The biggest problem: she shed her coat and most of her layers. Now, instead of a damn marshmallow jacket hiding her curves, she had them on display in a cream-colored sweater with a V-neck. I don’t think any of us even knew she had cleavage, let alone some of the best there was.
I shook my head. “Not with me.”
She scoffed and then shrugged. It took me point two seconds to realize that she intended to walk right past me to sit in the front of the lecture hall without any other conversation.
I stormed up behind her and looped my arm into hers. Then, I steered her right back up the aisle. “Oh no, Bug. You’re sitting with your ass in those skinny jeans right up against mine.”
“You like my jeans?” She fluttered her lashes. “Thanks, Cole.”
I guffawed and proceeded to point her to her seat because I couldn’t get any other words out. Some football player waltzed up and looked her up and down. “Hi, I’m Luke. Looks like you and Cole know each other, but I can show you around campus if you need a tour. It’s hard to get situated when you're new in the middle of the semester.”
“She’s been here all semester, dumbass,” I grumbled.
Zoey didn’t hang her head or try becoming invisible like she would have a week ago. She smirked her glossy lips at him and stuck her hand out. “Good to meet you either way. I normally sit in front and try to hide from everyone.” She shrugged. “I’m trying to be more open to new friendships now.”
“Cool, cool,” he said, not letting go of her hand.
“Go away, Luke, or I’m not serving you the next time you come to Heathen’s,” I ground out.
Finally, he dropped her hand and took a seat near to us. “Worth a shot, man.”
I forgot him as soon as he was out of my line of sight. The only thing that needed my attention was Zoey’s newest goal. “Can you explain what in the hell you’re trying to do?”
She pointed to the professor walking in. “We should get ready to listen. I hear there’s going to be a pop quiz next week. Anyway, there’s nothing more to explain. Like I said to Luke, I’m trying to embrace being more open.”
“Open to what?” I growled.
She smiled at me and licked her lips. Damn, my dick twitched and I knew for a fact right then that I was going to flunk the pop quiz next week.
“You look different,” I whispered in her ear.
I saw the goose bumps rise on her neckline, and her breathing picked up as I stared at her cleavage. When she turned to look at me, her lips were just a centimeter from mine. “Good or bad?”
“I’m trying to figure that out. I can’t look away but now every guy has you on their radar. I think I want you all to myself.”
She crossed one leg on top of the other, and I saw how her skintight jeans stretched over her thighs, saw how small her waist was in comparison. “I’m still the same girl you saw last class, Cole.”
“I know that. I don’t think anyone else knows.”
She hummed low, then crossed her arms over chest. The tops of her breasts pillowed out. “I think I need you to bring back your coat and ladybug sweater.”
She giggled softly. “Eyes on the professor, Cole. We need to ace this class.”
I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pried my gaze away from her. I let my hand hang near her collarbone, though, and rubbed the length of it to feel those goose bumps. She may have changed, but I could still get her body to react to me just as it had before.
“Come to work tonight?” I’d kept from asking all week but knew today I had to.
“Do you Heathens need me to?”
Probably not. Still, her new outlook on life suddenly scared the shit out of me. What was she going to do if she wasn’t working? Would some other guys introduce themselves to her? How was I going to make sure some asshole didn’t try to take her out when I was sure after seeing Luke near her that I didn’t want that. “Yeah, we definitely need you if you can make it.”
“I’ll have to feed Mr. Tabby,” she murmured to herself. Then, she nodded and pointed to the professor.
I listened to the rest of the lecture—or at least acted like I was—though my mind went over all of our interactions, trying to figure out what changed in her attitude. She’d gone home, she’d texted me, she’d exposed her attraction to me. She’d done a lot.
I didn’t pry because tearing apart an already broken object didn’t help put it back together.
Instead, I invited myself over like a hungry man begging for scraps.
“I’ll walk with you, and we can end up at Heathen’s together. You live close by, right?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Yes, but I don’t need an escort.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” I grumbled.
The breeze was the perfect balance to the sun as we started our walk across campus after class. A group of guys from the university’s band waved, then stopped to catch up with me. Every single one of them introduced themselves to Zoey.
“So, this is what it’s like to be Cole Ford, huh?” she said after some girls on their way to the cafeteria buzzed up to us, surely interested in the new girl I was walking with. They all gave her quizzical looks but were cordial enough.
“I think I’m getting more attention because you’re walking next to me without your marshmallow coat on.”
Her jaw dropped in offense. “That coat was really expensive. It has real down feathers in it and the black color never gets dirty.”
“Do you have reasons for all your clothing?”
“Yes. My knitted hat holds all my hair up and is red because, well, I told you what that color meant.”
“What about today?” I looked her up and down.
“This color reminds me of everything clean, like a clean slate. I thought, why not? I’m pretty much starting over after losing my job and getting a new laptop.”
“It suits you,” I said, trying not to stare any longer than I should. I didn’t like admitting it, but she had a pep in her step and a bigger smile on her face already.
“I’m just this way.” She pointed when we passed Heathen’s Bar. “You don’t have to walk me.”
“I want to. I need to see what Mr. Tabby looks like. With such a generic name, I’m wondering if he’s as common as all the other cats out there?”
When she shook her head at my joke, her hair flowed out in the wind around her. The girl was going to stop traffic if I didn’t get her in a building. “My cat’s a little odd. He just showed up one day and never left. I kept referring to him as ‘the tabby’ and then it just sort of morphed.”
She buzzed us into the complex. The brick structure was small with only a few other units attached. When we got to her door, the meowing started. “He’s sort of clingy.”
She swung open the door and bent down just in time to scoop him up before he bolted out.
“What’s he want to get out so bad for?” I jerked back as the massive creature wiggling around in her arms tried to break loose. “That’s not a cat, Zoey. That’s a freaking tiger.”
She wobbled her head back and forth with him, laughing as she walked into her place and waved me in. “Hurry, so I can shut the door.”