Samantha
I was running latefor my tutoring session with the guys, so I rushed toward the library. When I walked in, I was surprised to find them standing next to the study room we normally met at, speaking with Dax.
I cocked my head and looked at him with questioning eyes. He wanted to keep his distance from me on campus. That was what he’d told me, so what was he doing here?
“Hey.” I gave him a smile. If a gust of wind had come and knocked me over, I wouldn’t have been less surprised than by what happened next.
Dax’s arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me against him before he claimed my lips in a hard, unyielding kiss. My knees quaked like my whole world had just been shaken by an earthquake, and my core melted like an ice cream on a summer day.
As quickly as the kiss started, it was over. He pulled back from the embrace, and I swayed slightly as my center of gravity tried to resettle.
I looked up into his glittering hazel eyes that were full of so much emotion I didn’t know what he was thinking or what was going on with that kiss—amazing as it was.
“I’ll see you when you I get home,” he said gruffly, pulling away and walking out the door before I could ask him anything else.
I didn’t know what to do. I was flustered and I could feel the heat of a blush spreading across my cheeks. When I looked up, I saw the guys staring at me. They looked as surprised as I was by what just happened. I cleared my throat and hiked my purse up on my shoulder, “Hey guys,” I forced a smile and led them into the study room we’d been using.
“So you and Coach?” Aimes said, throwing his books down on the table.
I looked up at him and furrowed my brow. He seemed angry, but I wasn’t sure why. When my gaze landed on Davis, he was glaring at Aimes. “Did I miss something?”
“No wonder Coach worked us so fucking hard yesterday. Makes perfect sense now.”
“You didn’t miss anything, Samantha,” Davis muttered. “Just an asshole getting his plans waylaid.”
“Shut up, Davis.” Aimes looked ready to fight someone, and Davis was his prime target at the moment.
“Hey guys,” I said, drawing their attention off each other and to me. “Let’s go ahead and skip tutoring today.” I pinched the bridge of my nose because I had a headache building right between my eyes from the emotional roller coaster I just went on. “You guys go ahead and take off. Please, just let this go. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about me and Dax. We were supposed to be keeping it quiet for now. Guess that’s over.”
“Yeah.” Aimes grabbed his bag off the table and took off, still upset over something.
“You okay?” Davis asked quietly.
“Yeah, but care to tell me what that was about?” I nodded toward the door where his teammate had gone.
“He was talking about you in the locker room. Nothing you’d want to hear, and Coach must have overheard him because he was a hard ass at practice yesterday.”
I bit my bottom lip in surprise and delight. If he was making such a public gesture like kissing me in front of everyone, then maybe the weird start to our relationship held promise for the future.
“How’s communications going?” I asked to change the subject.
He grunted and picked up his backpack, “Fine. My first speech is next week.”
“Have you written the speech you’re going to give yet?”
“Yeah. Some of it.”
“Email it to me. I’ll read over it tonight and make suggestions, as well as give you some pointers for it.”
“Thanks, and don’t worry about Aimes. He’s just pissed off because he lost any chance he thought he had with you.”
I smiled. “If I wasn’t with Dax, I wouldn’t be with anyone right now, so he had no chance to begin with.”
“Take it easy, Samantha. See you next time.”
I watched the kid walk away. He wasn’t the star quarterback, or the most handsome of guys, but he was decent with a good mind and heart. He was a catch and he didn’t even know it. If I wasn’t already falling for the headstrong assistant coach and if he was a few years older, Davis might have been the exact type of guy I’d be looking for.
Since tutoring wasn’t going to happen, I picked my bag up and hiked it back on my shoulder. There were still a few hours before I needed to go pick up Bow, so I decided to go explore the town of Sunset Falls, Georgia some. I’d been to the grocery store, our lighthouse, the campus, and that was about it. I hadn’t seen much else of the small college town.