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This wasn’t the place and time to air my grievances, though. Especially when they weren’t technically my grievances in the first place.
I slowly dropped Connor, so his feet were touching the floor, then I drew my mouth close to his ear. “If I ever hear you talking about Aster like that or even uttering her name again, rest assured, I will kill any miniscule hopes you ever had of playing on the ice.”
I dropped him, ignoring everyone else in the room except the one girl I came with. Her ruby red lips were parted as though she hadn’t taken a breath since she saw me lift her ex like that.
When I got close enough to her, adrenaline coursed through my veins, and I wanted nothing more than to kiss her. So, I did. Because why the fuck not? I’d just defended her honor, and now I needed to prove to everyone she was in fact mine, and no one was going to mess with her again.
Cupping her cheeks, I stared into her eyes, hoping she’d somehow my telepathy trick with Thea would work here too. Leaning in, the edges of her lips quirked, and she oh so subtly pushed her lips out. Good. She knew what I was planning, and she wasn’t going to stop it. I dropped my lips onto hers, and kissed her hard, but there was enough passion behind it that no one would think this was our first kiss.
Aster didn’t pull away, but rested her hand on my chest, melting into my touch as I brought her closer to me. Her lips slid across mine, and I let my emotions take over. Slipping my tongue in her mouth, her fingers clutched at my shirt, and I knew that if we didn’t stop soon, this wasn’t going to end with just a kiss.
So I backed away, feeling all the eyes on us as I slipped my hand around her waist and kissed on her the cheek. If she was surprised at all by my move, she didn’t show it.
“Come on, A. Let’s get out of here,” I whispered, knowing that even in this crowded room, no one else could hear us.
“Okay,” she said meekly, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. She looked over my shoulder and gave a smile to the group I was with. It wasn’t a nice one. It was one of those bitchy, sarcastic one that you give when you’re showing off. Totally deserved, as I assumed she was throwing it Connor and Rachel’s way.
Damn, I loved her feistiness.
As we walked to the exit, I dropped my hand slightly so that it was resting on her hip, and some of the fingers were just skating on the side of inappropriate. As I looked over my shoulder at Connor, I gave him an equally smug smirk, and then winked.
With my head held high, I walked out with the hottest girl in the room. The hottest girl on campus, if I wanted the truth.
When we were out the door, she glanced over at me from the corner of her eye, but she didn’t dare speak. I could feel her shoulders dancing as she held off the giggles.
By the time we were outside her dorm, she figured the coast was clear and she pushed me away. “What the hell was that about?” She was smiling, but clearly concerned. The adrenaline of the kiss had worn off in the crisp walk, and the reality of what Connor said sank in. With my fists clenched, I was ready to go back and beat the shit out of him. “Tanner?”
But then I looked down at Aster taking in my demeanor, and she looked concerned.
How dare Connor think it was okay to talk about her like that? Bending so I was face to face with her, I said, “Promise me you’ll never go anywhere near Connor again.”
She winced just thinking about him. For some stupid reason, it made me feel good. “You don’t need to get me to promise anything like that. I’m not that stupid.”
“Good. The guy’s a creep and he doesn’t deserve a girl like you.”
She stuttered for a minute, I’m assuming she was confused why I suddenly became so possessive of her, but it wasn’t so much about me wanting her than me making sure she never fell for another idiot's bullshit again. Or at least that was what I was telling myself.
“Good to know.” She pressed her lips together and played with her bag. “Thanks for coming tonight. I know it wasn’t exactly a fun time, but I think it had the intended effect.”
With her lips pressed, my mind drifted to the memory of kissing her. It was too short. I didn’t get my fill. Plump, soft lips that kissed me back. My lips were tingling at the mere thought of it, but since she hadn’t mentioned it, I wasn’t going to risk alienating my tutor by bringing it up.
No matter how much I wanted to do it again.
Swallowing down any remorse, I nodded. “You’re welcome. I’m available anytime you need me.” I held my hands out, feeling somewhat desperate. She was smiling, blissfully unaware that I threatened to break a guy’s legs for speaking about her the wrong way. “Same time next Friday?”
She nodded, and as she strolled to the doors of her dorm. I watched every second of it until I knew she was safely inside. Then I headed back to my house off campus, and desperately tried to figure out just when I’d gotten so protective over a girl who was supposed to mean nothing to me.
Chapter 9
“Aster, what are you looking at?” I nearly jumped out of my skin when Hazel peered over to look at my phone.
I quickly dropped it in my lap because there was no way in hell I wanted her to see. “Nothing,” I quipped, because admitting the truth was far too embarrassing. “I was just checking out a few French phrases I wasn’t sure of before I quizzed you.” It was a lie, unless you counted ‘what constitutes French Kissing’ as part of the translation barrier.
At this point in time, I did.
“Okay.” She eyed me sceptically, but she knew her place when we were in our tutoring sessions. She dropped her head back down to focus on her translations, and I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn’t have to deal with any more questions.
I was being a bad tutor today. Wait, let me rephrase that. I’d been a bad tutor for the last five days because I’d been so distracted. My heart felt like it was fluttering, and as strange as it sounded, I wanted to skip around campus.
