Laughter fills the room, and I continue walking, following it around a corner until I spot Aspen and Brittney standing between bookshelves, each of them with a book in their hand. As soon as Aspen sees me, she places the book on the shelf and stalks toward me.
She’s scowling at me, and she tosses her blond hair over her shoulder, revealing the soft slope of her throat. A throat I want to grab ahold of and wrap my fingers around.
“You can’t be here,” she whisper-yells, tossing a glance over her shoulder at Brittney. I give her a dazzling smile and wave at her. Aspen shoves at my shoulder, and a bolt of lightning zaps through me at her touch. “What the hell are you doing?”
I play stupid and look around the massive room. “What do you mean? This is a library. All students are welcome here.”
Aspen shakes her head. “Nope, not you.”
The smile slips off my face. I don’t like how pushy she is about getting me to leave. It hits me then that it might be easier to go through Aspen to get to Brittney, which means I need to suck it up and strike some type of deal with her because I’m not going to stay out of the library when it’s free to any student who wants to use it.
“It sounds like you might want to negotiate some type of deal.”
Aspen peers up at me, blinking slowly. “I don’t want to do any type of negotiating with you. Any deal I make with you is a loss for me.”
I shrug. “It’s not my fault your negotiating skills are shitty.”
She rolls her eyes and takes a step closer to me. I can feel the heat of her body rolling off her and slamming into me. A light floral scent invades my senses, and the nearness of her body makes my cock rock hard. It reminds me that she still owes me an hour. I won’t lie. I love having her in my debt.
“Please, Quinton. This is the only place in the entire university where I feel safe. Where I can be myself. Don’t ruin that for me, please.” Her voice takes on a slight edge, and I don’t like the way the sound slices through me, making me feel a sliver of remorse.
I can’t feel bad for her, even if none of this is her fault.
“That sounds like a you problem.”
“Quinton,” she whispers my name and then looks over her shoulder at Brittney, who is putting books away but still watching us out of the corner of her eye.
I lean into her face, and fire ignites deep in my belly as her pulse jumps, her pink tongue darting out over her bottom lip. “Say my name like that one more time, and I will have you on your knees with my cock in your mouth.”
“Q, I’m serious.”
“So am I.” I grin devilishly.
“There has to be something you want more than tormenting me.”
I almost laugh. “You don’t want to know the things I want from you, Aspen. It would make your nightmares look like fairy tales.”
Fear flashes over her eyes, but she quickly covers it up with an offer. “Fine, you can have another hour on top of the one I already owe you.” She makes air quotation marks around the word owe. “Technically, I didn’t agree to that deal in the first place. You just brought me stuff and demanded an hour.”
“So you didn’t eat the food then? I guess I can take it back and wipe your debt.”
Her eyes widen a tiny bit in surprise. “Well, I ate it because I was starving. So are you taking the deal or not?”
“Not… seems like a shit deal. You want me to stay out of the library for the whole school year, but I only get one hour of your time? I want more than that… much more.”
She visibly shivers. “I know I’m going to regret this later, but one hour, once a week, inside my room.”
I rub at my jaw while considering her deal. “One hour, once a week. That still sounds like you’re winning, and I’m losing.”
Her little jaw tightens, and flames of fire flicker in her eyes. My cock grows harder. Even her anger turns me on.
“I’m not giving you more than that.”
“Hmm… one hour, once a week, but I’m in charge the entire time. You have to do whatever I want without complaining.”
“Fine, but you agree to stay out of here. You won’t show up whenever you want and harass me. This will be my safe place. You promise?” Her face hardens as she looks up at me.
“I don’t make promises, but I also don’t go back on my word. You follow through on your end, and I’ll follow through on mine.”
“Deal, now get out.” She pushes me backward, and while she barely moves me, I pretend I’m going to tip over.