shrugged, grabbing the last bit of baguette and tossing it to Buddy. He caught it with a massive chomp of his jaws. “It’s okay. It’s an easy thing to forget. You did really well today.” I grabbed the empty plate, dumping it in my sink. “What happened on that test? You seem to grasp the material at a C or B level.”
She tilted her head, giving me an exasperated glance. “I don’t know. I think when test time rolls around, I just start panicking. I can understand things okay, but when I’m under pressure I freeze, and it all becomes gobbledygook.”
My smirk twitched. “Gobbledygook, huh? I think that’s the scientific term for it.”
She puffed out a breath, packing her books away. “It’s as scientific as I get, that’s for sure.”
“Hey,” I said, pushing off the counter and falling to the couch beside her once more. “I have an idea.”
Her eyes widened, and one eyebrow arched. “Oh?”
“Let’s go grab some dinner and find a French movie sans subtitles. You know, in the spirit of continuing the lesson.”
That eyebrow climbed even higher, pushing up past her bangs. “That sounds like a date.”
“But it’s not. It’s studying…Tate style.”
Despite the hardness in her voice, a smile broke through as she pushed to her feet. “As fun as ‘Tate style’ sounds, I need to go. Sophia’s waiting for me.”
“Sophia? I thought you didn’t go in on Thursdays?”
“Normally, I don’t.” She shrugged. “But the only way I could justify in my mind signing off on your hours was if I put the extra time in at the center myself. I’d feel bad if a kid was getting stiffed for my own selfish reasons.”
Whoa. I didn’t quite know what to say to that. I opened my mouth to speak, but the response blistered in my throat, hot and burning, and making it impossible to talk. And so, I said nothing. I didn’t even say good-bye to her as she slipped out my door with a little wave and hopped onto the elevator. No amount of preparation could have readied me for the emotion that skittered across my heart. My body wasn’t responding to her gorgeous eyes or her pouty lips or even her hot little curves. No. My body was responding to her.
I looked down at my arms, where goose bumps raced across my flesh, and Buddy made his way to me, sitting at my feet. “Something tells me she’s gonna be worth the wait, Buddy.”
Chapter Nine
SHELBY
My heart pounded, and as soon as the elevator doors closed, I collapsed. The mirrors of the elevator absorbed my weight easily, and were cool against my heated skin.
Okay, I needed to weigh my options here. Studying with Tate—a guy who knew his French like lived his French—was good for my grades. But studying French with Tate—a guy who was already sexy as hell and made even sexier by the foreign language gliding off his skillful tongue? Yeah, not so great. Not for my mind, heart, and certainly not good for my grades to have such a distraction around constantly.
But the weirdest part of speaking French with Tate was that I felt sexy while doing it. And “sexy” was a word I seldom used. Cute? Sure. Smart? Well, usually, when it didn’t involve French. Sassy? Damn, almost always. But sexy? Not even a little. Around Tate, though, my body responded differently, physically pulsing for him. God, that was scary. Yes, I’d had sex before. It was always fine—sometimes good. But never mind-blowing. Never good enough to push me over the edge into the brink of orgasm. I couldn’t blame the sex or the guys I had been with because I wasn’t even able to bring myself to that level.
I’d tried. Damn, had I tried. Porn didn’t really do it for me, and I could never bring myself to purchase any sort of sex toy.
I let the thoughts of Tate, and that quick glimpse of abs I stole from under his T-shirt, drift away into the universe as I unlocked and went into my apartment, tossing my bag onto the futon.
One by one, I shredded each layer of clothing until I was stripped down, and then I turned the shower on. Steam filled the bathroom almost immediately. That’s how I liked my showers—so hot they practically gave you third degree burns. Water pelted my skin as I ran a bar of soap all over myself. I closed my eyes as my hand drifted down my stomach and fluttered between my legs. Visions