But he does.
I take in the scent of his spicy aftershave and commit his perfectly sculpted features to memory. Starting with his spiky hair, I think about running my fingers through it and grabbing his thick arms that flex beneath a fitted Strick U hockey tee.
Every irrational part of me wants to jump across this table and pounce like a dog in heat. I want to finish what we’d started the other day in the hallway. Tucker must feel my intense gaze because he lifts his eyes from the book. His eyes look feral as if he’s ready to attack. And I wish he would.
He licks his lips.
“Back to work,” I say to break our staring contest. “We only have forty-five minutes left.”
“Such a hardass,” he growls. “Your anger turns me on.”
I chuckle. “Who says I’m mad?”
“You look pissed off ninety-nine percent of the time.”
“Oh, yeah? What about the other one percent?”
He smirks. “I don’t know. I was too busy kissing you the other one percent.”
“You’ll pass this class…. as long as you put the work in and stop hitting on me.”
Tucker digs his elbows into the wood and cups his face. The two feet that separate us are not enough when he flashes me a panty-melting smile that goes straight to my core. I cross my legs and suck in a deep breath.
Keep your shit together, Sam.
I can’t lower my guard around him, even if he keeps trying to strip away my willpower.
“Hitting on you is part of the fun, Sam.”
Tucker loves playing with me as if I’m here solely for his amusement.
“You know you like it.” His leg intentionally touches mine this time, and he rubs inside my inner thigh. “I want you, too. I don’t see the problem.”
I slide my chair back from the table. “Stop it, Tucker.”
“Deny me all you want, Sam.” He folds his arms across his chest and smiles. “I always get what I want.”
“How about we get back to work?” I lift my cell phone from the table to check the time. “I have to leave soon, and I’d like to get through the assignment before I go.”
He winks, and then his eyes are back on the textbook. Tucker has always been a drug to me. I get a contact high just from being around him. Everyone does. And that’s why they love Tucker so much.
Chapter 17
Tucker
I kick my feet up on the table and pound the rest of my beer. Romeo burps loudly in my ear. Professor crushes a can in his hand and throws it onto the lawn at the Delta Sig house. We’ve kept this pace for the last two hours, buzzed but not yet drunk. I can hold my alcohol, and so can most of the brothers in the fraternity.
“You hooking up with Sam?” Romeo asks me.
I shake my head. “Nah. She’s my tutor.”
“Yeah, right,” Professor says, laughing. “That’s what Finch said before he got wifed up with Ella.”
Shawn Finch graduated last year. He was the star running back for the football team and a member of Delta Sig. At one point, Professor shared a bedroom with him. Finch was in a similar situation as me. He was failing, so his coach forced him into tutoring, and he ran off with his tutor. Now, he plays for the Philadelphia Eagles.
I will not be like Finch.
No fucking way.
