Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
But Ryan being Ryan, he wasn’t saying anything. He was just trying to silently figure it out.
“Hey.” I took his other hand from my face and leaned close, whispering, “I have not lied to you. We have a system, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“When I start struggling, I’m supposed to tell you. And I will. I’ll tell you.”
He wasn’t convinced. The cloudy look hadn’t cleared.
I leaned in, my lips meeting his for a soft kiss. “I will tell you. I promise.”
“But what if you don’t know yourself?”
“I’ll know. I promise.”
He scanned everything I had spread out around the computer again, the side of his jaw clenching.
“Hey.” I touched the side of that square jaw that I loved so much and brought him back to looking at me. “I don’t get like this with my stuff. I think Willow did, but that’s not me. And I will tell you, but this isn’t that. I’m good. I promise.” I moved my hand, laying it against the side of his face, hoping he can feel that I’m me. I’m not something else.
He nodded, breathing out some air. “Okay. Yeah. I just—” His eyes closed. “I don’t want you to ever suffer and I—”
“I know. I do.” I moved in, my mouth brushing over his again.
He relaxed, but I started to lean back. He didn’t let me, opening his mouth over mine and taking control of it. Ooooh. Deep and dark hunger lit up inside of me, as his mouth now was commanding mine.
Click.
He froze first.
Click, click.
Tearing his mouth away, he scanned the room and shoved up from his seat. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
It took me longer to realize what was going on. Ryan’s kiss had left me in a daze, but I stood up, seeing him approaching a group of girls who had their phones out, pointed at him. A few were still pointed at me.
Oh, no. One was filming this while another was backing up, trying to put her phone away quickly.
The clicking sounds. They’d taken pictures of us kissing.
“Ryan,” I said, my voice hoarse.
Gah. I needed to get to him, but I couldn’t leave all of this out in the open. They might swoop in and take pictures of this too. “Ryan, stop.”
“Dude,” a hiss came in from the side as someone was there, getting between Ryan and the girl who was now backed up against a table. She was slightly trembling. “Stop, man.”
I had to blink a few times before accepting what I was seeing.
It was Cameron Cahill, a hand to Ryan’s shoulder, and he was herding him away, blocking Ryan’s view of the girls. He pushed him toward me, looking over my shoulder and seeing I was trying to get all my stuff together and shutting my computer down. His eyes only flicked once to the screen before refocusing on Ryan again.
My chest loosened suddenly. He hadn’t really seen anything on the computer.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He was speaking in a low tone, his eyes flashing. His hand gripped Ryan’s shoulder tighter, and I wasn’t liking seeing how his fingers sank even more into Ryan.
With the last item stuffed in my bag, I zipped it up and swung it onto my back as I stepped in, knocking Cahill’s grip loose. I stood in front of Ryan, glaring. “You don’t have to handle him like that.”
Cahill snorted, sneering at me, shaking his head. “Right. Your boyfriend was about to light into some freshman girls. Like that would’ve been a good look for the team.”
Ryan touched the side of my hip, squeezing me lightly, reassuring me he was okay.
Well, I wasn’t now. I seethed right back. “He wouldn’t have done shit. They were taking pictures of us kissing and a few were filming the entire interaction. Ryan saw that. He wouldn’t have done anything more.”
“Well, that shit’s now out there, and I’m sure he’ll have to convince Coach of this instead of me.”
“You made it worse.”
“Mac.” Ryan fitted himself against my back, his chest lifting in a drawn-out motion before he relaxed again. He was okay, and as he separated, moving to stand in front of me, his hand switching to hold mine behind him, he smirked at Cahill, but his words were for me. “I’m fine. We shouldn’t be here anyways.”
“No,” Cahill said haughty. “You shouldn’t be. You’re not normal, dude. The rest of us, we can get away with being in the library, sharing a kiss with our girlfriend, but you can’t.”
Ryan narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t respond.
He didn’t need to. We all knew what Cahill meant. Even himself, he and Ryan were the two best players on the team, and when Ryan joined, he was forced to share the spotlight, but there were three other players on the court with them. But still, Ryan got the focus. He got the attention. He was an NCAA star player, but even that, he wasn’t a normal NCAA star player. He was more.