He flashes me a grin as he shrugs. “I see my teammate go into your room, I need to know why,”
“Why’s that?”
“Because no one needs to be in your room but me.”
“Already possessive,” I say with a shake of my head, and he smiles shyly at me.
“I like to think of it as protective.”
“That too,” I say with a laugh. “Either way, yeah, you heard it. What do you make of it?”
“That we need to put your fears to rest,” he says simply as he turns down the sidewalk by the quad.
“How do you suggest we do that?” I ask as we reach a little bridge that goes over a small lake. My first day here, I came out here and watched the geese swim. It’s very relaxing and pretty, but today no one is out. Probably because it’s cold as shit.
Leaning on the railing across from me, he crosses his arms and says, “We talk it out.”
Looking away, I cross my ankles and shrug. “I don’t really talk.”
“Yeah, I know, the only time you communicate is when you’re yelling.”
I meet his gaze as a grin pulls at my lips. “So why do you even want to deal with it?”
“Because I like you,” he declares, and that same thing that snapped before the day we had sex snaps again. It almost feels like my heart isn’t constricted anymore. That it’s beating hard and full of life as I get lost in his eyes. “And a strong-minded woman is the kind of woman I want. I want someone who’s gonna fight for what she believes in, and you do that. Except for right now. Right now, you’re being a little bit of a brat.”
“Wow, thanks,” I say with a scoff and he laughs.
“It’s because you’ve been hurt, and I get that. That’s why I’m still trying to get you to date me.”
I nod, biting into my lip. “So just hooking up is off the table?”
I’m not sure why I said that since, really, I don’t want to just hook up. Hooking up means that he can hook up with someone else. Like that damn wrestler chick, and that does not sit well with me.
“Do you just want to hook up?” he asks me then, and I bite into my lip harder.
“Not really,” I say, meeting his gaze.
“Me either. Yes, I want you—bad. But I also want all of you,” he says, his eyes leaving mine to drink in the rest of me. “That beautiful brain, those naughty lips, those talented hands, and that ass. Yeah, I want that ass.”
Grinning, I look away as I wave him off. “Stop, you’re making me feel weird.”
He scoffs. “I always make you feel weird.”
Ain’t that the damn truth.
Sucking in a deep breath, I look up to look at him. “Anyway…”
He laughs as he holds my gaze. “So, tell me what’s holding you back. Because after my little speech last night, I was sure you’d chase me down, but you being you, you didn’t.”
“I’m not like normal girls,” I point out, and he nods.
“Known that since the moment we met, so tell me something I don’t know.”
I have no clue what to say. Holding his gaze, I shrug and go with the first thing that’s been on my mind. “How do you know it will work?”
“I don’t. I can’t tell the future, but I want to try.”
“But we are two different people, Jayden.”