Nikoli watched her roll her eyes at him. It irritated him, but it fascinated him as well. She seemed to be insulted that he’d decided to have sex with her, which didn’t sit well with him at all. There wasn’t another girl in this cafeteria who would turn him down, and he knew it, so why was he bothering with Lily Holmes? Because she didn’t want him, dammit. That rankled.
“Why don’t you want to sleep with me?” he asked curiously, not sure if he wanted to know the answer or not.
She wrinkled her nose and screwed up her eyes. “God only knows what diseases you have.”
“I use condoms, or we don’t do shit,” he told her, offended. “I get regular health checks too.”
“The very fact that you need to get checked for STDs regularly is a complete and total turn off.” Her voice dripped with disgust.
“No, it just means I’m smart,” he countered. “I won’t apologize for liking sex. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Oddly, though, looking into her blue eyes full of scorn and disdain, he was just a little bit ashamed of how many partners he’d had over the years, and that made him mad. “Is that why you’re so uptight, Lily Bells? Do you need to get laid and are just too ashamed to admit to your own needs?”
He watched her face go pale and frowned. Was she ashamed of sex? When she shot out of her seat and prepared to storm off, he grabbed her wrist, and she yanked it back with a look of terror on her face for a fraction of a second. He could almost think he’d imagined it if he hadn’t been looking directly at her.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed. “Don’t you ever fucking touch me!” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but all eyes in the cafeteria settled on her. She had no idea how beautiful she looked with her ivory skin all flushed and her blue eyes flashing. It made him want to do some very naughty things to her, but he ignored his own lust for a minute. Something was wrong here. Very, very wrong.
“Calm down, Lily Bells,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean any harm. I just didn’t want you to run.”
“I wasn’t running,” she said hotly. “I just didn’t want to suffer your unbearable ego one more minute.”
He stared at her, his eyes sweeping from those luscious lips to her perky breasts, to her trim waist, and down to her petite feet. Color flooded her face, and it made the blood rush downward to settle right where he didn’t need it to right then. “Mmm…I was hoping you’d run so I could chase you.”
“Problem here, Lily?”
Nikoli wanted to shout in frustration. No less than six members of the football team, two of whom were from his own frat house, stood behind Lily. How the hell was he going to wear her down if he couldn’t get five minutes alone with her?
“No, Jimmy.” She smiled up at the guy who’d spoken. “Nikoli and I were just discussing his STD status.”
His mouth fell open. She did not…the little…oh hell no. He stood up himself, ready to…damn, he didn’t know what he wanted to do.
He heard laughs all around, some not as concealed as others. Fury radiated from him in the next second. The laughs stopped as fast as they’d started when he rolled his shoulders, muscles rippling. Football player he wasn’t, but he fought with the best of them and had beaten all the guys standing across from him bloody at one time or another over the last three years. They knew better than to cross him. He gave them his best hard-ass stare, and several took a step back.
“You know what?” Lily shook her head and started walking away. “I don’t have time for the testosterone showdown. I have more important things to do.”
“Let me buy you dinner, at least.” Nikoli leapt after her, ignoring the snickers behind him. He wasn’t letting her get away that easily. He made sure not to touch her this time around, though. “You didn’t get to eat your lunch.”
“Will you go away and leave me alone if I let you buy me dinner?”
He gave her his patented cocky grin. “Trust me, Lily Bells, you won’t want me to leave you alone.”
She gave him a long-suffering look like someone would give a child and resumed walking back toward the dorms. “I am not sleeping with you now, or tomorrow, or a year from now. What do I need to do to get it through that thick skull of yours?”
“Milaya, there are so many things I can think of you doing to me.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, frowning.
“It’s Russian.”
“But your last name is Scottish.”
“My mother is Russian, but my father’s family originated in Scotland before they moved to the United States. When he joined the army, he was stationed in Russia, where he met my mother.”
“Did you grow up in Russia?”
He had her talking, and he let out a little sigh of relief. He didn’t normally ever talk about anything personal with a woman, but this one was different. She wasn’t falling for his usual BS. There were also her football players following them at a discreet distance. Luther was right about one thing. Lily was not one to be used and abused lightly with so many would-be protectors waiting in the wings. Even knowing he could get the shit beat out of him, he didn’t care. He wanted her.
“Until I was fourteen. Then Dad sent me and my brothers to live with my Uncle Brian in Virginia the summer before I started high school. He wanted us educated in the States where he grew up. My parents still live in St. Petersburg, though.”
She smiled. “I’ve seen photos of the city. It looks beautiful.”
“It is,” Nikoli agreed. “I miss it sometimes. There are so many places I used to roam when I was a kid. My brothers and I used to play in old ruins and pretend we were great knights fighting for Mother Russia.” He let out a laugh. It had been years since he’d thought of that.
“How many brothers do you have?”
“Five.” They always brought a smile to his face. All of his brothers, except Victor, were older, and he’d been their punching bag until he was old enough and strong enough to beat them black and blue.
“No sisters?”
He laughed. “Thank fuck, no.”
She gave him a curious look at that. “My brothers and I are all very much alike, and if we’d had to defend a sister against guys like us…” He shook his head. “We’d never have had any fun.”
“So they’re all jackasses too?” She looked up at him, her tone innocent, but her eyes danced with mischief.
Nikoli grinned, thinking about his brothers’ reactions to that statement. They’d like his Lily Bells, indeed they would. Hold up…his Lily Bells? What the hell was he thinking? He had to bag this chick quick before they got around to more talking.
He saw the dorms up ahead and frowned, glancing at his watch. Damn. He’d spent fifteen whole minutes talking to a woman. His longest conversation began and ended with ‘your place or mine?’ Definitely had to get her in the sack fast and be done with it.
“So, dinner?” he asked as they came to a stop outside of one of the East Campus Brownstones, one of the smaller dormitories on campus. He liked it and the area where it was located. There was a lot of old world charm to the dorm, not like all the modern ones built in the last couple decades. The architecture screamed colonial, and the feel of it reminded him of some of the buildings in Russia. It was also located close to Kenmore Square. He rubbed his hands together at the thought of how quickly they could have access to a bed or couch—or anywhere, really. He wasn’t that picky when it came to sex. The floor did the job as well as a bed.
“I thought you might have forgotten that.” She let out a long-suffering sigh. “You do realize if I go to dinner, we are not having sex afterward? I’d just be going so you’d leave me alone the rest of the year?”
“I might change your mind.” He watched her shiver at the smoldering look in his eyes.
“No,” she said, “you won’t. I have more self-respect than some of the women I’ve seen you with. Besides, I’ve had to clean up after you before, and it’s not a situation I’d ever put myself in.”