He smiled, and it wasn’t a ‘I’m gonna rock your world, baby’ smile that I was used to getting when we came to these shitty parties. It was more genuine. Curious.
I bit my lip as he carried on staring at me. Not once did his gaze drop to my tits or my legs—a fact I had to give him credit for. Instead, he was glued to my eyes, and he only looked away when Clarice bumped into me with a drunk giggle.
Yeah, that was another one of her issues. She drank way too much.
But that was an argument for another day.
Ever since we’d drawn lots as roommates, we’d been inseparable. Sometimes, a guy would come along on her side that would make her go distant on me, but she usually came back when they treated her like shit.
The jerks.
Clarice, giggling all the while, wrapped her arm around my shoulder and tugged me close. “He’s staring,” she told me, dopily.
I couldn’t help but snort at her comment—it was so blatantly true, and something only a drunk person would remark upon.
The guy in the door chuckled too. “She’s right,” he admitted. “I am.”
Clarice squinted at him. “I know you. You’re the Senior taking English Lit with me.”
He grimaced. “Yeah. I needed the extra credits.”
So, he was a year older than us.
He didn’t look it. Or did he? I wasn’t sure. There was an air of maturity about him that I appreciated, but he was young enough to want to hang out at parties without needing to get roaring drunk… I liked the stranger’s style.
Clarice dismissed his comment, however, by letting out a shriek as Steve grabbed her, hauled her over his shoulder and dragged her into the party.
She squealed all the way through the door, kicking her legs up and slapping his ass all the while.
I sighed at the sight, a fact golden guy noticed.
“I’m Cooper.”
His abrupt introduction had me blinking. “I’m Lauren.”
He smiled, and that smile about knocked me for six. Jesus. He had a crooked front incisor that was cute as hell, but the way the grin hit his eyes had my heart fluttering in my chest.
I’d never been affec
ted like that before.
I’d managed to hang onto my V-card all throughout college and the constant come-ons from jocks and popular guys who thought they were the bees’ knees because they threw a ball or bounced one.
I’d never been interested in them. Never wanted to go out with a guy more intrigued by his own ego than me.
But this guy?
He was different.
He screamed it.
Everything about him.
From the well-worn jeans that clung to his strong legs to the coke he was drinking at a frat party…
His smile told a tale I wanted to listen to, and for the first time in my life, I’d found a man who pricked my curiosity.
As any woman knows, that’s the knee to the balls right there.