Chapter 7 #2
“First time I looked at you,”—I kept kissing them lightly—“I knew I had to get to know you.”
“Today? When we went down to the laundry room?” I grunted, not bothering to bring up that wasn’t the first time I’d laid eyes on her. I might be moving too fast, but I wasn’t stupid. Confessing to stalking wouldn’t help me get the girl. It would get me arrested.
“I had to get to know you, and when I saw you earlier today, downstairs, it took all my willpower not to run after you when you ran away.”
“I didn’t run away.” Her whispered argument made my lips twitch. I shot her a look that made her bite down on her bottom lip before she sighed. “Okay, maybe I did run away. I just… got nervous.”
“I make you nervous, little bird?”
“You’re too damn hot for your own good,” she muttered, and even though I felt like jumping and pumping my first up in the air like in some kind of old school Mentos commercial, I managed to stay grounded, never letting my eyes move from hers.
“You think I’m hot?” Physical attraction was important in a long-lasting relationship.
“I probably shouldn’t have said that, huh? Probably made your ego grow a couple times.”
“Maybe not just my ego.” The stupid immature words tumbled out my mouth without thinking. The atmosphere in the elevator turned stock still for a moment before she started to laugh and lean into me. The laughter quickly died down and she stroked my chest.
“I kept thinking about you today, too,” she confessed, and I felt a tidal wave of relief wash through me.
“Did you?” She nodded shyly. I felt like I’d grown a whole goddamn foot. I felt like a giant. A man among men.
“Will you still let me walk you to your room?” I had to feign knowing exactly where she lived.
“Why do I have a feeling you’d follow me like a lost puppy if I told you no?” I smiled at her, neither denying nor confirming, because she hit it out of the park with that guess.
“Please?” I asked genuinely.
Then, because all I could see, all I could feel and smell was her, I leaned closer and closer, until our foreheads touched.
Fuck me, she was so much smaller than me.
Delicate and soft. My little bird. Everything inside of me wanted to do nothing more than use my body to shield her from anything in the world that might be able to hurt her.
Overprotectiveness like I’d never felt overrode me.
With one hand still holding hers, the other lifted from the wall and stroked the side of her face.
“Sadie Flores, will you let me get to know you better?”
“Get to know me better?” she repeated softly, her gaze warm and open.
“Yeah.” I nodded and swallowed. My Adam’s apple bobbed. “Let me take you on another date.” It was a request, but the demanding tone said otherwise.
“Another date, huh? When was our first?”
“Downstairs,” I quickly answered, and there was no denying the interest in her soft gaze. “We shared pizza and dessert.”
“That was our first date? Pizza in the dining hall?” Her lips twitched.
“After saving you from that drunk Omega idiot,” I reminded.
“Can’t forget that part,” she agreed softly, almost to herself, and I knew it was only adding a con to the pros and cons list she had going on in her head.
“Would you rather have that be our second? Our first could have been doing laundry together,” I suggested, trying to relax my body, but it was impossible when I was around her. Every nerve ending from head to toe was hyperaware and attuned to Sadie.
Every breath.
Every blink.
“We didn’t even talk.” She grinned.
“But you watched me, right?” I boldly asked, knowing I was risking a whole lot by doing that. She snorted, and the elevator stopped, a bell dinging to let us know we’d reached our floor. My head dipped down low enough for my lips to hover just above the shell of her perfectly shaped earlobe.
“I know I was watching you,” I confessed. Sadie shivered, and when she looked up at me, those pretty, dark eyes of hers dilated, blown wide with the same desire that flowed through my veins. She liked knowing I’d kept my eyes on her. Good. That would hopefully help me down the road.
“We should—“ She pointed at the doors, and I stepped back, using my hand on the door to make sure they didn’t try to shut on us. We stepped out and started to walk down the halls of the floor we lived on.
How the hell had I been here for a year now and had only come across her two months ago?
Two fucking months ago, my life revolved around my love for the game.
Now it was all about the sweet little bird walking quietly next to me, her head so full of things, I wish I could help untangle her thoughts for her.
I wasn’t sure what might have made her think my interest in her was based on some kind of bet or challenge, though I had a feeling the group of girls downstairs and the touchy-feely way they’d behaved hadn’t helped.
I’d fucked up. Too content and in my happy bubble of being able to spend time with Sadie had made me slow and unable to react.
I knew how girls could be with one another, especially Bri.
I hadn’t wanted to put too much attention on Sadie in fear of backlash when I should have just staked my claim.
You lived and you learned and fixed shit. Which was exactly what I was planning on doing when she stopped in front of her door, one I had to pretend I didn’t know we were heading towards. She stopped at her door and pointed at it.
“This is me.” She smiled. “Well, me and Tere.”
“Right. I’m over at eighteen twenty,” I shared. I needed her to know exactly how she could get hold of me. What if she stops by and sees the shit you’ve taken from her place, dumbshit?! The thing inside me panicked.
“On the other side of the floor?” I nodded. “I’ve heard those are nice.”
“They are. Wanna come over and see it?” She bit away a smile. She might have thought I was flirting, but it was a genuine offer. Even if some of the things I’d taken, borrowed, were there, I had a feeling I could figure out how to hide them before she saw a damn thing.
“I still can’t believe we live on the same floor and never bumped into one another, and today, we did three times.” She laughed and chewed on her bottom lip.
If only she knew how many more times we could have bumped into one another. How many times I was just a few steps behind her, watching the sway of her hips as she walked back and forth between her classes and her dorm or to one of her jobs.
“Guess I should mark today as my lucky day.” I stepped forward, leaning against the wall next to her door. Not to cage her in or corner her but to be closer while giving her space.
“Right…” She looked like she was going to say something, call me on something she thought was bullshit, but instead, she took a deep breath and smiled. “Thanks for the pizza.”
“You’re welcome.” She slid her key into the lock, and when she opened it just a few inches, she turned to look at me.
“Can I ask you something?” I opened my mouth to answer, but her hand quickly rose, so I stayed quiet. “And before you just sat yes, promise to answer honestly.”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation.
“No matter what?” I swallowed. “If…” She laughed and glanced up at me.
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this because I really still think this is some kind of joke.
” She shook her head. “If you’re serious about maybe this thing between us…
I have to be real with you. I hate liars.
Don’t lie, and we’re good.” Fuck. Why was it so fucking hot to watch her set clear-as-hell boundaries like that?
“Okay,” I said slowly. A thick honeyed rush started to run through me, warm and heating up by the second as my heart started to beat harder. Faster.
What if she asks if today was the first time I’ve seen her?
What if she’s seen me before?
What if she knows how fucking obsessed I am with her?
“Did you hook up with those cheerleaders downstairs?” she asked, taking me by surprise.
“Yes,” I answered, ready to tell her any truth she wanted because even if it would damn me, she deserved the truth. I just hadn’t expected that question.
“Right,” she whispered. “So, what that guy Harrison said… about jock bunnies and you…”
“It was true,” I admitted.
“It was?”
“That was a different guy. I was a different guy.”
“When… when did you change?”
“When I saw you,” I laid out honestly. She laughed, and her eyes glittered with amusement
“So, you’re telling me you’re changing your hoe boy ways tonight?”
“Baby, I’m telling you I saw you and knew you were not anything like the girls I’d met in the past.” I tiptoed around the truth.
“Really?”
“Mhmm.” I nodded, pushing off the wall and standing closer to her. “I just want a chance to show you that this attraction, this pull, this… chemistry between us is real.”
“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”
“Kiss me and find out,” I challenged her, leaning lower.
My hand wrapped around her middle, splaying my open-palmed hands on the small of her back.
Even beneath the material of my hoodie, I could feel the heat of her soft, little body.
The feminine curves I knew lay beneath were teasing me.
Taunting me to get closer. Mine. Mine. Mine, the thing in me started to chant.
Kiss her! he growled, aching to take charge.
“Hmm… kiss on the first date, huh?” she whispered. Her soft exhale tickled my lips.
“Didn’t we agree this was the second?” I dipped my head lower.
“Kiss me and tell me this isn’t real, and I’ll walk away,” I promised, though I very well knew it was only to regroup and figure out a way to be around her again long enough to get her guard down and worm my way under her skin.
She swallowed, and when her gaze touched mine, I knew she was thinking about it.
Tempted to kiss me.
To let me make out with her right there in the hallway.
“If I do this, you promise no lies?” Her whispered breath tickled my mouth.
“No lies,” I promised. From here on out, no lies.
The other shit were little lies of omission.
Stalking couldn’t count as lies, right?