“I wasn’t looking at you any kind of way.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire...
Apparently my words aren’t very convincing because Roan steps just a bit closer, invading my personal space until my heart feels like it’s sitting in the middle of my throat. “I never took you for chicken shit, Ivy.”
Our eyes clash for a long drawn out moment. One that has lust and need arrowing right down to my-
“Cluck-cluck,” is all I can manage to choke out under the circumstances.
A wide grin sweeps across his face as the elevator door rattles open and Dylan and Lexie both step inside. But Roan’s eyes haven’t deviated from mine and I find that I’m unable to break the connection binding us to one another.
“Saved by the bell,” he finally whispers when I show no sign of moving.
Unaware of what’s going on between us, Dylan finally yells impatiently, “Are you guys coming or what?”
I clear my throat. It’s drier than the Sahara. “Yep.”
Yanking my eyes from his, I scurry onto the elevator. As the doors close, I keep my eyes focused directly in front of me even though Roan has moved to stand right next to me. I can practically feel his eyes crawling over me as if he’s blatantly staring. When we finally reach the third floor, it seems to take forever for the doors to slowly slide their way open. As they do, I shoot out of the elevator towards my apartment like the hounds of hell are nipping at my heels.
His low chuckles fill my ears as I hastily unlock the door before slipping inside.
Chapter Eighteen
Mmm, mmm, mmm, I love me some freshly showered Roan King. Oh who am I kidding? I’d happily take that boy all dirtied up. Hell… the dirtier, the better ;) KingOfCampus.com
Safely locked inside my apartment and away from Roan and his damn pheromones, the neurons in my brain once again start firing properly. God, I’m seriously no better than all the other salivating groupies that stalk him around campus. All I have to do is look at him and my mind turns to mush.
It’s completely frustrating.
Not to mention demoralizing.
I’m assuming Lexie told Dylan what’s going on because those two immediately holed up in her room and haven’t come out except to use the bathroom. Which probably means they’re doing the pregnancy test she bought. Even though I want to be there for her, I’m glad she shared her concerns with Dylan. This is an issue he needs to be involved in.
Once my hormones finally settle, I pull out some of my project notes to read over. Just as I’m doing that, I get an email from Roan with the attachments he was talking about. Skimming over them quickly, I’m impressed by what he was able to dig up regarding the Ponzi scheme and Bernie Madoff.
So I shoot him a quick email telling him just that. And yeah, once again I feel like a jerk for wanting to dump him as my partner. At this point, I think he’s actually plowed his way through more research than I have. And Roan is right smack in the middle of his football season too, so it’s not like he has a ton of down time. But he still manages to do quality work.
Yep. I’m a complete asshole.
I shouldn’t have assumed that Roan was only attending college as a stepping stone to the NFL. I guess I have the tendency to look at some of the higher profile athletes on campus, especially the football players destined for NFL greatness, and assume they’re just here killing time before moving on to bigger and better things.
It doesn’t take long for Roan to respond mentioning a few more resource leads he wasn’t able to check out. Immediately I fire off another email saying that I’d be more than happy to look into those. He replies that we should get together in a few days with all the research we’ve gathered and try sifting through what we want to include in our paper.
This might sound kind of nerdy, but I’m actually stoked as to how this project is shaping up. The downfall of Bernie Madoff was big news and the amount of money he stole from people had far reaching consequences for those who mistakenly trusted him.
A few moments later there’s a knock on the door, since Lexie and Dylan are still locked away in her room, and it’s been at least forty minutes now, I jump off my bed to answer it.
A freshly showered Roan greets me from the other side. His damp locks look even glossier than usual. He’s wearing a black Barnett football t-shirt that hugs the chiseled muscles of his broad chest and biceps as if it was specially made for him. His hands are shoved into the pockets of his faded jeans which hang loosely from his lean hips.
His beautiful blue-green hued eyes are so bright and shiny and aimed right at me.
Something deep within me immediately snaps to attention. I totally get why he has the entire female population of Barnett trailing after him. And the fact he’s actually smart and more than likely going to turn pro makes him the complete package.