Jason: Choose a man that you are attracted to and you believe I will approve of. Ask him out. Today.
A painful twinge hit her in the heart, and it kept aching as she re-read his message. Before she knew it, she was already typing a reply.
Keanne: Why?
Jason: Because you need to realize that there are better men than me for you.
Keanne almost threw her phone away in frustration at his reply. How was it that he could make her love and hate him at the same time? Merde. He was so damn complex! She almost wished he was an ordinary man – it would have been so much easier to make him love her. But she did not really wish it because she knew an ordinary man would not have been able to protect her and make her strong the way Jason Christakos did.
A fist rapped on her table and she looked up, blinking in confusion.
The guy seated next to her said impatiently, “The professor’s calling you.”
Oh.
Keanne’s head swung back to the professor, a middle-aged bespectacled man with a frown on his face. The frown did not terrify her. She knew his type. She was willing to bet he was just a big softie inside.
Pulling out all the stops with her smile, she apologized sweetly, “I’m sorry, Professor.”
The smile did it, and the professor mumbled something incoherently. Yes, he really was a big softie inside.
When she plopped back down on her seat, the guy next to her remarked, “You’re good.”
She looked at him again, and this time she really looked at him. He was extremely good looking. He was probably her age since this was a first-year class, but his dark green eyes were too knowledgeable and experienced.
“Like what you see?” he drawled, startling her.
She almost blushed but managed not to. Even so, the way he smirked told Keanne that he was perfectly aware he had succeeded in discomfiting her.
She said baldly, “I see you’re just as good. Maybe even better.”
Her honest words took him by surprise, causing a smile to slowly form on his lips. “You are not what I expected to find on my first day,” he said.
“You are not what I expected to find either.”
The way he looked at her made Keanne feel self-conscious, his gaze telling her that he was interested in finding out more things about her – preferably those that were hidden by her clothes.
“You’re practically undressing me.” She knew she should be insulted, but for some reason she was not.
“Yes.”
That almost had her choking. “You’re unreal,” she said laughingly as she bent her head down on her iPad like the rest of the class, which was busy taking note of the instructions for their first assignment.
“Just as you seem unreal to me,” he returned.
His voice was low and throaty, yet another silent invitation for her to prove to him she was of flesh and blood. Let me touch you. Let me feel your body so I know you’re real.
She shook her head. “Unreal,” she muttered to herself.
And the realization hit her.
Not wanting to give herself more time to figure things out, Keanne said in a rush, “Would you like to go out with me?”
“Would it mean getting to kiss you?”
That had her head jerking up. It was such an unexpected question for a first date.
A sardonic smile was on his lips now, but his voice was gentle when he said, “You do not seem to be the type to let a guy kiss you on your first date.”
She laughed bitterly. “You’d be surprised at what I can do.”
“Let me qualify,” he said smoothly. “What I meant was that you are not the type to let a guy you do not care about kiss you on your first date.”
This time she gave him an incredulous look. “Do I look like some shy wallflower to you?”
He looked at her, his gaze intense enough to cause Keanne to fidget in her seat. And then he said quietly, “I don’t think now is the right time to tell you how I see you.”
One moment they were flirting, the next moment it had deepened into something more and Keanne felt like she had been thrown in the deep end without a clue about where she was or how she would get out alive.
“You’re so intense.” It was the lamest thing to say, but it perfectly explained what she felt at the moment.
He only nodded, and the mysterious smile that played on his lips oddly made her feel nervous. “Yes,” he said instead, startling her. “I’ll go out with you.”
She suddenly wished she hadn’t asked him. She felt like she had bitten off more than she could chew.
“Regretting asking me out?”
“Of course not.” She was too proud to tell him the truth. But inside, she was already panicking. Silly old man. She cursed Jason fluidly in her mind. Look at what he had gotten her into.