What was it about this guy that made her feel so on edge and unstable? Had it just been too long since she was touched by someone? God, it had been far too long since she’d any kind of sexual interaction with someone… years since she’d yearned. And she’d never felt like this for anyone before.
“It’s all good.” He lifted his hand and ran it over his nape as he looked between the kitchen and living room. “Most days are like this around here.” She noticed how his cheeks turned slightly pink, and she couldn’t help but smile wondering what exactly he was thinking about right now to have him blushing. “I hate to say this because it’s going to sound like some kind of lame pick up line.” He glanced back at her and seemed a little shy, which had her smiling. “But it’s kind of crowded down here.” He cleared his throat. “Like really crowded.”
She lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. It was almost cute to see Alex stumbling over his words.
“Um…” he paused and looked at the ground as if there were something really interesting going on down there. “Can we do this in my room?”
The smile instantly fell from her lips and she felt her eyes widen as her body instantly heated at his words. Against her better judgement, thoughts of what they could be doing in his room instead of studying slammed into her brain on repeat. Her silence must have made him think she was uncomfortable with the idea, when in reality she was picturing all kinds of filthy things, because he started talking before she could respond.
“Shit, it was a bad idea, I know. But I swear I only suggested it because really there isn’t anywhere else in the house where we’d have privacy.”
Logically, she should have told him that wasn’t professional. But the truth was it didn’t have anything to do with that. She wanted to be alone with him. She wanted to see how far things could get if she let them.
“We can go someplace else,” he finally said after she still didn’t say anything. “Shit.” He had this pained expression on his face. “Forget I said that stupid fucking suggestion—”
“Alex,” she cut him off and took a step closer. “It’s really fine.” Mary was quite proud of herself for keeping her voice neutral when her body felt like it was out of control. “It wouldn’t make sense going somewhere else since I’m already here. Your room is fine.”
“You sure? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
It wasn’t like she had never tutored someone in their room before, although it wasn’t really the norm. The problem was she had never wanted any of the people she tutored. But then here was Alex, so gorgeous that she couldn’t stand it… and wrong for her on every level.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Her voice was harder, more to the point. “Besides, I’m going out later tonight with a friend and I don’t want to cut our time short because we had to drive someplace else.” She gestured to the stairs with a smile. “Lead the way.”
He stared at her strangely for a second before nodding and turning to head up the stairs. She followed close behind, and once they were at the top landing they walked down a short hallway before stopping at the last door on the left. The houses in this part of town and close to the university were older, built in the 50s and had never been updated. Coupled with clothes in small piles in the corner of the hallway, and beer bottles sitting on random places, this place gave off heavy “bachelor pad” vibes.
Her heart was beating a mile a minute when he pushed the door open and she followed him inside. She idly wondered how many other girls he’d brought up here, then promptly hated herself for thinking it. She must be a masochist for thinking about this shit, because she suddenly felt so dirty, yet still aroused by it all.
His room was small and seemed even tinier given Alex’s massive size. As if she couldn’t stop thinking about him, she glanced at his broad shoulders, his wide, defined chest that was visible underneath his shirt.
She tore her focus from him and looked around. The room itself was clean, and she didn’t know why she was surprised by that. She supposed knowing his reputation with fighting and partying, she assumed he’d live like a pig.
A bed took up a lot of the room and was pushed against the wall. A flat screen TV hung on the wall across from the bed, and there was a narrow five-shelf bookcase beside that. And that was it. Sparse, yet looking at his bed made her think he didn’t need to do more than one thing when he came up here… and that had nothing to do with sleeping.