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I looked away, swallowing against the sudden nauseous feeling. “That’s all he did. He just surprised me and I overreacted. I feel like a total idiot.”
Brit sucked her lip in-between her teeth as she watched me. “Not that some guy grabbing you is cool, because it’s not and although it freaking happens at parties all the time, it’s really annoying.” She paused. “Why did you overreact?”
Shifting in my chair, I slid my hands over my thighs. “Like I said, I was just surprised. He caught me off guard.”
“He caught you off guard…” she repeated and then took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m going to be real with you. That’s what friends do, right?”
Unease rose swiftly, snaking its way through me. “Right.”
There was a pause. “I saw your face, Avery. You were scared out of your mind. It wasn’t just being caught off guard or because you don’t go to parties. And I’m not trying to be ignorant by saying this, so please God don’t take it that way, but that’s not a normal reaction.”
Not a normal reaction. Didn’t I know that? I glanced at her and all of a sudden I wanted to tell her the truth—tell her everything. The need was inexplicable and rode me hard. It came up, making it to the tip of my tongue. Years worth of silence hung in the air between us. Brit waited with an open look etched upon her face and already, before I even opened my mouth, I could see it in her eyes and in the taut pull around her lips. She wasn’t stupid. She suspected something, maybe even the worst. Sympathy. Maybe even pity shone in her eyes.
“Did… did something happen to you, Avery?” she asked quietly.
The need to tell her, to tell someone deflated like a balloon with a tiny pin prick in it. My gaze shifted to the window and beyond, to the congested street outside. I shook my head. “No, nothing has happened to me.”
Chapter 15
Brit didn’t bring the conversation up again after that morning in the coffee shop and like Jacob had promised, the following day, he’d been excessively excited—jumping, clapping, doing a little dance—over the upcoming date with Cam. One would think Jacob was actually going out with him.
I tried not to obsess over the date as impossible as that was. Even harder to not think about it every time I was around Cam. Nothing had changed between us but everything had in a way. When he sat beside me in class, I became absurdly aware of him. Each time he moved and his leg or arm brushed mine, a prickling sensation would wash over my entire body and would last the rest of the hour. I wasn’t sure if he noticed and I really hoped he hadn’t.
Over the next week, an early deep freeze had settled over the Panhandle. The trees were bare and the wind off the Potomac rattled them like hollow, dry bones, and it had been a long time since I’d been in this kind of weather. No matter how much I bundled up, I felt like I was in Alaska every time I walked to class.
The Friday before the ‘big night’ Cam was in an odd mood, actually taking notes in class.
“Look at you,” I murmured as Professor Drage flipped through pictures of the Milky Way on the projector. “You’re paying attention.”
Cam sent me a sidelong glance. “I always pay attention.”
“Uh-huh.”
He twirled his pen between his fingers, keeping his eyes glued to Drage. “You’d fail if it weren’t for me.”
My lips curved up. “I’d be able to concentrate more if it weren’t for you.”
“Is that so?” He leaned in so that his shoulder pressed into mine. Watching the front of the class for a moment, he then turned. When he spoke, his lips brushed my temple, causing heat to rise to my skin. “Why do you find me so distracting, sweetheart?”
“Not the way you think,” I said, which was a lie.
“Keep telling yourself that.”
“One day your ego is going to make your head implode.”
“I doubt that day will ever come,” he replied, and then with the edge of his pen, he trailed it across the back of my right hand, right up to the edge of my sweater. “Is that distracting?”
At a total loss for words, my fingers stilled around my pen.
“Is it?” The pen moved back down my hand, over my knuckles. “Did you pick up how many stars make up Orion’s belt? No?” The pen was on the move again, and who knew a pen could be so… so sensual. “There are three stars that make up the belt, sweetheart.”
I bit down on my lip.
A soft, low rumble emanated from his chest. “That’s fucking distracting,” he murmured, “whenever you do that.”
My eyes widened as the air pushed from my lungs.
He chuckled deeply, and a delicate shiver coursed down my spine. “You know what?”
