Ten first dates, p.20
Ten First Dates, page 20
She kind of looks at me as though I’m a creep, so I back off. It still doesn’t feel right to just let her walk on her own. But maybe she has a jealous boyfriend or something.
“Yep, well… okay. I’ll see you Sunday.” Without waiting for me to answer, she spins on her heel and walks down the steps of the building, taking the path to the left.
For some reason, I stand there watching until she’s out of sight.
The sound of my name being shouted pulls me from my trance.
“Burrows! Hey, Lee!”
Miles and Siska are standing on the grass near the path, lit by one of the pathway lights.
I jog down the stairs and over to them. “Hey, what’s up?”
“That your tutor?” Miles asks, glancing in the direction that Shayna went.
“Yeah, that’s her.”
“Fuck, man. What, are you blind? She’s not half bad.” Siska lightly smacks me in the stomach. “What? Were you afraid we were going to try to tap it before you?”
I shake my head. “She’s not like that.”
“You’re fucking with us. She’s got that hot librarian look going on.” Siska licks his lips as if he’s imagining thrusting inside her.
The mere idea of that makes my hands clench into fists. I shake my head and walk in the direction of my apartment.
Siska catches up to me with a quick jog. “I mean it, man. Why else wouldn’t you go after that? She has that sweet and innocent look I know you love. You telling me you don’t want to dirty her up?” He throws his arm around my shoulders and I slide away.
I grind my molars together. The way he’s talking about her pisses me off, but I can’t exactly say or show that to him. It’s never bothered me before when he talks like that about girls. How would I explain why it does now when I don’t understand it myself?
“Maybe I should show you how it’s done?” Siska clamps a hand on my shoulder, and I jerk away.
The idea of him seducing Shayna makes me want to pound him into the ground.
“Don’t bother,” I mutter.
I glance at Miles. He’s biting the inside of his cheek like he does when he’s uncomfortable.
“You like her,” Siska says.
“No.” I shake my head and jog across the street.
“Just go home, Siska.” Miles attempts to stop where this is going.
“If you don’t like her, then let me to slip into her DMs. Give me her info.”
Siska’s fucking insane if he thinks that’s going to happen.
“I’m not giving you her information.”
His manic laugh echoes through the night air. He’s the type of guy who always gets what he wants, and he never accepts defeat. Which means he’s never going to let this topic go. I wish I would have kept the tutor thing all to myself.
Then there’s silence and I walk faster to get to my apartment.
“Then let’s make a bet.” Siska places a hand on my shoulder and I stop walking. “I bet I can sleep with her before you.”
“Fuck, Siska.” Miles runs a hand down his face.
I love Siska like a brother, but the guy sleeps with more girls than any of us. He shows them zero respect. I don’t want Shayna exposed to that.
“Hell no. Don’t go near her.” My voice comes out more forceful, giving up my feelings for her. Not feelings per se, but the fact I don’t want him touching her.
Siska nods a few times, his eyes on me. “Okay then… I’ll bet you can’t sleep with her before the end of your tutoring sessions.”
I scoff and shake my head. “I’m not betting you about this. Shit, man, this is my fucking football career in jeopardy.”
Siska grins. “Guess you’d better take me up on that bet then. Unless you want me to corrupt your pretty, sweet tutor.”
It feels as if a shark is gnawing at my insides.
I widen my stance and cross my arms. “And what do I get once I prove to you I can get any girl to sleep with me, including my tutor?”
That arrogant grin needs to be stripped from his face. “I’ll pay to get your truck out of Jimmy’s Auto.”
“Free and clear?” Miles asks for me. “No paybacks?”
“Of course. But if you don’t get her into bed before the end of the tutoring sessions, she’s all mine afterward.”
I lock eyes with Miles, and he raises his eyebrows. I have no idea if Shayna is interested in me. There were a few signs that would make me think she is, but I’m definitely going into this bet blind, which isn’t me. I’m not even a betting kind of guy.
I stick out my hand. “Fine. Deal.”
Siska hoots, but I don’t feel any elation. In fact, I feel like a dick. Regardless of the fact that I’m trying to save Shayna from Siska seducing her and tossing her aside, nothing about this feels as if I’m doing her a favor.
CHAPTER FOUR
Shayna
I’m lying on my bed in my dorm room, staring at a picture of Lee on my wall. It’s the one they sold at the end of last year when the team made the National Championship.
He’s different than I thought he’d be. So far, he’s been attentive and asked questions. I assumed I’d be trying to get him to be active in the discussion and he’d offer me something to sit next to him so he could cheat. I know how the prominent athletes sometimes don’t earn their grades.
I mean, sure, Lee’s affable and easygoing and sometimes he tried to steer the conversation to anything not biology related, but that was after an hour or more. There’s no question his goal is passing this class and not getting suspended from the team. Which is how he’s gotten so far with his football career to date.
But he’s not the pompous, egotistical jerk I thought he’d be, given the fact he’s treated like a god on this campus. Which makes me feel a little less like an idiot for the giant crush I’ve had on him since orientation.
I might be what some consider a geek, but I’m a closet football fan for most who know me. In fact, I never miss a game. I’m that fan in the stands decked out in blue and yellow face paint and waving yellow pom-poms. Occasionally, I even wear a yellow wig.
I’m not sure why I lied when Lee asked if I was a football fan. I just felt like I’d be giving him too much access to my true self if I admitted that I never miss a home game. Even on the weeks I have to go on my own because I can’t convince my friends to join me.
The alarm on my phone goes off and I silence it. Time to head to the library to meet Lee. It’s Sunday, so we have the whole day to study together. I try to push away the thrill that races through my belly at the idea of spending the day with him. It’s stupid. I mean, I can barely look him in the eye.
Once I’ve packed all my stuff, I head to the library and straight to the same room. When I open the door, I expect to be alone, but I startle and yelp when I see Lee is already sitting behind the desk.
He chuckles. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
My hand presses to my chest where my heart beats rapidly. “I just didn’t expect you to be here first.”
“I’m full of surprises.” He grins. There’s a hint of flirtation in his smile and the way he said the words, but I could be hearing things. Why would Lee Burrows flirt with me?
Instead of having a smart comeback like an interesting person, my boring self comes into the light. “Give me a minute to get settled, then we can start.”
I walk over to the desk and set down my backpack, pulling out papers and arranging them on the table while Lee watches me.
“Aren’t you going to congratulate me?”
I look at him and see his winning smile. It makes his hazel and green eyes sparkle in a way that seems mischievous.
“On what?” I feign ignorance, knowing he’s probably talking about the game yesterday.
“My stellar game yesterday. Four touchdowns.” He holds up his hand with four fingers in the air. Oh man, he’s gorgeous.
I look away and pull out my laptop and sign in. “Is that good?”
He scoffs. “‘Is that good?’ she asks. Hell yeah, it’s good.”
I shrug. “Congratulations then, I guess. Are you ready to get started?”
Lee tilts his head and studies me for a beat before he nods, reaching for his pen. Of course he can’t keep his enthusiasm at bay—it was an incredible game. He probably went out last night and celebrated with some hot blonde with big breasts who woke up in his bed this morning.
We spend the next hour going through my lecture notes. He gets stuck on a few concepts, but I’m able to talk him through them. I know he’s here on a full ride scholarship, but he’s certainly not all brawn and no brains. He’s holding his own pretty well.
When I break to grab my drink from my bag, he uses the opportunity to shift the conversation. I loosen the cap on my lemonade and take a sip.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” he asks.
My throat involuntarily clenches and I cough and sputter, dangerously close to spitting lemonade all over either him or the table. Lee rubs my back. Holy shit.
To my dismay, my nipples pebble in my bra, but I hope he doesn’t notice because of the baggy sweatshirt I’m wearing.
“You all right?” Genuine concern is etched on his face.
I nod and replace the cap on my drink. “Fine. Yeah. Wrong pipe.”
He drops his hand, and as much as I shouldn’t, because there’s no way anything will ever happen between us, I’d use a million genie wishes for him to put it back.
“So? Do you?” He looks at me intently.
“Why do you want to know?” I must scowl at him because he chuckles.
“Just curious. We’re stuck together for a while, and I guess I figured we’d get to know one another.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?” I’m pretty sure the answer is no. Even with my lame social standing, the rumors of all the girls he’s been with over the past two plus years still reach me.
He shakes his head. “No. Too busy with football to be a decent boyfriend to anyone.”
I nod even though I’ll bet that’s not the only reason. I’m sure Lee enjoys all the attention he garners and the ease with which his status as a football god gets him into girls’ pants.
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I mutter, not sure if he still cares at this point.
“Huh.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I glance at him.
“Just surprised, that’s all. Figured a girl like you would.”
I turn in my chair and my eyes narrow. “A girl like me?” I arch an eyebrow.
He laughs again and puts up his hands. “You know… pretty, stable, smart, obviously going places in life.” He raises a shoulder.
Did Lee Burrows call me pretty? Oh my God, he did. Please hold me before I faint.
My cheeks heat and I know he notices because he says, “You sure are shy, aren’t you?”
I glance away from him. “I’m not shy.”
He chuckles. “You can’t even look me in the eye half the time.”
“I can too.” Though it’s not lost on me that I’m not looking at him now and my voice sounded like a four-year-old version of myself telling my older brother that I could go down the big kid slide too.
He stands and situates his chair so it’s facing me. When I don’t turn my chair, he puts his hands at the edge of my chair and turns it with me on it.
“Okay, let’s see how long you can lock eyes with me. Look at me.” He uses two fingers to point toward his eyes.
“This is ridiculous,” I mutter but participate, nonetheless.
Our eyes lock and hold. The urge to glance away is immediate, but I force myself to keep looking at him. The tension between us pulls tighter and tighter until it’s like an elastic band at its max stretchability.
My breathing grows shallow and my heart pounds like a metronome that keeps getting faster and faster. Eventually I can’t take it anymore and I break eye contact.
“Ha! Told you.” He points at me.
Embarrassment spreads through me, and I bet if I looked in a mirror right now, even my neck would be red. “Whatever. So what? That doesn’t mean I’m shy. Maybe you’re just too ugly to look at for that long?”
He smiles that winning grin that gets him all the girls. “We both know that isn’t true.”
“Arrogance,” I say, picking up some papers.
He nudges me with his elbow. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing. I kinda like you not ogling me all the time.”
“Ogle?”
His shoulders lift, then he pulls up his shirt. “The abs. They love the abs.”
The shirt drops way too fast before I can commit his body to memory. Damn him.
I don’t want to get ideas—crazy ideas like maybe he could actually like me, because this definitely feels a little flirtatious. Then again, I’d bet my entire grade in biology that the man doesn’t even know he’s flirting.
I grab the textbook and flip to the next page. “Why don’t we get back to work? We have that test coming up and a lot of ground to cover still.”
He sighs and shifts his chair closer to the table. “All right, boss. What are we working on next?”
We spend the next couple hours working until I can tell that Lee’s brain is at capacity overload. He’s no longer focused and is finding it harder to retain information, so I suggest that we pack up for the day.
He agrees, and we leave the library together. As I notice the people in the library watch us, I can’t imagine the life he leads. Even if he wasn’t the star quarterback, they’d probably stare at Lee for his model looks alone.
Today he’s wearing a pair of athletic pants and a hoodie with his coat, and he pulls a beanie onto his head once we’re walking out the exit.
“Thanks for your help today. It’s starting to all make sense,” he says when we reach the top of the stairs outside. It’s cold enough that I see faint white traces of his breath in the air.
“If you have any problems with the questions I gave you, just text me before our session on Tuesday.”
“Will do.”
“Burrows!” sounds from the bottom of the stairs.
We both turn in the direction of his name, and I recognize Miles Cavanaugh, Damon Siska, and Travis Bellamoore. All Lee’s teammates.
He blows out a long breath. “C’mon.” He nods. “I’ll introduce you to the guys.”
For whatever reason, he doesn’t seem exactly happy about it, even though he offered. Is he embarrassed to be seen with me?
“That’s okay. I should get going. I still have some schoolwork to catch up on.” Lie. I finished most of my work on Friday night. What I didn’t get to, I finished on Saturday morning before the afternoon football game.
Lee gives me a small scowl and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him look annoyed. “You can spare two minutes to say hello. C’mon.”
I follow him down the steps and notice the way the guys watch me with avid interest. Nervous, I push my glasses farther up on my face.
When we reach the bottom of the stairs, Lee gestures toward me. “Guys, this is Shayna Kudrow. Shayna, this is Miles, Damon, and Travis. They all play on the team with me.”
I smile and nod, not sure what to do. I try to act as if I don’t know who these guys are because I told Lee I don’t follow football, but in reality, I know all these guys’ stats, let alone their names. “Hi.”
“So, you’re the one trying to help our boy here pass biology?” Miles gives Lee a shove, who shoves him back. There’s nothing aggressive about it though. It appears brotherly.
“That’s me.” I turn to Lee. “I better go. I have lots of work to do still.”
“Okay, I’ll see you Tuesday.”
I press my lips together and nod, then turn on my heel and head toward my dorm, trying to leave behind all thoughts of Lee.
CHAPTER FIVE
Lee
A couple of weeks pass, and Shayna continues to tutor me. As my knowledge in biology grows with each study session, so does my interest in her.
She intrigues me with how guarded and quiet she is. Totally unlike the girls I’m used to, who have no problem hitting on me or telling me exactly what they want from me—usually me between their legs.
And Shayna’s so smart. It turns me on. I could listen to her explain cardiac electrophysiology all day long.
Something tells me that under her glasses, ponytail, and baggy shirts lies a woman who is hot as hell but is afraid to let herself run wild. I kinda like the idea of being the one who sees her like that.
But the bet I made with Siska has me second-guessing the idea of pursuing her. I’m not a cruel person and playing with her feelings when I know I don’t want anything serious with anyone feels cruel. Sure, I said yes to the bet, but I never really planned on following through. Honestly, I thought they’d forget all about it, but ever since they met Shayna that day outside the library, they ask me every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday whether I’ve sealed the deal with her yet.
I’m getting sick of listening to them talk about how I’m losing my touch. Especially since I haven’t gotten laid in weeks. It’s not that there haven’t been offers, but every time I try to make myself pursue something with a willing girl, Shayna’s face flashes through my mind and I can’t do it. It wouldn’t be fair to the other girl if I was fucking her and pretending she was Shayna.
Still, the guys have effectively cockblocked me with this stupid bet—unless I want to tell Shayna about it.
Maybe I could? Maybe I could explain to her how I’m feeling but how I’m conflicted because of the bet? She’d probably think I’m a douchebag for agreeing to the bet in the first place, then she wouldn’t be into me anymore.
Because I think she might be into me.
I remember the way her cheeks pinkened that day I asked if she had a boyfriend and called her pretty and smart. And I’ve noticed the way she won’t meet my eyes but will steal looks at me when she thinks I’m not looking.
Whatever. If I want my truck fixed, I have to pursue her or bury my tail between my legs and ask Kane, who will lecture me for the next four months about money and how I should have been working my ass off this summer. Regardless, Shayna isn’t the kind of girl who’s looking to sleep together and nothing more. And I meant it when I said I was too busy with football and school to have a steady girlfriend.
