Page 17 of Chasing Xander
“You mean the cheesy pickup lines?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t love them.”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes, but there was still a smile on her face. “Seriously, though, is your face okay? I feel horrible.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just tell people I got into a fight. It’ll really up my cool factor.” He reached for her, and she stepped into him, resting her hands on his waist.
“So, telling people you got your ass kicked by a girl will make you cool?”
“Oh no. It was a big hulk of a man. Real scary-looking dude.”
“Whatever you say.”
Before he could talk himself out of it, he lowered his head and kissed her cheek, his lips brushing the corner of her mouth. She let out a soft sigh, and he had to fight the urge to move a fraction of an inch to the right and kiss her fully on the mouth. “I really think it’s time for me to go.” His voice was hoarse and raspy.
“I think that’s a good idea.” She nodded and moved away from him. “Thanks again for the pizza and video game.”
“Anytime.” He gathered his stuff and opened the door. “Can I call you?”
She tilted her head. “Anytime.”
Grinning from ear to ear, he left her room, whistling as he made his way out of her building.
Chapter Six
“I thought college classes were supposed to be fun.” Kylie adjusted in her seat. That’s something no college recruiter ever told her: the chairs she’d be forced to sit in for more than an hour per lecture were extremely uncomfortable. “And I thought once we were out of high school we wouldn’t have to take these stupid math classes.”
“Really? You seriously thought that?” Celeste rolled her eyes.
“Okay, so maybehopedis a better word.”
Someone slid into the seat next to her, and she barely glanced to see who. But she wouldn’t miss those dimples anywhere. “Xander!” She twisted around and gave him a huge smile, the kind that screamed,I’m so happy to see you.Was she being too obvious? After the way he’d intentionallynotkissed her last night, maybe he really wasn’t interested in her like that. “I didn’t know you were in this class.”
“It’s not by choice, believe me.”
She tilted her head and waited, but he didn’t elaborate. “How’s the face?” It was slightly purple, the signs of a bruise evident, but it wasn’t swollen.
“Sore, but I’ll live.”
Professor Jamison cleared his throat and glared at no one in particular. He had a terrible toupee and glasses four sizes too big for his head. He pushed his glasses up his nose, and they slid right back down.
Kylie cupped her hand over her mouth and stifled her laugh. She didn’t know what was wrong with her today, but she had a wicked case of the giggles. Maybe because the sun was shining, the weather was warm, and it was her first day as an official college student.
Celeste elbowed her, which only made Kylie laugh harder. “I wonder…” She drew a calming breath. “How many times, on average, does he push those glasses up his nose in a single seventy-five-minute lecture?”
“Shh.” Celeste fought back a smile. “You’re going to get us into trouble.”
Kylie shook her head. “Or, better yet, what do you think the ratio is for how many times he pushes them up only to have them slide back down?”
Xander leaned over so he was shoulder to shoulder with her. “The answer is one to one.”
Letting out an exasperated sigh, she turned to him. “Does no one get my dorky math humor?”
He laughed. “Is that what that was?” He nudged her. “C’mon, you can do better than that.” His gaze dipped to her lips, then back up.
She’d given him all the signals last night that she was okay with a kiss—more than okay—but he hadn’t done anything but kiss her cheek. “Well, by all means, if you think you can do better, dazzle me.” She crossed her arms.
“All right. Last semester when they cranked up the AC in this room, it blew down on his head, and his toupee flopped around.” He made a hand gesture to mimic what happened. “He swatted at his head like there was a bug only he could see. It went on so long his students started taking bets on when he’d realize it was his rug.”
