“Mmm.” He combed in silence for a minute, maybe two, before really giving me an answer. “When I first laid eyes on you, I was in your old dorm, hanging with Helen. You’d charged into the room, and the first thing I’d noticed was your silver-blonde braid. It was like a fucking rope over your shoulder. You looked like Elsa, you know, fromFrozen.That was my first thought.”
I wanted to turn to look at him again, but he was having none of it. That was okay, though. Now, I knew he never thought my name was Elsa.He just thought I looked like her—which honestly, was adorable.
Gah, again with the adorable!
“You took off like a rocket,” I said.
“Mmm. Didn’t think I liked you.”
“Nice.”
“I’m sitting here, removing gum from your hair, baby. I think it’s obvious I was wrong.”
“Now you like me?” I was fishing, but I wanted him to say it, especially after admitting tonotliking me at first glance—which, damn, smarted more than it should have.
“Again, I’m removing gum from your hair. Yeah, I like you.”
I leaned my head against his knee and closed my eyes. I probably should have been riding my fury or plotting my revenge, but that was the last thing on my mind. Lachlan’s gentle hands in my hair and his steady combing went a long way to working me out of my anger.
He settled me. He had that way about him, something I was missing, and seemed more than willing to freely give to me.
“Tell me who did this to you.” His tenor was low and smooth, but the violence that burned at the edges was unmissable.
I sighed, lifting my head. “There are a few people in my New Ventures course who don’t like me very much. Pi Sig boys and their girlies. They don’t scare me, and now I’ll know better than to let them anywhere near me.”
His hands stopped moving in my hair. “Is that the class where you got hurt a few weeks ago?”
“Um.” I really didn’t want to answer him. He didn’t need to be my white knight. This bitch was packing her very own pink bat.
“It is. Did they push you?”
“Lock, babe, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ve got it covered.”
His hand came around my jaw, tilting my head back to look up at him. “I don’t mind you calling me babe, but if you say Lock again, I’m not going to be happy.”
“You’re very particular for a rugged, lumberjack mechanic. I never would have guessed.”
The corners of his mouth quirked. “Just when it comes to you.”
“Good,” I whispered.
He’d put me back in a trance, combing and combing that massive piece of gum away. He was so careful with my hair, rarely even pulling it. I was going to smell like peanut butter forever, but at least I wouldn’t have a bald spot.
“I’m not really a lumberjack,” he said.
“No? A mountain man then.”
He chuckled. “That might be more accurate.”
“How did you end up at Savage U? You don’t—”
“Fit?”
I nodded. There was no denying Lachlan stuck out like a sore thumb. A very hot sore thumb I wanted to ride until I passed out…
“My parents went here. They liked it, and I didn’t have a strong affinity for any other school, so I applied, got accepted, here I am.”
“I never wanted to come here. I wanted out of this town,” I told him.