Dear Professor(51)

Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.

Two knocks at my passenger’s side window made me jump. I screamed, hitting my hand on the steering wheel and my head on the side of my car. Ouch. Ouch.

I recognized his laugh before I saw him. Jordan was bending down at the side of my car, his face creased with his laughter. I rubbed my head with one hand and hit the button to roll my window down with the other.

“What the hell!”

He was still laughing as he rested his forearms on the door. “Sorry. I thought you knew I was here.”

I shook my head. “I think I just gave myself a concussion.”

“Don’t worry. I think you have enough brain cells that you could stand to lose one or two. Or ten.”

I thought that was a compliment. “Thanks. I think.”

“You’re welcome.” He half smiled. “Is there a reason you’re doing the hokey-pokey in your car, outside my house?”

I opened my mouth and rapidly closed it again. There was something to be said for being caught, huh? Now, I had maybe sixty seconds to come up with a believable excuse. All I had was, “Um.” Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I said. Just, “Um.”

“Um? Very explanatory.”

“Um…” I cleared my throat. “I was passing by and my car broke down?”

“Really.”

“No.”

“If you were in class, I’d have thrown you out.”

“You can still do that. I can go.” I reached for the keys again, but he stretched his arm inside and touched my shoulder.

“Darcy.”

“Fine. I came here to talk to you.”

His eyebrows shot up, and he scratched his stubbly jaw. “So talk.”

“Can we not talk inside?”

“Are you wearing a dress that actually covers your ass today?”

“I’m wearing pants,” I told him, getting out of the car. “Don’t worry. If I had come here with the intention for you to fuck me every way imaginable, you’d know it.”

He snatched his arm around my waist and slammed my door behind me. Air rushed out of my lungs as our bodies collided, and I flattened my hand against his toned chest. Slowly, I lifted my eyes from his neck to his face. My gaze stopped at his mouth.

I want to kiss him.

It was a startling realization, one that came at me like a freshly pitched baseball thrown with the intention of striking the batter out.#p#分页标题#e#

I wanted to kiss him, wanted to see if he tasted how I remembered. If he tasted like coffee or whiskey, and if the underlying hint of chocolate would tease me. I wanted to feel the silky-smooth brush of his lips as they pressed against mine.

It was a foreign feeling and definitely unwelcome.

“Sweet thing,” Jordan murmured, his mouth ghosting across my earlobe. “Doesn’t matter if you came here with the intention for that or not. As long as you’re willing, it’d hardly stop me.”

My heart thudded with his words as desire pooled between my legs. No—I wasn’t willing. But then I was. And I wasn’t. Then I was.

“I came to talk,” I managed to force out. My voice was steady and much more confident than I felt in this moment.

I needed to get it together—stat. I couldn’t keep this inside any longer.

I didn’t know whether he’d sensed the change in my demeanor or not, but he released me and turned to the house.

“Then come in.” He led me up the driveway.

It seemed ten times longer while walking it. The gravel crunched beneath my feet, and I pushed hair out of my eyes more than one time as the wind whipped through the trees. For the first time ever, I liked the wind. Focusing on keeping my hair away from my face stopped me from fixating on the nerve-centered swirling in my stomach.

Jordan opened the front door and stepped to the side to allow me to walk into the house first. My heart jumped into my throat as I entered, and unbidden, my eyes searched every visible space to see if he really was alone.

“You look like you’re a deer and I’m a hunter about to shoot you,” he remarked, closing the door. “Is something wrong?”

“Um.”

“You’re fond of that word today.” He looked equal parts amused and concerned.

“Yup.” I smacked my lips together at the end of the word then licked them. My fingers slid through my hair, and I twirled a thick lock around my finger.

“Darcy. You’re starting to worry me.”

“I…” I peered up through my lashes to look into his eyes.

He was staring at me in that paralyzing way he always did, and my throat closed up.

“Are… Are you single?” I blurted out much harsher than I’d intended and then inwardly cursed. Shit.