Finding her silver Jetta, we drive back to the apartment in silence. Now that she doesn’t have to pretend everything is alright, she’s seems distracted and worried.
Just as we’re walking into the apartment building, Roan and Dylan catch up to us. Right away, Dylan wraps his beefy arms around Lexie, practically hauling her off her feet in greeting. Almost immediately she wrinkles her nose, trying to push him away.
“Ewww!” She screeches, “You stink!”
This only makes him laugh before gathering her closer.
“Dylan, that’s so gross! Get the hell away from me!” She squeals the words, still trying to escape from the hold he has on her.
“That’s manly sweat, baby. Take a good whiff.” Jokingly he squashes her face into his arm pit.
“Ugh! I think I’m going to be sick!” She starts making gagging noises like she’s going to throw up.
When he finally releases her, Lexie quickly scrambles away before turning back to give him the stink eye along with a one fingered salute. “Now I’m going to have to fumigate these clothes. You’ve funk-tified me with your putrid stench.”
He gives her a wide grin in return. “How about I shower and then we can grab something to eat. Sound good, babe?”
I see the exact moment reality crashes back over her and she remembers why we cut our shopping excursion short. Almost instantly her face clears of all laughter and happiness.
Averting her eyes, she nods. “Yeah, that sounds good. Like an hour or so?”
Because Dylan is so finely attuned to her moods, he instantly notices the change in her demeanor. As we enter the building, Lexie reaches the elevator first before pressing the button. Dylan comes up behind her and very loosely wraps his arms around her before leaning down to whisper in her ear.
Wanting to give them a bit of privacy, I hang back. Roan falls easily in line with me. When I don’t immediately say anything, he carefully nudges my shoulder with his bigger one.
“Hey.”
I smile as my eyes finally settle on him. “Hi.”
We haven’t seen much of each other since he took me home last Sunday. We’ve both been busy. Plus… it just seemed better to distance myself a little bit. Spending the day with him was nice. And the kiss we shared up in my old bedroom was actually more than nice. Truth be told, I can’t stop thinking about it.
Or him.
I could easily fall for that guy. But I know that guy isn’t who Roan really is.
“Have you been able to work on the project at all?”
I shake my head. “Not since Friday. I haven’t had any extra time this week. I’m hoping that maybe tomorrow I can hit the library again.”
He nods. “I was able to squeeze in a little more research. I’ll send the PDF’s to you through email and you can take a look at what else I was able to dig up. See if it fits with the general theme we’re going for.”
“Great.”
Once again I’m reminded of just how far off the mark I was in my snap judgement of Roan. I’m almost embarrassed that I listened to Finn when he said Roan wasn’t very smart. Now that we’ve been in class together for a couple of weeks, I’ve seen firsthand just how easily Roan jumps into discussions with well thought out comments or questions. It’s obvious from the amount of work he puts in that he cares about his grades.
Yeah… he’s the farthest thing from a meathead jock there is. I’m actually pretty happy we’ve been partnered up for this project. He’s suggested angles I probably wouldn’t have considered exploring on my own.
I just need to keep our relationship platonic.
Which means no physical contact.
Which definitely means no more kissing.
Unconsciously my eyes fall from those gorgeous turquoise depths to his full lips. Roan is, hands down, the best kiss I’ve ever had. And I’m not even going to bother lying to myself by saying that I’m not interested in doing it again. Because I am. Just thinking about it has my tongue slipping out to moisten my lips.
It’s the sound of a throaty growl filling the air that has my startled eyes cutting back up to his. As they collide, the vibration in his chest grows.
When his voice finally rumbles forth, it’s all low and heated.
“It drives me fucking crazy when you stare at me like that.”
I gasp, a flush stinging my cheeks, because I know exactly what was running through my mind when I was staring at his mouth. Which probably means I was all but eating him up with my eyes. Instantly lowering my gaze, I try wrestling my runaway thoughts back under control. It’s no easy task. So I do the only thing I can to salvage just a tiny shred of my pride.