The brunette guy jumped back. “Whoa,” he said, a grin splitting his tan face. “Sorry about that, man.”
I nodded in response and the guy stepped around me, disappearing toward the cafeteria I assumed. The musty-smelling library was busier than I thought it would be during lunch. A young librarian sat behind the circulation desk, her eyes widening when she saw me walk in.
Was it that odd to see me in here?
I smirked.
Probably.
A couple of underclassmen sat at the computers, eating their lunches. I turned down the first aisle and found myself in the back of the library. Eastern European culture. Doubted anyone at this school would be frequenting this part of the library.
There were maps of places virtually unpronounceable tacked to the tiny cubicle wall. The longer I waited, the more I felt like I needed to work on my world history knowledge, because I had no freaking clue there were so many countries in Eastern Europe.
The odd shiver along the back of my neck announced Kat’s presence before she appeared at the end of the stacks. I grinned when she spotted me and raised her brows. She took her sweet-ass time walking over, and when she stepped into the cubicle, I made no attempt at giving her space.
I’d decided I’d like to be all up in her personal space. “I was wondering if you were ever going to find me.”
She dropped her backpack against the wall and sat on the desk across from me. “Embarrassed someone would see you and think you’re capable of reading?”
My lips twitched. “I do have a reputation to maintain.”?
“And what a lovely reputation that is,” she retorted quickly, and it might make me a freak, but when she mouthed off at me, it turned me on.
Totally turned me on.
I stretched out my legs to accommodate that fact. “So what did you want to talk about?” I dropped my voice and was rewarded with a shiver. “In private?”
“Not what you’re hoping.”
I smirked. Funny that she thought she knew what I wanted. Cute.
“Okay.” She gripped the edge of the desk. “How did you know I was sick in the middle of the night?”
The question caught me off guard, bringing back memories of her pale and out of it, and the feeling of helplessness that I’d dwelled in while she’d been in the hospital. I didn’t want to think about it. “You don’t remember?”
Her eyes met mine for a moment, and then she stared at my lips. My grin went up a notch, and her gaze flew to the map over my shoulder. “No. Not really.”
Interesting. “Well, it was probably the fever. You were burning up.”
She was back to staring at me. I liked that. “You touched me?”
“Yes, I touched you.” And I wanted to touch her again, and not for the reasons I was touching her then. “And you weren’t wearing a lot of clothes. And you were soaked…in a white T-shirt. Nice look. Very nice.”?
She flushed prettily. “The lake… It wasn’t a dream?”
I shook my head.
“Oh my God, so I did go swimming in the lake?”
Her visible distress over the least important thing that had happened out of everything was sort of adorable. And telling. I moved away from the desk and was so close to her, I could feel her warmth. “You did. Not something I expected to see, but I’m not complaining. I saw a lot.”
“Shut up.”
“Don’t be embarrassed.” I tugged on the sleeve of her cardigan, and she smacked my hand away. I grinned. “It’s not like I haven’t seen the upper part before, and I didn’t get a real good look down—”
Kitten had claws. Couldn’t forget that. She came off the desk with a mean right hook. I was faster than her and jerked back, catching her hand before it connected with my face. Since I had her wrist, I used it to my advantage. I did what I’d been wanting to do since I saw her in class this morning. I hauled her against my chest, immediately pleased by that, and lowered my head. “Don’t hit, Kitten. It’s not nice.”
“You’re not nice.” She tried pulling away, but she wasn’t going anywhere. “Let me go.”
“I’m not sure I can do that. I must protect myself.” I dropped her hand.
“Oh, really, that’s your reason for—for manhandling me?”
“Manhandling?” I moved forward until she was pressed against the cubicle desk. “This isn’t manhandling or whatever the hell that is.”
She didn’t say anything at first, but I knew where her brain had gone, which was right where my brain operated pretty much every time I was with her. Her eyes dilated. Her pulse picked up. Even her lips had parted.
“Daemon, someone is going to see us.”
“So?” I carefully picked up her hand. “Not like anyone is going to say a thing to me.”
She dragged in a deep breath. “So my trace has faded, but this stupid connection hasn’t?”
I’d been hoping that the weird connection was going to end when the trace did. “Nope.”
“What does that mean, then?”