Excerpt
Excerpt
A Terrible Love
I back up a step and Mitch frowns. “This is Jess Mackey.”
He introduces me reluctantly, and the dark stranger moves forward with a graceful stride that brings him uncomfortably close to me.
“Jess Mackey?” He cocks his head as if my name strikes some chord of recognition.
Of course, I know this is impossible. It doesn’t matter; the breath of the suggestion causes my palms to dampen and his nostrils flare like he can scent my nervousness. Danger up ahead, my instincts scream.
I ignore those. “Yes,” I mumble, “I’m Jess.” I stick out the hand I just wiped on my jeans for him to shake and he looks at it curiously, and then wraps his around mine.
It feels like a shock, a tingle; from the instant his skin touches mine it threads through me and lights my core with heat. His eyes widen minutely and Mitch clears his throat.
“Devin Castile,” he says in a gravelly baritone.
I thought animal magnetism was bullshit. Apparently not.
I nod stupidly and he removes his hand, which was but moments before engulfing mine. His index finger trails for a split second over the delicate skin of the underside of my wrist and I shiver. His eyes darken with heat as he takes in my reaction.
The interchange takes seconds and I feel like it has undone me for all time.
Mitch looks between the two of us, licking his suddenly dry lips, and after an awkward pause he says, “Devin’s a senior.”
“A transfer, right, Mitch?” Devin asks in a tight voice.
“Yeah,” Mitch says. “You know everyone, don’t you, Castile?”
Devin Castile’s gaze narrows on Mitch. “Pretty much. I like to know the head count . . . and besides, I wanted to meet your girlfriend,” Devin says, adding, “She looks a little lost, if you ask me.”
“No one did,” Mitch says, his brows dropping like a brick above his eyes.
I know then I’ll be late for my class as my face swivels from one to the other like a tennis match.
I turn to him and interject, “I’m not anyone’s girlfriend.” I’d survived two years in anonymity; I’m not blowing it now for insta-lust.
Devin doesn’t turn to me when I state that. Instead he says to Mitch, “Just being friendly, Maverick, settle down.”
Friendly my ass, I think.
Mitch’s eyes narrow on Devin.
I back away; it’s too much. It threatens my carefully orchestrated hiding. Two hot guys in the hall, sucking the available oxygen from my universe.
I’m having trouble breathing and about to be a gasping fish out of water at any moment.
They swivel to look at me at the same moment as a strangled noise escapes my tightly squeezed windpipe. I turn tail and briskly walk away.
I hear one of them call my name and one laugh.
I can bet which one is laughing at my cowardice.
I’m going to steer clear of him. Devin Castile is all sex and hotness wrapped up in a dangerous package.
I’ve worked hard to leave danger behind.
A Terrible Love
(A Terrible Love and A Brutal Tenderness #1)
