Kiss To Forget (Blairwood University #2) - Anna B. Doe Page 0,74

the condition that I spend one night a week with him, giving him a chance to get to know me.”

A shiver runs through me. The cool air and exhaustion are getting to me, so much, not even Nixon can keep me warm.

He notices it almost instantly. Of course he does, sometimes I wonder if anything passes by that guy. He looks around, his hands absentmindedly rubbing my arms.

“C’mon,” he says, giving me a soft squeeze. “Let’s go upstairs, it’s freezing here. You’ll catch something.”

Getting to his feet, Nixon extends his hand to help me up. Intertwining our fingers, he grabs my bag with his free hand and leads me toward the stairs.

In silence, we climb back up. The house is as quiet as it was when we got here. Bypassing the living room, Nixon goes straight for the stairs, but I stop in my tracks. He looks over his shoulder at me expectedly.

“What?”

I look at the dark stairwell and then back at him. His eyes are glued to my mouth, and my throat goes dry. “I… I should probably go home.”

Nixon looks confused for a moment, but then something else passes over his face. Regret, maybe? His fingers tighten around mine in a deathly grip.

“Or you could stay,” he says slowly.

I nibble at my lip, unsure of what to do. Afraid of what this all might mean.

I’m emotionally drained, and following Nixon up to his room has “bad decision” written all over it.

I should go home. It shouldn’t even be a question of whether I’ll do it. I should turn around right this instant and leave.

Nixon’s soft gaze is boring into me, peeling away layer after layer of my defenses and making me lower my guard.

Stay, that one word written all over his face. Stay.

“Nixon, we can’t…” I try to resist it, resist him, although a part of me knows it’s futile. A part of me isn’t ready to say goodbye.

“Nobody is here.” Nixon tips his head back, looking at the ceiling. “Well, Maddox probably is, but he barely comes out of his room on a good day.”

“What about the others?”

I haven’t even thought about it up until now, but if Callie or Hayden come and find me here, with Nixon, they won’t just let it go. They’ll ask questions I’m not even sure I have an answer to, not that I’d want to share even if I did. No, that’s definitely out of…

“Zane has an away game, and Hayden and Callie have gone to visit his grandma.”

Gone. I want to sigh in relief. They’re gone.

This silence stretches so long it becomes uncomfortable. I close my eyes, trying to gather my thoughts. They’re all over the place. Just another reason why this is such a bad idea.

“If you don’t want…”

“No.” The word is out before I can stop it.

My heart kicks up a notch, thumping wildly in my chest. Blinking my eyes open, I find Nixon looking at me, unsure and weary.

“I’ll…” I lick my lips. “I’ll stay.”

The tension in the air seems to intensify with every second that ticks by. Finally he nods, and without another word he pulls me to the stairs.

The second floor is as quiet as the rest of the house. Nixon doesn’t even bother turning on the lights as he leads me into his room.

“You’re freezing,” he says without even looking at me. But he’s right. The cold has set into my muscles, making me tremble. “You should take a shower. Warm up.”

“Aren’t you cold too?”

Nixon stops and looks at me, his brows raised. “Are you inviting me for a shower?”

“What if I am?”

My heart is in my throat as I wait for him to say something. I’m not sure if I want him to agree or give me a pat on the back as he sends me off. This is completely uncharted territory.

I never had time for guys in the past. They were a welcome nuisance every once in a while, but overall my sole focus was on staying on top of my game and getting into college.

Instead of having a boyfriend who would want my attention, I always looked for guys who were the same as me, too busy to have a steady girlfriend, but wanted a release every once in a while and somebody to accompany them to school events if necessary. In high school, there was this one guy that I had an on and off thing with when it suited us. We broke it off on prom night and parted