Page 37 of Only for Love

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Emma

Business Statistics is going to kill me. The formulas in my textbook make even less sense now that they’re scrawled across a whiteboard at the front of the classroom. The professor hasn’t bothered to show up to class all semester, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure that his assistant is as well versed in this crap as me. My brain will explode soon if I can’t figure this out.

“If you have questions, follow up with Professor Baker during office hours. Thanks.” The assistant tosses down the dry erase marker and heads out the door before a single question can be answered.

Ugh. I’m going to fail this class, which means I’ll lose my internship. I might only do assistant shit, but pouring coffee and taking notes will pay off one day, semesters from now, with acreativejob at the only decent marketing firm within a twenty-five mile radius. I need this internship because I needthatjob. One day.

And I’m never going to make it to office hours. Ever.

Shit, shoot, shit. I bite my lip and slam my book shut.

“Makes as much sense to you as me.”

I look over my shoulder. Two guys. One’s cute, my age. Seems popular enough. He always sits near me and more than occasionally catches my eye and smiles. The other is super-hot and an asshole. I don’t have time to chat with either of them, but unlucky for me, the guy trying for conversation is the hot asshole.

“Something like that,” I say. No need to be rude, but I’ve seen him in action in the halls. I shove my stuff in my bag and check my phone. I have seventeen minutes to make it across campus, get Cally, and load us into the car. Then, if there’s no traffic, we can do a quick dinner and bath before she goes to bed and my mom comes over so I can go to work.

When I walk out the classroom door, the hottie’s feet follow.

“Hey, wait up.”

I don’t. Can’t. I’m on a schedule.

He’s by my side, his arm wrapping around my back. “Gorgeous, wait—”

“Hands off.” If there’s one thing that stripping at Emerald’s has taught me, it’s not to take shit from hot guys who put their hands on me. I might look and act like a wallflower at school, but that’s a façade.

“Sorry.” He easily keeps pace with my power walk.

I glance at him and his confident smile. “You normally get away with pet names and touching people you don’t know?”

His smile broadens. “Usually.”

My eyes roll. “Right. I’m late. So… I can’t help with stats.”

“Actually, this class is a piece of cake for me. I was just trying to get your attention.”

Ha. “I really have to go.”

“What’s your name? Emma, right?”

“Oh my god. Seriously, you… don’t want this conversation. I’ll make it easy for you. Walk away. You’ll be thankful.”

His eyes twinkle, and a challenge sparkles in his eyes. “Let me be the judge of that. Bunch of us are getting some beers tonight down at Seven’s. It’d be cool to hang out.”

I try to walk faster, making me slightly out of breath, but it doesn’t seem to faze him. “Not twenty-one yet.”

“They don’t care.”

This I already know about Seven’s but not from experience. “I can’t.”

“Gorgeous, you can.”

The second gorgeous pisses me off, then his hand touches my back and curls around my shoulder to slow me down. I stop abruptly and turn toward his mega-watt smile. He thinks he knows the next move. A mixture of cocky and sexy radiates off him and makes me think he doesn’t have to try too hard. Hell, he looks so self-assured that I bet he wouldn’t be surprised if I dropped to my knees in public to get a taste of him. Jerk.

My molars gnash, and I take a breath. Adding the same bit of sex to my voice that I use at Emerald’s, I ask, “What’s your name?”

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