He smiles, winking at me; "I plan on it."
Well, I think to myself; at least she didn't say anything totally embara-
“This is the total hottie who took your virginity?" I cringe and blush scarlet as Lucy's slightly drunk "whisper" belts out loud enough for people around us to look over with raised brows.
“Ally!”
"Sorry! Sorry!" She brings her hands to her mouth and gives me an over-the-top apologetic look.
I look up at Liam over her shoulder, but he’s grinning and looks more amused than anything else.
Ally in tow, we move through the crowd towards the back room where the keg is apparently being kept. Liam grabs us three cups, but as he reaches for the tap handle, suddenly a sweaty, shirtless frat-looking guy with a backwards baseball hat and a toga half-hanging off his torso butts in front of him.
He turns and gives Liam a cocky once-over; "Brothers get to cut the line, pal." He stops suddenly in his clearly half-drunk state and peers closer at Liam, as if suddenly actually seeing him.
"Hey, DAD, who the fuck invited you anyways." He turns and smirks at the two guys who’ve butted the line with him as if he’s just had the line of the century.
"My girlfriend did." Liam says without missing a beat. His voice is even, but I see the muscles in his forearm clench for a moment. He nods towards me, and I feel myself go a little red, even though I’m wearing a mask. The frat guy turns and looks me up and down before turning back to Jake with a smirk on his face.
"Ooooh, it's like that, huh?" Suddenly he pushes Liam a step back as he laughs and turns back to me; "Hey babe, how about you ditch the old guy and come get some of thi-"
In a flash, Liam has the guy's arm twisted behind his back and suddenly whining as he’s forced to his knees on the floor. The crowd around us suddenly goes a little quiet, and I tense as I see a few other frat guys suddenly start to push their way through.
Liam glances up and seems to see them coming, but his face was is dead even; almost casual. As I watch, with Ally clutching my arm, Liam calmly reaches down and plucks the guy's beer out his other hand. And then, just as the other frat brothers break through the ring around us, Liam grins at them, tilts the cup back, and chugs down every drop of the guy's beer.
I tense, feeling Ally grab my arm even tighter as the circle around us goes quiet. Suddenly, the frat guys around us just start cheering.
Wait, what?
Bewildered, Ally and I watch as a bunch of them crowd around Liam, slapping his back, shaking his hand, and even pouring him a fresh beer.
"What the hell was that all about?" I ask him as the bros start to disperse back into the crowd and the music starts up again.
Liam, looking more than a little smug, shrugs sheepishly; "I was a jock at college, guys" he grins at Ally and I; "I guess I speak the language."
We crack up before I snag his arm and drag him into the dancing crowd.
Chapter 21
Ellie
Ally apparently knows when to bug off, and goes off on her own as Liam pulls me close and we start to dance.
The whole thing is just surreal. Here I am, the book-nerd, the virgin, the wallflower, at some crazy college frat party dancing with the hot guy. And beyond all that, I’m loving it. And while part of me is still hanging on to the whole hangup of this being “wrong”, I can’t help but wonder why that is?
So we’re different ages; so what? Yes, whats happening between us has an element of scandal to it given our positions as student and teacher, but even as hot as it is, it’s not something dirty - at least, not in that way. I can’t help how I feel, and this isn’t some “lust” thing where I’m just swept up by the first guy I sleep with and letting myself get carried away with the whole older man fantasy. I mean, I’d had a crush on Liam Martin since school started, before I even knew what that crush really meant. Yeah, I was introducing him to best friend with a mask on and a fake name, and when I looked at our relationship or whatever this thing was through that particular lens it seemed a bit tarnished.
Beyond that of course was that Liam was my damn college english professor. I had pretty open-minded parents, But I had a pretty hard time picturing them giving the go-ahead on a forty year old man having a romantic relationship with their eighteen year old college freshman daughter.
Liam’s arms move around me then, pulling me close, and I close my eyes and sink back into him as we sway to the music of the party. "Penny fo
r your thoughts?" His voice is deep in my ear, and I grin and turn in his arms.
"Nothing, I'm just-" I look up into his dark, piercing eyes, losing myself for a moment; "I'm just having a wonderful time with you, that's all."
"If there was any way for me to make this normal, baby-”
"I know." I hug him tightly and feel him kiss the top of my head.