As always, I sat away from her at my desk. Something was different about her att.i.tude tonight. It seemed like she was p.i.s.sed.

I tried to lighten the mood. "You always seem to get caught in the rain, Nina. Why is that? It's like you attract it. "

She paused and looked me straight in the eye. "I guess if the rain is attracted to me, what would that make you then...fire or something?"

s.h.i.t.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't worry about it," she muttered under her breath.

I knew what the f.u.c.k it meant. For the first time, she was calling me out on my hot and cold behavior toward her, except now she'd come to a conclusion that couldn't have been more far off. She believed I wasn't attracted to her when my problem was exactly the opposite.

Just when things couldn't have possibly gotten more tense, she took off her jacket. Her shirt was damp, allowing me a clearer view of the body beneath. A vision of pulling on that shirt with my teeth and sucking the water dry off of her beautiful t.i.ts caused blood to rush to my d.i.c.k.

"Are you sure you don't want to change before we start?"

I don't think she knew that I could see right through the material.

"No. I'm good."

Well, I'm not f.u.c.king good with this.

I took out a shirt from my closet and threw it at her. "Here. Put this on."

"But..."

I gritted my teeth and repeated, "Put it on."

She looked down at herself and blushed, finally realizing why I'd been so adamant about it. She took the shirt without further protest, and I turned away so she could change.

She gave me the go ahead to turn back around. My breathing was rapid and quickened even further when my eyes landed on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s stretching against my shirt. It was the closest thing that I'd have to my body wrapped around her. She looked so f.u.c.king hot in it.

I cleared my throat. "We should get started. Show me the a.s.signment."

She handed me the textbook and some worksheets. "It's on probability."

I rubbed my chin and wracked my brain for some ideas. I always came up with lessons of my own in addition to what homework Nina was given by her professor. She always seemed to pay better attention when she could relate to the examples.

Doing something to break the tense mood was also going to be necessary.

Grabbing a notepad, I wrote a few things down before flipping it around and showing it to her. "Okay...probability. One of these things has a greater likelihood than the other: Nina farts in her sleep. Nina talks in her sleep. Nina does nothing in her sleep."

"You're lying."

"I guess we'll find out."

That night, I snuck another origami bat into Nina's room.

What I almost wrote: You're lucky you're cute, When you sleep and toot.

And lucky I don't mind, The silent but deadly kind.

What I wished I could have written: To your rain, you said I was fire.

If only I could show you my desire.

Then, you'd clearly see, What it is you do to me.

What I actually wrote: Rest a.s.sured, you neither fart nor talk in your sleep.

But should you decide to start tonight, Mr. Bat won't utter a peep.

My plan to stay away from her suffered two major setbacks in the days that followed.

The first was when Nina found out that she got her first A on a math exam. It was amazing but didn't come as a total shock because she'd been busting her b.u.t.t with studying lately.

She was preparing a Bananas Foster dessert to thank me for helping her make the grade. That dessert was like crack to me.

We were in the kitchen alone together. I was trying to help by peeling some of the bananas, but all I really ended up doing was distracting her. She was looking up at me while cutting and sliced her finger.

It caused me actual physical pain to see her blood pouring out and triggered a visceral reaction in me. There was no towel in sight, so I wrapped her finger tightly in my shirt. Red kept seeping through and without thinking, I placed her finger in my mouth and started to suck the blood out.

Okay. So, it wasn't the most sanitary choice-a little insane maybe.

I just wanted to make it better. You should have seen the dazed and confused look on her face. It was like she was outside of her body watching it all unfold.

It wasn't supposed to feel s.e.xual; that wasn't my intention. But without a doubt, it was stimulating because, let's face it, having anything of hers in my mouth was going to have that effect. It wasn't even so much my sucking on her finger as it was the way she was looking at me when I did it, like she wanted more of what I was giving her in that moment.

By the time I slowly slid her finger out of my mouth, I was starting to get aroused, and I was pretty sure she was, too. Her cheeks were flushed as I removed my blood-covered shirt and used it to wrap her finger again as she looked down at my bare chest. Her lips were parted in that way they always were when she ogled me. She didn't realize I noticed it.

When she pointed out that I had some blood on my mouth, instead of wiping it with something, I intentionally licked it off as she watched every movement of my tongue slide across my lip. I swallowed it. I wanted her in a primal way, and I guess this was my way of expressing that, even though I wouldn't consider acting on it in other ways.

Still, I realized that wasn't a normal manner of showing it. It was a complete loss of control, forever referred to in my mind as the "vampire incident."

The second major setback was what began the process of my complete undoing when it came to Nina.

It was a Friday, and as usual, my bag was packed and ready to go with me at work for the weekend trip to Boston.

I normally hopped a train after my shift ended, but that entire day, thoughts of Nina would not stop invading my brain. I started convincing myself that being friends with her would be better than nothing, especially since I couldn't seem to stay away from her.

Maybe we could be friends.

Famous last words.

I wanted so much to stay the weekend and just spend time with her.

That night, as I was walking to the train station, I impulsively turned around and headed back to the apartment, deciding to take an early Sat.u.r.day morning train instead so that we could hang out. I would ask her if she wanted to go out and eat or rent a movie. Those were harmless things, right?

I loved lying to myself, apparently.

Dropping my travel bag by the apartment door, I made my way down the hall. Nina's bedroom door was open, and she was standing there looking at herself in the full-length mirror attached to her closet.

My jaw dropped, and my heart pounded as I took her in. A tight dress hugged her voluptuous body. Her hair was cascading down her back in beautiful long curls that almost reached the top of her amazing a.s.s.

She was wearing stripper heels. Nina looked like she'd been kidnapped and done up by a tribe of wh.o.r.es.

It was the hottest f.u.c.king thing I'd ever seen in my entire life.

She hadn't noticed me just outside the door, so I moved in closer. Her dress was bright purple, and I decided to make a dumb joke about it since telling her what I was really thinking might have gotten me arrested. "Nina, Barney the dinosaur called. He wants his skin back."

She flinched when she saw my reflection in the mirror. "Jake! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on your way to Boston."

"Nice to see you, too."

"Well, it's just that you usually leave from work and-"

I lied to her. "I missed the 5:15 Amtrak, so I might either catch the last train at 9:30 or just go in the morning."

"Oh."

She seemed absolutely shocked to see me and quite uncomfortable. Then, she turned around.

She turned around.

f.u.c.k.

My eyes unapologetically went where they needed to go. The dress had a plunging neckline that showed way too much of her ma.s.sive cleavage. While the back view looked hot, the front view was downright indecent. My throat seemed to freeze. I knew I should have said something but couldn't find the words. No other woman had so much as crossed my mind s.e.xually since Nina entered my life. My earlier conclusion that staying friends was a good idea now seemed ludicrous as I stood there taking her in and praying away my erection. I sure had been lying to myself. My mouth was watering for f.u.c.k's sake. The truth was...I was starving for her. Only her.

The way her chest was heaving as I looked at her, the way she always reacted to me made me feel like she wanted me that way, too.

I forced myself to speak. "Nina...you look-"

"Interesting?" She smiled in an attempt to lighten mood.

My hungry eyes travelled slowly downward, taking in her t.i.ts and the way the material of her dress clung to her taut stomach. Her bare legs looked longer in heels. "That's one way of putting it."

Our eyes met again. She could tell where my mind was. h.e.l.l, it couldn't have been more obvious.

"Jake!"

I turned around to see our roommate, Tarah, enter the room but quickly returned my gaze back to Nina.

"Tarah!" I said, mimicking her shocked tone of voice. Understandably, everyone seemed so surprised to see me here on a Friday night. It dawned on me that maybe they were getting ready to go out on a girls' night.

Would it have been wrong to invite myself?

I plopped down on Nina's bed and joked, "I didn't know we were going out tonight, Nina."

"We...are not going anywhere," Tarah said. "She is going on a date."

It was like my world stopped spinning when she said it.

My head and ears began to throb as jealousy hit me like a ton of bricks.

Get your s.h.i.t together, Jake.

I couldn't.

It was impossible to pretend that this news wasn't wrecking me. As much as I'd tried to distance myself, as much as I knew Nina could never accept my life if she knew the truth...in my heart, I believed she was mine. Mine. It was the first time the realization of that deluded misconception really hit me.

The only words that would come out of my mouth were, "I see." My hands formed into fists to ward off the anger building inside me. "I suppose he's taking you to the Vegas Strip in that outfit?"

Tarah said something, but I didn't even hear it because I was too busy staring at Nina, this time into her eyes. I wanted to carry her in my arms back to my room and cover her with my body. I had no right to feel this way and knew I needed to leave before I made a total fool of myself since I apparently couldn't hide my jealousy. This had honestly never happened to me before. Maybe if I'd had a chance to practice this reaction when I was thirteen, I wouldn't have been acting like a teenager right now.

"Have fun," I said with about as much enthusiasm as sending someone off to a funeral. "And don't forget a jacket. You're bound to catch pneumonia dressed like that." I couldn't help myself. I guess I just had to stick that in to further solidify my role as a jealous idiot.

Slamming the door behind me, I returned to my room and literally punched the wall. Smart. Taking it out on an inanimate object was really going to help.

I sat on my bed and nervously bopped my feet up and down. The silence was deafening as I held my head in my hands while my heart continued to pound. I was angry with no one but myself for letting my feelings for her get to this level. She had every right to be wined and dined by someone. She deserved the best that life had to offer, and I had nothing to offer her.

My body remained in the same position with my head down until I heard knocking in the distance. It must have been Nina's date. The thought made my stomach turn.

I got up and peeked out the door, only able to make out bits and pieces of the guy.

Blondish-brown hair. Clean white shirt. Khaki pants. Boat shoes.

Boat shoes. Really? f.u.c.king dweeb.

With my piercings and tats, I was the polar opposite of this dude. If this was the type she went for, then maybe my vibes from her have been all wrong.

When I heard Nina's bedroom door open, I backed away from my own door so she wouldn't see me creeping. Once she entered the kitchen, I repositioned my ear to eavesdrop.

I could hear him complimenting her and felt bile rising in my throat.

I opened the door a crack to see them. You should've seen the way he was gawking at her. I wanted to choke him because it was exactly the way I was looking at her earlier.

Dirty b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

Ryan asked them where they were going, and the guy started talking about some Italian place he was gonna take her to. I was sure he had lots of plans up his sleeve for later, too. I was onto him and needed to let him know it. So, I stepped out into the living room.

"She's always wanted to go to Top of the Rock."