“We’d better get in there. I think Dan’s here already.”
She nodded mutely and followed him inside. His eyes said nothing had changed, but the way he spoke suggested that he was sticking to the plan; to what they’d agreed—okay, it was what she’d insisted on. What kind of fool was she?
Dan raised a hand, and they went to join him over on the far side of the room. He glanced at Ryan, making Leanne wonder if the two of them had talked since the weekend. She’d guess that they had. And she’d have to restrain herself from beating the details out of Dan once she got him alone.
“Are you free to get to the assignment tonight?” he asked.
She forced herself not to look at Ryan before she answered. She was, and she needed Dan’s help whether Ryan was going to be there or not. “I am. What time?”
“I can be at the library by seven,” said Dan. “That’ll give us a few hours.”
Leanne risked at peek at Ryan, but he didn’t comment. Maybe he’d decided that he was going to back out rather than have to be around her? She wanted to ask, wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to. But she kept her mouth shut, and then Professor Tailor rapped on his desk to get everyone’s attention.
She found it difficult to keep her attention on what he was saying. Her eyes kept straying to her right where Ryan sat taking notes on his laptop. She forced herself to look at Dan instead. He glanced at her, his eyes twinkling as he smiled. She narrowed her eyes at him. She hadn’t caught up with him yesterday because she didn’t know what she wanted to tell him—or what she didn’t. But now she knew she was probably going to just tell him the truth and spend the next however long it took to get it out of her system bending his ear about Ryan.
When the class was over, she was sad but not entirely surprised that Ryan got up and left without a word. She turned to Dan.
“Does your silence since Thursday mean that I did right?”
She blew out a sigh. “Honestly?”
“Well, yeah.”
“I don’t know, Dan. To be fair, I need to thank you for the best weekend I ever had.”
Dan’s expression gave nothing away.
“Then again. I should be mad at you for setting us up like that.”
He shrugged. “Which is it?”
“I don’t know. Both. Neither.” She rested her elbows on the desk and rested her chin on her hands. “What I should probably do is warn you that you set yourself up for a whole load of earache.”
“It was supposed to stop all the earache. You two were obviously horny for each other. I just gave you a shortcut to getting it out of your system.”
“You did …”
“But?”
“I think instead of getting it out of my system, I got him into my system. I know it can’t happen. But … I like him.”
Dan looked shocked. “You like him? As in, you’d want to see him again?”
She laughed. “Yeah. I know it sounds crazy. That’s because it is crazy. And it’s not going to happen.”
“I know. He’s the same as you are. I would never have set you up like that if I thought … But you’re not interested in dating. You don’t want to. I know that. And Ryan? Neither is he.”
She blew out a big sigh. “I know. We were both very clear about it going in. But it was a bit less clear by the time it came to saying goodbye.”
Dan shook his head. “Sorry, Lee.”
She pushed his arm. “Don’t be. Like I said. It was a great weekend.”
“Good.” He got to his feet and slung his backpack over his shoulder. “Are you going to be okay to work with him—the three of us?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you going to come tonight?”
“Is he?”
“He said he was.”
“But that was before I said I’d come.”
“He knew I meant the three of us.”
“Okay, then. It’s not a problem, Danno. Don’t look like that. I guess I’m surprised at myself. That’s all. And I was hardly going to keep it a secret from you.”
She followed him to the door.
“I’m sorry if I messed up.”
“I told you. It’s okay.” She waggled her eyebrows. “It was a great weekend.”
He made a face. “Good, but I really don’t want to know.”
She laughed. “Don’t worry. I didn’t plan to tell.”
“Hey, Dan.” They both turned to see one of Dan’s friends, Steven, hurrying down the hallway toward them. “Are you coming to the lab?”
“Yep. I was just on my way.”
Steven turned a wary look on Leanne.
She wanted to laugh. The guy was scared to death of her. She often wanted to say boo to him just to see if he’d run. Dan shot her a warning look, so she restrained herself.
“I’ll see you tonight, Dan.”
As she watched them walk away, she heard Steven say, “Olivia was asking me why you hang out with Leanne so much. She thinks there’s something going on between the two of you.”
Olivia was Steven’s sister, and she was a little bitch as far as Leanne was concerned. She was half tempted to go and grab Dan and kiss him. That should stop Olivia from trying to get her claws into him. She had a sneaking suspicion that Dan liked her, though. So, much as Leanne would rather run the girl off, she stayed out of it.
Chapter Ten
It was almost ten by the time they left the library. Ryan had debated whether he should come once he knew for sure that Leanne was going to be here. He’d debated for all of two seconds. There was no way he’d be able to stay away. She kept invading his thoughts. And despite his reassurances to Callahan that it was over and wouldn’t be happening again, he’d spent every spare moment trying to figure out when and how he could make it happen again.
After class this morning, he’d left as quickly as he could, because if he hadn’t, he would have asked her to go with him. He’d been considering suggesting a cup of coffee, but he’d known that if he did, he’d end up trying to talk her back to his place.
The three of them stopped at the top of the steps and Dan gave him a quick smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Dan.”
He surprised Ryan when he leaned in and gave Leanne a quick hug. “And I’ll see you on Friday, right?”
She looked as surprised as Ryan felt. “Yeah, but—”
Dan trotted down the steps and didn’t turn back until he reached the bottom. “Sorry, guys. I have to run.” And he literally did run.
Ryan knew he should do the same, but his feet were rooted to the ground. He forced himself to watch Dan cross the square, but he had to turn when he felt Leanne turn toward him.
The second his eyes locked with hers, he knew he was fighting a losing battle.
He’d never wanted a woman as much as he wanted her. He should just get over it. He was a disciplined guy. He knew how to … Before he knew what he was doing, his hands were on her hips. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”