Free All Played Out (Rusk University #3) by Cora Carmack

I held her just close enough, teased us both until we were desperate, only kissing her at the very last moment.
    It wasn’t the best kiss of my life. It wasn’t even particularly good.
    But it served its purpose. It had taken the edge off that memory, dulling it with this new one, until the grip of the past eased. I’d done that so well and so often last year that I rarely thought of Lina these days.
    Until Nell.
    Because it isn’t sex that raised the memories this time, but the cute indentation in her brow when she’s thinking. It’s the way she talks. Using words that I’ve only ever read in textbooks, rather than heard out of a person’s mouth. The arrogant tilt of her chin when she knows she’s right. Those are the things I’ve never been able to burn away about Lina, and I see them all in Nell.
    And I’ve starved myself from the memory of her so much that I’m too damn hungry now to separate the past from the present. That’s the only explanation for why Nell can practically bring me to my knees with a tilt of her head or a long look.
    I can’t decide whether that means that I should stay far, far away from her, or take this one last opportunity to demolish the remains of my broken heart. I can’t help but think that after a few weeks with Nell, I could break Lina’s hold on me once and for all.
    “Well?” Nell asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Are you going to push me or not?”
    I smile. “Your wish is my command.”
    The tire is laid flat so that you can sit with your ass in the opening, but Nell is sitting primly on the other end in a way that’s sure to throw the whole thing off balance when it’s moving. I reach forward, hooking my hands under her arms and tugging her backward. She falls back, squealing, her body cradled by the tire. After a few seconds, she realizes that she’s not going to slip through, and she tilts her head back, looking at me from below.
    My mouth goes dry at the sight of her.
    Quickly, before I can do something stupid like lean down and devour that plump mouth of hers, I pull back on the ropes and send her swinging. When she comes back my way, I push on the tire, sending her higher, faster. I do this a few times before I allow myself to say, “So tell me about this list.”
    Her tone blunt, she says, “No.”
    I notice then that she’s still got ahold of the spiral, pressing it tight against her chest.
    “Fine. I don’t need you to tell me what it is. It’s a list obviously, and judging by the contents, it’s a bucket list of things you want to do. What I don’t get is why. Most people’s bucket lists are about seeing the world and following their dreams and seeking adventures. Yours is about cursing and kissing strangers, which leads to the obvious conclusion that you’ve never done those kinds of things. Keep swinging if I’m right.”
    I punctuate that last sentence with another push, and I think I see a faint smile across her lips as she flies away from me.
    “I knew it.” Her eyes meet mine when she returns, and I grin down at her. “So I’m going to guess you’ve been pretty sheltered. Maybe your parents were strict. Religious probably. If you were a freshman, I’d say you were sowing your wild oats now that you’re out of your parents’ house, but I’m pretty sure Dylan said once that you two are the same age. So that can’t be it. You’ve been out from under your parents for a while. You are a puzzle, sweetheart.”
    “It’s not that complicated,” she says, and I tamp down my wide smile at having won this little battle.
    “Enlighten me.”
    “I’ve just been really focused on school, and I’ve not had that much of a social life since I got here. I thought it was time for that to change.”
    I ease back on my pushes so that her swinging slows to a lazy glide. “So you’ve been busy with school. Studying biomechanical engineering.”
    She sits up on her elbows as she swings, looking back at me with raised eyebrows. “You