“That . . . that was . . .” he stutters as she gently tucks him back into the confines of his boxer briefs and stands, while he zips up his pants and refastens the button.
“It was,” she agrees softly, wiping at the corner of her mouth.
His hand comes up to cover hers, cupping her cheek, and when she looks up at him, the fire there nearly has her stumbling backward.
Holy shit.
He’s ducking his head, moving in to kiss her, where he’ll taste himself on her mouth, when voices echo out from the end of the row and footsteps, muffled by the carpet, start fast approaching.
They shift away from each other just in time to see two undergrad kids, a guy and a girl, stumble into their sanctuary, hand in hand, clearly in search of the same kind of privacy they just enjoyed.
“Oh sorry,” the girl says with a laugh.
“Yeah, uh, we’ll just . . . go somewhere else,” the guy chokes out, trying to keep a straight face.
“You don’t need any microfiche?” Bianca asks, with a simultaneously knowing and disapproving smile.
“Oh, uh, right, yeah,” the girl says, turning to the shelf and grabbing a box at random. “Here it is. Let’s go, Bobby.”
“Yeah, that’s the one,” he says, following her back out of the row, their laughter echoing out behind them as they escape.
When Bianca turns back to Xavier with a rueful grin, he’s not looking at her. He’s staring down at his feet, one hand rubbing at the back of his head. Is he nervous? She’s never seen him react like this before. In fact, for a long time, she was pretty sure he was incapable of being nervous.
Is that what he’s feeling right now?
Crap. That’s . . . that’s not good.
If that’s the case, they should probably talk about what just happened. Should probably sit down and have an adult conversation about how it can’t happen again, despite it being, you know, one of the best hookups of her life.
Instead, Xavier clears his throat and gestures behind him. “I’m just gonna head home, clean up, maybe . . . I don’t know . . . I’ll see you there?” he asks.
“Yeah,” she agrees. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I have a few more hours on this shift, but I’ll be home before dinner. We should celebrate?”
“I don’t know, but that kind of felt like a celebration to me,” he says, but the humor falls flat.
“I’ll see you at home?” she tries again.
“Right. Yeah, see you at home.” He nods and strides out of the stacks like nothing happened.
A few moments later, she follows, head held high as she retreats back to the circulation desk and tries desperately to forget what just happened, to put it out of her mind and chalk it up to a simple release of tension and nothing more.
And for the first time since she stepped on this campus, she fails.
Chapter 9
He’s such a dick.
He didn’t mean to run out on her like that, didn’t mean to just leave her standing in the library stacks after she absolutely blew his mind . . . so to speak.
He panicked.
Plain and simple.
The high from passing his defense and being called “doctor” for the very first time was beyond anything and then . . . and then she’d somehow gone and topped it. He’d been more than happy to just kiss her again – to be allowed the privilege of touching her was a dream come true. Watching her fall apart for him? Beyond his wildest fantasies. But then, before he fully understood what was happening, she was on her knees turning him into an incoherent mess who couldn’t even form a sentence once she’d finished him off.
He’s still not quite sure how it happened or even why. All he knows is that it did and then he lost his actual mind and he left her there.
Like a complete dick.
