Being Hers (Irresistibly Bound 1)

What time do you get out of class? V.

5 pm, Mel sent. She thought for a moment and typed. Why? Her finger hovered over the send button. She erased the message.

“So are you going to tell me who she is?” Jess asked.

“Just someone from work.”

“A coworker?”

Mel hesitated. “She’s a customer.” It wasn’t a lie. Although she trusted Jess, Mel didn’t feel right giving away Vanessa’s ‘secret.’

“Wow. Isn’t everyone who goes there a millionaire?” Jess asked. “I’m totally jealous. What’s it like dating someone like that?”

“We’re not dating.” At least, Mel didn’t think they were.

“Then what is it? Are you her sugar baby?”

“Definitely not. It’s purely physical.” Mel fiddled with her pen. “I doubt she’s interested in anything more.”

“Why not?”

By now they had both given up on the lecture. Luckily, their eighty-year-old professor had poor hearing.

“I can’t imagine someone like Vanessa being interested in someone like me,” Mel said. “She’s from a completely different world than me. She drinks whiskey that costs more than my month’s rent. And she’s so successful, and sophisticated, and elegant.”

“All of those things are superficial, Mel. Do you think she cares you don’t have money? When it comes to love, none of that stuff matters.”

“Love? Love isn’t even a possibility. I’m not interested in her that way. I’m not even looking for a relationship.”

“Come on, Mel. It’s been ages since everything with Kim. Are you going to spend the rest of your life alone because of one bad relationship?”

‘Bad’ was an understatement. Mel sighed. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. I don’t need any distractions right now.”

“You can’t shut everyone out forever, Mel. Life is so much better when you have people to share it with.”

Mel shrugged. “I have plenty of people in my life. And I like my life the way it is.”

“If you say so.” Jess stretched out in her chair. “So, her name is Vanessa?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s she like?”

“She’s amazing. Gorgeous. A little older. And she’s so confident and magnetic. She turns heads when she walks into a room.”

“Look at you, all dre

amy-eyed. The sex must be something else if she’s making you act like this.”

Mel rolled her eyes. She looked down at her phone. Still nothing from Vanessa. Jess was right. She was obsessing. Even though Mel definitely didn’t have feelings for Vanessa, she would have to keep her guard up. The temptation was there.

Five o’clock rolled around and Mel and Jess made their way across campus.

“Finally,” Jess said. “I thought this day would never end.”

“Me too. I can’t wait to go home and go for a run.”

“Seriously? That’s what you want to do at the end of a long day? I will never understand you.”