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Growling, I am up out of my seat without a thought and soon striding after her. Most of the teachers in this section of the building are gone for the day or teaching, so there’s no one to witness this.

“What the fuck does that mean?” I yell after her. As tall as she is, my legs still effortlessly eat up the space between us. Nina breaks into a run, and while I feel badly for a moment that I’m being an asshole, I don’t care enough to stop.

A part of me enjoys the chase, and I need to know why she smells the way she does. I’ve never had a single inappropriate thought about her until now. I want to pin her to the wall and mark her.

Fuck, I’m in so much trouble.This has to be a fluke. There would be some sort of sign from her if she felt the way I did, right? Scent matching is supposed to happen for both people. So why is she running away from me?

Grabbing her arm, I turn her to face me.

“It means exactly what I said it does,” she tells me, her voice a hair below a yell. “I’m not staying on campus, it’s too expensive. My mother no longer holds my purse strings. Any other questions?”

“Dozens,” I growl. “How did this even happen?”

“This goes under more personal information that you’re not allowed to ask,” Nina scoffs. “You’re not my step-father anymore. In fact, I don’t even know who you are. The man I knew would never chase a woman down a hallway.”

Wincing as I realize I’m still holding onto her arm, I let go and force myself to step away. I’m breathing heavier than I should from ‘chasing’ her as she is accusing me of doing.

“We should make an effort to change that,” I murmur. I’m forcing myself to calm down, because I think I’m scaring her. She's right, I’ve never acted like this before. “Have dinner with me and your step-brother. He’s at the university as a student too.”

“Hard pass,” she says contritely. “I mean, no thank you.”

Manners are still ingrained in her and it makes my lips twitch in amusement. “I’ll make a full home cooked meal,” I tempt her. If she’s not living on campus, maybe she’s not eating well enough. The idea of that makes me angry. There’s food on campus, it’s why freshmen are supposed to live here.

“How did you get the administration office to allow you to live off campus?” I ask her. Nina’s eyes go wide and I see very real fear in them. Her feet are moving already, and she shakes her head as she swallows hard.

“Special permission,” she lies to my face. “Goodbye.”

Nina pretty much runs away from me, making me sigh in disappointment. Vivian shouldn’t be responsible for raising a child, especially this one.

Gah, can I even call her a child right now? Her hips and the jiggle of her ass as she flees taunts me, telling me that she’s very much an adult. Stalking back to my office, I start putting in calls to find out everything I can about my step-daughter.

I may not be married to her mother anymore, but a part of this girl still belongs to me. In fact, judging by the way she smells, all of her does.

She just doesn’t know it yet for some reason.

Nina

I didn’t mean to say as much as I did to Cooper. I was planning to stand him up when Mikey called me to tell me that he’s notopening the bar today because he can’t get any of his managers in.

I was going to find a server job at a diner, somewhere that wouldn’t care if it snowed, instead of going to see Cooper today. When he called, I couldn’t say no though. My nerves are fried, and that’s what I’m blaming my outburst on.

I’m so tired of not being able to get ahead.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I shiver as I walk to the student union. I need to get an unhealthy amount of work done for my classes today so that the one bright spot in my week is being on top of my coursework.

I hope Cooper won’t dig too deeply into my life here at school. Worse yet, I pray he won’t call my mother. While I’m not talking to her right now after she cut me off for not following her wishes, Mom has never changed her phone number. Ever. The odds are pretty high that he would be able to reach her.

The student union center is toasty warm when I walk in, which only makes my body shiver harder as it struggles to acclimate to the change.

Fuck. I was going to buy a coat with my tips tonight, and now I won’t be able to. I’ll be lucky if I don’t freeze tonight as well because it’s supposed to get even colder. When am I supposed to hit my breaking point, when I’m a popsicle?

Teeth chattering, I find a quiet table and get to work on my studies. I spend the day here before my next class, methodically doing the reading and paperwork for each course.

No one spares me a second glance, and while lonely, it’s what’s necessary. I don’t have the time to chat or get to know anyone new. I don’t want to date or attend the parties, and certainly don’t have the luxury of late night conversations while staying up too late.

All of the things other people are taking for granted as a freshman in college I don’t get to do because I’m just trying to keep my head above water.

I know Cooper was joking about my books, but I carry themwith me because I have no other option. I need them to work on each class or I’ll get behind.