Page 32

Tobie

I haven’t stopped blushing since I left the library.

“I can’t believe I let you do that to me,” I whisper, tugging my shirt down.

Reid draws me into a side hug as he leads me down the library stairs. “It was fun. Admit it.” He grins.

It was.

And it shouldn’t have been.

Public sex is not for me.

“We should have been studying,” I remind him.

After he took me out for breakfast this morning, he said he needed help to work on his paper. That’s what we were about to do on the bench. Clearly, that did not happen.

His grin widens. “But what we did was so much more interesting than public policy. You have a cute blush.”

I shake my head. “No, I don’t.”

His eyes dip. “What was up with the books?”

I cradle the small stack in my arms. On our way out of the library, I was convinced people were staring at me. “I didn’t want anyone to know what we were up to in there.”

“So, you grabbed the first books you could to check out while blushing and repeatedly dropping them on the way to the counter?” He laughs. “ ’Cause I have to say you were drawing more attention than you wanted.”

Yeah. Not my best idea.

I scan the quad as we make our way to Reid’s room so I can help him study.

“You looking for someone in particular?” Reid says with a smile.

I eye him curiously. “Are you sure Caleb wasn’t… you know, watching?”

“Yep,” he says promptly.

I grind to a halt. “ What ?”

He places a hand on my lower back and propels me along. “Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. Why? You like the thought of him watching while I do things to you in public?”

I blush, glancing around to make sure no one is close enough to have heard him. Thankfully not.

“Look, there’s a picnic bench over there. Maybe we should…” He snags my hand and pulls me toward it.

I panic until Reid starts laughing. Slipping my hand from his, I dig my elbow into his side. “Ha ha.”

He slips his arm around my shoulder, and we continue to his dorm.

He’s smiling down at me, and I’m smiling up at him when I feel someone watching me.

I look to my left.

Marc.

He’s standing a few feet away, staring at us.

I look away.

Reid took me back to my dorm so I could take my thyroid meds and swap out the baggy sweats I borrowed from him when we left his room. I changed his sweatpants for one of my new jeans, but Reid kissed me and told me I looked too good in his jersey to change out of it.

Marc could not have seen me at a more perfect time—us smiling together, Reid’s arm draped possessively around my shoulder, me wearing his jersey.

And yet, I wish I hadn’t seen Marc at all. Now, when I do see him, I’m reminded that this isn’t real, even though it’s starting to feel all too real to me.

When Reid slows his steps, I peer up at him. “What is it?”

His expression is thoughtful. “Have you given any thought about what you’ll do when that jackass realizes he fucked up by letting you go?”

I snort. “That won’t happen.”

As we walk, he’s toying with the ends of my hair, and it feels so good I have to stop him when we get to his room.

“I’d be more inclined to believe you if we didn’t just see the guy staring after you like a lost puppy.”

I laugh. “He was not staring after me like a lost puppy,” I deny as I peek over my shoulder to confirm if he’s still watching.

He is.

Reid arches his eyebrow. “You were saying?”

I chew my lip as I ponder Marc’s sudden fascination with me. Marc saw Reid’s kiss at the arena last night. That must be why. “He’s probably suspicious about all this attention you’re paying me.”

“Nope. This is jealousy, pure and simple.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Fine. I’ll prove it.” He stops and turns us around, so we’re headed back to the library.

“Did you forget something?”

“Not exactly.” He drops a kiss on my lips. “One minute.”

He jogs off, taking the library steps two at a time. I’m staring after him, confused about the one-minute comment when…

“Tobie?”

I jump, spinning around.

Marc is standing inches away, cheeks slightly red as if he sprinted toward me the second Reid left me.

I hug my randomly selected books to my chest. “Yeah?”

His eyes dip, and a corner of his mouth lifts in a half smile. “You look pretty.”

I’m in a pair of jeans, a creased hockey jersey that smells like Reid, my glasses because I couldn’t be bothered with contacts today, and I threw my hair into a scrunchie because I was too hungry for breakfast to fuss with it.

This isn’t the well-dressed, perfectly put-together Tobie Myers who’s supposed to convince Marc he made a mistake cheating on me.

This is the ordinary Tobie he cheated on. And he thinks I look pretty ?

Make it make sense.

I back up. “Oh, thanks. Anyway, I better go.”

He moves closer, his hand out as if to grab me. “I, uh…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Reid stepping out of the library. He made Marc think that he forgot something in the library to prove a point. And he was right.

The impossible is happening. Marc is acting like he wants me back.

“Yeah?” I prompt him.

Marc’s gaze drifts over my shoulder, all but confirming Reid is still there. “You going to the frat party tonight?”

After what he said to me at the last one? No thanks.

I shake my head. “Why?”

“Just wondered if you were going to be there. I mean, if you were, then I might see you.”

“Well, I won’t.”

He stares at me.

What happened to all his need to study for the LSATs? What happened to the girl he cheated on me with? And why is he acting like he doesn’t want me to leave?

He doesn’t speak for so long that I back up.

“You, uh, you really do look great.” His eyes search mine. “Happy.”

“Thanks.”

I turn to leave.

Again, he steps closer, and his eyes flick to the library. “So things are serious then?”

“Kind of. We’re still figuring things out.”

“With all of them?” His eyes probe me like he’s trying to read my mind.

“I guess,” I say vaguely. “See you around.”

I walk back to Reid, waiting beside a tree near the library. His forehead is puckered as if he’s worried.

“So?” he asks as I approach. “You ready to take him back?”

I hug my books with my left arm and take his hand with my right. “After the way he treated me?” I snort. “No, thanks. You did that to torment him.”

His forehead smooths, and he squeezes my hand. “The guy fucked up so epically, he lost you. I would not make that kind of mistake.”

I stop and look at him. “But this isn’t…”

His expression is impossible to read. “Isn’t what?”

“Real.” And I keep forgetting that important aspect of this relationship.

“Isn’t it? Because it feels pretty real to me.”

I’m still absorbing his soft admission when he smiles and tugs me along. “Come on, I have a strict teacher who is determined I work on this paper.”

“And you can’t distract me again like you did before.”

His eyes are innocent. “How did I distract you?”

As if he doesn’t know why I fell off the bed like a moron.

Since there is no way on Earth I’m talking about pussy worship in public, I shake my head. “You know.”

“Give those here.” He takes my books and glances down, then starts laughing.

“What?”

He shows me the cover of a book I picked up, and I blush all over again.

Human Biology.