“Thanks Robert,” he said sarcastically, turning away. “For nothing,” he muttered under his breath.
But Robert heard everything, rolling his eyes at the sky.
“After you, pretty lady,” he said to me, winking once again as Jonah huffed off. And upon closer look, I could see that the man was older than I thought. A few strands of grey decorated his temples, and those deep blue eyes had crinkles at the corner. Other than that though, he had the body of a god, powerful, ripped, those strong arms shown off by a casual blue tee, long legs encased in jeans.
“Um, thanks,” I murmured, ducking my head. “I’m on the third floor, just a couple doors down from Jonah.”
And the big man nodded again.
“Third floor it is,” he rumbled, eyebrows raised. And we made our way back to the dorm, past Jonah’s room to my place, humbly decorated with just a bed, a desk, and a couple of my personal items. Like I said, I arrived at Hudson with my worldly possessions crammed into two suitcases, so I didn’t have a lamp or any decorations really, just my mom’s needlepoint that I’d hung on the wall, looking a little limp and sad in my bare room.
“I’m still unpacking,” I explained quickly, cheeks flushing as the man brought in my mini-fridge. “I have more stuff, it’s just being unpacked.”
And Robert put down the box, straightening slowly to look around. But instead of being judgmental, he merely gave me a smile.
“I like girls who don’t have much stuff,” he said lightly. “Helps keep things simple.”
And I flushed. He liked girls without much stuff … like me? Was he flirting with me? My body grew soft and loose even as my nipples tightened, pussy growing moist. Was this alpha male, this tall, dominant, adult male flirting with me, making like I was a female he’d like to know, to play with?
But it must have been my imagination because he flashed one last smile before reaching for the doorknob.
“I’m Robert, by the way,” he said, pausing at the door. “Robert Martin, Jonah’s dad.”
And I nodded dumbly, furiously willing my body to calm. Oh god, my heart was going a million miles an hour, my pussy growing even more moist. I wanted to be an adult, wanted to act smooth and sophisticated, make like I was an experienced city girl, but instead all I could croak out was, “Nice to meet you.”
And the big man shot me another knowing smile, like he could read my mind, like he knew exactly what I was feeling.
“See you around, whatever your name is,” he rumbled again, that deep voice stroking me like velvet as the door closed softly behind him.
And I stood there for a moment, stock still from shock. Oh god, what had just happened? We hadn’t exchanged more than two sentences, I hadn’t been in Robert’s presence for more than five minutes and yet I was completely floored, off-balance, breathing hard, my cheeks flushed, body aroused. How did the alpha male do it to me? How did he have such power over me, over my body? And why oh why had I acted like such an idiot, tongue-tied like a shy, inexperienced girl?
But I forced myself to calm down. It was okay. The refrigerator was here now, the man gone, and I’d probably never see him again. It’s fine, Ally, it’s fine, I told myself. It was just a one-time encounter.
And that’s what I believed as the semester started. I figured I’d never see Mr. Martin again and put the incident firmly out of my mind, determined to focus on school. And what do you know, but Jonah was in a lot of the same classes as me. He’s not a bad person, although he looks and acts nothing like his father. He’s small, with curly brown hair and brown eyes, instead of the deep, penetrating blue of his dad. But he’s nice, we study together a lot and one day, when we were getting coffee, he asked me if I wanted to date him exclusively. I was shocked, honestly. I hadn’t realized that we were even dating, we were more study buddies. But Jonah was insistent.
“I think a lot of people already think you’re my girlfriend,” he said with a proprietary air. “I mean, you’re in my room a lot.”
I frowned. That was true, but that was because we were hitting the books. Correction, I was studying while he played video games, but I guess from the outside, a closed door is a closed door.
“Really?” I asked. “I didn’t realize, I mean, I didn’t even know you liked me.”
Jonah snorted.
“Of course I like you, you’re beautiful Ally,” he said with an off-hand air. “Can’t you tell I’m interested?”
I shook my head, still skeptical. Jonah had never made a move on me, we’d never kissed, never even really hugged come to think about it. At most, he’d offered to get me a latte when going on a coffee run, but that was something a good friend might do. So I shook my head.