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“I left. I don’t think I could have stomached seeing them together.” A physical altercation with one of the university’s educators seemed like a quick way to get kicked out of school. But I’d been so tempted to knock her on her skinny ass. If I hadn’t walked away when I did, there was a high chance I would have risked expulsion.
This wasn’t me. I wasn’t a fighter. That wasn’t to say I’d never been in a fight. Hayat and I had gotten into a few situations with other students in high school. But those incidents were provoked. Grabbing Lynch by her fried hair, slamming her onto the floor, and kicking her in the face would not count as defending myself or my best friend.
Even if the smirk she gave me had been one to instigate a reaction, it still would have landed me an assault charge.
But would it have been worth it?
I was leaning toward yes.
Kingston placed Sammy’s refilled drink on the table. “You girls need anything else?”
“We’re good,” she said, not taking her eyes off me.
“You know where I am if you do,” he said, walking back to the kitchen.
Several waitresses, including his mom, were serving other customers. As soon as we’d sat at the table in the back, he’d come out and personally taken my order without asking Sammy what she wanted. But he didn’t need to. She’d been coming to Aggie’s since she was a kid, and he knew exactly what she liked.
Not just anyone got Kingston’s personal attention, and there were plenty of women in the diner who wanted it. Even the ones with their significant others followed the blond giant with their eyes, hunger in their expressions that wasn’t just for his cooking skills.
Sammy nudged my plate back toward me. “It doesn’t matter what happened after you left. Lynch isn’t getting it from Vaughn. I already told you she’s hard up.”
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Why do I even care if they’re together or not? He’s just some guy.”
“Fuck him and get him out of your system,” she urged, taking a bite of her burger.
“Maybe I should,” I muttered, playing with the straw in my cup.
“Eat more than a few bites of your dinner, and we will order dessert,” she bargained. “If there’s no cake left, I know I can get Kingston to make one just for us.”
“Okay, fine.” But I grinned at her, pushing my shitty mood aside so I could enjoy my time with her. “But only because I love you and definitely not because I want to eat an entire Death by Chocolate cake.”
“Babe, if it makes you smile like that, I’ll feed you cake every fucking day.”
Before we finished dessert, Elias joined us. He was dusty after being on one of the construction sites all day. Sweat still dampened his hair. He wasn’t afraid to get dirty with his construction crews when they needed him. Sammy and I had huge slices of cake in front of us, but as soon as he sat beside her, chocolate was the last thing on her mind.
Every couple I knew was openly affectionate with each other, my parents included. But with Sammy and Elias, it was different. They had so much energy around them when they touched, it felt like the very air was on fire.
When I dreamed of Professor Vaughn every night, I experienced that same thing.
But I wanted it in real life.
Not being in bed, where I could imagine his smell. Not dreaming of being in his arms. Not being loved by him. Those were things that were starting to cause me physical pain. All I wanted was to sleep so I could have him hold me.
Sammy ordered extra cake to go, pushing two containers into my hand when she dropped me off outside my dorm. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she said, hugging me.
Smiling, I squeezed her hard for a moment before reaching for the door. “See you later.”
She waited until I was inside the building before driving away. In my room, I placed my cake in the mini-fridge and grabbed a bottle of water before dropping down on my bed. I only had two weeks of school left, and one of those would be nothing but finals. I should be studying, maybe packing to go home for a week or two to spend time with my parents before their tour began.
Instead, the thought of the semester ending, of not seeing Professor Vaughn for any length of time, made me sick to my stomach. I had a meeting with my adviser on Monday to talk about getting into the summer history seminar, but it was already so full, I wasn’t hopeful of my chances.
My growing obsession with the man was becoming unhealthy. Figured. My first crush on a guy and I turned into a stage five clinger.
CHAPTER NINE
abi
Feeling his warm breath on my neck, his hand flat on my belly as he curved his arm around me, I let out a content sigh and snuggled back into his hard body. “You’re late,” I snipped, catching sight of the time on my digital clock across the room. “What took you so long? I missed you.”
