Free Surrender by Rue Volley Page B

does,” he added as he took a sip of his water.
    “Oh,” I said as I took a drink of my caramel frap.
    “Another girlfriend?” I asked and he laughed. He tapped his fingers on the table in between us as he slid his arm up on the booth behind him.
    “Same girl.”
    “Well, photographer, beautiful and a tattoo artist. I am really starting to wonder why you two broke up.”
    “I told you why,” Keegan said as he lowered his arm and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. My eyes could not help but look at the bottom of the tattoo again which was barely peeking out from the bottom if his t-shirt sleeve. He touched it and pulled his shirt down further.
    “Why an angel?” I asked as he looked up at me with a small bit of his hair falling over his left eye. He was too attractive and I was too weak to appear disinterested.
    “Well, I found her intriguing.”
    “I would think so, I mean, you dated her.”
    “No not Calista, the angel.”
    I grinned. “Calista, huh?”
    “Yes, she was, I mean… is Greek. Very Greek.”
    I laughed and took another drink of my coffee. “I think Greek is just Greek, there are not levels.”
    “Oh, there are. I mean, you have American Greek and then you have 'I don’t have my visa yet' Greek.”
    “Oh,” I said as I raised an eyebrow. “So did she get deported?”
    “You could say that and my ignoring the thought of marriage did not help things at all.”
    I pushed my hair behind my ear. “Well that sounds messy.”
    He grinned and leaned back in the booth.
    “Listen, Fay, I like you. I probably like you more than I fucking should and no, I am not your regular professor. In fact, I don’t even know if it is really what I want to do. It’s more what my parents want me to do than anything. So, here we are and I guess I just wanted to ask if you would entertain the thought of a date. Like a real one.”
    I leaned up and looked around the café.
    “Are you insane?” I whispered.
    He leaned forward and I could smell him. He smelled like sandalwood and vanilla, which immediately set my senses on fire. I looked down as he spoke to me.
    “Yes,” he whispered back to me.
    I looked at him. His face so close to mine, his expression soft and inviting. His inability to even care about the fact that he just started teaching here was somewhat a turn on to me. Not to mention that I now had visions of him from sexual escapades we had not even had. This was so ridiculous, and yet I opened my mouth and the words just happened.
    “This is so fucked,” I said and he nodded to me. “I mean, you could be fired, I could be kicked out.” He nodded again. I took a breath and tried to get back to reality.
    “No,” I said to him as it pained me to do it.
    He sighed and started to stand up. He stopped and tapped the top of the table.
    “It wasn’t about the book,” he said to me and I stared at him. I appreciated the fact that he was not wanting to attack me after I had let him read the beginning sex scene. I know it was my fault that we were even in this awkward situation.
    “I just…I can’t,” I said and he nodded to me and walked out. I fought the urge to call out to him and then caught the girl behind the counter staring at me.
    “You should just go for that.”
    I sighed and leaned back, I just couldn’t. I had enough to contend with between the book and trying my best to graduate.
    ***
    I spent weeks ignoring my laptop. I mean, ignoring the book. I tried to act normal every day. The hardest days being Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Those were the days I had psychology classes, all of which Keegan was teaching. I would sit in class each day and type away, listening to him and trying my best to not look at him. I did not want to see his face, his lips…his hair. All of it was too much for me. He was my ideal man. I dreamed about him at night and the more I dreamed the more I wanted him in all ways. I also became extremely fatigued. Tired beyond anything I had ever