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Gasping in shock, my mouth falls open.  And then it just hangs there for a while before I have the good sense to snap it shut.

He did not just say that!

But yeah, apparently he did.  Cole just told a complete stranger that he’s my boyfriend. 

“No problem.”  Todd smiles as his eyes quickly travel over me from top to bottom before gathering up his stuff and moving one desk over.

With an amused smirk marring his handsome face, Cole slides right in next to me before closing the distance between us.  “Checkmate,” he whispers.

“You’ve got some serious mental health issues, you know that, right?”  I hiss out the words feeling completely at a loss.  Feeling completely out of control.  And I don’t
do
out of control.

Emptying his backpack, he leans over again.  “Shhh, the lecture’s just about to begin. And I want to hear this.”

Gnashing my teeth together, I jerk forward as Professor Mullens launches into a lecture on current research methods within the field of psychology.

“We’re going to start out today’s lecture by discussing the differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods.  Everyone should have read chapters four and five from the book already, so let’s start by exploring some of the finer points regarding each method.”

Opening my computer, I start typing notes but can’t seem to focus like I normally do.  Not with Cole’s big body sitting right beside me.  Every once in a while one of his long muscular legs brushes up against mine, jerking me right out of whatever research method she happens to be discussing now.  And then, before I can stop myself, my gaze inadvertently flies to his. Surprisingly he doesn’t say one word to me for the entire duration of the class.  He merely takes notes on his computer and yet I’m completely distracted by his overwhelming presence.  I feel like I’m barely able to follow along as the professor outlines when and why we use each method.

I seriously can’t stand another moment of this torture.

Christ… why am I so affected by him?

He’s nothing special… not really… okay, that’s a big fat lie.  He’s gorgeous and easy going.  Arghhh… I need to get out of here.

As soon as the lecture ends, I bolt out of my seat like my ass is literally on fire.  I have to get away from him.  I have to put some much needed distance between us.  “Excuse me.”  Bouncing on the tips of my toes, I snap out the words, “I need to get going or I’ll be late.” 

This isn’t precisely true… but that doesn’t really matter, now does it?

When he doesn’t immediately move out of my way, I decide to push right past him.

“Hold on and I’ll walk out with you.”  He quickly stuffs his computer into his backpack before taking off after me.  As soon as we’re out of the social sciences building, I spin around towards him.  I’m pretty sure there’s fire, and maybe even a little bit of fear, glowing in my eyes.  “You know I’m one step away from taking out a restraining order for harassment, right?”

Instead of getting annoyed like I expect, like I want, he merely grins.  Those damnable dimples of his flash temptingly, making his entire face even more adorably handsome than before.  As indifferent as I want to be… I’m not.  And that scares me.  A lot.  For God’s sake, I only met this guy last night and he triggered an anxiety attack.

That’s bad news.

I want to laugh… or cry because I had actually thought they were getting better.  I had transitioned almost seamlessly to Western this fall.  And there is no way in hell I’m going to allow myself to back pedal.  Cole sparks something unwanted within me.  Something I find myself irresistibly drawn to all the while making me feel distinctly out of control and frightened.

And that’s one hell of a lethal combination.

For me anyway.

I need to run him off now before everything becomes even more complicated.

“Good, then at least I’ll be able to figure out your name.”

Hmm… I don’t really have a snappy come back for that one.  Nor can I help from shaking my head before snorting. This guy is impossible.

Impossibly good looking.

Impossibly persistent.

Just plain impossible!

It kind of makes me wish I had met him before
…
well, before my life had imploded.

Quickly I shove that thought aside.  The fact of the matter is that I didn’t.  Cole is in the here and now and I am…
broken
… to say the very least.  The sooner he realizes that, the better off we’ll both be.

“Holy crap,” his large hand flies to his mouth as his golden eyes widen with over the top exaggeration, “I think that was a chuckle.”  Rather disturbingly, his gaze roves over every inch of my face and I’m sorry to say that it only makes the edges of my lips twitch upwards even more.  He really is impossible.  Being the smartass he apparently is (I think we’re on strike five now), he gasps in mock astonishment.  “And a smile!  An honest to goodness smile!”

I roll my eyes all the while trying to get my damn facial muscles under control.  It’s not working.

“See, you like me.”  He winks before adding with just a hint of arrogance, “You want to date me.”

My brows snap together.  “Oh, that reminds me, please refrain from telling people that I’m your girlfriend.”  There.  The smile has been completely wiped away.

“You will be.”  He looks smug and way too self-confident about his prediction.  It’s perplexing and… oddly attractive.

Damn, damn, damn…

Feeling seriously disconcerted by how this conversation is unraveling, I shake my head back and forth.  “No, sorry, I don’t date.”

“Well, that’s good because I don’t want my girlfriend dating other guys.  It sets a bad precedent.”

I take a very deep and hopefully cleansing breath before stating slowly, “I am not your girlfriend.  And I have absolutely no intention of becoming your girlfriend.”  I have no intention of becoming anyone’s girlfriend.  And then it hits me.  “Oh, I get it.  You think this is a game and that I’m playing hard to get.  Let me disabuse you of that notion once and for all.”

Why is it always this way?

Why can’t anyone just be straightforward?

Whatever Cole thinks is going on between us needs to end because it’s getting out of control.  I’m not interested.  Okay… maybe I’m a little interested, but that’s beside the point.  I’m not here to find a man.  “I think I know how to solve this.”

Before he can throw out any questions, I step into his space until I’m all but leaning into his big body.  Little tingles of awareness dance across my flesh as I press my breasts against the solid wall of his… oh my… powerfully built chest.

Mmmm, that chest…  I almost lose focus as my breath hitches.

Gazing up into those tawny colored eyes, I pour all the hunger I can’t allow myself to feel into that one long lustful look.  Nor can I resist the opportunity to stroke my hands over his broad muscular chest until they are sliding up and over those spectacularly defined shoulders.  Christ, this guy is hard all over.  I gulp as that thought rings hollowly throughout my head. Tingles of awareness shoot down to my core in response.

But I’m not the only one affected here.  Sucking in a ragged breath, he doesn’t say a word as we silently hold each other’s eyes.  Heat and hunger fill his gaze as my legs nearly buckle.

“I love you,” I finally whisper, “let’s move in together.  I just want to quit college, marry you, and have lots and lots of babies.  At least four.  Maybe even five.  How does that sound?”  I trail my fingers over his broad chest, enjoying the play of hard sinewy muscle.

Not even a moment later, his arms snake around me, hauling me even closer.  My nipples pebble against him and I start to feel just a little bit hazy from the intimate contact.  My eyes widen because his chest isn’t the only hard part of him I’m feeling…

Oh my…

“I think that sounds pretty damn fantastic.  Let’s do it.”  He murmurs the words quietly just before his mouth crashes down upon mine.  I expect the slide of his lips to feel forceful, almost punishing but they’re not.  At the very last moment, he changes it and the caress becomes soft and-

Before it can go any further, I quickly jerk away from him.  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”  Feeling surprisingly knotted up inside, I practically shriek the words.  Heads turn in our direction but I don’t care.  My heart is racing, my skin prickling with awareness.  And my lower regions…

Oh yeah, they’ve snapped to attention as well.

Crap.

His lips quirk up at the corners.  His eyes crinkling with humor.  “Um, I was kissing the girl I’m going to marry.  Why?  What did it feel like I was doing?”  He’s way too cool and collected.

And I am so not…

This is the part where I act like a complete child by screeching in annoyance before turning and stomping away.  “We are
not
dating and we are certainly
not
getting married!”  Guess that one backfired… all over me.  My breasts are still tingling and now feel decidedly achy from being pressed up against all that hardness.  And that kiss… Holy hell.

My fingers fly to my lips until I hear him chuckling… the bastard.

“I’ll be seeing you around!”  He shouts the words rather cheerfully as I vacate the area as fast as humanly possible.

Not bothering to glance back, I flip him the bird.  This has definitely not been one of my finest hours.  As I continue stalking away, embarrassment slides painfully through me.  Why does this guy have such a knack for bringing out the worst in me?

And what the hell am I going to do about it?

Because I have the sinking feeling that avoiding him is all but an impossibility now.

I think that kiss has somehow sealed our fate.

Chapter Five

“Cassidy, your four o’clock is here.”

With my nose buried deep in a calculus book, I murmur, “Great Lisa, send him on back.”

Lisa, who is our sort-of-receptionist, hovers in the doorway for a few more minutes until I’m forced to glance up and meet her wide gaze.  Only then does she mouth the words, “He is
soooo
hot.”   As if to add dramatic emphasis, she rolls her eyes.

I roll mine before shaking my head.  Also for dramatic emphasis.  Lisa thinks most guys are
soooo
hot.  And sometimes she’s right… and sometimes she is wrong.

Very, very
wrong
.

But I suppose beauty is in the beer goggles of the beholder... or something like that.  Not that Lisa usually drinks on the job… but sometimes I have to seriously wonder…

Plastering a smile across my lips, I wait for my next appointment so I can see just how far off the mark she is today.  Instead the smile falls clean off my face as Cole strolls into the room.  As soon as he sees me, he stops, obviously just as surprised as I am.  But that doesn’t stop the wide smile from settling across his handsome face.

There’s that shit luck again.

I seem to be all but stepping in it where he’s concerned.

My eyebrows lower as I glare.  “You just keep turning up like a bad penny.”  These words are grumbled because that kiss we shared the other day is, at this very moment, rolling inexplicably through my head.

Arghhh.  I can’t make it stop.

Brooklyn’s probably right… I need to get laid if I can’t stop thinking about one tiny little insignificant kiss that shouldn’t even be on my radar.

But yeah… it is so on my radar.

Cole steps into the small room we use for math tutoring before lowering himself down across from me.  Somehow his large, muscular body makes the room shrink around us.  His golden gaze never once releases mine.  Which only heightens my awareness of him along with my discomfort.  My nerves instantly start to hum.

“Really?  Because I was thinking this is more serendipitous than anything else.”

That has me snorting.  Serendipitous my ass…

But I can’t actually say those words to him.  This is my place of employment.  Even if it is just a few hours a week.  I have to maintain a professional manner here.  Well, I have to at least try to maintain a professional manner here.  Eyeing him, I realize that it’s going to be all but impossible for me to do that.  I almost wonder if a potential firing looms in the near future.  But I need the small amount of money this job brings in.

It’s the thought of actually being fired that has me saying, “Maybe it would be best for you to work with a different tutor.”

His thick brows slide together.  He looks genuinely confused.  As if he doesn’t remember the stalker accusations I have oh-so-recently hurtled in his direction.  Or that I flipped him the bird at our last parting.  “Why would I want to do that? Don’t you know calc II?”

“Of course I do,” I immediately shoot back before thinking better of it, “I took it in high school.”  

Slowly he raises a brow.  “You seriously took calc II in high school?  Wow.  I’m impressed.  You’re obviously some kind of math genius.  I only made it through pre-calc.  And I pretty much wanted to shoot myself the entire year.”