CHAPTER 5
Adam
I can’t pinpoint what made me ask her to lunch.
It could have been the defiance in her eyes, something I have never once experienced from a woman.
Or it could’ve been how undeniably beautiful she was standing there reading All The Living and The Dead, a personal favorite of mine.
Although, if I'm being honest with myself, I know that it was her obvious recognition of the darkness inside me.
I see something inside her too. It's calling to me.
I knew it the moment she looked at me before she even attempted to flee.
She knows danger when she sees it and she sees it in me.
She has experienced true peril at some point in her life.
This begs the question, why is she here?
Once she came out of the library, she no longer seemed to be afraid.
If I hadn’t known better, I might have thought that she was relieved to see that I hadn’t left and that I was waiting for her.
She refused to get in my car, but getting in the car with an absolute stranger is probably not a great idea in any situation.
She didn’t even know my name until we were already on our way here.
Of course, I didn’t know her name either, and I never imagined that it would be Eve.
Ace told me they call her VB because she is volleyball and nothing else.
It’s quickly becoming clear that Ace doesn’t know Eve at all.
My friends and teammates call me Captain or Cap, but it certainly isn’t to make fun of me.
They wouldn’t risk their lives in that way.
I wonder if Eve knows that her teammates call her VB.
I get the sense that Eve doesn’t take shit off of anyone.
I like that. It seems that she means for that to include me.
Little does she know, she will take everything that I have to give her.
I recognized her beauty the first time I saw her.
It’s the kind of beauty that can’t be ignored.
She’s tall, although, to be fair, all of the volleyball players are tall.
I think it may be a requirement at this skill level.
She has the athletic body that is typical of the sport, but she has these tits.
These tits that are somehow large but still full, firm, and perky.
She has an ass too. It isn’t wide, it’s just.. . perfect.
All in all, I would have to say her body is impeccable, but that’s not what makes her beautiful.
Her large facial features and the pale color of her green eyes are what make her uncommonly attractive.
Her eyes are large, with long black lashes.
Her lips are full and naturally red, while her teeth are big and white.
She doesn’t show them easily. She makes you work for every smile.
She has scars too, but they somehow only enhance her beauty.
There's one across the bridge of her nose, another along her jaw, and one that is slightly wider than the others on her left cheek.
I wonder if she was in a car accident, but I don't want to ask. I want her to want to tell me. I like her. I like her so much that if I had the capacity to feel empathy, I would feel bad for her because she has attracted my attention. For now, I will just explore what is going on between us. The electricity when our skin touches is new. I don’t hate it.
I just want to understand it. I know it will fade with time. I just want to know why now? Why her?
Unfortunately, I will have to break her to find the answers to my questions.
.........................
I shouldn’t have held her hand. I shouldn’t have kissed her forehead. I shouldn’t do anything that I know will come next, but I know for certain, I won’t be letting this girl go anytime soon. It will take longer to find out everything that I want to know about her.
Watching as she takes a bite of the Agnolotti del Plin, her expression is unreadable. She chews slowly and looks down at her plate.
“Well?” feeling impatient and annoyed that I have to ask.
“Well, what?”
I squint my eyes at her, knowing that she's aware of exactly what I'm asking.
“Do you approve?”
She continues to chew, only now she's looking at me. She breaks eye contact and turns back to her plate, putting another bite on her fork. Then, turning back to me, she holds the bite in front of my mouth... she wants to feed me? I open my mouth and allow her to give me a bite. No one has ever fed me before in living memory. I’m quite certain I never would have allowed it had anyone tried so I ask myself, Why do I let her?
Why do I only want to eat food that she feeds to me going forward? Why is my dick hard at that thought?
“It’s like the Greek Gods and the North Star had a love child and named it perfection.”
I laugh. I mean, I REALLY laugh. I think I may have spit a little because I laughed so hard.
I can’t remember the last time I found someone so genuinely entertaining.
Her response to my laughter is a huge, authentic smile that overtakes her entire face.
I feel as though she considers my laugh to be precious and she's happy, maybe even thrilled, to have witnessed it.
The meal is over too soon, even though it’s nearly dinnertime as we make a move to leave.
She ate off my plate like we hadn’t just met today, and I hated releasing her hand to allow her to pick up her fork.
I don’t think I would’ve relented had she not turned out to be left-handed.
This was another curious revelation as I am also left-handed.
I decide as we're walking to her Jeep that we aren’t quite ready to part ways just yet.
“What’s your favorite movie?”
“The Goonies,” she says without the slightest hesitation.
“Sounds good. Let’s go watch it at your place.”
She turns her head quickly to face me.
“What?”
I speak slowly and over-enunciate my words when I say, “Let’s go watch it at your place. Surely you have it since it’s your favorite movie.”
“Of course I do. It’s on Prime. What I meant was, you want to come to my apartment and watch The Goonies?”
“I can’t think of anything that I would rather do.”
Slowly, as though she's processing each word as it leaves her mouth, she says, “Okay, I’ll take you back to your car and you can follow me.”
“No. Just drive me there. You can take me to my car later.” I say this before I have time to analyze my motives. I don’t want to part from her. I don’t want to be in my car while she drives separately in hers.
“Are you sure that you want to leave your car in the school parking lot all this time?”
“It'll be fine. Let’s go.”
...........................
Her apartment is off campus in a modest complex called Pinecrest Place.
Each building has two apartments, one upstairs and one downstairs.
The buildings are connected by the roof and several landings.
Eve’s upstairs apartment is in the back of the complex.
I immediately wonder who helped her get her furniture up the stairs?
Does she have a boyfriend? Is that why she refused to go to lunch with me?
I can’t believe I never asked if she had a boyfriend.
We have talked about me possibly having a girlfriend more than once and it never occurred to me that it might be her who is unavailable.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” My brows are furrowed, and my expression is hard.
She huffs a laugh. “It’s a little late for that question, isn’t it?”
I grab her by the arm and roughly pull her into my body, stealing her breath.
Grabbing her hip and holding her firmly in place, I lean down to speak directly to her mouth.
“It won’t change a thing. We are still going inside and tonight won’t be the last night we will spend together. Now, do you have a boyfriend?”
She's looking at me wide-eyed and breathing heavily. She shakes her head and continues to give me her full attention.
“Say it.”
Quietly she says, “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Good girl.” I pull her closer and again I kiss her forehead firmly, lingering there, closing my eyes and breathing in her scent.
It’s sweet, like honey and jasmine. Finally, I release her and motion for her to lead the way up the stairs and into her apartment.
She stares at me still wide-eyed and innocent, for a moment.
I haven't seen this expression yet. I perceive her to be a lot of things, but innocent isn't one of them.
Breaking our gaze, I again motion toward her apartment with a nod and she leads the way.
The inside of her apartment isn’t as modest as the exterior.
It smells of Eve and something else, another feminine scent.
The furniture is plush and welcoming, and the décor is eclectic.
Nothing really matches but it all somehow still belongs here.
There's a young woman sitting on the couch. She’s very pretty, but she doesn’t appeal to me in the same way Eve does.
Even though she's sitting cross-legged on the couch, I can tell that she isn’t as tall as Eve and where Eve is tone and tan, this woman is curvy and fair-complected.
She's wearing headphones and doesn’t seem to notice us walk in.
She's studying from three different books while taking notes in a large, worn-out notebook.
Once Eve takes in her surroundings, she turns to me quickly and holds her finger over her mouth, gesturing for me to be quiet.
She tilts her head toward the back of the apartment, and I follow her into the bedroom.
Her bedroom. The scent of Eve overwhelms my senses as soon as I'm through the door. Damn it. How am I turned on by a scent?
This room is different from the rest of the apartment. There is very little décor in here and only one picture. It’s of Eve, the woman on the couch, and a large, muscular man. He has his arms around both Eve and the other woman.
“Who is this?”