms with no explanation wasn’t an option, either. Within two minutes we were back at the house, and I exhaled when I saw that Gretchen’s BMW was gone. I hoped that Natalia had had the sense to bring someone sober to take Gretchen’s car back to Sacramento, but I couldn’t worry about it. Gretchen wasn’t my problem anymore, and maybe this time it would fucking sink into her head.

  Then again, the last time she had pulled this bullshit—sober for once—and shown up at the house, I had let my dick do the thinking. But somewhere in between tearing off our clothes and making it to the couch for a quick fuck, I had snapped out of my sex-withdrawal psychosis and shown Gretchen the door. It hadn’t been my infallible conscience that had stopped me; it had been the fact that I didn’t want to get sucked in again. And condom or not, I also didn’t want to pick up whatever she might have contracted during what she had christened her Fr
eedom Tour.

  Parking the bike, I helped Alex down and took off my helmet. Before I could help her, she yanked off hers and shoved it into my hands. Her face was tear-streaked and furious, her cheeks flushed and her eyes a vivid green.

  “So, your fucking Barbie doll girlfriend went home, and now you think it’s okay to bring the little freshman back? Well, I’ve got some breaking fucking news for you: you’re not that hot, and I’m not that stupid!”

  I watched her chest rise and fall, amazed that this girl yelling at me could stiffen my cock instantly while Gretchen’s histrionics had only managed to exhaust me. Then, suddenly the image of that douchebag tugging her toward the back of the frat house filled my vision.

  “Not that stupid? Really? You didn’t consider running into that meat grinder on a Friday night stupid?”

  “You were the one who chased me in there!”

  This wasn’t going very well, and she was starting to shiver. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her toward the front door. I opened it and waved her ahead of me. She walked in reluctantly and then spun around angrily.

  “Right. Like it’s so much safer in here.”

  I advanced on her as she tugged her cell phone out of her jacket pocket.

  “What do you think would have happened to you if that fucking sociopath had gotten you behind a closed door?” I snapped.

  Suddenly every ounce of color drained from Alex’s cheeks.

  “And, while we’re on the subject of men and boys who want to fuck you, do you have any idea how badly I wanted to do just that the other night?”

  She blinked.

  “No, I didn’t fucking think so. But I didn’t act on it. That’s the difference between those guys and me. I’m not a degenerate asshole.” At least not yet, I thought wearily. “If you can’t tell the difference, then maybe you aren’t that bright.”

  I watched as a tear slipped down her cheek. A second later I snatched the phone out of her hands and pulled her off of her feet. Touching my lips to hers, I tasted the salt from her tears and hated myself. She tried to twist away, her small hands shoving against me, but when I bit her bottom lip with barely any pressure, she whimpered. Then her grip tightened on my chest.

  It wasn’t fair of me, but I couldn’t stop myself. I lifted her into my arms and carried her to my room where I laid her on the bed and followed her down. Her dark hair, loose for once, was spilling over the pillow like cinnamon as she looked up at me with those wide fucking green eyes, her pink lips parted. I lowered my head to taste her lips, and I promised myself that I wouldn’t let it go too far. But I knew I was skating on thin fucking ice.

  When her cell phone went off in the living room, she jerked in my arms. With a sigh, I pushed myself up and stalked into the next room, snatching her phone from where I had tossed it onto the couch. I looked down at the Caller ID.

  Julie. Again trying to ignore a raging hard-on that had been plaguing me practically since the moment I first saw Alex, I walked back into the bedroom where she was sitting on the edge of the bed. She looked shell-shocked as she took the phone from me. After another second, she stood up and walked out. I ran a hand through my hair and tried to get a grip on my self-control. Finally I crept into the kitchen and stood listening to the one-sided conversation going on in the other room.

  “I’m fine … Yeah, I went to look for you, but you weren’t … No, Tony’s nuts … I’m fine. I’m at, well, you know … Julie! Yes, I’m still a …” She suddenly went very quiet. “Do you know if Brit’s in the room? … Good … No! God! I’m coming back to the dorm! I’ll see you a little later … Thanks for checking up on me.”

  When I opened the back door, my dog ran right by me and into the living room. By the time I followed him, I found Alex kneeling in front of him scratching his neck.

  “Alex, I’m sorry.”

  She looked up at me like she had expected something else—probably for me to continue acting like a dick.

  “Was that your girlfriend? Earlier, I mean,” she mumbled meekly.

  “No, that wasn’t my girlfriend.”

  I shoved my hands into my pockets. I didn’t have the energy to explain my sordid history with Gretchen Mueller.

  “Oh. Well, she’s really pretty,” Alex said, looking down at Finn again.

  I growled, aggravated by the insecurity in her tone. All I could think of was the girl kneeling in front of me, and she couldn’t seem to get that. After several seconds she looked up at me again.

  “I’m sorry for coming over here randomly. I mean, I shouldn’t have. I don’t know what I was thinking. When you didn’t show up, I just … I guess I figured I would—”

  “Test the limits of my severely battered conscience?” I finished dryly.

  She smirked, a glimmer of her usual attitude resurfacing.

  “Oh, yeah. Like I’m so irresistible. You want me to spell it out for you? Not one date in high school, and the guys in my dorm think I’m invisible. So, I don’t know what you’re smoking, Professor Bennett. Viagra possibly?”

  I watched her carefully, but her eyes hadn’t actually traveled down to the source of my enduring discomfort. Professor Bennett. I was really beginning to believe that this girl was my karmic punishment for past indiscretions. Having impure thoughts about Alex was one thing, but acting on them while she was in Robertson’s class was—like I told Jess—unethical. And that wasn’t even taking into account how inexperienced she was. What really bothered me now, though, was that I didn’t want to just fuck her and forget her, which meant the only rational choice was to take her back to her dorm and look her up in five years.

  Five years.

  My jaw clenched at the thought of someone else touching her—being her first. What the fuck? Where had this proprietary bullshit come from? Then I realized what it was. I couldn’t fucking stand the thought of some asshole with worse intentions laying a hand on her—some asshole who didn’t give a shit if he made her come. Of course, this was unassailable proof that I had officially lost my fucking mind. I gestured toward the couch.

  “Alex, sit down and let me explain the male psyche to you.”

  She rose grudgingly from where she had been kneeling in front of Finn. I glanced at my dog, who was staring up at Alex worshipfully. He would probably bite my arm off if he thought I posed a risk to his new best friend. Ungrateful animal. I took Alex’s jacket from her, and frowned at Finn as he made himself comfortable at her feet. Thinking about my dog’s complete freedom to stick his nose between her legs without shame, I felt a ridiculous pang of jealousy as I sat down on the coffee table facing Alex.

  “You should know that, as a group, we males have an innate tendency to preserve our egos at any cost,” I said in my most professorial tone of voice. “If we sense we’re going to be rejected, we will A) pull your pigtails or B) ignore you …” or C) try to roofie your drink if we happen to be like that dick at the frat, I didn’t add.

  When Alex laughed, I relaxed. Under different circumstances, I would have poured her a glass of wine and turned on the charm. Instead, I wrapped her in the blanket and watched her.

  “Now, tell me more about yourself, Miss Reed.”

  She blushed.

  “There isn’t much to tell,” she shrugged.

  “Tell me anyway,” I coaxed, willing my hard-on to take a fucking sabbatical. “I want to know.”

  “Well, I went to school in Santa Monica—”

  My eyebrow went up.

  “Not Irvine?”

  “No, my parents—well, my mom and my stepdad—they took jobs in Orange County right after I graduated. My little sister was finishing fifth grade, and they wanted her in a better school district.”

  “What about you?” I frowned.

  “I was the experiment, I guess.”

  She gave me a crooked smile.

  “Honestly, I think I would have been better off reading spy novels than going to junior high.”

  “Where’s your dad?”

  Her forehead creased, and
I wondered if her family issues might in fact compete with mine.

  “In AA—or rehab, I hope. I haven’t seen him since eighth grade.”

  She looked down again, studying her hands.

  “So how did you turn out so well-adjusted?” I asked lightly. “No drugs, no criminal record.”

  I smiled when she looked up at me.

  “Oh, yeah. Right. I’m the ideal student. Practically flunking out my second quarter, wishing my roommate would flunk out before me so I could have the room to myself, nearly sleeping with my hot Calculus TA …”

  My cock jerked, and I sat forward swiftly, bringing my lips to her ear.

  “Alex,” I whispered roughly. “The other night wasn’t even close to nearly. I could show you what nearly means …”

  When I pulled back and looked at her, her cheeks were flushed. Without thinking, I grasped her around the waist and sat down on the couch as I lifted her into my lap so that her legs came down on either side of mine. In this moment I knew that I was out of my mind, but I didn’t fucking care as I wrapped my fingers around her hips. I began to rock her gently, rewarded by the tiny moan that escaped her lips.

  With a sudden flash of insight, I knew exactly why I was willing to torture myself this way. It was because I knew I was going to be her first. She gasped as I brought her all the way against me. Then her head fell back. Her breathing became quick and shallow, and I had to resist the urge to carry her into the bedroom. Touching her chin, I watched as she lifted her head and slowly opened her eyes.

  “Right now I’m going to take you back to your dorm … but the next time I see you, I want you to tell me if you’re ready.”

  “R-ready?” she asked, her eyes wide and unblinking.

  “To learn.”

  She was trembling, and I couldn’t resist caressing the undersides of her breasts with my thumbs, watching as her eyes closed again. I knew what I was doing. I was making it impossible to turn back. When her tongue darted out and touched the center of her upper lip, I gritted my teeth. I could make her come right now. Hell, I could probably whisper in her ear again, tell her how badly I needed to see her lose control—and then watch as she came apart in my arms.