Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“Guess we should go.”
“Guess so,” I said tightly, my jaw clenched and my anger rising at the idea of letting her walk away from me. I was a big boy, I knew what random, no-strings sex was.
…That had not been random, and there sure as fuck were strings.
“Nice to meet you,” she said quietly. She leaned up, pecked me on the cheek. Then she whirled, yanked the door open, and slipped out.
I was still standing there, blinking, shaking my head, and trying to figure out what the hell had just happened when one of the mermaid chicks burst back in, screeching at me to get out of the girls room.
2
Nolan
I left the bar in a daze, every cell in my body on fire and wanting more of her. I could smell her on me, and the taste of her lips lingered on mine even after I’d gone to the bar and knocked back a whiskey to steady myself. I’d scanned the bar, like a total pussy, looking for her. But she was gone.
Maybe that was for the best.
Yeah, right.
I walked back to my car with a cloud following me, pissed at myself for not just grabbing her, pulling her back and telling her she wasn’t walking away from that. Or hell, throwing her over my shoulder and taking her home like that. I shook my head as I started the engine, rolling my eyes at myself for pining over a random girl like some heartsick teenager.
I pulled out from the lot behind Rory’s, swinging back onto Lake Drive past the bar scenes. I drove slow, past the groups of smokers outside one bar, past some wasted looking couple making out against the wall of another, with the guy’s hand slipping up her skirt.
Part of me wanted to roll down the window and tell them to make good fucking choices before I rolled my eyes at myself. Jesus fuck, I was turning into an old man already. Not to mention a hypocrite considering what I’d just done with a girl I’d known for ten whole minutes back at Rory’s.
I was just about to pull a u-turn and head home to call it a night, when I saw it. This couple was different, even if they too were pressed against a wall. I slowed, my eyes narrowing as I saw the girl twisting in his arms. He held on, and my jaw tightened. They twisted again, and this time, when the neon light from the bar sign fell across her face, something froze inside of me.
Her. My mystery girl from the bar. Her mask was still on, but I’d have known those lips fucking anywhere. God, she was pretty even from that distance. I glared at her in the guy’s hands, and I told myself to just fucking leave it, when suddenly, one of his hand came back and slapped her right across her cheek, sending her reeling to her knees.
Oh, FUCK that.
My car screeched as I roared to a stop half up on the curb. I lunged from the driver's seat the second I killed the engine, and before I could even ask myself what the fuck the plan was, I was on the kid. I barreled into him like a fucking truck, grunting as I knocked him to the ground, wound back, and slung my fist across his jaw. He screamed like a little bitch, his mask falling off and his arms flailing at me as I saw red and punched him twice more in the face.
I blinked, pausing for one second, and suddenly, my gut dropped.
Aww hell.
He was covering his face with his hands, but fuck, I knew the kid. Matt-something. He was in my sophomore Principles of Economics lecture — some asshole who basically slept in the back row and who was probably going to squeak by with a D+ or some shit. Bottom line though, I’d just knocked the fuck out of a student.
I jump to my feet, and I was whirling away from him when I suddenly came face to face with her.
…And my heart just stopped. She wasn’t pretty, she was gorgeous. And young. And so innocent looking. And…
Oh shit.
And I knew her. Not from the bathroom ten minutes before, I fucking knew her. The realization hit me like a bat to the head, and I could feel my heart skip and drop through my gut.
Cora Hartley. She’d been in my freshman Survey of Finance class last year, and she was in my Ethics of Business lecture this year. Drop-dead beautiful, smart, ball-achingly innocent, and nineteen years old. I’d never once creeped on a student, but this girl? Shit, with her, I knew the rules were out the window. Cora Hartley pushed every single one of my buttons. And here I was face to face with her, our eyes locked, with both of us knowing one thing: ten minutes before, she’d been coming for me as I fucked her hard against a bar bathroom door.