Page 29 of Trusting Tanner
He put his hand over hers, interlocking their fingers. “Sorry.” He leaned closer, pressing his shoulder against hers. “I keep thinking you’re getting ready to break up with me.”
She turned her head a fraction of an inch, putting their faces a breath’s width apart. “I can’t break up with someone I’m not dating.”
“Now you see my dilemma.” His gaze lingered on her eyes a moment before dipping lower, memorizing the full curve of her lips. He’d give up his entire trust fund for a single taste. All he wanted was one kiss. Actually, no, that wasn’t true. He wanted a fuck of a lot more, because Juliana was not the type of girl he could kiss once and forget.
“What dilemma? The one where you’re worrying needlessly about me breaking up with you? Or the one where I won’t date you?”
His gaze lifted back to hers, and he grinned. “Yes.”
She shook her head and slipped her hand from his. “You’re impossible.” But her smile gave away her true feelings.
“I’m persistent. There’s a difference.”
The girl sitting in front of them cleared her throat loudly as she turned to give them a dirty look. She mumbled something and twisted back toward the front of the room. Tanner sliced a look at Jules, who had her finger to her lips, shushing him. Then she turned her head so her hair fell forward, hiding her face. Was she blushing?
Fifty excruciatingly long minutes later, class ended, and he hadn’t retained a single word of the lecture. He scooped up his books and tucked them under his arm. Jules stood and grabbed her bag. “Is there somewhere you’d prefer to talk?” he asked, holding out his arm to indicate she should go first.
“I don’t have another class until eleven, so I’m in no rush. We can go wherever.” She shrugged and walked out of the room.
Tanner followed. “I’m actually heading over to the administration office. Want to walk with me?”
“Sure.” She was completely silent as they crossed the quad, and he was preparing to have to drag information out of her, but then she stepped off the sidewalk and stopped. “I saw you,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Monday night. You were coming out of Glaster Hall with a really pretty blonde.”
He narrowed his eyes, searching his memory for what he’d been doing at Glaster Hall Monday night. And then his eyebrows shot up. “You saw me with Holly?”
“Even her name is pretty.” She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth and looked everywhere but at him. Until she finally did, and a kick to the groin would’ve hurt less than the pain and distrust he saw in her gaze. “Like I said, you’re free to see whoever you want.” She forced a tight smile. “You two really do look great together.”
Everything suddenly made a lot more sense. He didn’t know whether to laugh or scream, though. “Holly is Jason’s girlfriend. They have the most complicated relationship known to man. She broke up with him a couple weeks ago and then decided she wanted him back. I was picking her up and bringing her to the apartment so she could surprise him.”
“So…you’re not going out with her?”
“No,” he said around a laugh.
“Oh.”
“And there’s no one else, either.”
“Okay.” There was a hint of disbelief in her tone, and he expected her to roll those big brown eyes at him—an action he found so damn arousing and distracting.
He set his books on the ground then stepped up to her, resisting the urge to take her face into his hands and kiss her. “Maybe my actions haven’t been clear enough, so let me make it crystal clear right now.” He took another step closer, putting them chest to chest. “I haven’t so much as asked out, hung out, been out, or hooked up with anyone since meeting you. And I have no intention of doing so unless it’s with you.” He needed her to believe him. It was a tangible need growing by the second.
“Why?” She took a step back and crossed her arms.
“Why what?”
“Why are you wasting your time on me when you could literally have any girl on this campus?”
Anger sparked in his chest. He knew she’d been hurt by her ex—she’d told him so—but to hear her talk about herself like that? So not fucking okay. “First of all, I’m not wasting my time becauseyouarenota waste of time.” He closed the distance between them. “And second, if I could literally have any girl on this campus, I’d have you, and we wouldn’t be standing here having this ridiculous conversation.”
The corner of her mouth began to twitch, but she compressed her lips, like giving him the satisfaction of a smile was the worst thing in the world. He crossed his arms, his shoulders and back tight with tension. When she continued to remain silent, he raised a brow, waiting, challenging her to disagree.
“Okay, that was good.” Her smile finally formed, and the vibrancy of it sucked all the air from his lungs. “Like, really good.”
He stared at her, dumbfounded. Was she for real? Relief poured through him. “Jesus Christ,” he mumbled, running his shaking hand through his hair. Then he laughed. “Does this mean you’ll go out with me now?”
“No.” She laughed.
He shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
