He watched her face go pale and frowned. Was she ashamed of sex? When she shot out of her seat and prepared to storm off, he grabbed her wrist, and she yanked it back with a look of terror on her face for a fraction of a second. He could almost think he’d imagined it if he hadn’t been looking directly at her.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed. “Don’t you ever fucking touch me!” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but all eyes in the cafeteria settled on her. She had no idea how beautiful she looked with her ivory skin all flushed and her blue eyes flashing. It made him want to do some very naughty things to her, but he ignored his own lust for a minute. Something was wrong here. Very, very wrong.
“Calm down, Lily Bells,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean any harm. I just didn’t want you to run.”
“I wasn’t running,” she said hotly. “I just didn’t want to suffer your unbearable ego one more minute.”
He stared at her, his eyes sweeping from those luscious lips to her perky breasts, to her trim waist, and down to her petite feet. Color flooded her face, and it made the blood rush downward to settle right where he didn’t need it to right then. “Mmm…I was hoping you’d run so I could chase you.”
“Problem here, Lily?”
Nikoli wanted to shout in frustration. No less than six members of the football team, two of whom were from his own frat house, stood behind Lily. How the hell was he going to wear her down if he couldn’t get five minutes alone with her?
“No, Jimmy.” She smiled up at the guy who’d spoken. “Nikoli and I were just discussing his STD status.”
His mouth fell open. She did not…the little…oh hell no. He stood up himself, ready to…damn, he didn’t know what he wanted to do.
He heard laughs all around, some not as concealed as others. Fury radiated from him in the next second. The laughs stopped as fast as they’d started when he rolled his shoulders, muscles rippling. Football player he wasn’t, but he fought with the best of them and had beaten all the guys standing across from him bloody at one time or another over the last three years. They knew better than to cross him. He gave them his best hard-ass stare, and several took a step back.
“You know what?” Lily shook her head and started walking away. “I don’t have time for the testosterone showdown. I have more important things to do.”
“Let me buy you dinner, at least.” Nikoli leapt after her, ignoring the snickers behind him. He wasn’t letting her get away that easily. He made sure not to touch her this time around, though. “You didn’t get to eat your lunch.”
“Will you go away and leave me alone if I let you buy me dinner?”#p#分页标题#e#
He gave her his patented cocky grin. “Trust me, Lily Bells, you won’t want me to leave you alone.”
She gave him a long-suffering look like someone would give a child and resumed walking back toward the dorms. “I am not sleeping with you now, or tomorrow, or a year from now. What do I need to do to get it through that thick skull of yours?”
“Milaya, there are so many things I can think of you doing to me.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, frowning.
“It’s Russian.”
“But your last name is Scottish.”
“My mother is Russian, but my father’s family originated in Scotland before they moved to the United States. When he joined the army, he was stationed in Russia, where he met my mother.”
“Did you grow up in Russia?”
He had her talking, and he let out a little sigh of relief. He didn’t normally ever talk about anything personal with a woman, but this one was different. She wasn’t falling for his usual BS. There were also her football players following them at a discreet distance. Luther was right about one thing. Lily was not one to be used and abused lightly with so many would-be protectors waiting in the wings. Even knowing he could get the shit beat out of him, he didn’t care. He wanted her.
“Until I was fourteen. Then Dad sent me and my brothers to live with my Uncle Brian in Virginia the summer before I started high school. He wanted us educated in the States where he grew up. My parents still live in St. Petersburg, though.”
She smiled. “I’ve seen photos of the city. It looks beautiful.”
“It is,” Nikoli agreed. “I miss it sometimes. There are so many places I used to roam when I was a kid. My brothers and I used to play in old ruins and pretend we were great knights fighting for Mother Russia.” He let out a laugh. It had been years since he’d thought of that.