Free Fantasy Boyfriend (A Tattooed Bad Boy Romance) by Vanessa Stone

find it a little disconcerting that I hadn't even received
the briefest of texts from him since Saturday night. While I certainly didn't
expect him to fawn all over me or to do anything special, a text message wasn't
too much to ask, was it?
    I arrived in class a little early, but by the time
everyone filed in and the professor began his lecture, I frowned in
consternation. He hadn't shown up. What the hell was going on? Was he avoiding
me? Was he sick? That was doubtful. I didn't know any of his friends, and none
of my friends knew him, either, so it wasn't as if I could surreptitiously find
out what he was up to. I refused to text him first because that implied that I was
desperate, and I was certainly no such thing. I wasn't going to turn into a
desperate, clingy, insecure woman. Not with Luke, and not with anyone else.
    Nevertheless, I found it increasingly difficult to
concentrate not only an advanced chemistry, but throughout the day as I
continued to receive nothing but silence. As the day wore on, I began to get
increasingly irritated. Finally, by the time my last class of the day ended, I began
to have a definite feeling that I had been played. I wasn’t sure if my feelings
were hurt or if I was pissed. I finally admitted I felt more than a little of
both. It took everything I had not to succumb to self-pity.

Chapter 10
    So Monday came and went without any text, phone call,
blip, or even a suggestion that someone named Luke had ever existed in my life.
Now I was truly getting pissed off. What the hell? Had I gone too far, too
quickly with him? Come to think of it, did I need to be worried? I hadn't even
thought about birth control, safe sex, or him not wearing a condom. Sure, he
had pulled out before he had his orgasm, but I wasn’t naive. I could still have
gotten pregnant if I wasn’t protected against pregnancy thanks to an IUD, but
we hadn't even discussed safe sex or birth control. Our passion and chemistry
had caused sparks, no doubt about it, and those sparks had ignited into hot,
burning – no, scorching flames in a matter of seconds. Still, had I been used?
Had I just been another body, another conquest for an obviously experienced
man?
    By Tuesday morning, I had attempted to convince myself
that I didn't care, although I did. Nevertheless, my sense of self-preservation
kicked in, as well as my injured pride. I told myself that I didn't care what
Luke thought. I entered advanced chemistry, sat in my chair, and began to
settle in, taking out my notes, glancing at the whiteboard, wondering if I
could manage to stay focused while the professor began another one of his
laborious lectures. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye just as class
was about to start and my heart gave a traitorous leap of excitement when I saw
Luke saunter in.
    I started to smile, but he didn't look my way. There were
several empty chairs in the vicinity around me, but he made no move to come sit
near me. The smile froze on my face as he deliberately seemed to choose a chair
at the opposite end of the room. Perhaps he didn't see me, I thought. He didn't
seem to be talking to or even acknowledging anyone around him, so I didn't get
the impression that he had chosen that seat because he wanted to talk to a
friend. Actually, I got the impression that he deliberately tried to seat
himself as far away from me as possible. But how could that be? Why? I glanced
over my shoulder toward the classroom door and realized that while I wasn't in
the immediate line of sight, anyone pausing at the doorway could have scanned
the classroom before entering and seen where I sat.
    I managed to make it through the professor’s lecture
relatively intact, but if Luke felt my eyes boring into his back, he gave no
indication. I tried several times to capture his attention, but it was if he
deliberately ignored me. I started growing more and more annoyed by his
behavior. What game was he playing? I could understand playing it cool, but to
the point of