Ally slides an arm over my shoulder and hugs me. “Look, you clearly like this guy, right?”
I nod glumly.
“So push the issue. Go do something ‘couple-y’ with him that isn’t getting boned in our dorm room.” She grins as I blush bright red. “Ellie, if he’s into you, and I’m sure he is, he’ll jump at the idea of taking you out. And if he’s a stupid loser, he’ll dodge it, and then I’ll go murder him, deal?”
I laugh as my roommate hugs me close. “Either way, you get an answer, and then you can figure out what you want.”
Except I already know what I want, and what I want is the illicit thrill I’ve already felt and can’t get enough of. The only question is, what does Liam want?
Chapter 14
Ellie
A day later, and the question is still rattling around my head.
What are we? Scandalous, wrong, forbidden? What label, or definition of any kind can someone call Liam and I that isn’t a negative one?
Exciting, maybe? There’s no other way to describe the feeling I have just walking into his classroom, let alone the times we’ve been alone, or the times he’s touched me, and made me feel. We’re having fun, and honestly, I wonder if that would be enough if that’s all it is, but I get the feeling it isn’t.
And that part thrills me.
It’s later, after the lecture, and this time, I’ve caught his eye after class and lingered.
“Ms. Thompson, I was hoping to go over your last paper in my office,” he says pointedly, raising an eyebrow suggestively even though we’re the only two people left in the lecture hall. He moves closer to me, and just like every other time he’s near, I can feel the familiar tingle creep over my skin. I can smell the manly, woodsy smell of him invade my senses, sending my head spinning and my body burning as he steps closer to me.
And then, of course, I open my big dumb mouth.
“What are we?”
I cringe the second it spills from my lips, instantly wishing I could stuff it back down inside.
Liam grins at me, his eyes twinkling. “We’re having fun, aren’t we?”
I start to say something, but he suddenly presses a finger to my lips as he leans closer and brushes his lips across my ear. “But if you think this all this is, baby,” he growls. “Than I think I better do something to correct that.”
I close my eyes and let myself fall into him, even knowing how exposed we are alone here in the big lecture hall. His arms go around me, and I can feel his heart thumping though his chest into my ear.
“You need to know that I’ve never done this before,” his voice teases into my ear, making me warm all over.
“This?”
“A student,” he says darkly, and I can feel a shiver run down my spine as I feel his hands slide over my sides. “It’s nothing I’d have ever considered, you should know that. I just wish it was easier for us,” he murmurs into my ear.
Ally’s words come back to me, and I take a quick breath before I open my mouth again. “We could go do something?”
He chuckles and raises a brow. “Little tricky in a small town like this.”
I slowly nod, feeling my shoulders start to slump before suddenly, he’s chuckling. “You know what? Fuck it, let’s do it.”
The smile creeps across my face as I raise my eyes to look at him. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.” His lips brush across mine, making my heart skip a beat. “I want to take you out, Ellie Thompson. A real date.”
“You’re serious?” I raise a brow skeptically at him. He’s right, this is a small town, and even if people don’t recognize him as a professor and me as a student, we’d still raise eyebrows. He’s still twice my age, and I’m fairly certain that our behavior would certainly say we aren’t father and daughter or anything like that.
“I’m serious as can be, baby,” he says with a roguish grin. “We’ll go two towns over if we have to, but I’m taking you out.”
I grin. “My my, Professor Martin, when did you become such a gentleman?”