Page 120 of I Don't Need Your Romance

My gaze springs to hers. “Hmm?”

“Your mind isn’t here. What are you thinking about now?”

“You. Always and only you.”

She tucks some hair behind her ear. “That’s sweet. You’re always on my mind, too, but please focus.”

“Okay.” I buckle down and concentrate, but I don’t let go of her hand. She seems happy about that. She shivers when I stroke it and I smile. I like that my touching her has such an effect on her. Same way her touching me has an effect on me. Shows that what we’re feeling for each other is real.

Once she finishes, she has me answer the questions at the back of the book. I’m forced to release her hand, which sucks, but she’s right—I don’t want to disappoint her or myself by falling behind in school.

The questions are very difficult and I unfortunately get several wrong. Sophie spends a few minutes explaining them and it’s not long before I understand it. Even though we’retogether, she’s still taking the tutoring seriously. She’s not slacking off or skipping lessons. She really is such an amazing person.

“How about a thank you kiss because I’m doing so well?” I ask, blinking my eyes like a sad puppy.

Smiling, she bends forward and rewards me. I pull her close, moving my lips over hers and hopefully showing her how much I appreciate everything she has done for me since I first met her. And when she kisses me back, I know she got the message.

I behave like a good little pupil as we move on to math and the rest of the subjects. I keep my hand away from hers so I won’t be distracted. Sophie purposely keeps her hand on her textbook, as if she wants me to take it, but I want to be a tease and leave her wanting me. Besides, once we’re done tutoring, we’ll have all the time in the world—at least until curfew—to spend time together.

While she’s in the middle of reviewing psychology, her foot pokes mine. I glance up to check if she meant to do that and find her smiling at me. Returning the smile, I touch her foot with mine. She taps mine back.

“You’re distracting me, tutor,” I fake-complain.

She shakes her head. “There’s no room under here. Your shoes are too big.”

“No, they’re not.”

“Yes, they are.”

“Well, your shoes are tiny.”

“They’re normal size.”

“No.”

I stand up and hold out my hand to her. Her eyebrows knit as she looks up at me. “What are you doing?”

“Clearly we both don’t want to study anymore. So come with me.”

“Where?”

“Just come.”

After placing her hand in mine, she lets me pull her to her feet. I wrap an arm around her lower back as I tug her close to me.

I lead her to my bed, where we sit down facing each other. Sophie gazes into my eyes like she’s trying to figure out what I’m doing.

I place my hands on either side of her face before resting my forehead on hers. “There’s something I want to ask you,” I say in a gentle voice. “But I’m nervous. And I don’t know why. Maybe because you mean so much to me and I don’t want to mess this up.”

Drawing back, she strokes my cheek with her finger as she looks into my eyes again. “Nothing you do will mess this up. Unless you break my heart.”

My forehead is back on hers. “That’s never going to happen.”

She draws back again. “What did you want to ask me? Please don’t be nervous. You can ask me anything. Or tell me anything.”

“I…” I shut my eyes for a second before staring into her pretty eyes. “I want to know if you’d like to be my girlfriend, Sophie Reed.”

A huge smile breaks out on her face. She flings her arms around me, squishing me to her chest like she wants to flatten me into a pancake. “Of course I’d love to be your girlfriend, Damian Lawrence.” Leaning back to look at me, her smile widens. “This is the happiest day of my life. I have a boyfriend. Aboyfriend.”