Unwanted Sacrifices (Russkaya Mafiya Book 3) (25 page)

My heart kicks up. I look at Lisa and she looks at me and wiggles her eyebrows and mouths, “Eye candy.”

I don’t smile and I’m glad I don’t because when I look back at Kyle he’s looking right at me. Crap! I look down at my paper and start drawing random shapes again.

“Well, lucky us!” Ms. Pritchard says enthusiastically. Yeah, on top of being hot, popular, the star quarterback, point guard of the basketball team, and prom king, Kyle was also a straight-A student. Teachers loved him extra for that.

“You can take the desk behind Ms. Wilks.”

He turns and smiles in my direction.

“Myah,” he says as he winks at me from the front of the classroom. In front of everyone.

Oh God.

Naturally, I blush, my heart races, and the butterflies start doing some funky dance in my stomach. When I notice the entire class staring I wish I could crawl under my desk and hide. Lisa snickers next to me.

Oh God.

No.

No. No. No. No. No.

It’s not as if I’m not used to having him in my classes. I can handle the fact that whatever God is out there has it in for me and put him in every single one of my classes the last three semesters—even Home Ec. The only saving grace for me is his last name starts with “C” and mine with “W”. That means, unless there’s an unusual pairing up as had been done in Biology, we’re always on opposite sides of the room—because even if we aren’t seated in alphabetical order, I keep my distance.

I need that distance. From him. I can admit that out loud. He overloads my senses. Not just because he’s gorgeous, but because he smells delicious and more than once I’ve had the urge to lick his skin to see if he tastes as good as he smells. On top of all that, he’s got an amazing personality. He’s not your typical jock. He is—as I said before—sweet and kind and I really, really wish he was mine.

My head is down and I’m still doodling as he walks by and sits in the desk behind me, his scent floating over me. I close my eyes briefly and enjoy the woodsy smell of him.

I hear and feel him lean forward in his desk. He’s close, so close I swear I feel his hands on my hair. I’m grateful I wore it down today because having it up, my neck exposed, would leave me feeling naked and push me over the edge.

I take a deep, steadying breath when Ms. Pritchard finishes her blather about adverbs. I can do this. I can.

“We’re going to start the semester off with something a little different,” Ms. Pritchard says, going from row to row passing out packets of paper.

I sit waiting for Aaron in front of me to pass back my packet and then… then I have to turn and give one to Coop. The butterflies have come alive again.

I turn and hand the packet to Coop who winks at me and grins that too-sexy grin that makes me melt. I can feel my face flame red and he chuckles as I quickly turn to face forward. I glance at Lisa who is grinning. The traitor. Where’s the sympathy for her BFF? I send her a glare and give her the finger in return and she laughs under her breath.

I tune in just in time to hear Ms. Pritchard tell us that we’re going to be working on a fictional story, we can choose the genre. This totally rocks! I will, of course, be writing a romance or romantic suspense.

“You’ll be working in groups of two. Now let’s see,” she says as she starts going around the room pairing people up. It would be amazing if I’d get Lisa as my partner but from the way she’s pairing people up it looks like I’m going to be paired with—”

“Mr. Cooper and Ms. Wilks.”

My face must reflect my horror and Lisa reaches over and nudges my arm. OhGod,ohGod,ohGod. This can’t be happening. A semester-long project with Kyle Cooper. Fuck my life.

I drop my head to the desk, my forehead hitting it with a thud.

I glance to Lisa who gives me a reassuring smile just as I feel a tug on my hair. I sit up and slowly turn to look at Coop.

“Hey,” he says smiling brightly, “—partner.”

“Hey,” is all I can manage to say.

“From your reaction there, a person would think you don’t like me or want to work with me,” he says, his grin doesn’t quite meet his eyes. Oh crap. He totally read that wrong.

“No, no. Oh my God, Kyle, that’s not it at all,” I tell him, absent-mindedly reaching out to touch his forearm.

His hand covers mine. “Yeah? You sure?” He sounds so un-Kyle-like… almost insecure.

“Positive. I’m happy to work with you,” I tell him smiling, hoping he can’t feel the erratic pulse in my hand or wrist as he squeezes my hand.

“Happy… that’s more like it. I like enthusiasm. You should shout that from the rooftops. It’s a pretty big deal, being able to work with me

“So you’re gonna wanna do the chick thing, huh?”

I get lost in his eyes. “Chick thing?”

He smiles that smile again and my heart flutters. I’m barely able to hold back my sigh. He is so completely gorgeous. I just want to lick his lips. Maybe gently tug on the bottom one with my teeth.

“Yeah, romance. The chick thing.”

“Oh,” I reply tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “That was my plan—well, until she said we were partnering,” I say with a wry grin.

“It’s cool. We can do a romantic suspense or something.”

“Really?” I thought for sure he was going to go all macho and insist on writing horror or straight suspense or thriller.

He shrugs. “Sure. So long as there’s murder and mayhem, why not?”

“Um, okay.”

“Do you have any plot ideas?”

“No, not just yet.” Truthfully I’d like to write a fictional story of my dream version of me and Coop. We’d be in a relationship, in love and no one would ever be able to come between us. I sigh and he chuckles.

“Already ‘romancing’ I see.”

I blush and shrug.

“We’ve got a lot to plot out. Age, race, characters, the suspense part, the romance, location…” he trails off and I nod.

“It’s going to be a big project.”

He nods. “We’ll have to hook up outside of school to work on this, probably two or three times a week.”

OhMyGod. I had planned on doing a lot of the work on my own and letting him come in and give his thoughts and changes. I hadn’t planned on him participating. At all.

He must notice the surprise on my face because he tilts his head and asked, “What?”

“Uh, well. I guess I didn’t figure you’d want to put that much effort into it and that’s fine. I don’t mind doing my share of the work.”

His brows furrow and he frowns. “Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know,” I shrug. “I guess I didn’t think you’d have time with all the stuff you’ve got going on.” You know, I think, basketball and Macyn. Only if what Lisa said is true, there is no more Macyn.

“Nah, I make time. I’m not one to slack off on the work. Remember Biology?”

I smile. “Yeah, I remember.”

He grins and my breath catches. Oh God, that grin. For an entire semester. One-on-one. I’m never gonna survive.

“You were so repulsed I thought for sure you were gonna puke right there in the lab.”

“I came pretty close—especially with those worms.” I shudder.

He laughs. “Yeah, you looked pretty green with those.”

I sigh.

“What?” he asks.

“Green is so not my color.”

He laughs again. “Oh, I don’t know. You were pretty cute.”

Cute? Did Kyle Cooper just call me cute? I instantly blush.

“You have your cell on you?”

“What?” I’m still hung up on the cute comment.

“Do you have your cell phone with you?”

“Oh, yeah.” I pull my iPhone out of my back pocket and hold it up.

“I knew it would be pink,” he says just before he reaches for it. I won’t apologize for being a girlie-girl who loves pink. I won’t apologize for the daisy stickers on it either. I’m girlie. People can deal. Every day I wear something that has pink in it. I don’t know why, but I just love the color. Lisa hates it and wouldn’t be caught dead in pink.

Kyle reaches for my phone. I quickly pull it back and hold it against my chest, narrowing my eyes.

“What do you want with it?”

“I’m not going to go through it or anything. I was just going to put my number in so you can text or call whenever you want to hook up.”

My mouth goes dry. Coop’s phone number. In my phone. Holy shit.

I keep my eyes narrowed and slowly hand him the phone and he works it like a pro then I hear a beep. He pulls his nearly identical iPhone out of his back pocket only his is black where mine is pink. He slides his long fingers across the screen.

“There.” He turns his phone toward me. “Now I’ve got your number too.” He wiggles his eyebrows.

“Well, don’t go all stalker on me like Jason DeMarco did last year when we had to work on that Psych project.”

I look at him and note he’s frowning instead of laughing at my, apparently, poor attempt at a joke.

“What the hell? He stalked you?”

I shrug. “I may be exaggerating a bit.”

“She’s not.” This from Lisa, the traitor across the aisle.

“Thank you very much,” I say sarcastically, sending her a glare.

“You’re welcome,” she replies, sweet as can be.

“What happened?” he asks.

I shrug and shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s done and over with.”

“Hmm,” is his only reply. I really don’t want to talk to Coop about douchebag DeMarco and his nonstop texts and phone calls. The nude pictures and—dear God—the videos. The party where he trapped me, forced his tongue down my throat then proceeded to touch me wherever he wanted to while I fought, scratched, and clawed at him. I shudder and shut the memory down, closing my eyes briefly. This isn’t something I want to talk about to him—or anyone—ever.

“Anyway…” I say hoping to change the subject. The bell rings and I breathe a sigh of relief.

He leans forward, his nose nearly touching mine and I barely cover my gasp—barely. My heart speeds up and I can’t look away from his eyes staring directly into mine.

“This isn’t over. You’ll tell me what he did.”

“You think so, huh?” I reply smartly.

He nods. “I do.”

“We’ll see,” is all I say as I grab my books and stand.

“I’ll give you a call tonight after basketball practice and we can figure out a schedule.”

I nod. “Sounds good but I’ll need—” I was about to say my phone when he leans forward, his chest brushing mine, his lips a hair’s breadth away from mine. My eyes widen as I lick my lips. His gaze locks onto the movement as he reaches around me and boldly tucks my phone into my back pocket, my breasts brushing against his chest as he does. My breath catches and I know he hears it. He pauses and looks at me, his eyes now almost black as his gaze sears into mine.

After what feels like an eternity but is really only a matter of seconds, he pulls back straightening to his full height and touches his index finger to the tip of my nose. While the gesture is light and flirty, he doesn’t crack a smile.

“I’ll call you.”

I nod.  As he walks away, I pull my books up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. My eyes still wide. My mouth hanging open. He’s rendered me speechless.

“Wow,” Lisa breathes standing next to me.

I can only stand there and nod. What the hell just happened?

Lisa elbows me and wiggles her eyebrows. “And,” she says saucily, “he’s single.”

“He’s not interested in me like that.”

“Don’t be stupid, Wilks,” Aaron says as he turns and starts walking toward the door. “His eyes dilated and darkened. He’s more than interested.”

“Because you shared that information, again, I won’t cuff you upside the head for the insult.”

He grunts and gives a half-assed wave as he walks out the door.

Lisa smirks. “See? Girl, you’re neither dumb nor blind.”

No, I’m not but… he’s Kyle Cooper and I’m just… me. He is way out of my league.

She nudges my shoulder with hers. “Let’s go. We’re gonna be late.”

“For what?”

“Tryouts.”

Kill me now.