Chapter 6
SIX
One thing being a twin had taught me was how to hide in the background.
Although, maybe that wasn’t so much a twin thing as it was being Drew’s twin.
While we were both loyal to a fault and protective of the people in our lives, Drew had gotten the popular and competitive gene while I…
hadn’t. Not to say I wasn’t popular growing up, but I was popular by default.
Drew was the one who had everyone flocking to him like moths to a flame, and since I was always right there, I got swept up into his circle. But I’d never been the focal point.
I’d gotten comfortable—perhaps too comfortable—being in the background.
But as I started the ten-minute walk from the student union building to Sterez Hall where all the marketing classes were, it hit me that blending in wouldn’t save me today.
Not when Liam had discovered my secret.
Each step dragged, heavy with the kind of dread that made my stomach feel hollow, as if I were walking toward a spotlight I never asked for. I wasn’t ready to face him.
What the hell had I been thinking?
I never should’ve written that list. I never should’ve gotten drunk. And I definitely never should’ve let Liam carry me home. I was also not going to let my mind linger on the strength of his arms as he’d carried me with ease, as it had tried to do all damn weekend.
I wasn’t sure which choice had been my ultimate downfall, but when I’d woken up with the hangover from hell the next day and found two aspirin, a glass of water, and a note with Liam’s neat handwriting—take these for the headache—I knew I’d made a mistake there was no coming back from.
His note had been written on a sheet of paper from my notebook that had my stupid, stupid list in it.
The purple lines had mocked me as my brain cleared enough to realize those five words written on that single piece of paper meant my brother’s best friend—the guy who’d never looked at me as anything but a buddy—now knew all the ways I wanted to be sexually satisfied.
At least the ones I’d thought of during my spur-of-the-moment idea.
I stopped outside the classroom door and took a steadying breath. Okay, I could do this. So what if my heart was racing at what Liam’s reaction would be or the comments he might make.
Oh my fucking God, what if he told my brother?
Before the thought could sink to the pit of my stomach like an anchor being dropped in water, I shook my head.
No, he definitely hadn’t told Drew. If he had, Drew would’ve been banging on my door and telling me over his dead body would I be doing anything as salacious as half the items on that list.
I really did love my brother, but sometimes he could be an overbearing pain in my ass.
I pushed into the classroom and scanned the seats.
Our usual spot was three rows back, near the window, but I didn’t even look that direction.
Now that I was in the room, I couldn’t face Liam.
My cheeks flushed hot at the thought. I spotted an empty seat in the far back corner and made a sharp turn toward the back wall—but a low, rough voice with the faintest hint of an Irish lilt stopped me before I could get within five feet of the corner.
“Aves.”
I stopped as my back tightened.
I didn’t have to look to the left to know it was Liam.
“I saved you a seat,” he said, his voice deceptively neutral.
He wasn’t sitting in our usual spot, but instead had picked a spot closer to the door. Was I really so transparent that he knew I’d try to hide from him? I forced my muscles to relax, pasted a fake-casual smile on my face, and turned.
Liam’s lips lifted in the faintest smile, and he patted the empty chair next to him.
I sat down and opened my laptop like this was any other class and waited for him to say something, but he remained silent. Professor Hanks started the lecture, and as class went on without Liam saying or doing anything, my muscles started to truly relax.
Although, even silent, he was still a distraction I was hyperaware of.
His thick forearm leaned on the divider between our seats, radiating a wall of warmth that made my skin prickle.
The edge of a tattoo peeked out from beneath his barely pushed-up sleeve, dark ink I'd seen a thousand times but had never let myself stare at this closely.
I couldn't help thinking about those arms holding me like I was something precious as he carried me from the bar back to my dorm.
I might've been totally shit-faced, but I remember how safe I felt.
I didn't fear that he'd drop me or that I was too heavy and he'd get tired of carrying me.
I knew he wouldn’t.
He might be a total fuckboy, but he was loyal to those in his circle. It was something we’d always had in common.
When Professor Hanks finished the lecture, he told us to work in pairs or small groups on the discussion questions posted on the screen at the front of the room.
Liam took that opportunity to turn to me. “Want to work together?”
“Sure.”
“How’s the head?”
“Fine.” I was reluctant to mention anything else about that night, but I also owed him. “Thank you for the aspirin.”
His lips lifted a little more, but his green gaze was probing when he said, “No problem.”
Cool. I’d done my duty of thanking him and now we could both pretend that night had never happened.
Although, the longer he went without mentioning the list, the more I wondered if maybe I was internally freaking out for nothing.
Maybe he’d just opened it to a random page and pulled one out.
It was totally possible he hadn’t seen the list at all.
Buoyed by the thought that I was in the clear, I looked at the first question on the screen. “How does social proof impact consumer decision-making? Provide one real-world example. Hmm, do you want to answer first?”
I moved my gaze from the screen back to Liam to find him already staring at me, like he was trying to work something out in his head. My heart rate picked up speed the longer he watched me. “Liam?”
“I saw your list.”
The air in my lungs felt like it froze in an instant. I stopped breathing, and the blood rushed to my face so fast it made me dizzy, the humiliation crashing over me like a tidal wave.
“W-what?”
“You heard me.”
My chest got tight and I placed a hand over my heart, feeling it race even beneath my clothes. Was this what a heart attack was like for women? I was one thousand percent certain it was. Humiliation could totally cause a heart attack, right?
He leaned closer and I caught a whiff of his cologne—that woodsy smell mixed with something I’d learned long ago was simply Liam.
Okay, now was not the time to be thinking about how good he smelled.
I looked around the room. No one else seemed to be paying any attention to us, but I still leaned closer and lowered my voice. “Can we not talk about that, please?”
His gaze hardened as a muscle twitched in his clenched jaw.
“Okay, I’ll answer the question first,” I said, trying to stay focused on the class we were in. Maybe he’d follow my lead.
“Fuck the questions on the damn screen.”
Oookay. Maybe not.
“Li, I really don’t want to have this conversation right now. Or ever, for that matter. Especially not with you.”
Apparently that statement was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean, not with me?”
I felt like I was trying to calm down a two-year-old. “It just means you’re my brother’s best friend and I don’t exactly want to talk about my”—I looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, but still lowered my voice even more until it was basically a whisper—”sex life.”
His jaw shifted as he stared at me like I was a puzzle he couldn’t quite figure out.
“Can we get back to these questions now? Class is almost over.”
“No.”
Now it was my turn to stare. “No? Why not?”
“Because I want to know what your plan is with that list.”
Was he serious?
By the stubborn set to his stupidly handsome jaw, he was one thousand percent serious.
I shook my head, closed my laptop, and shoved it in my bag. “I’m not talking about this with you.”
There was no way I was going to sit here any longer when it was clear he was just going to keep pushing, and I had no intention of talking about this with him.
It was rude to leave a class early, but considering we were doing independent work, I didn’t think Professor Hanks would mind if I walked out.
I was barely five feet from the room when a warm, calloused hand clamped around my arm, just above the elbow, his fingers firm and unyielding and the heat of his palm branding me even through my sweater.
It stopped me dead in my tracks.
“Liam, let go,” I whispered, desperate not to have this conversation he seemed so intent on having.
“No.” He spun me around, and then looked around before pulling me into a secluded study alcove and caging me between his arms. “Tell me what you’re planning to do with that list.”
God, he was so infuriating and pushy. “Forget you saw it. It was stupid. I was angry at Chris for calling me boring, and I wrote that stupid list because those are things I want to check off someday, but relax. You can take your overprotective macho act and put it away. I’m on a dating hiatus, so it’s not like I have anyone to even do those things with. ”
God, that made me sound pathetic which I hated more than thinking I was boring in bed. When did I become this girl? How did I get off this train and onto the one that made me feel like I was actually in charge of my own life?
I waited for him to lecture me about Drew, about how this was a stupid idea and he was glad to hear I had no plans of following through on it anytime soon.
But he didn’t.
His gaze was more intense than I’d ever seen it as he stepped fully into my space until I was boxed against the wall. Instead of feeling panic, a thrum of excitement skittered through me.
And then he said the last thing I expected.
“I’ll do it.”