The guys used to tease the shit out of me for it, too. They hadn’t brought it up at all since we got back to campus. I figured Jason had let them all know it was a sore subject for me and they respected me enough to let it go. Instead of talking it to death or razzing me about what had happened, they’d dragged me to party after party and all the bars in town. They figured I’d be all for hitting everything that moved because I finally had my freedom. What they didn’t know was that I’d lost my taste for easy pussy. Sure, I’d banged some chicks back home to work through everything. Hell, I’d even fucked Kat’s best friend, thinking it would make me feel a little better. Only my revenge had made me feel worse because I realized that nothing would fix what was broken.
Well, maybe not worse seeing as I had felt some satisfaction in rubbing my fuck fest with her best friend in Kat’s face. I probably should have felt guilty for ruining their friendship, but what type of friend sleeps with your ex at the drop of a hat? I’d always thought chicks had the same code guys did, but maybe I’d been wrong, because her friend had been very into it.
The truly sad thing was that I hadn’t even had to work for it. Unfortunately for me, after that, sleeping with chicks who would spread for just about any guy left me cold. But that didn’t stop me from going out with the guys to party, just like we were going to do again tonight. We only had a few weekends left before our first game, so we needed to have fun while we could, because pretty soon, we’d find ourselves under lockdown the night before games or Coach would have our asses.
“You almost ready, dude?” Jason yelled while banging on my door. “I swear to God you’re worse than a chick when it comes to getting ready sometimes.”
“Chill out, man. I didn’t take that long,” I muttered as I threw open my door and walked past him into the kitchen.
“It’s not like it even matters what you look like tonight when you’re not even gonna try to pick up chicks,” he argued.
“Doesn’t mean I have to look like shit though,” I pointed out just to be irritating.
“Shut the fuck up and take a shot before we head out,” he said as he handed me a shot of vodka.
“Za vas!” I toasted him before slamming down my drink. “Damn, that was good.”
“Yeah, it should be since it’s that bottle of Kauffman your dad gave you the last time he was here,” Jason explained.
“Motherfucker. That shit’s special,” I growled at him.
It was my dad’s favorite vodka, and it ran a couple hundred bucks a bottle. It wasn’t something that you drank for the hell of it. It was very smooth and worth every penny, but I normally only drank it on special occasions.
“Then let’s make tonight special and find you some ass,” he taunted me. I guess the gloves were coming off tonight.
“I don’t need liquid courage to find myself easy pussy,” I argued.
“Could have fooled me,” he snapped back.
I just shook my head at him. “Dude, I’ll find some if I want it. Trust me.”
“That’s not it at all, man. It just dawned on me today that maybe your problems on the ice might partially be due to being backed up. That shit’s not healthy, you know,” he joked.
Or at least I thought he was joking.
“Backed up? Shit, man, there’s no need to worry about that. I take care of it every morning in the shower,” I said while moving my hand in a jacking-off motion.
“Well, I hope you and your girlfriend Rosy are very happy together. Me? Tonight, I’m gonna find some lonely girl who’s willing to take care of me instead of resorting to helping myself out,” he replied as we walked out the door.
“And how is that different from any of the other nights we’ve gone out?” I asked.
Jason waved his hand up and down his body. “Hey, I can’t help it if my sexiness makes it impossible for women to resist me.”
Just as he finished talking, the doors to the elevator opened with the up arrow still flashing. A cute brunette stepped out and smiled at us before walking down the hall.
“I don’t think I’d use the word impossible, buddy.”
“I don’t know about that,” he argued. “Hey!” he called out to the girl who had made it to the door of the apartment to the right of ours.
She turned around and looked at us, her door slightly cracked open. “Yeah?” she asked.
I swiveled my head to see what type of bullshit was going to come out of his mouth now.
“You’d agree that I’m impossible to resist, right?” Jason asked her.
I jerked my head back to the girl when the only response I heard was the sound of her door slamming against a wall. “Oh, she can resist you all right. And if you don’t leave my fiancée the fuck alone, I’d be happy to make sure any girl you run into will be able to resist you very easily, because you’ll be in the fucking hospital, douchebag,” the guy stalking towards us growled. The girl was just standing in the open doorway, shaking her head.
“Shit, man. Sorry about that,” I said, stepping in front of Jason in the hopes of diffusing the situation. “He can be a bit of an ass, but he really didn’t mean any disrespect. Honestly, he was just trying to give me a hard time more than anything else.”
“Seems to me that hitting on my girl was bound to give me and her a hard time. Not you,” the guy argued.
“And I totally understand why you’d see it that way, but he’s my best friend and he knows that I’m having a hard time adjusting to being single again after so many years. Sometimes, he just doesn’t know when to stop when he’s trying to get me to go with the flow, man. That’s all,” I explained.
“Dude, you don’t need to step between me and danger,” Jason said as he shoved around me to look the guy in the eyes. “No offense meant. I’m sorry.”
“C’mon. Leave them alone. No harm, no foul. I’m perfectly safe,” the girl said as she walked towards us and grabbed his hand.
I jabbed Jason in the ribs and gave him a look as I nodded towards her meaningfully.
“I really am sorry,” Jason said to her. “I’m usually not a douche. Especially not to my neighbors.”
“See? He apologized to both of us,” the girl said to her fiancé. “So how about we let these guys get on with their night out?”
He glared at both of us before pulling her towards their apartment. “I’ll have my eyes on both of you,” he threatened before they walked inside. “Fucking hell. Why do our neighbors have to be single guys, baby?” I heard him mutter before the doors closed.
“And you guys used to call me pussy-whipped,” I joked.
“Fuck, man. That was nuts,” Jason grunted as the elevator doors opened again and we got stepped inside. “That was a buzzkill.”
“Like you’d let anything kill your buzz when tonight’s one of our very few nights out when you can drink until the season is over,” I pointed out.
“Damn. You’re right,” he agreed. “I guess I’ll just have to drink some extra shots to wipe that from my brain.”
I laughed, thinking that Jason was joking, but he proved me wrong that night. We got trashed, he picked up some chick who he brought back to the apartment, and I wondered what the hell was wrong with me that I just wasn’t interested enough to put in the minimal effort that would have been needed to do the same.
Chapter 3
Aubrey
A couple of weeks had passed and I still hadn’t met any guys who’d tempted me to get back into the dating game. I figured that moment at the elevator had just been a fluke. And it was probably a good thing because I needed to focus on school. My statistics class was kicking my ass. Big time. Since I hadn’t had much luck finding a tutor, I’d been working with my professor whenever he had open office hours. But it just wasn’t enough, so I finally asked him for advice about what to do seeing that eI couldn’t afford to bomb this class.
Luckily for me, he said that he knew a guy who might be able to help me out. An accounting major who was really good at math but only accepted one tuto
ring student a year because he was on the hockey team and didn’t have very much free time. So the prof usually found someone willing to pay a bit more and work around his scheduled. He figured I’d be open to that, and I definitely was if this guy was as good as my professor promised.
So here I was, heading over to the library to meet math tutor number five. Otherwise known as Luka Ivanovich. Really, how cool was that name? It certainly didn’t sound like the name of someone who tutored math students. I could only hope that he would be my last one, too. We were supposed to meet upstairs in one of the private study cubbies that were reserved for the hockey team. The school was really big on making sure athletes had whatever they needed to focus on their studies because they never wanted anyone to accuse them of letting the guys float through school. They were really proud to have one of the highest grade point averages for varsity athletes across the country while still being competitive in many sports.
I was curious about the cubbies because I’d never had reason to use one before. Drake had access to them because he was on the rugby team, but he never really took advantage of them since he studied at home with Lexi. I’d heard they were pretty cool though. As I scoped them out, looking for my new tutor, I noticed that they had comfy chairs and plenty of outlets. Those two factors alone made them way better than the rest of the library considering I usually had to fight for somewhere to plug in my laptop and nobody would ever describe the regular chairs as anything other than uncomfortable. My ass usually fell asleep before an hour even passed.
As I turned the corner to where the ones assigned to the hockey team were located, I saw the lights were on inside one of them. That must be where I was supposed to meet Luka. I knocked on the door lightly before stepping inside.
“Hey, I’m Aubrey. Are you Luka?” I asked before he turned and I lost my breath when I recognized those green eyes. It was elevator guy.
Holy hell. This was my math tutor? A drop-dead-gorgeous, Russian hockey god? Karma really was a bitch if she was dropping Luka in my lap when I was trying to avoid guys.
His eyes flared with heat for a moment before he answered. “Yeah. Professor Davidson said you needed a tutor for his stats class?”
I nodded my head to agree as I seemed to be at a loss for words. I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and regretted it immediately when I caught a whiff of his masculine scent and remembered the effect it had had on me last time.
I cleared my throat before responding. “Yes, I could use some help in his class.”
“Why don’t you have a seat?” he suggested as he pulled out a chair for me. “I usually like to start with a review of what you’ve learned so far if that’s okay with you, and then we can move on from there and cover anything that’s causing you any problems.”
He looked at me oddly, and I realized that he was expecting me to agree.
“Yeah, that sounds like a really good plan.” I pulled out my book, notebooks, and quizzes, and we dug right in.
“Your quizzes don’t look that bad. What made you ask for a tutor?” he asked after we reviewed the basics.
“I decided at the end of last year that I wanted to work in banking, so I need to make sure I have a solid foundation before I graduate. It isn’t just about the grade for me anymore. I need to really understand this stuff so I’ll be prepared. Besides which, getting C’s might not be that bad, but they certainly couldn’t be described as good either.” He seemed to like my response based on the smile he flashed me. And damn, but that smile sure made him even hotter to look at if the sudden dampness in my panties was any indication. I could feel the flush rising against my skin as I smiled back at him before looking back down at my book. He put to doubt any concerns I had about my ability to desire a guy again. There was just something about him that really got to me.
“That’s as good a reason as I’ve ever heard. I hope you’re okay with my crazy schedule?” he asked.
“Yeah. Professor Davidson explained that you’re in the middle of hockey season so you might only be available once a week until the season ends,” I replied.
“I could probably do more than that,” he offered. “I mean, if you’re willing to meet up at odd times.”
The thought of getting more time with Luka, even if it was just to study math, made my heart beat even faster.
So that was the start of my sessions of math torture with Luka. Only it wasn’t torture because he was a horrible tutor like the others before him. He was an amazing tutor because he was able to explain things in simple terms so I understood them. Once I began to fully understand the concepts, I started doing very well on problems and in the class. No, it was torture because he drove my hormones absolutely bonkers. Our fingers only had to brush each other’s and I’d get goose bumps.
I began to dream about him just about every night. Hot, sweaty dreams that made me wake up incredibly aroused. He was driving me crazy. I wasn’t stupid. I could tell when a guy was attracted to me, so I knew that this feeling was mutual, but he hadn’t made a single move on me yet.
We’d met up for nine tutoring sessions in three weeks already. I just couldn’t figure out the mixed signals I was getting from Luka. His eyes always lit up when he saw me. He pulled out my chair for me, helped me with my jacket. He certainly acted like a guy who was interested. Plus, he was making time to give me extra help even with his busy schedule. It was paying off, too. I’d aced the last quiz and was thrilled that the class was becoming pretty easy to me. I still needed help with some of the statistical models we were working, and I had a project I needed to start that Luka had said he’d help me with.
And to top it all off, he hadn’t asked me about paying him yet. Which was kind of weird since it had been a few weeks already. Maybe he liked to get paid once a month or something. Who knew? I guessed I would just have to ask him this evening to see what was up with that. But for now, I needed to get a move on it if I was going to meet up with Lexi for lunch. Drake was busy and she was hoping we could squeeze in a little girl time this afternoon. Time with my best friend sounded like just what I needed to help me wrap my head around what was going on with Luka. I hoped she’d have some advice for me. How weird was that? The tables had turned and now I was going to ask my best friend for advice about a guy instead of the other way around.
I found Lexi sitting at her favorite table at the deli in the quad on campus. There were a few different things I liked to eat here and only one thing that she liked, so I decided to head through the line first. Then I walked over after grabbing our lunches.
“Boo!” I yelled in her ear as I dropped the tray on the table since Lexi seemed deep in thought.
“Eeek!” she shrieked in response, drawing stares from all around the room. “Holy shitballs, Aubrey. You know I hate to be scared.”
“Sorry,” I said with a grin on my face. I knew it had been bitchy of me, but I always liked to scare the crap out of her when I could.
She glared at me from across the table as I sat down. “You are so not sorry, brat.”
“Well, at least I’m going to feed you. That should count for something,” I argued.
“Except I’m pretty sure you were going to feed me anyway, even without scaring me. So I’m thinking it doesn’t count as anything,” she grumbled at me as she snagged her food off the tray.
“Geesh. Okay, I really am sorry if scaring you means that you’re going to be in a bad mood when I actually get to spend time with you,” I apologized—for real this time.
“Ha! Much better,” she crowed.
“Dammit! You tricked me into that didn’t you?”
“Who, me? Tricked you into thinking you really hurt my feelings by scaring the shit out of me when you know I hate that?” she asked innocently. “Now do I look like the kind of person who would do something like that?”
I thought about it for a moment. “Yes, you look exactly like the kind of person who would do that. At least to me.”
She giggled at my teasing tone. “God, Aubrey.
I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. Thanks for asking me if I could meet you today. It was perfect timing,” I said as I reached out to squeeze her hand.
“Perfect timing for what?” Lexi asked, tilting her head and giving me an inquisitive stare.
“Well, for one thing, I was available,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “And for another?” she asked, knowing that there was more to the story.
“And I could use some advice,” I replied.
“Ohhhh, advice!” She rubbed her hands together in excitement. “About what?”
I looked around the room to make sure I didn’t see Luka anywhere. Not that I ever seemed to run into him on campus, but with my luck, he’d walk up behind me while I was talking about him.
“A guy,” I said in a hushed tone of voice.
Lexi got all bug-eyed at my response and leaned in closer. “A cute guy?”
“No. A super-hot guy who is driving me crazy.”
“Do I know him?” I thought about it for a minute and figured that the odds were she didn’t know who he was. “I don’t think so. He’s my math tutor.”
“Wait! You have the hots for a math geek?” she exclaimed.
“A math geek with dirty-blond hair, piercing, green eyes, an amazing smile, and these muscles. Ohmigod. You would not believe his muscles,” I explained. “Then again, he plays hockey, so I guess the muscles make sense, because when he’s not studying, he’s on the ice or working out all the time.”
“Damn! Smart, hot, and athletic. No wonder he caught your eye,” she agreed.
The Blythe College Complete Series Box Set Page 45
