Chapter 20
Alex
I had been dodging Mia’s calls all day.
She had been blowing up my phone, dying to know how things had gone with ‘Dr. Vixen.’ I had played it off with a text—a gentleman never tells—pretending I was just being a tease and had promised to give her the dirt during our shift that weekend.
She had tried calling immediately to grill me, but I had let it ring out.
What the fuck was I supposed to tell her?
Yeah, I got what I wanted, the sex was life-altering, she’s hot as hell, and oh—I accidentally caught feelings and fled her house like a fucking coward.
Being back at uni that day felt like walking through a minefield.
I was on high alert, scanning every corridor, praying I wouldn’t run into her.
I had her lecture that afternoon, but I figured I could just dissolve into the crowd of students; she’d probably be doing her best to avoid my existence anyway.
I made it to my Business Management seminar without a glitch and sank into the seat next to Holly. Mr. Hubbard was a total prick, but hey, at least I wasn't fucking him that weekend. I actually gagged slightly at the mental image.
Holly beamed at me. “Good weekend?”
I shook off my internal spiral, forcing myself to act like a normal human being. “Hey, sweetheart. Not bad, yours?”
She launched into a rambling saga about a flatmate war over the state of their shared kitchen.
I let the monotony of first-year drama drown out the noise in my head until Hubbard finally started the seminar.
God, he was fucking insufferable—the way he talked like the sun shone out of his ass, wearing that sickening grin while he droned on about himself as if any of us gave a shit.
Halfway through, the door swung open and Ms. Davies walked in. Fuck. I’d almost forgotten about her. She walked over to Hubbard to hand him a stack of worksheets, and they started a quiet conversation at the front. I took the opportunity to look. Really look.
Why had I ever stopped? She was stunning.
Her straight blonde hair fell perfectly over her shoulders, and she was wearing a soft pink blouse tucked into tailored navy trousers that did incredible things for her curves.
I bit my lip, the memory of her skin and those thighs surfacing unbidden.
See? I told myself. This was who I was. I was a fucking predator, a flirt—not some soft-hearted girl holding Dr. Carter because she was scared of shadows.
But then my mind slipped right back to the dark-haired woman in the emerald gown, and I accidentally let out a frustrated groan. Mo, sitting across from me, gave me a weird look. I just rolled my eyes and pretended to be deeply fascinated by my textbook.
I looked up again just as Billie was turning to leave. Our eyes locked, and she looked genuinely surprised that I was actually acknowledging her. Right. Ever since Dr. Carter had locked me in her office and warned me off, I guessed I had stopped looking.
But fuck that. I didn't need to stay in line anymore.
I held her gaze and sent her a slow, deliberate wink. Her eyes widened and a dark blush crept up her neck. She tucked a stray hair behind her ear, flustered, and lingered for a second at the door, her eyes flickering back to mine one last time before she disappeared.
See? I thought, a smirk finally returning to my face. This was fun. This was easy. This wasn't complicated at all.
I managed to fall back into my routine, at least for a while.
After Business Management, I headed over to the International Business seminar.
Dr. Sinclair had a way of making the hour fly by, and I actually felt like I was fucking learning something, unlike with Mr. Hubbard, the absolute knobhead.
Holly didn’t take this module, so I’d only got Mo and Abdul for company, but it was enough of a distraction to get me through the hour.
Then, it was time. Economics. Dr. Carter. Fuck.
I felt physically sick. When I reached the lecture hall, Holly was already there, waving me over with way too much energy.
Fuck. She was sat so close to the front she may as well have been at the podium.
I resigned myself to my fate and joined her.
It was probably for the best anyway; I couldn’t look like I was avoiding her, even though every instinct I had was screaming at me to run.
I was so goddamn pissed at myself for ruining this.
Why couldn’t I have just kept it light? Why did I have to storm out like a dramatic fucking idiot?
To my surprise, the sound of clicking heels was doubled that day.
The room fell into its usual pre-lecture silence as Dr. Carter headed to the podium, but Billie followed close behind.
She took a seat next to one of the students—a quiet kid who always seemed to struggle keeping up with the reading, so it made sense she was there to check on them.
It put her just one row below Holly and me. As she sat, Billie caught my eye, offering a soft, shy smile before turning around to settle in. She really was a cutie.
I hadn’t dared to look at Dr. Carter properly yet, but as she started to speak, my head snapped up on autopilot. My mouth went bone-dry.
Fuck. She looked incredible. She was wearing a dark red dress that somehow managed to be perfectly professional while looking absolutely criminal.
My mind, being the traitor it was, instantly reminded me that I knew exactly what was underneath that dress.
I had to look away, my heart hammering against my ribs.
Fucking idiot. You were a total fucking idiot.
Dr. Carter began the lecture with her usual poise, though there was a new, sharp edge to her voice. She acknowledged that because Monday’s seminar had been canceled, we’ll have to be exceptionally thorough with our notes as we dived into the statistics portion of the module.
I threw myself into the work, my pen flying across the paper as I tried to drown out my thoughts with data sets and formulas.
I couldn't bring myself to use the laptop she had given me that day.
I kept pace with her easily enough, but my heart was hammering a frantic, painful rhythm against my ribs.
It hurt. It actually fucking hurt that she was purposefully navigating the room with her eyes, skipping over me as if I was just an empty chair.
Not once did she let her gaze settle on my face.
She posed a complex question to the room, and beside me, Holly’s hand shot up. As Dr. Carter nodded toward her to answer, her eyes briefly, involuntarily, flickered to me.
It was only for a second, but it was enough.
She was exactly as cold and distant as I had expected—the perfect professional—but as I held her gaze, I noticed her fingers fidgeting slightly with the edge of her tablet.
She couldn’t help it; she felt me looking at her.
She knew I was sitting right there, dissecting every move she made, remembering the way those same hands had felt in my hair.
Holly finished her answer, and Dr. Carter immediately snapped her attention away, moving on to the next slide without a word of praise. The dismissal was fucking brutal.
As the lecture droned on, I berated myself over and over.
Every time she spoke, every time she adjusted her posture in that red dress, the weight of my own stupidity got heavier.
How had I let a woman like her go? Why did I have to be so fucking reactive?
I could have stayed. I could have talked to her.
Instead, I had chosen to be a prick, and now I was sitting in the front row watching the best thing that had ever happened to me treat me like a stranger.
I was a fucking disaster, and the worst part was, I had done this to myself.
I took my time packing my bag, my movements slow and deliberate as the lecture hall began to empty.
I can't stop my eyes from flickering toward the front of the room, watching Dr. Carter as she gathered her things at the podium.
She was focused, her movements efficient and sharp, still refusing to acknowledge my presence in the room.
Holly gave my arm a quick squeeze. "I’ve got to run to my seminar, see you later!" she whispered before disappearing into the crowd of exiting students. I was done for the day, which only made the silence between me and the front of the room feel fucking heavier.
I was still staring toward the podium when a soft voice broke my focus.
"Hey."
I looked down to see Billie. The student she was assisting had already left, and she was standing there, looking up at me with a shy, expectant smile. The proximity was a jolt to my system, a sharp reminder of the easy flirtation I had been trying to convince myself I wanted earlier.
She lingered by my desk, her presence a stark contrast to the cold, professional wall Dr. Carter had built between us.
That I had built between us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr. Carter pause for a fraction of a second at the podium, her hands stilling over her laptop as she clearly heard Billie speaking to me.
"Hey yourself," I replied, forcing my voice to steady as I zipped my bag shut. I kept my attention on Billie, trying to ignore the magnetic pull of the woman standing just a few yards away, but the tension in the room was thick enough to choke on.
Billie chewed on her lip, that adorable, nervous habit of hers making an appearance. "Do you have any more classes today?"
I let a smirk tug at the corner of my mouth. "No."
Billie nodded quickly, her eyes bright. "Me neither."
I chuckled and crossed my arms, leaning over the edge of my desk so I was looking down at her from the row above. I kept my voice low, intimate. "Well, isn't that a convenient little coincidence? Why do you ask?"