***
Maybe my fascination with Virgil was because I was just really hard up for a good time. Maybe it was boredom. The last classes before the graduation festivities kicked off were a waste of time for seniors. The professors were ready for summer and most people had handed in their final projects. I had one more project to finish, which is why I was now on campus, sitting at a picnic table with my laptop open.
My phone buzzed in my bag, and I chose to ignore it in favor of double-checking a few of the things my professor was a stickler for, like grammar and bibliographies. It stopped and started again, so I stuck my hand inside my bag to retrieve it, sending a prayer up into the universe that everyone I loved was all right. “Hello?”
“Maisie.” That was it, the only thing his deep voice said and my body lit up like a Christmas tree. My nipples beaded, hard and tight as they pressed against my bra. His deep and rumbly voice sent shivers ricocheting through my body, and I had to suppress a shudder, working hard to sound and appear completely unaffected. Despite the huge grin on my face.
“Virgil. I was beginning to wonder if you were all bark and no bite.” My voice was low and kind of husky because I was a fantastic flirt.
His deep baritone laughter sounded down the line and wrapped around me like a hug, but a sexy hug where you can feel the guy’s dick pressed up against you. That kind of hug.
“Is that so?” he said with a sexy laugh.
“It is.”
“Well, are you happy to be proven wrong?”
“Maybe,” I told him, but the truth was I was pretty damn sure Virgil Ashby was all bite. He had that air of danger about him that my uncles wore like a badge of honor. “I guess only time will tell.”
“That’s usually how it works. So, Maisie, what are you doing?”
I smiled, and I swore I was half a second away from twirling a lock of my hair and giggling into the phone. “I’m doing one final walk through of a paper that’s due tomorrow, the last of my college career. Sounds exciting, right?” I could only imagine what my life, filled with classes and homework and frat parties, seemed like to Virgil.
There was silence at first and then another laugh. “It does, actually. I thought about going to college for a little while.”
“To be better at your job or for the experience?” Glitz wasn’t the biggest or most prestigious university in the country, but it had its fair share of rich kids, usually the two reasons they attended college.
“You could say that but the truth was that my ma said she would teach me what I needed to know to be good at my job.”
I wanted to ask more about that, but I didn’t. Not yet. I hadn’t been able to confirm Bonnie’s suspicions yet, but I hadn’t stopped thinking about it either. Peaches would have been my first call, but she’d have his blood type and DNA within twenty-four hours. I didn’t need to know that much about him. Yet. So I decided to do some good old-fashioned research by asking. And Googling.
“Do you regret it or ever think of going back?”
He let out another laugh, but it lacked amusement. “Not in a long time, Maisie. A long damn time.”
“You should,” I told him simply. Virgil’s family had more than enough money that he could finish his degree early if he wanted to. “There’s a university right here in Glitz. Maybe you’ve heard of it?” I teased.
“You trying to turn me into a college boy, Maisie?”
“Nope. I like you just how you are Virgil.” I didn’t know him well enough to like him, but I did. A lot. Too much or at least more than was smart.
“Yeah? You don’t even know me.” There was an edge in his voice that sent shivers through my body, which only proved that yeah, I was pretty fucked in the head myself over this guy.
I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see me. “Okay then. I like you enough to want to get to know you better.”
“Even though you’re leaving Glitz soon?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing or where I’m going. I kind of let this real world thing sneak up on me since I’ve been living with my aunt and uncle. Like a college kid.”
That sounded pathetic, and I wanted Virgil to see me as a woman. A beautiful and capable woman. A sexy woman.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “You might decide that one date is one too many.”
There was a moment of silence and then another booming laugh that made me wish I was wherever he was, just so I could see the way that laugh lit up his face.