Page 3 of False Assumptions

She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest, which pushed her breasts up more, framing her cleavage above her shirt and between the sides of her open jacket. “Eyes up here, jackass.”

His eyes snapped to her face, and he had to fight the urge to turn sheepish. He hadn’t meant to check her out like that, but much better to make it seem deliberate since he was trying to push her buttons.

“What difference does it make if we get the same edition. Are you even going to read the book?”

He took a sharp turn toward anger again, but fought back toward amusement. If she wanted to assume he was a dumb jock and a horny asshole, then let her. Letting his eyes wander over her again, his eyelids heavy, he leaned against the bookshelves, rubbing his thumb along his lower lip. “I’d be open to private tutoring.”

Another eye roll from her, this one so hard that he almost worried she’d get stuck like that. He worked hard to suppress his smile, keeping it to the level of flirty and sexy that worked like a charm on most women, but he knew would infuriate this one more.

“Puh-lease.”

Yup.

“I have better things to do than teach you to read while you ogle my chest for the millionth time.”

His jaw clenched at her insult. Normally he didn’t give a shit if people assumed he wasn’t smart, but from her it pissed him off for some reason. He forced himself to relax, raking his eyes over her once more.

“You misunderstand my meaning. I was offering the private tutoring to you. Help you learn to loosen up.”

She gasped, taking a tiny step back, her mouth open in shock. That sound, the way her lips parted, had a thousand dirty thoughts flooding his mind and his blood rushing south. But in an instant she recovered, her eyes narrowing. He could tell she was trying to think of a suitable comeback. When nothing came, she let out a low growl and pushed past him, her pointy elbow making contact with the tender spot below his ribcage on her way past.

He waited until she got to the end of the row of shelves before calling after her, “So I’ll see you tomorrow to plan out our project?”

She froze, her back to him, her shoulders going up to her ears as though to defend herself against his words. When she turned around, her eyes were little more than slits. “Read the damn book. I’ll tell you what you need to do when the time comes.”

With that, she stormed off.

He stared at the space where she’d stood, trying to figure out why she hated him so much. She was so striking that he would’ve remembered if they’d talked at all before now. Maybe she was friends with someone he’d slept with and never called back?

Hmm.

That seemed possible. Girls talked. So she might’ve been in on some girly ice-cream-and-guy-bashing session.

With a sigh of resignation, he glanced down at the book in his hands. She didn’t even expect him to read it, so having the same edition wouldn’t matter to her at all. Might as well save his money and check this one out. How would she react when he actually had an opinion about the book and their project? She’d probably just get pissed off, since that seemed to be her default reaction to him no matter what.

Female voices chatting and laughing drifted to him from somewhere else in the library. Walking out of the shelves, he spotted a couple of girls he recognized at a table with their books and laptops out. Just what he needed to feel better.

His usual flirty smirk in place, he sauntered over. “Hey, ladies. Mind if I join you? I need to get through some reading for a class.”

The girls eyed him up and down where he stood with a hand on the back of a free chair. The blonde drew her hand across her chest to move her hair behind her shoulder while the brunette pulled his chair out for him, a welcoming smile on her lips. “Of course! We’d love to have you join us.”

Evan smiled as he sat down. Yeah, his mojo worked just fine. It was all Layla acting like a frigid bitch, not something about the way he treated her. Good to know.

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