Torrid Affair(42)

There was a small pinch in my heart. How could I say no? “Fine.” I threw my hands in the air. “But there are rules.”

“I can follow rules.” His voice was sleek and seductive.

“That!” I pointed at him. “None of that! No sexy voice. No flirting. No touching. No meeting for coffee. We only study here, got it?”

“Got it.”

I handed Nate an orange piece of paper with the hours I was available to tutor. “You can come anytime I’m here. During the week, it’s a little busier.”

He scanned the paper. “Wow, you’re here all the time.” He lifted his eyes from the paper and met my gaze. “Do you still work at the dentist’s office?”

“Yes, I still work there, but only once a week.” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “I actually get a lot of my own work done while I’m here. Plus, I’m free Friday and Saturday nights, which I spend with Julian.” I threw the last statement in there as a jab.

“I see.” He nodded. “Shall we get to work?” Nate handed me his syllabus and pulled out a chair from under one of the round tables.

“Yeah.”

I exhaled my nerves and ignored the hazard lights that were flashing in my head, warning that this was a bad idea.

In truth, it was by far one of the stupidest ideas I ever had.



Helping Nate with biology was a breeze. Every Saturday morning, he was there at eight a.m. It was only the two of us, and Terri the admin for the learning center. She opened the library and sat in the back office filing paperwork while we studied. He was always on time, followed my rules, and came prepared with a list of questions about the lecture. Once our time was up, he packed his bag, said good-bye, and left. There was never any fuss about hanging out afterward or him walking me to my car. Most of the time it felt as if he was a complete stranger. Of course, I never mentioned to Delaney or Julian that I was tutoring him. I never broadcast who I tutored so it wasn’t as if I was intentionally lying. They never asked, and I never said anything.

“I have something to show you,” Nate said as he tossed his backpack on the table. His deep voice never stopped having an effect on me.

I was turning on the main computer when he slid a sheet of paper toward me. A bold B plus was marked in red ink at the top of the page. “This is awesome, Nate.” I beamed. I flipped through the papers that were stapled together at the left corner until my eyes landed on a question he answered wrong.

In cells, which of the following can catalyze reactions involving hydrogen peroxide, provide cellular energy, and make proteins, in that order?

“I know what you’re going to say,” he rushed to say as I handed him back the test. “We went over it. It was a stupid mistake. I was in a hurry to finish.”

“It was your first test. You did great.”

Nate licked his lips and smiled at me. It was such a simple thing, but the way his tongue ran across his smooth skin made my heart rate accelerate.

I clapped my hands and inhaled. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”



My neck ached from the position it rested on the pillow I shared with Julian. The soft chimes from the alarm I had programmed on my phone indicated it was time to get up. From the window in his dorm room, I knew it was too early to be awake on a Saturday morning but I had to get to the library.

Julian shifted on the bed, his back toward mine. “It's too early,” he complained.

We had ordered Chinese takeout the night before and then watched Remember the Titans until we passed out. This was the second time I slept at his place, but we were only friends and he never crossed the line with me. He even slept on top of the covers in the opposite direction. These were the moments I tried to fall for him, when it was only the two of us, but it never happened, not when the memory of Nate still haunted me from time to time.

“I have to get to the library.” My voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.

“Anything that wakes you this early on a Saturday should be a crime.”

Stretching my arms over my head, I moaned with exhaustion and pain from sharing a twin sized bed with a grown man. “I'll call you as soon as I finish.” My lips brushed against his cheek and I rolled out of bed. I discarded his T-shirt and slipped on my jeans and sweater before digging into my purse to locate my toothbrush. Luckily enough, Julian's roommate Edwin had spent the night out so I didn't have to feel guilty about waking him, as well. Within fifteen minutes I was dressed and heading toward my car.

Outside, the morning was gray and blustery as heavy rain clouds gathered in the sky. It was early February and the weather forecast predicted a rainy weekend. Tossing my bag on the passenger seat, I slid my key into the ignition and turned it. The lights on my dashboard flickered but the alternator only clicked. The engine didn’t turn over. My battery was dead.