She glanced over her shoulder as she was locking the door. He was calling Pete Higgins, one of the sheriff’s deputies and also one of his good friends.
“I need escort service from Simply Irresistible to the U, and we need to be there in less than fifteen minutes.” Derringer smiled. “Okay, we’re on our way down.”
He glanced over at her when he put his phone in his back pocket. “We’ll leave your car here and come back for it after class.”
She frowned over at him as they stepped into the elevator. “Why can’t I drive my own car and your friend Pete can just give me escort service?”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. He knows I’m trying to impress my girl.”
“I am not your girl, Derringer.”
“Sure you are. Why else would you moan my name in your sleep?”
Lucia turned her head away from him, deciding that question didn’t need an answer. Besides, what response could she give him?
Once they reached the bottom floor, things moved quickly. He took her laptop bag off her shoulder and put it in the backseat of his truck. By the time he escorted her to the passenger side, Pete pulled up in the patrol car with his lights flashing and a huge grin on his face. He nodded at her before giving Derringer a thumbs-up.
Luckily, she got to school in one piece and was able to make it to class on time. An hour or so later, after she’d finished her exam and placed her pencil aside, instead of glancing back over her exam to make sure she didn’t need to do any last-minute changes, her mind drifted to Derringer.
Lucia shook her head. What some men wouldn’t do for a piece of tail, she thought. Regardless of what Chloe assumed, she knew that was probably all she was to him. Of course he was trying to impress her just to prove a point, and just the thought that he had caught her dreaming about him, and that in her sleep she had asked him to kiss her, was enough for her to wear a brown bag over her head for the rest of the year.
And what was even worse was that he would be picking her up when class was over. She had no choice if she wanted to get home without taking the bus. A part of her steamed at the thought of how things had worked out nicely for him in that regard. He would be driving her to get her car and nothing more. If he thought there would be more, he had another think coming.
The moment she stepped out of the Mass Communications Building, she glanced around. Derringer’s truck was parked in a space in a lighted area and he was leaning against it as if he was expecting her, which was odd since he hadn’t known when her class would let out. Had he been here the entire time?
She quickly crossed to where he stood. “How did you know I was about to walk out?”
He glanced over at her as he opened the truck door for her. “I didn’t. I figured that you would catch a cab to get your car if I wasn’t here, so I thought the best thing to do was to be here when you came out.”
She frowned at him before stepping up into the truck. “You’ve been here the whole time?”
“Yep.”
“Don’t you have anything better to do?” she asked coolly.
“Nope.” He then closed the door and moved around the front of the truck to get into the driver’s side.
He closed the door, buckled his seat belt and turned the key in the ignition. “Don’t you think you’re getting carried away with all this, Derringer?”
He chuckled. “No.”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously. I couldn’t have been that great in bed.”
His mouth tilted in a slow, ultrasatisfied smile. “Trust me, Lucia. You were.”
She crossed her arms over her chest as he pulled out of the parking lot. “So you admit this is only about sex.”
“I didn’t say that, so I won’t be admitting anything. I told you what I wanted.”
She glanced over at him. “To sleep with me again.”
“Yes, but not just a couple more times. I’m talking about the rest of my life. You’re my soul mate.” Derringer smiled thinking that sounded pretty darn good and had to thank Jason for putting the idea into his head.
Her mouth dropped. “Soul mate?”
“Yes.”