Undeniable (Fated series Book 4) Page 4

  ‘Can I ask what exactly it is ya need me to work on, in this job?’ I released the hold I had on the back of my head to use my fingers to air quote around the words work and job.

  ‘Miss Green is new to the university and aims to complete her three-year economics degree in just two years. She has convinced me with her commitment to work and her attitude, that this is something she will be able to achieve. I am convinced that you are the one to help her do just that… and you never know, some of her dedication just might rub off on you.’

  I wasn’t sure about her dedication rubbing off on me, but the idea of helping her to rub one out was beginning to occupy all my thoughts at once.

  ‘I will leave the two of you to sort out the details.’ The professor’s voice cut through my dirty thoughts and made the image I had of her spread out on the stairs in between us, disappear into thin air.

  He turned from us both and began to repack his large black briefcase with the few belongings he had previously placed on the lectern. With that, we watched as he wordlessly left. As the door closed behind him Lily spoke.

  ‘Look, I’m no charity case. I’m not stupid enough to think that a guy like you would be even remotely interested in what the Professor has just suggested.’ I watched as Lily stood and moved her tiny frame out from behind the small desk in front of her. She picked up her raincoat from the floor and threaded it over… wait… a brown leather satchel?

  Serious stuff!

  As I took in the rest of the clothes she was wearing, I realised she was dressed like my gran. I was sure under the matching thin jumper and cardigan set thing and loose, long brown skirt, she had a descent shaped body, but hell… literally nothing she was wearing gave a clue of anything. I felt myself on instinct start to lean to the side, I just had to see what the hell she had on her feet. I leant over until I was only sitting on one arse cheek and stared at the small gap between her long skirt and the floor.

  Yep, I knew it… brown flat lace-ups.

  ‘As you have nothing to say, it appears my assumption was correct.’ For the third time today, I was brought back with a jolt. I adjusted my posture and lifted my gaze to her face.

  ‘What do ya mean, “a guy like me”?’

  ‘I think that’s fairly obvious. You can’t be bothered to work, you turn up late and fall asleep in a very highly regarded Professor’s lecture.’ I saw the colour start to rise high on her cheek bones as she tried to put me in my place, she was so fucking sweet. I couldn’t remember the last time I saw any of the girls I knew blush. I felt the beginnings of a smile pull at the corners of my mouth as I stood up and stepped right in front of her. In a bid to tease her, I made sure she was now talking to my chest.

  ‘You were saying about “a guy like me”.’

  ‘This is exactly what I was talking about.’ She placed her open palm against my chest, just in between my pecs and pushed me slightly away.

  Fuck.

  That single touch on my chest made all my senses go into overdrive. I could smell the floral scent she wore escaping from her old-lady jumper. Although she had long since removed her hand, the place on my chest where she had touched was still alive. The only way I could describe it was, it was like being stung by a stinging nettle.

  A whole fucking patch of stinging nettles.

  ‘I can see that you’ve already judged me. You’ve cast your eyes over me and you already think you know me. Let’s forget this meeting ever happened. You go your way and I’ll go mine,’ she said, as she walked quickly towards the exit not even turning around.

  I did something then that I had never done before and was never likely to do again.

  I chased after her.

  ‘Lily. Stop. Wait, please.’

  I jogged over to where she now stood with her back to me, frozen to the spot.

  ‘Hey… look, we need each other. You’ve judged me too, and to be honest you ain’t been far off the mark in your observations, but ya need me to help you pass in two years and I need you… because…’ I faltered just trying to think of the exact words I needed. ‘I need you, because without ya I will probably fail my degree. That will upset my parents and that’s the last thing they need.’ I pushed both of my hands down deep into the pockets of my jeans and waited for her to turn around. When she did so, I noticed that the feisty little thing that had just torn me off a strip had tears in her eyes.

  I looked away and down to my iPhone. ‘Can I take your number and then we can make plans?’

  ‘I don’t have a phone, Jack.’

  I looked up quizzically, but made sure that my look left my face as quickly as it had arrived. ‘Oh, ok, so where are you staying?’

  ‘Before I say, are you sure that you want this sort of commitment?’

  ‘Commitment?’ Just the word made me shudder.

  ‘This working arrangement the Professor has suggested is a long-term thing. Are you sure you’re ready for that?’

  ‘I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.’ I realised that the words that had left my mouth out of habit, had just become some of the most significant I had ever said.

  I watched as a perfect smile swept over her face and knew from that moment on, I would do whatever I could to make sure I saw that as often as I could. She hooked the loose hair behind her ear again.

  ‘I know where it is on campus, I’m just not too sure I’ve got the exact address correct. I only arrived this morning.’

  ‘Lead the way then. On the way, we can come up with a date for our next meeting.’

  ‘Date?’ she questioned as I held open the auditorium door for her. ‘I’m not… I don’t date.’

  ‘Figure of speech, Lily, that’s all. I don’t mean anything by it.’

  Her body relaxed again as we made our way outside and onto the grass in front of the building. I moved my arm up and took her briefcase and raincoat off her shoulder, remembering for the first time in a long time, the manners I’d been brought up with.

  I knew we had only just met, but I liked her, she was like a breath of fresh air. Already, I knew that I’d do anything to see her smile, and that blush was something else.

  As Jack and I crossed over the green, outside of the lecture hall, he very chivalrously took my bag and coat from me. I couldn’t have been more surprised at his manners.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘No problem, I’ve been brought up to be a gentleman.’ He looked over at me. ‘I know when to hold open doors, carry bags and all that shit. I’ve also been brought up to be a man, and believe me I know exactly when to pull your hair and smack ya arse.’ He ended his information-giving speech with a wink and a deep laugh at my shocked face.

  I clutched my Disney notepad to my chest, using it like a shield to protect myself from the very male, extremely forward stranger that walked next to me. I could smell faint strains of aftershave, or the body wash he used, blowing over to me on the light winds. The professor was right, he was scruffy; in his ripped jeans, creased checked shirt over a very faded T-shirt and with boots on his feet that he hadn’t even bothered to tie up, he was probably fashionably scruffy. But he certainly didn’t smell dirty to me, he smelt wonderful. I turned my head to look at him properly. He was now in full conversational flow, telling me all about the buildings around us, their names, and what they were used for. What he didn’t know was I knew the main buildings in the centre of the campus off by heart after being given a map by Katy. I had unfolded and folded the piece of paper so many times as I daydreamed, that the edges had begun to lose their print and it had begun to tear. I liked listening to him comfortably chat away to me, so I let him carry on.

  I allowed my eyes to sweep up and down him as he pointed to something in the distance. He was tall, taller than any other man I had met before, and he had blond hair that he kept reasonably short, but it was untidy and stuck up in a few places. Although I was staring at the side of his face as he continued talking, I knew from when I had spoken to him in the lecture hall that he had the brightest
blue eyes I had ever seen, and a cleft in his chin that would be big enough for me to place my thumb into. I gripped on to my pad even tighter, digging my fingernails into the card, as if I was willing my thumb not to do just that of its own accord. As I continued nodding and making occasional listening noises, one part of him kept my eyes totally engaged as he imparted more information on me; his Adam’s apple, which was so prominent that as he spoke it moved up and down under the light stubble he was wearing. I felt a blush start at the top of my twin-set and creep further up my neck until it consumed the whole of my face. The tips of my ears tingled with the heat now trapped within them.

  What was going on with me? Jack had to be younger than I was, but his personality, humour and good looks had me totally absorbed by him, like I had never been with another male before.

  That was it!

  That was the answer I was looking for. I hadn’t really been around other men before. I had led such a sheltered existence, that was why I found him so completely and utterly spellbinding. He had a bit of a bad boy persona going on; I was going to have to be careful that was for sure. My closeted life hadn’t really given me the skills I needed to be around men and my body was obviously running on full-speed ahead, trying to play catch up. He turned to me then as he carried on with his explanations and gave me a smile.

  Oh dear!

  That smile entered my eyes and I felt its presence running amok throughout my whole body. I was definitely going to have to be careful, so I didn’t show myself up to be the complete untouched virgin that I was. I’m sure it wasn’t a common thing to be as completely clueless about the opposite sex as I was, especially amongst my peer group at university. I’d only had my father, my uncle and Anton to go by, and as males and females didn’t really mix very much in our family and social group, I knew I was pretty much in the dark about everything to do with men. But that smile, the one that he had just presented to me, was pulling me fast into the light. I heard myself let out a small breath from my mouth. I may not have been wearing my engagement ring, as the hideous thing was now locked in my father’s safe at home, thank God, but nonetheless I had to remember that I was an engaged woman. If my father or, God forbid, Anton got one clue that I was not complying with their provisos, I would be removed so quickly that my newly-awakened, rampant hormones, and my feet, would not hit the ground until I was home.

  I tore my eyes away from Jack and had a quick look around me, thankfully not finding what I was searching for. I hoped against hope that my father’s security detail had left the campus. Walking around the campus with a drop-dead gorgeous man wasn’t something my father would take too kindly to. I wouldn’t have put it past him to make them hang around for a while just to check up on me. I had been horrified when they had come into my accommodation that morning and checked around the place. I knew everything they had looked at, checked up on, and the people they had spoken to, would be in a written report within an hour of them returning to my home and on my father’s desk. It didn’t matter that the subject content was his own daughter. Oh no, in fact that made it worse.

  Luckily, Katy had taken it all in her stride. The place I was sharing with her had been spotless under their scrutiny. I knew she was normally a bit untidy, but I obviously hadn’t been as guarded in our previous conversations as I’d thought. She had apparently taken in enough about my family to know that normal student standards wouldn’t sit well under inspection.

  ‘So, which way now?’ His deep voice brought me out of my daydream.

  We had come to the very edge of the large grassed area in the centre of the campus. Student housing could be reached by three different paths. Jack’s deep voice washed over me and I instinctively gripped my notepad closer to my chest.

  I’m not sure why?

  Perhaps it was to stop his voice, or was it his presence, sending my heart into the accelerated beat it had jumped to earlier when my hand had touched his chest to try to push him away.

  ‘Straight on,’ I answered in a strange breathless voice that I knew was mine, but had never heard before.

  We both stepped off the small kerb and onto the main road at my direction.

  ‘Look… you really don’t have to walk me home. I’ll be fine.’

  Just then, Jack’s arm lifted quickly and blocked me in my tracks. A motorbike sped past us. He had stopped me from possibly walking straight into its path. I dropped my notepad in surprise onto the floor in front of us. The breeze was just strong enough to flap open the pad, and as the cover was lifted away the pages began to turn over quickly in the light wind, revealing my possibly embarrassing scribblings.

  ‘Fine? Yeah, I’m sure you will be.’ He spoke with a teasing voice as he got down on one knee to retrieve my pad. I watched thankfully as he closed the pages and flapped the cover over the pad to close it.

  ‘I can normally cross roads, you know. When I’m by… when I’m by myself.’ What a stupid thing to say. I was almost telling him that he took away my ability to think.

  ‘Tinkerbell?’ he questioned, referring to the notepad he had just picked up for me. Luckily, it seemed he was going to ignore my last comment. He handed the notepad back to me, smirking.

  ‘Thank you.’ I took it back and once again clutched it quickly to my chest, making sure only the plain back cover was showing. ‘Yes.’ I smiled my answer back to him, feeling another warm flush hit my cheeks and travel quickly upwards. It seemed I was going to be permanently blushing around this man. ‘Go on, what were you going to say about my notepad?’ I preferred that subject for his jokes, rather than the thought of him grabbing hold of the fact I wasn’t safe to cross roads when I was in his presence.

  Jack stood up and closed the small gap that there had been between us. His eyes looked down to mine and his fingers found the errant piece of dark hair that constantly fell over my face. He very gently put it back behind my ear where it belonged. His fingers only brushed over my skin briefly, but where they touched the simple connection ignited the flesh around my ear. The sparks of that touch travelled as far down as the tips of my toes. My nipples formed hardened points in my bra and my core ached to feel his touch again. In my embarrassment, at never having felt anything like it before, I jerked my eyes away from his quickly and looked down at my shoes. Jack moved himself back to my side in an instant.

  ‘I’m a Marvel fan myself,’ he offered as we began to walk again.

  ‘Oh, yes?’ I looked sideways at him and smiled.

  ‘Yep… and after seeing that notebook, I’m going to call you princess, as you look a lot like Snow White. Did you know that?’

  I stopped still again and watched as he carried on walking ahead without me. I wasn’t too sure exactly what made me stop to ponder what he had said. Was it because I hated the fact that he wanted to call me by the same nickname my father used for me, or possibly because I couldn’t believe he had looked at me enough to think about how I looked. I glanced down once again at my drab clothing.

  ‘No… no, I don’t want you calling me that…I’m sorry, you can’t call me that.’

  He stopped walking at the sound of my voice and spun around.

  ‘No… Why not?’

  The blush consumed me once again as he looked at me in question. His arms crossed over his chest and his head tilted slightly to the side. I walked the couple of steps I needed to catch up with him.

  ‘It’s what my father calls me. When I’m here I want, no… I need, to live a different life…’ I stopped myself from saying more and once again I looked down at my hideous brown shoes on my feet. When no reply came from Jack, I lifted my head once again to look at him.

  He was moving his head side to side mulling over my reason and then he smiled at me. That smile… the one that had him pushing his tongue to the back of his top row of teeth. ‘Okay, I understand the need for a different life. If you prefer I don’t use that, then I won’t. I’ll soon find another nickname for you.’ He winked at me again and my heart pounded with excitement. ‘Although
your father clearly sees you the way I do, Lily.’

  He couldn’t have been more wrong if he’d have tried. My father called me princess because he was the king of his domain and I was his child. Jack, on the other hand, was likening the way I looked to a fictional character. Lost in my thoughts, I eventually realised that we were still standing still in the road. Jack made no indication whatsoever that he was going to turn and start to walk again anytime soon. Once again, I gripped the notepad against my chest. I watched as Jack’s hand reached out to gently lift my chin, so that my gaze would meet his.

  God, he was tall.

  ‘You have dark hair like Snow White…’ His voice drifted off as I allowed my green eyes to be magnetised by his piercing blue ones, once again. ‘You also have her heart shaped lips…’

  I was willing the man with his fingers at the base of my chin, to kiss me and to please not kiss me, all at the same time. My body was waging a silent war with itself. My brain was screaming “NO” but OH. MY. GOD. the rest of me was singing out very loudly “YES.” I wondered if he could see or sense my hesitation.

  A deafening bang sounded from somewhere near us and loud laughter followed, just some other students having a laugh it seemed. But it had done the job, our connection had been broken, Jack let go of my chin and started to walk away from where we had stood only seconds before.

  Maybe I was wrong and there was no connection at all.

  ‘So, you said straight on, Lily. And then where to next?’ he questioned.

  ‘Follow the road around to the left and I think it’s the second building on the left.’

  He spun around on the heel of his boot and pushed his hands way down into his jean pockets as he began to walk backwards. In doing so he revealed a small area of skin where his T-shirt lifted away from his belted jeans. I allowed myself one quick look, but as I felt my tongue come out to wet my suddenly dry lips, I forced my eyes away.

  ‘Really?’ With a strange question that wasn’t a question, he spun back around again and carried on walking away. I thought I could hear the faint strains of him laughing. I quickened my pace to catch up with his ever-lengthening strides. ‘So, what’s your flat number in Cambridge House?’ he asked as he turned his head to look down at me.