I jerked my hand back and closed my eyes.
“Were you just counting my abs?” His voice sounded amused. It also sounded like a movie star voice, the type that makes you want to jump into the TV screen. It was deep, strong, and had a slight accent I couldn’t place. British? Scottish?
I took my lower lip between my teeth and thought about what to say. Well, there really was no way out of it. I nodded. “Sorry, I just…” I shouldn’t have looked. If I could go back in time, I would have. I had no idea that one look would devastate me. Weeks from now I would regret that one look, for one reason and one reason only.
His eyes held my ruin.
“Weston.” He held out his hand. “And you are?”
Screwed. “Kiersten.” I clutched the packet tighter against my chest. He squinted at my hands then looked at his.
“You have a germ thing?”
“Huh? What? No?”
“You have a disease?” His hand was still between us, it was getting more awkward by the minute. Just put it away!
“Um, no.”
“Good.” He moved his hand from safe territory, and suddenly he was touching me, well, touching my packet, but I could have sworn I felt every bit of his heat as he slowly peeled it from my grip and freed up my hands. “Now,” he held out his hand again, “where were we?”
What the heck was wrong with me? It wasn’t that I didn’t want to shake his hand. It was just that I was embarrassed and I wanted to leave, and I wasn’t sure if he was just being nice to me to be nice or — wow, I needed therapy.
Clearing my throat, I reached over and shook his hand. At his smirk, I panicked. He clenched my hand within his and looked down at our joining, then mumbled something under his breath. I felt the loss when he finally released my fingers.
“See?” He handed back my packet. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
“No.” I swallowed and my eyes darted across the crowded lawn. I seriously couldn’t stare at him in the face; that was how gorgeous he was. I’d never seen such a good-looking guy in real life before. Sure, I’d seen them on magazines and movies, but this guy… He was living, breathing, walking sex. And considering I had no experience in that department, I was putting up every wall I could think of in order to remember to breathe.
His eyes were a pale blue, his hair a golden blond that was a little too long and curled by his ears. And his smile. Well, his smile would probably haunt me for the rest of my life. It was easy, and his dimples only made it worse. And then there was his smell. A mixture of some sort of cinnamon and something else I couldn’t really put my finger on. It irritated me how easy it seemed for him to smile, as if nothing was wrong in the world when everything felt like it inside. He wanted to shake my hand and know my name and I wanted to get the hell out of there and sit in my room, preferably rocking back and forth in a corner until my anti-depressants decided to kick in to high gear.
“So,” he said with a chuckle. “We go from you touching my abs, straight to insulting me by not shaking my hand, and then to daydreaming. That sound about right?”
“Oh my gosh.” I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s my first day, and I’m just… nervous.” There, that sounded good, not at all like I was seconds away from having a minor freak out.
“Let me help?”
“But I don’t know you,” I blurted.
“Sure you do.” Somehow he maneuvered himself around me so that his arm was resting on my shoulder and we were walking back toward my dorm. Holy crap. This is how girls were taken advantage of. Panicking, I searched the lawn for Lisa, but she was nowhere to be found.
“No.” I dug my heels into the ground. “I, uh, I need to find my roommate and my ID card! I have to grab my ID card. Well, first I need to find my RA…” I sounded like a lost kid at the park. Funny, because most of the time I felt that way, lost, like a missing puzzle piece that forgot it was a part of the rest of the puzzle. The outcast, the loner the—
“—I believe,” he said, smirking, “that I said I’d help you.”
“I don’t need that kind of help,” I whispered.
“Huh?” He stopped walking and then burst out laughing. “Holy shit, I think I may love you.”
Heart meet stomach.
He kept laughing and pulled me tighter to him. Well, at least my uncle wouldn’t have to worry about paying for college. I was like ten minutes away from being taken. Like in the movie, Taken, only I didn’t have a bad ass dad to come save me. My heart clenched again.
“I’m not going to take advantage of you,” Weston said. “No offense, but you look way too innocent for my tastes, which you again proved when you wrongfully assumed I wanted to help myself into your pants.”
My face erupted in flames.
“Also…” We kept walking. “You’re a freshman. I don’t do freshmen, as in, I don’t date them. Hell, I don’t usually even help them, but you did almost knock me over, and regardless of how much you deny it, you were counting my abs—”
“I wasn’t—”
“You were.” He sighed wistfully. “I watched your mouth move, one, two, three. It’s eight by the way, an eight-pack. I work out a lot.”
“Great,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Aw, Lamb, don’t be embarrassed.” He stopped and released me.
“Lamb?”
“Pure.” He smiled. “And lost.” Shrugging, he pointed to my dorm. “Like a little lamb.”
“Well, thanks for the walk back to my dorm.” I brushed past him, but he grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t you want to talk to the RA about the ID card?”
“Yeah, I’m going to go get her right now.” I jerked free. “So, thanks for… everything.” I was redefining the meaning of socially awkward.
He licked his full lips and smiled again. “Okay, you go ask her.”
“Okay.” I stumbled backward, almost tripping on my own feet, and made my way up the stairs to the dorm.
Once inside, I could feel him still staring at me.
I turned around.
He was grinning.
I waved.
He waved back.
Seriously? What kind of sick game was this?
Muttering a curse, I read through the different floors and located the RA’s room. Sixth floor. Of course. I went to the stairs and slowly made my way up.
By the time I reached the sixth floor I was ready to forgo the entire ID card in favor of a nap. One of the side effects of my medicine. Sometimes they made me sleepy. Other times I had such vivid dreams it was like starring in Alice in Wonderland
With a groan, I forced my feet to take me to the end of the hall. Room 666. That had to be a joke, right? I knocked twice on the door.
It swung open, revealing my tree… “Weston?”
“Lamb.” He opened his door wider. “How can I help you?”
Chapter Three
I should have left well enough alone
Kiersten
I took a few steps back to examine the number next to the door. “I, uh… is the RA not here? Did you break into her room?”
“One…” He held up his finger. “I’m a bit insulted that you think I’d have to break into a girl’s room to get in. Believe me. I knock, they open, I walk in. It’s as simple as that.”
I bet it was.
“Two…” He held up two fingers. “You’re looking at the RA. Now, why don’t you come in and I’ll explain to you how the whole student ID card thing works.”
Pressing my lips together, I gave him a firm nod and walked into the room. It was clean. Not what I expected from what I’d read about guys and hygiene.
“So…” Weston walked over to his bed and sat. “Let me see your schedule and I’ll answer whatever questions you have.”
I was still processing the fact that he was my RA. “I don’t get it. I could have sworn the Freshman RA was a female.”
“Sex change,” Weston said with a straight face. “I was a confused child.”
“Funny.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? I requested an all-girls dorm and got put in a co-ed building, and then my RA is a—” I was going to say hot guy but refrained from embarrassing myself.
“Sex god.” He said it for me. “I know, some people have all the luck.” With a heavy sigh he pulled a chunk of papers from my packet and whistled. “Looks like you’ve got a hell of a schedule. Nineteen credits? No major? You don’t seem like the indecisive type.”
I wanted to tell him he didn’t know me. In fact, I wanted to snap at him. What did he know of my life? My past? My reasons for not committing? As if sensing my anger, my cell went off; I looked at the screen. Uncle JoBob. I called him Jo. He’d been taking care of me for the past two years. Ever since… everything happened.
I pressed ignore. Uncle Jo would flip if he heard a male voice in the background, and Weston didn’t seem the quiet type to me. No, he was a flaunter. Crap, he even looked like he was flexing sitting there, though I couldn’t be sure. He had a long-sleeved white shirt on with ripped jeans.
“So…” He pulled out a pen and scribbled something on the paper. “The campus map is going to be your bread and butter. Don’t get lost, and don’t walk by yourself at night, okay?”
“I think I can handle it.” I snatched the paper from him. “ID card?”
“Right.” He stood and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I circled the building on the map. Smile bright for your picture, Lamb.”
I grimaced “Are you going to call me that all year?”
“Would you rather I call you something else?” he whispered, his lips close enough to touch mine.
“Um, no thanks.” My voice shook.
“You sure about that?” He stared at my lips. I took a step back, he took another step forward.
“I thought you weren’t into freshmen.” I was backed into a corner, literally. I felt something sharp against my back.
“Maybe I’m changing my mind,” he offered, tilting my chin toward his face. “I always was a sucker for redheads.”
My eyes narrowed. “Strawberry blonde.”
“Redhead.”
“Light red.”
He sighed. “Hate to break it to you, but your hair is red. You’re a red head, not a light red head, not a strawberry-blonde. Accept it, embrace it, love it. Because you’re freaking gorgeous.”
Okay, so that was forward. I licked my lips and mumbled a thanks before ducking away from him and making a beeline toward the door.
“Forgetting something?” his voice came from behind me.
“No?” I froze.
His hands were on my shoulders. Slowly, he turned me to face him and handed the map and my packet to me. “There you go. Remember what I said, no walking alone at night and smile wide.”
“I’ll try.”
“Don’t try.” His grip tightened on the packet. “Be smart. Walk in pairs. Use the buddy system. Don’t drink things that smell funny—”