Page 2 of Love.V2 (Occupational Hazards #2)

“Not weird,” I drawled, taking the plastic cup from her hands.

In a way, it fit what I knew of her. Beautiful girl who recoiled from attention.

Quiet student who created the most intricate and colorful art I’d ever seen.

She seemed sheltered, na?ve almost, but she rolled with Vanna, the most outspoken person in class. “Intriguing.”

“Oh, um…thank you.” Her neck flushed. Cute.

“Let me get you something else. What do you want?” She surveyed our offerings before settling on a rum and Coke. I let her open the mini herself .

“Very fancy with the individual cocktails,” she observed while I poured. I popped a straw in the cup before handing it over.

“We take our reputation seriously. We want everyone to know they’re safe with us. No communal hunch punch, no roofies.”

She choked on her first sip. “Roofies? Does that actually happen at WTU?”

“I won’t lie, sometimes, yeah. It’s awful. But Eps don’t get into stuff like that.”

“Well, that’s good to hear. Guess I picked the right party to come to alone.” She smiled into her drink, but her words locked me up.

“You’re here alone? Where’s Vanna?”

“Sick,” Tess replied, looking around the room casually, like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb in my kitchen. I scratched my neck.

“She let you come alone?” I wasn’t close with Vanna, but she and I would have words the next time our paths crossed. My brothers and I might have been on the up and up, but a frat party was no place for Bambi to be by herself.

“Oh, she freaked when she found out I was coming. But, you know…” Tess trailed off, straightening when she finally met my eyes. She could probably see the alarm coursing through me.

“Do I know?” I had no clue what could have possessed her to do something so reckless. I could only thank my lucky stars I was the one she’d ended up with tonight. Sure, I was interested as hell in her, but only under the most consensual circumstances.

“Well, it’s one of the first parties of the semester, and you invited me…” Her eyes darted around my face like she was trying to read me. Sh e took another gulp of her drink. “It was on my list!” she blurted, sounding overwhelmed.

“Your list?”

She cursed, eyes dropping again. “Um, yeah. I made a list of experiences to accomplish in college. Oh, God, this sounds so stupid now that I say it out loud.”

“No, no.” I couldn’t help the smile that stretched across my mouth. I tugged her hand away from where it shielded her face. “Now you have to tell me about this list.”

I also couldn’t help the slow circle my thumb made over her wrist. The movement drew her eyes. Was she feeling this, too? The same crazy pull I felt towards her? I was a magnet, and she was pure iron ore.

“It’s stupid,” she insisted.

“It’s not stupid,” I insisted back, using my grip to pull her a little closer, away from the crowd. I didn’t want to share a single word that came out of her mouth.

“I, well, I grew up in this teeny town, right? And there are a lot of experiences you miss out on. So, when I came to college I…made a list.”

“Of things you want to do?” I prompted when she stalled out, her gaze flickering away from mine. I wanted it back. I wanted that lightning hit in my bloodstream.

“Yes.”

“Tell me some of them,” I pleaded, completely ignoring the party around us. Tess and her list, and the hint of her bra strap peeking out of her lace tank top, had captured every ounce of my attention .

“They’re stupid,” she said again, glaring at me now. I just kept smiling, waiting. Finally, she rolled her eyes and took another drink. “So, alright. Go to a college party.”

“Check that one off.” I toasted her, and she rewarded me with a reluctant smile.

“Eat sushi. Get really, really drunk, but without being stupid about it. Make friends I wouldn’t have made in my hometown. Ask a guy out. Enter one of my drawings in an art competition.” She ticked them off her fingers, but I fixated on one.

“Ask a guy out?”

She grimaced before straightening her shoulders. “Yes. I’ve never done it before, and it seems like it’d be liberating.” Her eyebrows arched, like she was preemptively scolding me for making fun of her list. “It’s perfectly acceptable for women to ask men out.”

I held up my hands. “I never said it wasn’t. I’m just admiring the set of brass balls you got over there.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Brass. Fucking. Balls. I’d never have the nerve to roll up to a party where I didn’t know anyone and then steal the show.”

“I didn’t steal the show,” she sputtered, but my smile widened into an out-and-out grin.

“You’re the Beer Angel now. Tell me that’s not going to follow you around campus. And you’re talking about trying new things and putting yourself out there? That’s fucking vulnerable. Ballsy as hell.”

“I-I mean maybe,” she stuttered. “I guess I’d never thought of it like that before. The list…I mean, it just seems like experiences I need to have. ”

“That’s badass.”

She clutched her drink with both hands and stared at me like I’d said something perfect. I wanted her to look at me like that forever.

“Mac,” I yelled without tearing my eyes away from her. I wasn’t sure I could. Her irises sparkled, sunlight on water.

“Yeah, boss?”

I nodded at Tess. “Meet your Beer Angel. She’s an artist.” Tess’s eyes widened at the descriptor, but I barreled on before she could try to correct me. “Tess, Mac is my pledge brother. He’s also the lead in the University’s all-male a cappella choir. Voice like an angel, himself.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re in a choir?”

“You can draw? I’m thinking about getting a tattoo. Could you mock one up?”

“Maybe?” Tess’s eyes flickered between me and Mac, looking cute and bewildered and excited all at once.

“What do you know about Dungeons and Dragons?”

With Tess’s attention occupied by my brother, I could stare at her without it being weird. That glossy blonde hair had to be natural. If Tinker Bell was a co-ed, this is what she would look like. That is, if Tinker Bell secretly had a spine of steel.

She was an enigma wrapped in silky skin and fairy dust. Every second I spent with her made me more interested.

Finally, Mac put Tess’s number in his phone to talk about “the tattoo shit,” then pulled me in for a bro hug, one hand pounding my back. “You got dibs on the Beer Angel?” he muttered into my ear.

“Mine,” I answered, pounding him harder. He slipped out of the kitchen without a second glance. I fucking loved my brothers .

“So, you met a nerdy frat-dude-choir-boy. Bet you don’t have anyone like him hanging around your hometown. Check.” I mimed checking something off her list, soaking in the smile that split her face.

“Oh, my God, he’s amazing. You are amazing!”

“Well, at least now you know someone else at this party. Don’t do that again, by the way.” I pointed at her, joking, but not. I couldn’t imagine her on her own anywhere else but here, where I could keep an eye on her.

“Hey, I knew you!” she corrected, leaning in closer.

“You could know me better,” I challenged, stepping into her space. She didn’t back away. “You should know me better. Ask me out.”

“Ask you—”

“I swear I’ll say yes,” I interrupted, already seeing the denial on her lips.

But she’d handed me a golden opportunity, and I was going to take it.

“I know a sushi restaurant that sells dollar rolls after ten on Fridays. We’ll have sushi, then come back here to a party.

Bring Vanna, get shit faced. It’ll be totally safe. ”

“You can’t…I have other things on that list! We can’t check them all off in one go.” Her chin had one of those little dimples in the middle. I wanted to lick it.

“Try me. What else is on your list, Angel?”

I wasn’t sure if it was the nickname that got her or what, but she arched her eyebrow, taking the bait.

“Skinny dipping,” she said, like it was a challenge. A gauntlet thrown. I couldn’t wait to pick it up .

“I can make that happen, too,” I murmured, low enough for only her to hear. She shivered. I watched her lick her lips, the blue of her eyes intensifying as we stared at one another.

She broke first, glancing down at her almost-empty drink. “We can’t finish my whole list in the first few weeks of classes. Then what will I do?”

She smelled like candy, something sweet and light. “Oh, Angel, that’s easy.” I waited until her eyes were on me again. Lightning struck. “We make another list.”