Free Crushed by Kasi Blake Page A

coffee this morning, and I’m not totally awake yet.”
    “Here.” She lifted a large paper cup he’d somehow missed while appraising her. It had an expensive label on it that he immediately recognized, although he’d never purchased anything from that particular establishment.
    She added, “I don’t mind sharing.”
    Dying for caffeine, he took a huge mouthful before realizing there was something wrong with it. He swung his body to the right, swung around to the left, desperately searching for a place to spit it out, and found nothing handy. No water fountain. No trash can. He was forced to swallow the nasty concoction. Was it a witch’s brew? Was she trying to put another spell on him?
    He screwed his face up for a moment, and Kristen laughed.
    “That’s not coffee,” he complained.
    “Sorry.” She rolled her eyes, soft gray today. “I should have known you were a straight-from-the-pot, strongly brewed, black-with-no-sugar kind of guy.”
    “Oh yeah?” He leaned back against the locker next to hers. At least things were a bit less awkward between them today. Since he’d saved her life, she was different, less guarded. He liked it. “And what kind of girl are you?”
    “I’m a white-chocolate and raspberry soy latté.”
    He shook his head and handed the nasty thing back to her. That explained the horrible taste in his mouth. “I’d rather drink water from a dog’s bowl.”
    “Stop making fun of my coffee.”
    “That’s not coffee. Someday, I’m going to introduce you to the real thing, and you won’t want to drink this girly stuff again.”
    Her lips twitched as she tried hard not to smile. She probably didn’t want to fall for him any more than he wanted to fall for her. He needed to pour on the charm today and make it happen. If she told him to pat his head and rub his stomach one more time, he was going to do something drastic. But if she fell for him, she would want to remove the spell. He was almost one-hundred-percent sure.
    Drawn in by her incredible smile, Zach’s body moved closer to hers of its own volition. Her eyes crinkled a bit at the sides when she laughed. She was more beautiful than any girl had a right to be. Damn . He was supposed to be getting under her skin, not the other way around.
    “Hey,” he said. His palms began to sweat, so he wiped them on his jeans while talking. “Do you want to see a movie with me this weekend?”
    She froze, and her eyes widened by slow fractions. “Are you asking me out on a date?”
    “I’m trying to.”
    “Oh.” She turned her face and looked at passing students.
    The Noah girls probably had a rule against dating people they had put their little spells on. She had no way of knowing he couldn’t be enchanted. He certainly wasn’t going to tell her. For his plan to work, he needed to get her alone for a while and romance her. If it was the last thing he did, he was going to get Kristen Noah to fall for him.
    She stood straighter and nodded once. “I guess that would be okay.”
    “Great. I’ll pick you up Saturday at four o’clock.”
    “Sounds like fun.” She stared at her fingernails, her gaze on them instead of him. They were painted soft pink now. She said, “Pick me up at the library, not my house. Okay?”
    The softly spoken demand didn’t surprise him. She didn’t want her father to know she was dating and especially not that she was dating someone with a bad reputation. He casually shrugged, even though every fiber of his being was on red alert. She was good at playing games. If he didn’t watch himself, she would have him under her spell instead of the other way around.
    Spell ? He froze, and the bottom dropped out of his world. The little witch might actually have more power than he’d given her credit for. He couldn’t breathe. Was he under a spell after all? His feelings had developed awfully fast. Yesterday morning, he’d wanted to kill her. By afternoon, he had saved her life and almost accused his own sister